Glossary
Quick definitions of the terms that come up most often in youth athletic performance, recruiting, and AI-assisted training.
- Acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR)
- The ratio of recent training load (typically 1 week) to rolling-average load (typically 4 weeks), used to detect dangerous spikes in training stress.
- Athlete evaluation
- A coach-authored scouting-style report on a specific athlete, written for college coaches and recruiters as supporting documentation alongside film and the athletic resume.
- Athletic resume
- A structured, single-page summary of an athlete's identity, academics, measurables, competitive history, and references — used primarily in college recruiting.
- Game film
- Raw, unedited video of an athlete's actual competitions — typically full games or long segments — that college coaches use to validate what they see in a highlight reel.
- Highlight reel
- A short edited video compiling an athlete's best on-field plays, used primarily for college recruiting. Typically 3-5 minutes and opens with the strongest clip.
- Multi-sport athlete
- An athlete who meaningfully competes in more than one sport across a year, rather than specializing in a single sport year-round.
- NCAA Eligibility Center
- The NCAA body that certifies whether a prospective college athlete meets the academic and amateurism standards required to compete in Division I or Division II.
- Overtraining syndrome
- A persistent performance decrement and maladaptation state caused by sustained training load exceeding the athlete's recovery capacity, typically requiring weeks to months of rest to resolve.
- Periodization
- The deliberate structuring of training across weeks, months, and seasons into phases with different volumes, intensities, and emphases to peak athletes at the right time.
- Return to play
- The graduated, medically-guided process by which an injured athlete resumes full training and competition, structured to reduce the risk of re-injury or worsening.
- RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion)
- A 1-10 self-report of how hard a training session or competition felt, used as the intensity input to session-RPE training load calculations.
- Showcase
- A live recruiting event — often a camp, tournament, or combine — where high-school-aged athletes compete in front of college coaches and scouts.
- Training load
- A combined measure of the physical stress an athlete accumulates from training and competition — volume multiplied by intensity, tracked over days, weeks, and rolling averages.
- Verified measurables
- Athlete performance numbers — height, weight, speed, strength, jump tests — captured by a credible third party using a known protocol, distinct from self-reported or home-gym numbers.