The new skills.lab Arena at the COPA Soccer Training Center in Walnut Creek – 30 minutes east of San Francisco – will ensure in the future that the heart of every male and female soccer player in the U.S. state begins to shine, and not just because of the California sun. For the team at Anton Paar SportsTec GmbH, the company behind the skills.lab Arena, the opening of the new high-tech training system marks the achievement of the next important goal. “The installation of the first skills.lab Arena in North America, just six months after the opening of the facility at FC Bayern Munich, represents the next major milestone for skills.lab. It proves that the skills.lab Arena opens up application possibilities for all soccer enthusiasts: From reigning Champions League winners to young talents, everyone worldwide can benefit,” says Johannes Tändl, General Manager of Anton Paar SportsTec GmbH.
The COPA Soccer Training Center offers a unique environment for soccer players on more than 10,000 square meters. State-of-the-art training technologies, indoor training pitches, a dedicated fitness area and much more provide the optimal basis for the best possible development of all athletes. With the skills.lab Arena, the training center now has a new flagship in the area of assessment and individual training. The Arena will be the central point of contact for measuring technical capabilities, and will enable coaches at COPA STC to track the individual development of players even more objectively and to manage it in a more targeted manner. “By integrating the skills.lab Arena into our suite of technology, COPA STC is further cementing its stature as the gold standard facility in the United States for training and assessment. The skills.lab Arena will exponentially expand COPA STC’s ability to maximize development and add a whole new layer to player assessment. All our technologies in the COPA STC combined, create the potential for an unequaled ability to develop data analytics as a foundation for our systematic assessment based approach to player development. We are excited to work with our partners at Anton Paar SportsTec GmbH in our perpetual pursuit of improvement,” says Charlie Campbell, General Manager of COPA STC.
Behind the COPA Soccer Training Center is COPA Innovation Laboratories, a highly innovative company that aims to drive the data-driven revolution in soccer across the board – from professionals to amateur players and children. Here, the company’s goals coincide with those of skills.lab, which makes them both ideal partners, according to Johannes Tändl: “skills.lab stands for holistic, data-driven soccer training and unique training and assessment systems. COPA’s very name stands for Comprehensive and Objective Player Assessments, and fully shares these ideas and applies them broadly in its training centers.”
The close partnership between skills.lab and COPA STC will be expanded even further in the future. Further locations in major markets within the USA are currently being planned. “We have been developing a close relationship with Anton Paar SportsTec GmbH for several years now during their development of the skills.lab technology, and we are extremely excited to see this vision finally coming to reality in our COPA STC facility. As we open additional COPA facilities across the USA and obtain national scale, we expect to have a truly unique ability to accumulate player data in a way never before accomplished in the world, and to support youth organizations, collegiate programs, and professional clubs in a manner none of them could ever accomplish on their own. Anton Paar SportsTec GmbH will obviously be a big part of our business mission,” said Mark Hall, CEO and Founder of COPA Innovation Laboratories.
Five years before the start of the World Cup in the USA, the opening of the first skills.lab Arena in the USA marks an essential next step towards the best possible development of players in the country. For COPA STC and skills.lab, it is the first step on a common path that both intend to follow in the future.
