Initiative to Improve Athletic Performance: Secret Factors Revealed!

Initiative to Improve Athletic Performance: Secret Factors Revealed!

On August 25, 2025, an innovative project entitled “in:prove” was presented at the Federal Chancellery in Berlin. This project, led by Prof. Markus Raab from the German Sport University Cologne, aims to find out the secret of sporting success and to significantly improve the performance of athletes. The goals and approaches of the project were presented at a nationally acclaimed event, which was also attended by Christiane Schenderlein, Minister of State for Sport and Volunteering.

The “in:prove” project has been carried out since the end of 2021 and received funding of two million euros over a period of four years from the Federal Institute for Sports Science (BISp). The universities involved are the German Sport University Cologne, the Justus Liebig University Giessen and the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. With the support of six Olympic sports associations, research is being carried out in eight disciplines, with extensive data on various diagnostics flowing into a specially developed database.

Goals and content of the project

The fundamental goal of “in:prove” is to clarify the individuality of performance development in top-class sport. This includes the development of scientifically based diagnostic inventories that identify performance-determining influencing and conditioning factors and support the optimization of individualized training strategies. The focus is particularly on athletes who have reduced performance development in order to improve their adaptation. The approaches include consideration of stable and unstable characteristics, environmental factors and systemic interactions of performance factors.

The project is divided into three work packages (WPs):

• AP I: Aufklärung der Einfluss- und Bedingungsfaktoren der Leistungsfähigkeit, einschließlich der Begleitung des Trainings und Dokumentation der Leistungsentwicklung.
• AP II: Optimierung der Trainingsprozesse basierend auf den Erkenntnissen aus AP I, mit maßgeschneiderten Interventionsansätzen.
• AP III: Systematische Evaluation und Anpassung der Interventionsansätze, um Ursachen für geringe Leistungsentwicklung zu analysieren.

An interdisciplinary team of experts evaluates the performance development of the athletes. The data collected will be integrated into a comprehensive database, providing a valuable resource for future research and training.

Innovative diagnostics and their application

The data is collected and evaluated using various diagnostic procedures that take both physiological and psychological performance components into account. While physiological tests such as strength, speed and endurance tests are common, psychological tests such as the Athlete Behavior Questionnaire (FAV) are used less frequently. The FAV records crucial psychological factors such as self-confidence, concentration and motivation to perform. These factors are also critical influencing factors on athletic performance.

The system of the project stipulates that the diagnostic results are made available to the trainers quickly and in a structured manner. This also includes weekly online meetings of the competence teams and the development of a communication concept that is intended to promote the integration of direct feedback mechanisms into the training process. Events such as practical workshops are also planned to make the findings accessible to a broader public and to support the athletes in their development.

This comprehensive and integrative approach not only promotes individual performance development, but also actively involves and sensitizes the athletes' entire environment, from coaches to sports associations. The joint research has the potential to have a lasting impact on sport in Germany and to lay the basis for future successes, as was already explained during the panel discussions in the Federal Chancellery by the project leaders Prof. Raab and Prof. Krüger. The entire initiative is in line with the desire to effectively transfer scientific findings into practice and to raise sports training to a new level.

Ultimately, this project could contribute to the identification and activation of individual performance reserves and thus create the basis for outstanding sporting performance.

Further information can be found at dshs-koeln.de, bisp-surf.de and sport.tu-darmstadt.de.