Why Over 50% of Premier League Teams Choose Output

The Premier League is one of the most competitive and physically demanding sporting leagues in the world, where games are often decided by critical physical actions. Those responsible for keeping players at the top of their game face a significant challenge: making informed decisions to optimize performance and minimize injury risk.

With access to a range of technologies, teams need tools that are both reliable and valid, while seamlessly integrating into their workflow. Decisions made based on data can influence whether a multi-million-dollar player stays fit or risks injury, making accuracy paramount.

We’re proud to support over half of the Premier League teams who trust Output to help them make better decisions, drive intent in the gym, and support a range of use cases—from pre-screening testing to injury rehabilitation.

Challenges Faced by Elite Football Teams

Modern professional soccer (football for our UK & European friends) demands peak physical performance amidst congested fixture schedules, with more matches, fewer breaks, and intensifying game speeds. The responsibility to keep players injury-free and performing at their best falls on the multidisciplinary support team—the "team behind the team"—who work tirelessly to ensure players remain on the pitch, entertaining millions week in and week out.

Managing large squads requires individualized and tailored programming to address the specific needs of each player, providing the right training volume to induce adaptation without causing unnecessary fatigue that impairs performance. For example, development players may benefit from slightly higher training loads to enhance their physical abilities, improving their chances of competing at the highest level. Conversely, seasoned professionals nearing the end of their careers may prioritize strategies to sustain high-performance standards, stay on the field, and extend their playing careers.

Teams are choosing Output to simplify this process: tracking meaningful data, driving intent during gym sessions, and making better-informed decisions to meet the unique demands of every athlete in their squad.

How Premier League Teams Are Using Output

Track Barbell Velocity‍

While velocity-based training (VBT) and tracking barbell velocity are not new concepts, integrating them effectively with large squads has historically been a challenge. Many solutions are overly complicated, unreliable, or cumbersome, with extra equipment cluttering the gym, technology breaking or not working how desired and disrupting workflow. Output has addressed these challenges by removing unnecessary wires and offering an intuitive interface that allows players to manage the system themselves.

This has enabled professional teams to:

Drive Training Intent‍

Research shows that training with feedback and intent can increase performance by up to 8.4% (1). Output provides instant auditory and visual feedback, enabling more effective sessions. One way to achieve this is through gamification and competition. Output’s live leaderboard feature allows players to compete against teammates, driving engagement and intent during their jumps or lifts.

This not only enhances session engagement but also leads to meaningful improvements in performance. For more strategies to drive intent, refer to this PDF by Ben Rosenblatt of 292 Performance and former head of physical development for the England Men’s Football Team.

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Autoregulate Training: ‍

Autoregulation helps teams in two primary ways:

Load Regulation: ‍

By targeting specific velocity zones for desired adaptations based on the velocity thresholds outlined in figure 2, players can adjust their loads to ensure effective training.

For example, if a lower-body maximal strength set is aiming for a bar velocity within 0.3-0.6m/s, lifting faster than 0.6m/s indicates the load on the bar is too light as you can see in figure 3.

By increasing the load on the bar for this athlete, as shown in figure 4, the athlete's velocity moved into the target band, ensuring training aligns with the desired adaptation.

Limiting Reps Outside the Desired Adaptation Bandwidth:‍

Reps performed outside the intended velocity thresholds can reduce the effectiveness of training adaptations. With Output’s velocity drop-off feature, you can ensure your athletes remain within the targeted adaptation bands by setting a specific velocity drop-off limit. For example, if a rep sees a decline of 10% from the initial rep, this indicates that the set should be terminated—whether that occurs after 2 reps or 6. This allows for a more precise and focused approach to training within the desired adaptation range.

Integrating Testing into Training

Beyond driving intent and enhancing performance in the moment, Output enables teams to seamlessly integrate testing into training, allowing for continuous data collection without the need for dedicated testing days. This approach provides more frequent and reliable insights, reducing the risk of false positives or negatives.

Assessing Neuromuscular Readiness:‍

Practical assessments, such as drop jumps or 10-5 maximal hopping, can be conducted without requiring specific landing zones. Removing this restriction shifts the focus toward maximizing jump height and minimizing ground contact time, rather than prioritizing precise landing positions. These tests can be easily integrated into pre-training preparation, with multiple devices collecting data simultaneously to save time and prepare athletes for the session ahead.

Figure 5: Maximal hops assessment.

Tracking Longitudinal Changes:‍

Through Output’s hub and reporting feature or teams own preferred data visualization tools using our open API, teams can monitor longitudinal progress. For instance, tracking working sets of commonly programmed exercises, like countermovement jumps or back squats, teams can observe trends in estimated 1RMs or jump height, providing a clearer picture of progression without requiring athletes to perform maximal lifts.

Injury Rehabilitation‍

Medical teams leverage Output for quick, objective assessments, from quantifying range of motion assessments to providing feedback on limb symmetry based on contact time such as single-leg hopping to measure asymmetries in limb stiffness or range of motion evaluations during early rehab stages.

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Figure 7 : Single-leg hopping assessment.
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For more on Output’s role in rehabilitation, see our work with Al Murdoch on ACL recovery here.

Why Teams Like Working With Us

• Customer Support: Our dedicated sports science team provides detailed onboarding, continuous professional development (CPD), and ongoing assistance to ensure teams maximize Output's potential.
• User-Friendly Design: Output’s intuitive interface empowers players to manage their testing independently, reducing the workload on coaching staff.

What Coaches Are Saying

Here’s what some of the coaches using output have to say:

“Output has been integral to our physical performance and rehabilitation environment. It’s reliable and easy to use which means you can trust the players to use it autonomously when working with players 1:1 or in a big group. We’ve had great success in using the systems to gamify our S&C sessions using the leaderboard function which has increased the intensity we’re getting from sessions. Additionally, we’re now able to quantify tasks we couldn’t before such as multi-directional hopping or effort during swings, throws and punches."

- Ben Rosenblatt, Former Lead Men's Physical  Performance Coach of England FA & Founder of 292 Performance

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"Output Sports bring a sports science laboratory to anyone's pocket! I admire the drive they have for making elite sports science simple and scalable for all. Output have developed a simple but powerful device that can measure a wide variety of tests, and yet they refuse to compromise on validity and reliability. Their software is intuitive and user friendly, regardless of whether the user is the practitioner or the athlete themselves."

- Jo Clubb, international Sports Science Consultant with extensive experience in elite professional team sports 

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"Output Sports has become an essential tool in my rehab and process development. It's incredibly easy to use, portable, and the athlete-facing interface significantly enhances intent and adherence to my daily practices. With its wide range of tests and excellent customer support, Output Sports is a no-brainer—it plays a pivotal role in both my processes and my business, and my athletes are better off for it."

- Alan Murdoch, Owner of Elevate-Rehab

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References

(1) J. Weakley, N. Cowley, B. J. Schoenfeld et al., "The Effect of Feedback on Resistance Training Performance and Adaptations: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis," Sports Med., vol. 53, pp. 1789–1803, 2023. doi: 10.1007/s40279-023-01877-2.