Kistler on the Campus of FC Basel 1893

Since 2013, the young talents at the FC Basel 1893 soccer club have lived and trained on the site provided by the Youth Campus Foundation. Modesty is the keynote here. That's understandable, because FC Basel operates on a far less ambitious scale than clubs such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or FC Barcelona, which can attract talented players from all over Europe. However, FC Basel 1893 pursues a different strategy. The club wants to maintain its local roots − but at the same time, it aims to focus on reducing the number of dropouts so as to move more players up into the professional league. And the tools that FC Basel 1893 uses to achieve those goals include measuring systems from Kistler.

As you stroll across the campus (already three years old), your eye is immediately drawn to a long concrete building. As well as offices and changing rooms, it houses modern training areas where Kistler force plates have been in use since the end of 2015. The measurement results generated by this technology provide training supervisors with in-depth knowledge about the physical condition of their players.

Measurement Data: Reliable Basis for Optimizing Physical Performance

A club such as FC Basel can't simply tap into an unlimited pool of young talents. That's why one of the club's major objetives is to work more intensively with players at the U14 to U21 levels, with a specific purpose in mind.
Talent is not the only requirement for players to make the leap into FCB's professional squad. Above all, they must also have good physical health – which is built up and maintained with the help of accurate measurement data, among other factors. Thanks to this data, weak points can be identified and action can be taken to eliminate them. Strengths, too, are recognized at an early stage so that training can focus on developing them. One especially important factor for trainers is knowledge of any strength deficits in the left and right halves of a player's body. FC Basel currently uses Kistler technology to determine the effect of prestretch for every player. This involves determining the countermovement jump (CMJ) to static jump (SJ) ratio: a target value is then defined, and training is adapted so that value can be attained. Starting with the very first measurement, Kistler force plates deliver reliable data, and they can record even the smallest of changes.

Long-Term Mindset Leads to Success