8 Ways to Track Athlete Performance in 2025

Tracking and evaluating athlete performance over time is the core of smart coaching. This process allows you to identify trends, discover gaps, and make training adjustments with precision, not just for teams, but for every individual athlete. However, when it comes to tracking performance, many coaches still rely on fragmented notes, vague feedback, or once-a-season evaluations.

This guide explores 10 intelligent ways to track athlete performance — integrating clear strategies, smart technology, and athlete-specific data.

What Does It Mean to Evaluate and Track Athlete Performance?

Put simply, to monitor is to follow along, and to assess is to measure. Together, they answer questions like:

• How is the athlete improving?
• What areas need work?
• Is our training working?

The outcome? Tracking athletic performance can transform coaching from instinct-based guesswork to data-driven decision-making. Whether developing a youth soccer player or honing a track athlete’s sprint form, frequent measurement creates a blueprint to real progress, accountability, and long-term achievement in maximizing athletes’ current and future performance.

1. Set Sport-Specific Performance Benchmarks

How do you know if any athlete’s performance is up to par? When providing athlete feedback, your players want to not only see how they score, but also see how they compare to the benchmark.

These benchmarks can be industry-standard statistics found online and include:

• Track & Field: sprint time, stride length, recovery rate
• Soccer: passing accuracy, speed, stamina
• Basketball: shooting percentage, lateral movement
• Baseball: bat speed, pitch velocity, reaction time

Alternatively, when using tools like SkillShark, you will receive a ‘team average’ score for any skill you assess, which can be used as a benchmark. For example, if you recently ran softball tryouts and scored your players on batting speed, SkillShark will automatically calculate a ‘team average score’ for batting speed. You can then use this data point to see if an athlete’s performance is below or above average.

2. Standardize the Evaluation Process

You’re not only assessing performance — you’re assessing changes. So consistency is important.

• Use the same drills, surfaces, and equipment
• Assign the same coaches/evaluators to specific evaluations
• Repeat in similar conditions wherever possible
• Track contextual influences (e.g., sleep, injury, weather)

3. Leverage Digital Tools for Data Collection

Using pen-and-paper forms to conduct evaluations results in increased human error, administrative work, and stress. SkillShark is an athlete evaluation app that allows coaches to:

• Score athletes quickly & accurately with any mobile device.
• Leverage real-time insights to make drafting & tactical decisions.
• Share personalized report cards with athletes and parents.
• Track athlete progression with trend lines and dashboards.

4. Combine Quantitative Metrics with Qualitative Feedback

Qualitative feedback provides the “why” behind any given score. Let’s suppose, after a basketball evaluation, that an athlete scores a 5 (out of 10) on dribbling. By just providing them with that score, curiosity and frustration kick in. Athletes will often be asking themselves, “Why did I score so low?”

In the case of athlete evaluations, providing qualitative feedback in the form of comments enables an athlete to understand the reasoning behind the score and in some cases, learn tips for how to improve.

5. Display Progress in Reports and Graphs

Seeing is believing. In the case of athlete development, a trend line helps illustrate to an athlete just how much they have progressed (or regressed) throughout the season or over the years. This sequence of data points can serve as a motivating force behind an athlete’s “why.” Why an athlete consistently shows up to practice, or why they return each year for tryouts, is often fueled by the desire to improve or keep improving.

6. Add Video for More Detailed Feedback

Athletes not only want to receive a score and qualitative feedback (comments) for an assessed skill, but also benefit greatly from a video showing their performance, which offers advantages such as:

• Coaches can spot errors in technique and quickly make adjustments.
• Athletes have the opportunity to see themselves in action. It’s one thing to be told, “You need to work on your dribbling,” but it’s far more impactful to watch a video and visually understand why that improvement is needed.

7. Assess Mental Component of Athlete Performance

Mental metrics directly impact an athlete’s physical performance and long-term success. If an athlete doesn’t have proper focus, their precision when executing certain movements may lack (I.e., A tennis player with greater focus on footwork is more likely to hit a shot).

Therefore, adding mental metrics to your evaluations is key. And, like any other physical metric, make sure to track these at every evaluation. Some metrics include:

• Focus
• Confidence
• Resilience
• Coachability
• Communication

8. Promptly Communicate Feedback

In a perfect world, parents & athletes want feedback minutes after an evaluation is complete. Answering the questions of “Why did my child make the team?” or “How do they compare to the team average?” With software like SkillShark, delivering athlete feedback immediately after a tryout, camp, or clinic is possible.

Below is an example of an athlete’s report card (provided by SkillShark). Scores are collected in real-time through a phone or tablet, and reports are auto-generated on the backend (with absolutely no legwork required from a coach). Once an evaluation is complete, a coach will simply choose an athlete(s) and send their report card directly to their email. Reports come complete with scores, benchmarks, comments, and videos.

Conclusion

Regardless of whether you’re coaching a youth team or training athletes at the national level, understanding how to evaluate athlete performance is the foundation of modern coaching. And due to platforms like SkillShark, tracking athlete performance can be done frequently and accurately.

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