Universal Speed Rating is proud to announce a long-term partnership with Athletes Acceleration, the performance training network founded by Graham Wilkerson.
As Athletes Acceleration scales nationwide, Universal Speed Rating will serve as the official performance data and athlete benchmarking platform inside every location in the network, baked directly into each facility’s training methodology.
This isn't a new relationship. It's the next chapter of one that already has three years of proof behind it.
A Partnership Built on Proof, Not a Pitch
Before Athletes Acceleration was a national network, it was a single facility in Central Indiana called Genesis Performance, and Graham Wilkerson was already one of the most respected speed coaches in his surrounding community.
Graham brought Universal Speed Rating into Genesis 3 years ago, because he believed the same thing we did: that great training deserves trusted data, and athletes deserve to know exactly where they stand. Three years later, what came out of that belief speaks for itself.
Since 2023, Graham and his coaches have run 41,926 assessments on 2,875 unique athletes through the USR platform. Among the 2,006 athletes tested for Max Velocity, 125 have officially joined the 20 MPH Club, with a facility top mark of 22.72 MPH.
Those are real assessments, with real athletes, in a real facility, every week.
Graham even became a Speed Lab Director for our nationwide network of 200+ Speed Labs.
The improvement story is where it gets even better. Of all the athletes who tested for Max Velocity two or more times at Athletes Acceleration, the average gain among those athletes was 1 MPH faster.
If that number sounds familiar, it should. It is almost exactly the same promise Athletes Acceleration makes to every athlete who walks through the door: add 1 MPH in 90 days or train free. Three years of Universal Speed Rating data say they're keeping that promise.
That's the kind of accountability we built USR to make possible.
Why Graham Chose USR for Athletes Acceleration
When Graham launched the Athletes Acceleration franchise model, he had a decision to make.
He could let each new owner pick their own measurement tools, or he could lock in one standard for the entire network.
He chose Universal Speed Rating.
Every Athletes Acceleration location will use the USR platform as the required performance data system, meaning every athlete inside the network will be measured the same way, ranked on the same scale, and tracked against the same national benchmarks. No matter which Athletes Acceleration facility they walk into.
That standardization matters. It means a parent in Indiana can compare their athlete to a peer in Florida and know the numbers mean exactly the same thing. It means a college recruiter looking at an Athletes Acceleration athlete is getting verified data, every time. And it means every coach inside the network is speaking the same language.
"Graham was one of our earliest believers, and what he's built with Genesis and now Athletes Acceleration is exactly what we want every Speed Lab to look like," said Drew Zwiers, Co-Founder and COO of Universal Speed Rating. "The fact that he chose USR to be the data backbone of every single Athletes Acceleration location tells you everything about how this works in the real world. We're not just a measurement tool inside his facilities. We're part of the training methodology."
For Graham, the decision came down to what three years of verified data made possible inside his own facility.
"USR has been part of Genesis for the past three years," said Graham Wilkerson, Founder and CEO of Athletes Acceleration. "In that time, I've been able to show any parent in our facility exactly how much faster their athlete has gotten, on a verified scale they can trust. That kind of accountability changed how we coach. When we started building this network, we knew we wanted USR included. Every athlete inside Athletes Acceleration is going to be measured the same way, ranked on the same scale, and held to the same standard.”
USR as a Training Methodology, Not a Test
This partnership is also a model for how we believe every Speed Lab should be running.
Inside Athletes Acceleration, USR isn't a once-a-year event. It is built into the rhythm of training.
Athletes are getting tested, ranked, and benchmarked on a regular cadence, so coaches always know what's working, athletes always know where they stand, and parents always have an answer to the question: is my kid getting faster?
That cadence is what turns data into development. When an athlete sees their Universal Speed Rating climb month over month, they don't just see a number. They see proof that the work is working. And when a coach sees a category lagging behind, they don't guess at the fix. They program for it.
What's Next
New Athletes Acceleration locations will roll out across the country with USR built in from launch, and we will be supporting every new facility with the same performance data technology.
We're proud to be the data partner Graham bet on. And we can't wait to see how far this network goes.
What is Athletes Acceleration?
Athletes Acceleration is the first sports performance franchise designed specifically for existing sports performance business owners.
Its unique conversion model allows gym owners to retain their current brand while plugging into Athletes Acceleration's proven systems for marketing, sales, retention, staff development, and programming. Owners stay focused on what they do best—coaching athletes—while Athletes Acceleration handles the heavy lifting on the business side.
These are the same systems Graham has refined and operates across his five facilities in Indiana and Ohio.
To learn more about Athletes Acceleration and their franchise opportunities, visit athletesaccel.com/franchise. To learn more about becoming a certified USR Speed Lab, visit universalspeedrating.com/speedlab.