Review: beMeister Soccer Performance System

There’s an old adage that says “That which can be measured can be improved.” Enter the beMeister Performance System for soccer players from IMPIRE AG (Germany´s biggest supplier of football statistics and editorial services for the media and clubs).

The cutting-edge set lets you track your performance on the field via a sensor that recognizes typical football movement and direction changes. It can be used for anything from training runs to drills to actual matches.

We’ve been using the beMeister Soccer Performance System for during training and at matches for the past couple of weeks. Here is an in-depth look at it from the team at Football Fashion.

What’s in the Box?
The beMeister Performance System comes in an impressive set of packaging that we consider to be first class. While the folks at beMeister could have easily put their set in cheaper plastic packaging, they opted to use hard boxes with spongy casings for the components of the Performance System. This is reminiscent of what you’d find nice watches and accessories in at high-end department stores.

The beMeister Performance System that we used consists of just three parts — a sensor and dummy sensor, insoles that carry the sensors, a sensor remover to take the sensor and dummy sensor out of the packaging, and a novel watch with a USB plug on it. Of these, only the insoles and sensors have to be worn to measure what you do while wearing them. The watch picks up data from the sensors when it is close to them and can provide real-time information when worn. However, we preferred to not wear it during matches to avoid it being pulled off and damaged.

Setting up the beMeister Performance System
The beMeister Performance System comes with a printed and easy to read Quick Guide. We were able to follow this and get our set ready for use in the three easy steps illustrated. All you have to do is shake the sensor to wake it up, place the watch next to it to recognize it, and go to bemeister.com to register your system and setup your player profile. Slip the insoles into the shoes of your choice and you are ready for action!

If you have any issues setting up the system, beMeister has a comprehensive user manual available for download at their downloads site.

Using the beMeister Performance System
There is some adjustment required in wearing the beMeister Performance System insoles. Since they have a small pocket for the system’s sensors, the heel area of the insoles are slightly elevated compared to normal insoles. However, we thought that this was negligible and indeed reminiscent of the normal feel of shoes such as the PUMA v1.11. After about thirty minutes of wearing them, you get used to them. Therefore, we do recommend a “break-in” period with the beMeister Performance System before wearing them in team training or match situations.

When using the beMeister Performance System in training, we used the watch that came with it. We were thrilled with the information provided by it in real-time. This consisted of the length of our training, our distance moved, average speed, maximum speed, sprint speed and calories expended.

beMeister Performance Center
Available online at bemeister.com in English and German, the beMeister Performance Center provides an impressive display of data that you have uploaded to it by connecting the watch to your computer via a USB port.

Data can be set as training or match and can be compared with stored data from previous sessions. Click on “Upgrade Your Performance” at the Performance Center and you can access videos of exercises that you can do to improve your performance via Speed Training, Endurance Training and Position Training.

Final Thoughts
Training and players monitoring tools were only available to professional footballers until recently. However, now that the like the beMeister Performance System was has hit the market, amateur players and those aspiring for greatest have a new weapon to improve their performance. Based on our experience using it, it is well worth the investment and definitely worth checking out for players from the youth level and up!