You sign your kid up for a gym membership, or maybe they do training with their team or school.

They're working out and coming home tired, so you assume it's helping them get better for their sport.

But how do you know?

How do the coaches even know?

Training gains happen in very small steps, many of which aren't visible.

A tenth of a second gain in speed or a 2 inch increase in your vertical are both massive achievements.

But you won't look any different afterwards.

Plus, each sport has its own unique combination of skills needed for success.

Bat speed matters in baseball but not basketball, while the opposite is true for agility.

The only way to truly gauge how beneficial your child's workouts are would involve measuring the exact skills needed for their sport.

And then track whether they're improving over time.

Which is why I'm extremely excited about our new, sport-specific tracking system for 2026!

Here's how it works.

We accurately measure key attributes - sprint times, jump scores, hitting power drills, and common agility tests - during workout sessions.

If someone has a Universal Speed Rating account with us, we upload every data point collected into their profile

For each category, you'll see their individual progress over time in a simple to analyze graph, like these:

If you've been part of our program for awhile, you already knew about this.

You may have even received a progress report from us to make sure you didn't miss your son or daughter's achievements!

Now, we're taking things to an even higher level with sport specific combine charts.

Members will soon be able to see how they rank in a range of categories needed to excel in their sport.

Much the same way ESPN and other national outlets profile pro prospects, our kids will now have access to their very own skill chart.

Currently, we can create 3 custom reports within the USR system.

Since we work with far more than just three sports, we broke down the reports into sports with similar skill needs, as follows:

Speed, Agility & Rotational Power

(Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, Football Quarterbacks)

Measures:

• Max Sprint Velocity

• Acceleration

• Rotational Upper Body Power

• Leg Power

• Agility (2 tests)

Speed & Rotational Power Only

(Baseball, Softball, Field Hockey)

Measures:

• Max Sprint Velocity

• Acceleration

• Rotational Upper Body Power

• Leg Power

• Base running Speed

Speed & Agility Only

(Soccer, Basketball, Football & Volleyball)

Measures:

• Max Sprint Velocity

• Acceleration

• Agility (2 tests)

• Leg Power

We chose not to directly test strength because gains there would translate to improvements in the upper and lower body power tests.

And we didn't include endurance testing because that's typically the realm of sport coaches.

Right now we are in the beginning stages of adding data, so the percentile ranks aren't as accurate as they will be in the coming months.

But as the system grows, we'll have a powerful new tool to guide training for every individual we coach.

And you'll better understand what your kid needs for greater athletic success in the future.

We're extremely fortunate to be on the leading edge of this revolutionary next step in youth sports training!

OK, so where do you access all this cool stuff?

To start, you'll need to log into your USR account.

If you don't have one, go here and create your free account

Once you're in, simply scroll down to the Speed Lab Report section, where you can switch between the various sport-specific rankings.

The reports also serve as a good conversation starter between coaches, parents and the athlete themselves to make sure their time spent here is fine tuned to their exact needs.

2025 was full of milestones and PR's for our athletes, but I believe 2026 is going to be much, much better.