The science · designed around the research

The science behind SSTracker

Every choice in SSTracker, from never ranking children to holding a child's stats until after the drive home, comes from research on what keeps young athletes playing, growing and enjoying their sport. Here is each choice, the primary research behind it, how it shows up in the app today, and how strong that evidence is.

Printable summary for clubs and press The blog

What we claim, and what we don't

SSTracker is designed around this research. We have not yet measured whether SSTracker itself improves how long children stay in sport or how much they improve, and we will not claim it until we have. When we have our own results, we will publish them here, whatever they show.

Where a finding comes from a survey, we say it is a link, not a cause. Where a well-known finding has not replicated reliably, we say that too. Every source is linked at the bottom of the page.

Every child is compared only with their own past

What the research says

Self-determination theory, one of the best-tested accounts of motivation, says people keep going from the inside when they feel capable, feel their choices are their own, and feel connected to others ¹. A ranking tells most children on a team, every week, that they are not capable, even when every one of them is improving.

Achievement-goal research describes two ways to judge success: by your own improvement and effort (a mastery or task frame) or by beating others (a performance or ego frame) ². In sport, children who judged success by their own improvement were more likely to believe effort leads to success ³. A systematic review found mastery-focused settings go with more enjoyment and inner motivation, and comparison-focused settings with more anxiety ⁴. A coach workshop on building a mastery climate was followed by lower performance anxiety in young basketball players over a season ⁵.

In a 2025 national survey of 10 to 17 year olds, 28.6% of former players named “I’m not good enough” as a part of team sport they liked least, against 16.1% of current players ⁶.

How it shows up in SSTracker

My progress shows a player their own last 8 weeks and each skill this month against last month. No other child appears.
The growth chart draws a player’s settled start as a dashed shape and where they are now as a solid one, from tests they did. A change shows only when it is bigger than that player’s own usual ups and downs.
Personal bests compare a player with their own last best. Levels carry a word about the child’s own journey (Starting out, Building, Growing, Going further), never a rank.

Evidence: Moderate Consistent across many studies, but most are snapshots that show links rather than causes, and the coaching trial was small and not randomised.

No leaderboards, and no child set against another

What the research says

In the same national survey, 18% of former players said their parents compared them to other players, against 13% of current players; among former players, 25% of girls and 9% of boys said so ⁷.

Comparison-focused (ego-involving) climates go with more anxiety and less enjoyment in young athletes ⁴, and competence is one of the three needs that keep motivation alive ¹.

How it shows up in SSTracker

A team goal is one bar the whole team fills together: no names, no individual numbers, no ranking, and a player can sit one out.
Testing day results are never sorted, totalled or compared between players, and each child sees only their own.
The kind-words check refuses a coach’s line to a child that compares them with other children, with a kinder way to say it. A parent sees only their own child.
Team standings rank teams, never children, and players see them only from age 12 by default.

Evidence: Moderate The harm of comparison climates is consistent but mostly from cross-sectional studies; no study has removed leaderboards and measured who stays in sport.

Feedback names effort and strategy, not talent

What the research says

In a classic set of lab studies, children praised for being smart coped worse with a later setback than children praised for effort ⁸. Parents who praised more of what their toddlers did, rather than who they were, had children who at 7 to 8 were more likely to believe ability can grow (a small, correlational study of 53 families) ⁹.

Honest note

A study of 624 children in China did not reproduce the praise effect ¹⁰. A national experiment found a growth-mindset lesson helped grades only a little on average, mostly for lower-achieving students ¹¹, and a 2023 meta-analysis found the overall effect of such programmes small and not significant once publication bias and study quality were accounted for ¹². We keep effort-and-strategy feedback because it is honest, specific and kind, and because every side of the debate agrees warm, specific feedback does no harm. We do not claim it changes a child’s mindset.

How it shows up in SSTracker

A Coach’s pick is a coach saying a player stood out for their effort, once per player every 7 days. It gives no points, and the parents get the same note.
Seen it: a coach writes one specific line about a player’s work at home; every parent linked to the child gets the same words.
Parent goals count effort only (training days or minutes), never scores, stats or wins. A parent talk card suggests naming the effort you noticed.

Evidence: Mixed The praise studies are well known, but the wider growth-mindset findings have not replicated reliably.

A coach’s notes about mistakes are never shown to the child

What the research says

In a study of Little League coaches, players whose coaches had a short workshop on encouragement and on teaching after a mistake rather than punishing it were far less likely to drop out by the next season (5% against 26%), and the difference was not explained by win-loss records ¹³. Feeling capable is one of the three needs behind lasting motivation ¹.

How it shows up in SSTracker

A note a coach writes about a child’s mistakes is never shown to the child.
What a child does see is their own progress, the coach’s specific lines about their effort, and the one thing they chose to work on in their own journal.
The coach sees one or two focus skills for each player with suggested drills, so the next step is a drill, not a list of errors.

Evidence: Early The coaching study was one sport, one season and 18 coaches, not randomised.

Children choose inside a plan the coach sets

What the research says

Autonomy, feeling that your choices are your own, is one of the three needs in self-determination theory ¹. In 7,769 young soccer players across five European countries, players whose coaches supported their choices enjoyed the game more, and players who enjoyed it more were less likely to intend to drop out ¹⁴.

How it shows up in SSTracker

The coach sets the plan and the focus. From age 7, a player then picks today’s drill from two or three in that focus (Pick today’s game).
A player chooses whether to share each journal note with their coach, and can change it later. A player can sit out a team goal.
A player picks their own player card design and frame, and dresses their own character.

Evidence: Moderate A large, consistent body of research, much of it correlational; the soccer study measured intentions to drop out, not dropout itself.

Parents are part of the process, not watching from the sidelines

What the research says

In the 2025 national survey, 62.1% of current players said their parents help them practise outside team practice, against 40.2% of former players; 85.6% of current players said their parents come to watch and cheer ⁶. In season, children already practise on their own about two days a week on average ¹⁵.

In families of young athletes who reached a high level, parents in the early years provided the chance to play and kept it fun, rather than running drills ¹⁶.

How it shows up in SSTracker

Train together gives a parent each homework drill with the coach’s exact cue and a part to play: Feeder, Target, Rebounder, Timer, Gentle defender or Spotter. No part involves contact, and helping never adds points.
Show-me moments tell a parent when their child beats their own best, and suggest asking the child to show them how.
Then and now puts a child’s month beside last month for their family only. A parent’s prize for a goal is time together, an outing, the child’s choice or something for their sport.

Evidence: Moderate Parent support is consistently linked to staying in sport, but the surveys cannot say which comes first, and no trial has tested parents training with children at home.

The Car Ride Home: a child’s numbers wait until after the drive

What the research says

College athletes interviewed over decades named the ride home after games as the talk they liked least, and “I love to watch you play” as the words that made them feel best ¹⁷. The Positive Coaching Alliance tells parents to resist critiquing on the ride home and to let the child start the conversation ¹⁸.

Current players were more likely than former players to have parents who told them they were proud regardless of how they performed ⁷.

Honest note

The ride-home finding comes from interviews whose numbers were never published, so we call it guidance, not proof.

How it shows up in SSTracker

A young player’s match and performance numbers stay hidden for 15 minutes after a session ends, enforced on the server so it cannot be skipped.
Then the parent sees the score on the After the game card, with supportive questions, and talk cards suggest what to say first.

Evidence: Early Built on interviews and expert guidance, not a controlled study; the survey link is an association.

Rewards follow confirmed effort, and there is never cash or chance

What the research says

Children who were promised a reward for drawing later chose to draw less on their own than children who were not (the “overjustification” effect) ¹⁹. A review of 128 experiments found expected, tangible rewards for doing a task lowered people’s own motivation for it, more in children than adults, while informative, positive feedback did not ²⁰.

Keeping track of progress helped people reach their goals across 138 experiments, more so when progress was recorded and shared ²¹.

Honest note

One group of researchers argues the harm is limited to expected, tangible rewards loosely tied to performance, and that verbal rewards help ²². Both sides agree that informative, positive feedback is the safe choice, which is what the app gives.

How it shows up in SSTracker

Points (XP) and stickers are added by the server only after a session is saved, never before, with a daily max of 1,500 XP so players rest.
Nothing is random, bought or traded: no loot boxes, no cash or cash-like prizes, no raffles. A Coach’s pick gives no points at all.
A parent’s prize is a surprise by default, and is time together, an outing, the child’s choice or something for their sport.

Evidence: Mixed The undermining effect of expected rewards is well studied, but its size is still debated.

Reminders invite; they do not pressure

What the research says

Self-determination theory distinguishes support that informs from pressure that controls; controlling pressure tends to crowd out motivation from the inside ¹. In the national survey, 21% of former players said they felt pressured to play, against 9% of current players ⁷.

How it shows up in SSTracker

A streak counts weeks, not days: a week counts at 3 training days, rest days never break it, and the best streak is kept forever.
The Sunday email is off until a parent turns it on, and every one has a one-click unsubscribe. A before-the-game card with ways to cheer them on shows at most once per event, and a parent can turn each kind of card off.
A player excused for an injury or illness gets no training reminders, and the homework card puts effort first, never “0 of 3”.

Evidence: Moderate Strong theory and consistent survey links; no trial has tested reminder wording in youth sport.

Privacy is part of keeping children safe

What the research says

Federal law requires verified parental consent before collecting a child’s data, and the 2025 update requires separate consent before sharing it, for example for advertising, and bars keeping it indefinitely ²³. Federal law also asks sport’s safeguarding policies to limit one-on-one interactions, including communications, between adults and minor athletes ²⁴.

The CDC’s guide for youth-serving organizations treats screening adults as one layer among several, with rules for interactions and monitoring ²⁵. Security practice gives each person only the access their role needs ²⁶. In a national survey, 87.9% of sports parents said a coach should pass a background check ¹⁵.

How it shows up in SSTracker

A child’s account stays locked until a parent gives verified consent. No ads, no trackers, and player data is never sold.
Each adult sees only what their role needs, enforced on the server; parents can see who opened their child’s records, download everything and delete it.
Coaches are cleared by a background check or a confirmed association clearance before they can reach a player, and staff cannot message a child one-to-one.

Evidence: Strong These are legal requirements and established safety practice, not a bet on a single study.

Sources

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