6 performance tests your football team should do regularly

At Mingle Sport we’re developing performance tests that any team can do. These tests are based on professional - sport scientific - best practices. They measure all key aspects of physical performance. Do them 3-4 times a year to track performance status and progress.

In this blog we will outline how any team can do these performance tests and setup their own ‘testing battery’. And give you some DIY tips so you can get started yourself. Even without our help.

Interested in working with our R&D team to get access to our latest beta features and get professional sport science support? Reach out to us.

Why performance tests matter for your football team

In modern football physical performance is very important. How fast are players, how good is their call control. What is their stamina?

What gets measured gets improved. Professional teams do a number of structured performance tests as part of a so called ‘testing battery’. A professional testing battery requires expensive hardware like speed gates, GPS vests and force plates. Additionally, they require human operators and data analist.

At Mingle Sport we’re on a mission to democratise sportstech. Make it more accessible and affordable.

As part of our R&D efforts, we’re working on a number of performance tests that any team with a mobile phone can do.

• The tests themselves are professional best practices based on sport scientific research.

• We want to share the tests and how you can do them yourself. Some tests you really need access to some beta Mingle features, but most of them you can do with any phone that has a camera and a timer.

6 performance tests any team can do in 60-90 minutes

Based on sport scientific insights and professional testing batteries we created 6 performance tests you can do with your team.

Here is the list of tests and what they measure:

^{* this is the estimated duration for a team of approximately 18 players. We advise to split in 2 groups and do these tests in parallel.}

^{** Shot Quality is currently available as beta feature in the Mingle Sport app (IOS)}

^{*** Sprint test is currently available as alpha in the Mingle Sport app (IOS). This test can also be done using a camera and/or stopwatches}

The tests require access to half an (official) football / soccer field with proper lines and a goal (official measurements).

How to process and analyse the data?

Our R&D efforts aim to provide every team with pro-level performance testing capabilities only using the Mingle Sport app. You can use the Mingle app to gather the data, but also to analyse the data. How good was your effort compared to others of the same gender, age en playing level? What should coaches focus on in their team to improve?

We are currently alpha and beta testing the performance tests and offer 3 ways to process and analyse the data:

1. Mingle Sport handled: 1-2 Mingle Sport representatives do the full testing battery, process the data and provide you with a performance report.

2. Mingle Sport supported: we give you access to our beta tooling, some instructions and you can do these tests yourself. We provide remote support in case you need help.

3. DIY: Do It Yourself. We provide you with the instructions, a sophisticated Google Sheet with the formulas and you are good to go.

Interested to get started? Either with our help or without? Use the Chat feature on our website to reach out.

How often should your football team do performance tests?

We recommend to do these tests 3-4 times of the course of a season. Some tests you can do more regularly, but for instance the Stamina test requires quite some time and setup and doing it very often does not improve stamina.

We have described the tests as part of a testing battery. Alternatively, you can spread tests over different training sessions.