Train Online & Prepare for Opportunities at Professional Clubs
- Ian McClurg - MSc Performance Coaching
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
Why Serious Soccer Players Must Test, Plan, and Track Their Performance to Compete with Academy Standards in the UK & Europe
If you are serious about improving your individual performance in 2026 — and realistically pursuing professional playing opportunities in the UK or Europe — there are three non-negotiable components your development must include:
Benchmark Performance Testing
An Individual Learning Plan (ILP)
Ongoing Training & Match Performance Tracking
These aren’t “nice-to-haves.” They are standard operating practice across professional football academies, and without them you don’t know where you truly stand compared to players in professional environments.
In fact, if you don’t track your levels — how do you even know if you can play professionally? as I written previously in other blog articles - Learn More
1. Benchmark Performance Testing: Know Where You Stand
Benchmark performance testing gives you an objective comparison to the performance levels of academy players at professional clubs. Why is this important? It is important as these players will provide your greatest competition in securing professional playing contracts. There are limited opportunities in professional football/soccer. In the UK, for example, less than 1% of the players that play in the academy system at professional clubs are offered a professional playing contract.
Academies at professional clubs in the UK and Europe invest significantly in developing talent. A study by UEFA indicated that the average budget per EPL club academy in England is over $10 million US per annum. These academy programs don’t guess which players have the potential to succeed— they measure.
Research shows that tracking and measuring key performance characteristics is a well-established feature of English football academies. These include technical, tactical, physical, and psychological factors that are considered important in player development. Taylor & Francis Online
Why this matters
Objective comparison: Without performance benchmarks, you’re comparing yourself to feelings not facts.
Understand your gap to pro standards: Are your sprint times, agility scores, decision-making under pressure, or technical actions on par with academy norms? Professional clubs measure all these. Taylor & Francis Online
Tailored training prioritization: You only know what to work on once you know what’s below benchmark.
This is a practice deeply embedded in high-performance football settings — from Category One academies in England to professional clubs throughout Europe.
2. Individual Learning Plans — Training With Purpose
Once you know where your performance sits relative to benchmarks, the next step is planning how to improve it. That’s where an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) comes in.
A performance test without a plan is like weighing yourself without changing your diet or exercise — you know what’s happening, but not how to change it. A structured ILP:
Defines short-term weekly goals and long-term aspirations
Breaks down training into daily and weekly action steps
Balances technical skills, physical development, tactical understanding, and psychological growth
Ensures coherence between training load and recovery
Professional academies don’t leave this to chance either. In line with holistic development models like the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) used in English academies, performance tracking and development planning are integrated into player training frameworks.
An ILP gives players clarity, direction, and accountability — all critical if you want something more than recreational football.
3. Track Progress — Training and Matches
Testing once and planning once isn’t enough. The development process is iterative, and ongoing tracking is how elite clubs and serious players keep improving.
Why ongoing tracking matters
Shows improvement (or stagnation) over months
Detects performance trends and readiness
Provides data to adjust your ILP
Helps signal when you’re ready for trials or higher-level opportunities
Academy systems integrate tracking daily, weekly, and monthly, and research confirms that systematic tracking of performance — including physical qualities, technical skills, and psychological readiness — is a foundational practice in talent development. Taylor & Francis Online
Without tracking, you’re training blind and in isolation.
Performance Tracking Is More Than Just Stats
It’s not just about counting minutes or goals.
Modern performance tracking — like what academies and professional clubs use — incorporates:
Fitness & speed metrics
Technical data (passes, shots, dribbles under pressure)
Psychological measures (focus, confidence, concentration)✔ training load & recovery feedback
Research highlights this: professional clubs increasingly collect data across multiple areas to inform training decisions, mitigate injury risk, and help each athlete’s development progress. MDPI
Pulling It Together: The Three Pillars of Serious Development
So, if you want to close the gap to professional academy standards, your development must include:
📌 Benchmark Performance Testing
To compare your performance with professional academy standards.. You need to know where you are objectively, not subjectively.
📌 An Individual Learning Plan (ILP)
To organize purposeful training that targets your actual gaps.👉 Without a plan, training becomes random, and progress stalls.
📌 Ongoing Performance Tracking
To measure progress and adapt your training.👉 It’s the difference between training and training that works.
In Summary
If you’re committed to developing beyond your current level and pursuing professional football in the UK or Europe, the path is not defined by hours alone — it’s defined by data, planning, and accountability.
The players getting trials, contracts, and academy placements are those who understand the value of benchmark testing, structured planning, and continuous tracking.
This is what serious players do — and this is what our programmes are designed to support.
You can have hours with a ball — but without testing, planning, and tracking, you won’t know if those hours are effective.
