The Junior COPA Score - Scorecard

The Junior COPA Score – Scorecard

An engaging breakdown of the Junior COPA Score highlighting an athlete’s key soccer skills and providing insight into their strengths and weaknesses compared to their peers.

Your Development Enhanced

December 28, 2022
9:53 am

COPA’s mission is to transform the game’s subjective approach to player development and player identification with an objective data-driven approach in order to give everyone an equal opportunity to achieve their goals. The COPA Junior Score is a result of our innovative technologies measuring an athlete’s technical, physical, and cognitive skills consistently.

We present this key information in an accessible and comprehensive format – the scorecard.

This version has been modified from our premier assessment – the COPA Score – to be more appropriate for our young athletes under the age of 12. The protocol was established following thousands of tests, data analysis, and collaboration with some of the world leaders in talent identification and youth player development. Since the protocols involved have been adjusted to be more age-appropriate, the two scores are not comparable because they have different scoring structures.

The Scorecard is designed to provide an athlete with concrete data on their overall performance, a breakdown of their individual scores, a comparison to their peers in order to objectively track current performance and continued development, and suggested development areas and training recommendations. This actionable information is key because learning and growing can only happen when the player gets feedback and is provided with clear goals.

The athlete’s scores are calculated from the raw data collected during their assessment in our technology devices and then converted into a scoring scale of 0 to 100.

Overall Snapshot

The first image is a snapshot of the athlete’s most recent assessment performance. Featured in the hexagon will be three key points of information: the name of the athlete, their overall score, and a numerical breakdown of the seven categories that formed the overall score. The top number is the cumulative average of the athlete’s performance, which provides COPA with an objective number to base the athlete’s training level. The seven categories below the name are valuable measurements for an athlete’s assessment and development. Each number next to the category represents the athlete’s score for that particular measurement.

We also provide the athlete’s age, date of the latest assessment, protocol age level, and a profile link. This allows COPA to properly group the athlete based on their age. The profile will be coming soon and feature videos, long-term scores, past developmental recommendations, and more.

Performance Scores

Next is the athlete’s Soccer Performance Score. This is based on their four categories of key soccer skills performed in the skills.lab Arena: ball control, passing, finishing, and decision-making. These four are universally accepted soccer measurements for overall performance. This allows us to repeatably assess an athlete’s strengths and weaknesses with confidence and provide solutions to further their training.

Ball Control score is established from a variety of the exercises which assess first touch, handling time, and dribbling skills.
Passing score is established from passing accuracy and speed of play in a variety of exercises.
Finishing score is from the various finishing exercises assessing your shooting accuracy, power, and speed of play.
Decision-Making score is from the majority of exercises and assesses awareness, vision, and ability to execute in chaotic game-like scenarios.

The collection of these scores makes up your soccer performance score. This objective score is important as it establishes our training groups to ensure that similarly skilled players train together.

The Physical Performance Score is based on the physical scores in three categories during the SpeedLab portion of the Junior COPA Score: strength, speed, and agility. The categories receive averaged numbers, which are then averaged together to form the total score.

Strength score is taken from your 0 – 10-yard time achieved during the 30-yard sprint. We use the word ‘strength’ here as success in this phase of the sprint is a result of your ability to produce high amounts of force and accelerate in your first few steps.
Speed score is taken from your max sprinting speed during the 30-yard sprint.
Agility score is taken from the reactive agility test performed in our SpeedCourt.

The collection of these scores establishes the physical performance score, something each athlete should continuously look to improve over time.

These tests have been performed over 15,000 times to provide a massive database to compare each athlete. The next section of the scorecard takes that comparison a step further and breaks down the athlete’s performance compared to their peers.

Percentile Ranking

Every athlete wants to know how they measure up to their peers. This part of the scorecard provides a percentile-plotted breakdown of the key categories and where each performance falls. Because we have gathered information from thousands of assessments of athletes of all ages and skill levels, we can compare an athlete’s performance against those of a similar age to see how they match up. An athlete can see if their performance in a given category needs development, is below average, above average, or excellent for their group. This allows us to highlight where they excel, aspects of their game that need improvement, and how they stack against the competition.

Using this example, 9-year-old Jane Smith scored around the 99th percentile for Top Speed. This means her Top Speed score is ranked in the top 1% of female athletes of the same age.

On the left graph, Jane is around the 15^th percentile for Passing, meaning she is in the bottom 15% of athletes in her age and gender for this skill.

We take all the scores and compare them to other athletes of the same age and preferred gender identity. This number is represented at the top as N=x. X represents the number of peers that match the athlete. In the visual example, Jane Smith is 9 years old, so her score is compared to every other 9-year-old girl that has completed the Junior COPA Score and there have been 10 total 9-year-old girls that have completed the assessment.

This dynamic number is ever-increasing with each assessment, allowing our database to continuously grow and develop.

The comparison table at the bottom of this page provides a breakdown of the categories and how the athlete measures up against their peers.

Current Score is the athlete’s score in each category.
Age Group Average is the overall average score of all athletes of the same age and gender.
Age Group Best Score is the top performance in each category based on age and gender.

The final section of the scorecard utilizes the data collected to curate personalized training recommendations based on your assessment results from our sports science team here at COPA.

Training Recommendations

Once the strengths and weaknesses are identified, we can customize training sessions and a development plan. This section of the scorecard is designated to provide an athlete with suggested training opportunities based on the assessment scores in comparison to their age and gender grouping. We provide guidance and necessary tools to help the athlete continue their development. There will be two recommendations based on their skills performance and two based on their physical performance.

Development Gamified

By gamifying the critical information in the development of an athlete, the Scorecard provides objective data in a comprehensive platform that highlights an athlete’s strengths and weaknesses. This helps determine where the athlete is at in comparison to their peers and provides actionable information to help them learn and grow.

To learn more about COPA STC’s bright future, please check out:

Share this post

Tagged Blog

WATCH NOW

ABOUT

Objective Talent Identification

The Junior COPA Score is a composite score resulting from our advanced technologies assessing key technical, physical, and cognitive abilities under standardized conditions. This version has been modified from our premier assessment – the COPA Score – to be more age-appropriate. The two scores are not comparable because they have different protocols, therefore a different scoring structure.

Your Junior COPA Score creates a baseline to measure your progress and may increase your visibility to our partners who rely on it as a player identification filtering tool.

HOW DOES THE

JUNIOR COPA SCORE WORK?

WHAT IS

THE JUNIOR COPA SCORE USED FOR?

TALENT ID FILTERING

As a Talent Identification tool, the Junior COPA Score is designed to be a “pre-tryout” sorting methodology. The Junior COPA Score can be used to identify, out of thousands of athletes, those players which have basic fundamental characteristics of performance which are equal to or better than an existing peer group or team of players being established for comparison, and thus worthy of consideration for a more complete and total try-out evaluation by a coaching staff. The Junior COPA Score can become a crucial distinguishing performance metric for Coach and Athlete alike.

Unearthing New Opportunities

For individual players, the Junior COPA Score can be an alternative pathway for selection and a tool to provide visibility to organizations they may not have traditionally been exposed to. High achievers may elect to have their scores sent to global and domestic partners of COPA STC who rely on the Junior COPA Score to supplement their subjective player identification efforts. In roughly 60 minutes, your life could completely change….

Gamified Development

After you complete the Junior COPA Score, Algorithms analyze your individual data points against our large proprietary database to provide an in-depth analysis of your data. No matter how you perform, you will receive useful, engaging, and actionable feedback that empowers you to own your own development. The Junior COPA Score scorecard gamifies the you vs you challenge of fulfilling your potential. Through comparative data analysis, our sports science team identifies your strengths and areas of improvement relative to athletes of the same age and gender. This critical data creates prescribed training recommendations to optimize your development. Achieving your goals and aspirations becomes an objective reality with The Junior COPA Score. Nowhere else in the world does this level of physical and technological gamification of player development exist together.

Analyzing your progress over time by re-taking the Junior COPA Score will keep you engaged and motivated to be consistent and intentional about your development. Our tailor made approach to each unique individual ensures that a players journey is created and owned by them. The Junior COPA Score ensures ownership and opportunity for all aspirational young soccer players.

Advanced Measurement Technologies

THE FUTURE OF TALENT ID

The COPA Score systematically collects objective data in a technologically enhanced “Laboratory” environment. These technologies were hand-selected after collaborating with certain specific clubs that excel in their youth player development programs, and with early stage cutting edge sports technology companies in the world who are also pioneering an assessment-based approach to talent identification and player development.

Click the environment to learn more about its Technology, who else is using it and how they are using it

SKILLS.LAB ARENA

COPA STC’s skills.lab Arena is one of the most advanced soccer-specific assessment technologies in the world designed to objectively measure an athlete’s technical and cognitive capabilities.

JOCHEN SAUER

HEAD OF FC BAYERN ACADEMY

“skills.lab Arena is the only holistic football training system that allows us to objectively assess the football-specific skills of players and improve those skills individually.”

MICHAŁ KOKOTEK

HEAD OF OPERATIONS KKS LECH POZNAŃ YOUTH ACADEMY

“With the skills.lab Arena, we have a great training system to offer the perfect development process to our players.”

HASAN SALIHAMIDŽIĆ

BOARD MEMBER FOR SPORT FC BAYERN MUNICH

“Both in individualization and in the area of performance monitoring, skills.lab Arena contributes to the systemic development of our players.”

FC Bayern Munich relies on the measurement technology of the skills.lab Arena to assess the football-specific performance parameters of its players. Data scientists from the club's own innovation center then analyze and evaluate the collected data. The assessment data serves as an ideal basis for scouting new players.

Through football-specific assessments, valuable data is collected on the technical capabilities of their players. This creates an important source of data over the years that enables objective comparisons across all age groups and also enriches the club's scouting activities.

Eight-time Polish champion Lech Poznań has the best youth academy in the country. In order to further expand this supremacy, the club is relying on the many advantages of the skills.lab Arena. Potential new additions are compared objectively with the existing squad, enabling even better transfer decisions to be made.

SPEEDCOURT

SpeedCourt

It was first featured at Real Madrid and is now incorporated at many of the top clubs in Europe including FC Bayern Munich, Red Bull Leipzig, and Bayer Leverkusen. COPA STC’s SpeedCourt is a responsiveness training and assessment device embedded with contact sensors mirrored on a television screen to engage athletes with real-time feedback on their ability to react and change direction.

PROF. DR. HOLGER BROICH

SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR & HEAD OF FITNESS / FC BAYERN MUNICH

“The SpeedCourt is an important component in our technology and data concept at Säbener Strasse in performance diagnostics."

PHILIPP LAHM

WORLD CUP CHAMPION 2014 GERMANY / CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNER 2013 FC BAYERN MUNICH

“The SpeedCourt is a great opportunity to develop speed at all levels in a goal-oriented and fun way, especially for children and young people.”

DR. MED. HABIL. JOCHEN BAUMEISTER

UNIVERSITY OF PADERBORN, HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF EXERCISE & HEALTH, HEAD OF DEPARTMENT EXERCISE SCIENCE AND NEUROSCIENCE

“The brain is the center of all movements and is therefore of great importance for sports and health. The SpeedCourt is ideally suited to adequately train the brain because cognitive and motor components of movement coordination are trained in a common context.”

SPEEDTRACK

SpeedTrack

A 30-yard speed testing and training track that uses a contact sensor at the starting line and infrared timing gates to measure top speed and 2.5-, 5-, 10-, 20-, and 30-yard split times.

Transparency

While our advanced measurement technologies are able to effectively measure executive function, decision making, passing, ball control, finishing, speed, strength, and agility skills, the Junior COPA Score is not intended to be a comprehensive total evaluation of all aspects of what makes a complete soccer player. Many important characteristics, including attitude, locker room presence, coachability, tenacity, tactical knowledge, communication, defending and other elements are not encapsulated within a Junior COPA Score. As such, the Junior COPA Score is focused only on basic core fundamental data points, which can be objectively measured, cost effectively, and at scale, across millions of athlete’s.