Sports Performance Testing in the West Midlands — What's Available and What's Not

If you're looking for professional sports performance testing for a youth or semi-professional athlete in the West Midlands, the options are more limited than you might expect. This is a genuine gap in provision for a region of 2.9 million people with one of the highest concentrations of youth football academies in England.

What's Available — and What Isn't

At the professional and academy level, performance testing is well-resourced. Premier League and Championship clubs have sophisticated testing infrastructure and dedicated sports science staff. Even Championship-level academies run regular performance profiling as standard.

Below that level — the grassroots clubs, semi-professional teams, talented youth players outside the academy system — there is almost nothing. Generic personal training gyms, football coaching academies focused on technical skills, and a handful of S&C coaches operating without specialist testing equipment.

What's missing is specifically:

• Photon Sports or equivalent timing gate systems for precise sprint profiling
• Force-velocity profile generation from sprint data
• Bilateral asymmetry testing with clinical interpretation
• Written performance reports with training prescriptions
• Longitudinal tracking across multiple test dates

EPP provides all of these, at Alexander Stadium Birmingham, at a price point accessible to non-academy athletes.

Who We Work With Across the Region

Our current athlete base spans the West Midlands. We work with athletes from:

• Birmingham — across all areas, with strong representation from Perry Barr, Sutton Coldfield, Edgbaston and Moseley
• Wolverhampton and Walsall — regular athletes making the 30-minute journey to Alexander Stadium
• Solihull and Coventry — particularly from grassroots football clubs and athletics programmes
• Tamworth and Lichfield — secondary venue sessions available at Vision Football Factory, Tamworth
• Sandwell and Dudley — youth football clubs across the Black Country belt

The Alexander Stadium Advantage

Our flagship testing location is uniquely positioned. Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr sits at the geographic centre of the West Midlands — accessible from most of the region within 30–40 minutes by road or public transport. Perry Barr train station (Walsall Line) is a direct 6-minute journey from Birmingham New Street, making it accessible from Wolverhampton, Walsall, and Coventry without a car.

For athletes in north Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield, or Lichfield, the journey is under 20 minutes. For athletes in south Birmingham or Solihull, approximately 25–35 minutes via the A38 or A34 corridors.

Squad and Team Testing

For grassroots clubs and semi-professional teams across the West Midlands, our Squad Analyser service provides team testing at £20 per athlete (minimum 10 athletes). We bring all equipment to Alexander Stadium and test the full squad in a single 2–3 hour session. Individual reports are delivered within 48 hours.

Several West Midlands grassroots clubs use EPP for annual pre-season squad profiling as a replacement for or supplement to their existing S&C provision. The data gives coaches objective baselines for individual athlete development plans — something most clubs in the region have never had access to.