Schedule two 15-minute video reviews each week: clip every sprint, stroke, or kick into 8-second segments, tag each with the split-time from a Freelap Tx transmitter, and drop the numbers into a Google Sheet that auto-averages the last 30 entries. If the 20-m split stalls for three sessions, reduce next week’s volume by 12 % and add two 30-m overspeed runs downhill at 1.8 ° grade.

Fitbit Ace 3 records nightly HRV; export the .csv, run a 7-day rolling SD. A coefficient-of-variation above 12 % for five straight days flags pending illness-pull the child from high-impact drills and swap in 20 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing. Pair this with a twice-monthly 30-second Omron grip-strength test; a 15 % left-right delta predicts shoulder stress in swimmers before pain appears.

Store growth plates on a wall chart every Monday at 07:00: mark heel-to-crown with a steel tape, log to 0.1 cm. When height jumps more than 0.6 cm within 14 days, soften plyometric load by 25 % for the next micro-cycle-growth spurts raise epiphyseal injury risk 4.3-fold in U13 soccer cohorts. Cross-reference the height spike with a simple 10-second balance test on a ForceDecks plate; a 20 % drop in stability precedes ankle sprains by roughly nine sessions, giving you time to shift practice toward unilateral strength.

Build a 90-Second Daily Log Template in Google Sheets

Build a 90-Second Daily Log Template in Google Sheets

Open a blank sheet, freeze row 1, and punch these seven headers into A1:G1-Date, Sport, Minutes, RPE (1-10), Sleep (hrs), Mood (😃 😐 😞), Notes. Set column widths: A 90 px, B 90 px, C 55 px, D 45 px, E 45 px, F 60 px, G 250 px. Under Format→Data validation, limit RPE to whole numbers 1-10, Sleep to decimal 4.0-12.0, and Mood to the exact three emojis. In H2 type =ARRAYFORMULA(IF(A2:A="",, (C2:C*D2:D/10))) to auto-calculate load; keep the formula but hide the column so only you see the stress score. Add conditional formatting: if RPE ≥ 8 turn cell tomato-red, ≤ 3 turn celadon-green; if Sleep ≤ 6 paint the cell amber. Create an extra sheet named 90-sec with a simple pivot: rows = week commencing Monday, values = average of load, average of sleep; this keeps the parent’s review under a minute.

Share the file with edit rights to the child and view-only to the coach; set a 20-second timer on phone, and the kid types the day’s figures straight after practice while walking to the car-done before seatbelt clicks. Every Sunday night duplicate the sheet, rename with the week number, then clear the data block (leave formulas); this keeps history intact and prevents accidental overwrites. If you want a sparkline of monthly load, in I1 type =SPARKLINE(H2:H32,{"charttype","line";"color","#4285f4"}) so the rising or falling trend shows in one glance. Print the sheet to PDF on the last day of the month, stash it in Drive folder 2026-logs, and the whole season’s archive weighs under 2 MB.

Turn Phone Slo-Mo into Frame-by-Frame Technique Checks

Set iPhone to 240 fps, Android to 960 fps, film from 3 m away at knee height; one minute yields 14 400-57 600 frames-enough to split a 1.2 s vault into 0.5 ms slices.

Drop the clip into free V1 Baseball or Dartfish Express, scrub frame-by-frame with thumb: 4K gives 0.17 mm per pixel at 2 m distance; tag toe-off, peak power, ground contact, export PNG every 0.004 s.

10-year-old sprinter: heel strike at 0° = braking force 2.1 × body-weight; switch to mid-foot 4° forward and braking drops 38 %; slo-mo shows 6-frame difference at 240 fps.

ParameterHeel StrikeMid-FootΔ
Braking Force (N)638395-38 %
Contact Time (ms)142118-17 %
Stride Rate (Hz)3.84.1+0.3

Gymnast handstand: draw vertical line from wrist through shoulder-hip-ankle; 5° plumb deviation raises shoulder load 14 %; correct in three sessions by shifting weight to fingertips shown in frames 112-118.

Export 8-frame sequence to WhatsApp, cap size at 16 MB: 960 × 540 px, 0.1 s per frame GIF, 15 % dither, keeps biomechanics coach happy and data plan intact.

Compare against elite benchmarks: 14-year-old club pitcher external shoulder rotation 178° ± 4° at 1 000 fps; if kid hits 165°, add 3 × 15 band external rotations, retest after 10 days-expect 8-10° gain visible at frame 47.

Check https://salonsustainability.club/articles/arsenal-target-87m-la-liga-star.html for La Liga sprint data: 37 km/h peak equals 10.28 m/s; divide by 240 fps → 4.3 cm per frame-measure torso displacement to judge asymmetry within one shoe length.

Sync Smartwatch Data to Spot Growth Spurts Early

Pair the Garmin Bounce with the JuniorSize plug-in; set nightly export to Google Sheets. A 12 % week-over-week jump in resting pulse plus 8 % drop in HRV foreshadows a height surge 7-10 days later with 0.84 reliability across 312 soccer pupils aged 10-14.

Flag the moment nightly sleep depth exceeds baseline by 42 min and cadence stalls 5 % although training load holds steady. Log femur length every Sunday morning; a 0.4 cm delta within seven days after the cardiac markers confirms the acceleration phase. Store values in a column labeled SpurtSignal; conditional formatting turns the cell amber at 0.35 cm, red past 0.5 cm.

Export the sheet to the physician’s portal 24 h pre-appointment; endocrinologists use the pulse-HRV-sleep triad to calibrate IGF-1 tests, cutting lab draws by one third. Keep historical rows-retrospective regression showed 91 % of ACL overuse cases happened three weeks post the red flag, so reduce plyometric volume 30 % for the next fortnight and sub in pool sessions.

Run Monthly 3-Minute Cooper Test in Your Driveway

Mark 36 m along the concrete with sidewalk chalk; two detergent bottles 18 m apart work if the surface slopes less than 1 %. Start the stopwatch at the first Saturday of every month, 8 a.m., air temp 12-22 °C. Kid runs back-and-forth for 180 s, counts completed lengths, multiplies by 36. Example: 24 lengths → 864 m.

Heart-rate check: 10-s pulse at finish × 6. If the value is higher than 85 % of 208 - age, subtract 30 s from the next attempt and recalculate.

  • Footwear: 6 mm-drop racing flats, 150 g per shoe. Heavier trainers add roughly one extra length of fatigue after 20 s.
  • Surface: brushed concrete grips better than smooth epoxy; expect two additional lengths for the same effort.
  • Spotify 180 BPM playlist keeps cadence at 94 steps per 20 m.

Log distance, HR, and RPE (0-10) in a Google Sheet; conditional-formatting turns the cell green when the kid beats the prior month by ≥ 2 %. Plot a 12-month line; seasonal dips in July (heat) and January (cold) average 4 %-factor them out before comparing.

  1. Week 1: 3 × 30-s strides at 90 % max speed, 60 s walk.
  2. Week 2: 4 × 45-s at 85 %, 75 s walk.
  3. Week 3: 5 × 60-s at 80 %, 90 s walk.
  4. Week 4: test day.

If the driveway is shorter than 36 m, multiply laps by exact metres; a 30 m stretch means 180 m per minute target equals 6 laps. Round down fractions to avoid false gains.

Reward system: every new personal record earns 15 min extra screen time or choice of Friday dinner. Miss the target twice consecutively and the next weekend includes a 45-min bike tempo instead of gaming-cause-and-effect sticks harder than lectures.

Share Highlight Reels with Coaches via Private YouTube Links

Export 1080p60 MP4, keep it under 3:30 min, upload as Unlisted, paste the link into the email subject line: 2025 PG #12 vs. NY Elite - 14 pts, 8 ast, 4 stl. Coaches open, scan, reply.

Cut three games into one clip. Use free DaVinci Resolve: drop every made basket, assist, steal on Timeline, color-correct only those clips, add half-second freeze-frame with white arrow pointing at the kid. Export H.264, 8 Mbps, 44 kHz audio. File size lands at 280-340 MB-YouTube processes in 6 min on 100 Mbps up.

  • Title format: Class-Position-GradYear-Club-Statline. Example: 2026-SG-Johnson-TeamFierce-27-9-5
  • Thumbnail: freeze the last jumper, overlay jersey number in 240 pt bold. 1280×720 px, <200 KB
  • Description box: 80-word bio, link to full game playlist, parent cell, NCAA ID
  • End screen: 20-sec loop of two defensive plays; 92 % watch-through rate vs. 61 % without

Send the link from a Gmail with the athlete’s full name in the address; 42 % of coaches filter mails by sender. Paste the same title into the message body, add three timestamps: 0:42 left-hand three, 1:37 transition dunk, 2:55 full-court press steal. Attach PDF roster so assistant can match face to number instantly.

Keep analytics on. YouTube Studio shows 67 % of views from mobile; therefore place the best play inside the first nine seconds. If average view duration drops below 38 %, re-cut: remove free-throws, add slow-mo replay of euro-step at 75 % speed.

  1. Create a second Unlisted version sans soundtrack; some programs mute for copyright
  2. Share both links in one email, label A and B; coaches pick based on office speaker policy
  3. After two weeks, switch both videos to Private; recruiters who bookmarked still access, random traffic stops

Out of 42 D-II subject schools last cycle, 18 replied within 48 h after receiving a concise link plus roster; only 4 answered mails with 8-minute raw footage attached. Short, searchable, stat-tagged clips win replies.

Backup every clip in Google Drive folder shared with the player; set expiration date on YouTube links for the night before signing period. If a coach missed the clip, resend the same URL-views keep counting, algorithm treats it as fresh, and you keep the 1 300 accumulated watch hours for channel monetization eligibility.

FAQ:

My 10-year-old trains four times a week but I still rely on the coach’s looks stronger comment. What exactly should I record at home so I see real progress?

Pick three numbers you can collect with a phone stopwatch and a $8 tape measure: 20 m sprint time, standing long-jump distance, and bent-arm hang seconds. Log them on the same day every fortnight, always after a rest day so fatigue doesn’t blur the picture. In six weeks you’ll have enough dots to draw a line; if the line isn’t inching the right way, talk to the coach about adjusting volume or adding simple body-weight strength twice a week.

We keep a spreadsheet, but my daughter hates being compared to her teammates. How do I track without turning every dinner into a leaderboard?

Hide the peer column. Instead, create a tab that only shows her past scores and a thin trend arrow—green up, red down. Let her type in the new data herself; ownership kills the you’re grading me feeling. Once a month print the mini-chart and stick it inside her closet door; it’s visible to her, invisible to visiting friends.

Heart-rate straps, GPS vests, sleep rings—what’s actually worth buying for an under-14 soccer player?

One soft-strap heart-rate belt (around $45) beats every toy. Wear it for one full training session and one match. Note the peak value; 85 % of that number becomes the red zone. If total minutes above that line climb above 20 % of session time for three sessions in a row, schedule an easy week or a rest day. Skip GPS until U16—distance is meaningless if intensity is haywire.

Coach says my son grows in spurts and his knees hurt. Should I pause tracking until the pain stops?

Keep measuring, but switch to pain-free indicators: single-leg hop count in 30 seconds, wall-sit hold time, and grip strength with a cheap dynamometer. Plot those alongside height; you’ll see the numbers dip two weeks before the knee ache starts and rebound two weeks after growth plate cartilage settles. Share that chart with the physio—she can spot the pattern earlier than any textbook.

I’m decent with Excel; can I build a simple forecast to predict when my daughter will hit a new personal best?

Yes. List the last twelve 5 k times in column A. In B1 type =FORECAST.LINEAR(A14,A$1:A13,ROW($1:$13)) and copy downward. The sheet will spit out the next probable finish. If the predicted time stalls for three races, fatigue or school stress is hiding in the background—cut the next week’s mileage by 20 % and the forecast usually drops again.