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On February 20, 2025, MentalGestärkt will host its third major theme day in collaboration with the Working Group for Sports Psychology (asp) at the German Sport University in Cologne. The theme: “Injuries & Mental Health.” Three keynote speeches and presentations from the fields of sports psychology and psychotherapy on the aforementioned topics will be followed by a concluding panel discussion on how to address the issue: Keynote 1: A Scientific Perspective with Prof. Dr. Jens Kleinert Keynote 2: Personal account by Olympic gymnast Elisabeth Seitz Keynote 3: Insights from medicine with Dr. Maxime Lambert and Dr. Christophe Lambert Insight: From the Perspective of Sports Psychology and Psychotherapy with Lothar Linz Panel discussion with all speakers, moderated by Dr. Moritz Anderten Participation is recognized by the Working Group for Sports Psychology (asp) with 4 continuing education credits toward maintaining enrollment in the asp Expert Database for Coaching and Training in German Competitive Sports (EDL). Target audience: Sports psychologists, sports psychology experts, (sports) psychotherapists, (sports) psychiatrists, and sports scientists, as well as interested coaches and master’s students. Date: Friday, February 20, 2026, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. in Rooms 96/97 of the NawiMed building at DSHS Cologne Cost: asp/dvs/BDP/ÖBS/SASP members: €119; interested individuals: €129; students: €99 Registration: Please contact Anja Kröger at the asp office at office@asp-sportpsychologie.org, specifying your billing address Up-to-date information is also available on Instagram at any time

As part of the Romanian Sports Science University Day in Cluj-Napoca, Prof. Markus Raab delivered a keynote address on applied sports psychology and demonstrated how research can be successfully applied in practice.

On October 7, 2025, students from a high school in Lower Saxony who had written their research papers on the topic of “Sports and Psychology” visited the Department of Health and Social Psychology. The goal was to gain insights into the research, application, and teaching conducted by the research group. To begin with, the students gained fascinating insights into ongoing laboratory studies on social-psychological topics, such as aggression and team conflicts. This was followed by presentations on various research projects, including “Mental Talent,” “Sports Psychology Assessment at 1. FC Köln,” and “ComeSport.” Another highlight of the program was an overview of sports psychology instruction in the various bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. The visit concluded with a Q&A session, during which the students had the opportunity to ask questions about the degree programs, research, and work at the German Sport University Cologne.

Under the theme “Sports Science—Diversity and Sustainability?!” the 27th University Sports Science Conference of the German Association for Sports Science (dvs) took place in Münster from September 16 to 19, 2025. The supporting program consisted of engaging keynote speeches, diverse workshops, and a poster session that aptly reflected the diversity of sports science. The Department of Health and Social Psychology was represented by Jens Kleinert, Ulrike Hartmann, and Juliane Mackenbrock with three presentations. Jens Kleinert spoke at the symposium “Sports Injury Research and Prevention in Germany” on the psychological aspects of sports injuries. Ulrike Hartmann and Juliane Mackenbrock presented two posters during the poster session on the research projects “MIPHa—Motiv-Image-Fit in Handball” and “Fostering Democratic Competence.” Kleinert, J. (2025). Psychological Aspects of Sports Injuries. [Presentation] Hartmann, U., Boss, M., Wiesen, T., & Kleinert, J. (2025). Motive-Image Analysis of Adolescents in Indoor Handball: Results of a Qualitative Study. [Poster] Mackenbrock, J., Hartmann, U., & Raven, H. (2025). Satisfaction of Prospective Physical Education Teachers with a Workshop on Promoting Democracy in Physical Education. [Poster]

What is the secret to success in sports, and how can athletes improve even further? Scientists are investigating these questions as part of the in:prove project, which was presented this weekend at the German federal government’s open house in Berlin. In competitive sports, athletes achieve peak performance—and continually surpass it. Technological progress influences this performance. But first and foremost, it comes from the athletes themselves, who dedicate their lives to competitive sports, train with discipline, demonstrate perseverance, and engage in injury prevention and rehabilitation. “We now assume that it is a combination of environment and innate predisposition that helps people achieve a certain level of performance. Many factors influence performance, such as nutrition, training diligence, genes, or cognitive functions like attention and working memory. What we don’t know is how these factors influence one another or how they are interdependent. Such a comprehensive picture—a combination of all this data—does not yet exist,” explains Prof. Markus Raab, head of the Department of Sports Psychology at the German Sport University Cologne. Prof. Markus Raab presented the in:prove project over the weekend at the German federal government’s Open House. Also in attendance was Christiane Schenderlein, a CDU member of the Bundestag, who has held the newly created position of Minister of State for Sports and Volunteer Work in the Federal Chancellery since May 2025. Prof. Markus Raab and his project colleague Prof. Karsten Krüger (University of Giessen) participated in two panel discussions, during which they presented the project’s latest findings and discussed the importance of competitive sports for Germany. Citizens and visitors to the open house were also able to take part in hands-on activities related to their own athletic performance and test their knowledge of the body and mind. How to make the best even better—this is the secret Raab hopes to uncover with his team and numerous project partners through in:prove. Researchers from three German universities have joined forces to form a research consortium called “Individualized Performance Development in Sports.” The in:prove project has been running since late 2021 and is funded by the Federal Institute for Sports Science (BISp) as part of the “Scientific Consortium for Competitive Sports (WVL)” with a total of two million euros over four years. In addition to the German Sport University Cologne, the Justus Liebig University Giessen (spokesperson Prof. Dr. Karsten Krüger) and Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (deputy spokesperson Prof. Dr. Karen Zentgraf) are participating. The researchers are collaborating with six Olympic sports federations and eight disciplines, collecting extensive data through various diagnostic methods. All data collected by the teams during the tests is entered into a database developed in-house. The combination of all this data is ultimately intended to help identify and systematically activate individual performance reserves.

How does one get started in elite sports? The EU project “HerForm” provides answers—with a digital learning platform specifically tailored to the needs of female athletes. The German Sport University Cologne is supporting the project as a key research partner. The EU project “HerForm” is currently developing an online platform—the first of its kind in Europe—that is specifically aimed at female athletes who are just beginning their careers in elite sports. The initiative will run for three years and is funded under the Erasmus+ program. Six international institutions—including the German Sport University Cologne—are pooling their expertise to develop a digital resource that addresses key life and career issues faced by elite female athletes. The centerpiece of the platform is a video-based online course lasting approximately ten hours, which will be available free of charge starting in December 2025. The content covers five subject areas—ranging from health and work-life balance to self-marketing and finances. The course is hosted by Claire Small, a former member of Ireland’s national rugby team who is now a physician and TV expert. The learning program will be accessible, multilingual, and available entirely online. The scientific basis for the course’s development comes from an international online survey of 132 female athletes from 17 countries. The survey covered 18 key career aspects. The results reveal a significant need for information on topics such as contract negotiations, family planning, and returning to sports after pregnancy. Female athletes in the early stages of their careers felt well-prepared for international travel but less so for the transition to professional sports. These findings were directly incorporated into the design of the course content. An important milestone of the project was the meeting of the partner institutions at the German Sport University Cologne in October 2023. During this meeting, initial survey results were presented and key topic areas were defined. Also in attendance was professional basketball player and DSHS doctoral candidate Lisa Koop, who contributed her many years of experience as an athlete representative. An initial prototype of the “HerForm Training Hub” is already being tested by sports organizations in Europe and Africa.

The research project “Motivation-Image Fit in Handball” (MIPHa) analyzes the motivations and image of handball from the perspective of children and adolescents in order to develop concrete recommendations for action on how to rekindle long-term enthusiasm for handball among more children and adolescents. Following the completion of the first project phase (qualitative study), a project meeting took place on May 26–27 at the headquarters of the German Handball Federation (DHB) in Dortmund. Representatives of the DHB met with Jens Kleinert, Martin Boss, Ulrike Hartmann, and Theresa Wiesen from the DSHS, as well as Stefan König, Elke Uhl, and Alisa Braun from the PH Weingarten. Together, they discussed initial findings from interviews with children and adolescents and outlined the organizational steps for the second project phase (quantitative study). Further information on the MIPHa project can be found on the Department of Health and Social Psychology’s website: https://www.dshs-koeln.de/psychologisches-institut/abt-gesundheit-sozialpsychologie/forschung/

The Department of Performance Psychology at the German Sport University Cologne has secured funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project focuses on a theory designed to help explain performance in high-pressure situations. In law enforcement, emergency medicine, and sports, people often have to make quick decisions with far-reaching consequences. They find themselves in situations where high pressure to perform can arise. However, people sometimes perform worse than usual when under pressure. This failure to perform in high-pressure situations can have far-reaching consequences for those involved—for example, when a patient’s physical well-being or health is at stake. Or in sports: when winning a medal depends on it. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the underlying mechanisms in order to develop effective interventions that maintain performance and success under pressure. A research project by the Department of Performance Psychology is dedicated to this topic; it has now been approved and will begin in October. “To improve our understanding of adaptive behavior, we believe it is important not to consider movement selection and execution separately,” explains project leader Dr. Laura Voigt. In a previous DFG project aimed at fostering international collaboration, the researchers integrated two concepts—motor heuristics and movement analogies—into a theory known as the “Theory of Simplified Information Processing in Action.” While motor heuristics simplify movement selection, movement analogies simplify movement execution. Motor heuristics refer to simplified, efficient rules or strategies that the human body uses to select movements quickly and without complex calculations. The amount of information to be used is reduced with the help of “rules of thumb,” meaning the person draws on the information that has proven to be most valuable in the past. Movement analogies take advantage of the fact that new movements do not have to be planned from scratch, but can instead be compared to a movement that is already familiar. The movements share similarities, and prior experience helps the individual master the new task more easily. Movement analogies facilitate information processing during the execution of movements by grouping information into larger units (chunks). The central hypothesis of the “Theory of Simplified Information Processing in Action” is that motor heuristics and movement analogies can be regarded as functionally equivalent rules—that is, they achieve the same effect but through different cognitive mechanisms. Both aim to simplify information processing during an action, reduce cognitive effort, and thus maintain performance under pressure. “The main goal of our project is to empirically test the predictions of the ‘Theory of Simplified Information Processing in Action’ to explain performance in high-pressure situations. In eight experiments, we will investigate whether, how, and when motor heuristics and movement analogies prevent performance declines under pressure,” says project leader Laura Voigt. The project uses dynamic tasks in table tennis that require complex movements to be selected and executed simultaneously. This allows for testing explanations of how people maintain their performance in everyday activities. In this project, Dr. Laura Voigt and Prof. Dr. Dr. Markus Raab from the German Sport University Cologne are collaborating with two universities in New Zealand: Prof. Dr. Rich Masters (University of Waikato) and Dr. Arne Nieuwenhuys (University of Auckland). The project will run for three years, beginning on October 1, 2025.

In cooperation with the German Sport University Cologne and the “SafeClubs” project, the German Sports Youth (dsj) hosted the “Safe Sport in Safe Clubs” forum, providing valuable insights over two days on how to create safe club structures in sports. At the “Safe Sport in Safe Clubs” forum last weekend, contact persons from sports organizations, experts in sports psychology, and interested club representatives came together to discuss current developments, preventive measures, and ways to strengthen protection processes. At the same time, the event served as the ceremonial conclusion of the “SafeClubs” project, which over the past three years has developed materials and tools for the areas of analysis, prevention, and intervention regarding sexual violence, specifically for sports clubs. On both days, the event offered participants practical workshops and keynote presentations specifically tailored to the challenges and demands of day-to-day work in the field. Day 1: Focus on Self-Care and Coping with Stress for Point Persons The first day of the event was aimed at experts from member organizations of the dsj and the DOSB. Following a welcome address by Stefan Raid, the First Chairperson of the dsj, the welcoming remarks by Parliamentary State Secretaries Mahmut Özdemir (Federal Ministry of the Interior) and Sven Lehmann (Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth) sent a strong political signal: Protection against physical, psychological, and sexual violence in sports is a top priority on the political agenda. Prof. Dr. med. Marc Allroggen opened the substantive part of the event with a presentation in which he outlined the current state of scientific knowledge and key research findings on the prevention of interpersonal violence in sports clubs. He highlighted that people who experience interpersonal violence outside of sports are at increased risk of also experiencing interpersonal violence in sports. He emphasized the urgent need to continuously improve and adapt protective measures both within the sports environment and beyond. In the afternoon, the focus was on the topic of self-care and resilience among support personnel who are confronted with cases—some of which are highly stressful—in sports clubs and associations. Two keynote presentations shed light on key challenges: Dima Zito, a systemic therapist and trauma therapist, provided insights into self-care strategies and explained how point of contact personnel can recognize stress early on and actively manage it. A speaker from N.I.N.A. e.V. addressed the challenge of mediating between the needs of those affected, potential perpetrators, and the interests of the organization. This was followed by a live interview with Hannes Günther, child protection liaison for Sportjugend Sachsen. He provided insights into his daily work and also described the challenges and stress associated with the role of child protection liaison. His remarks underscored how important it is to have support structures and a stable network in order to meet these demands. The interview was followed by an interactive panel discussion with the three speakers. The discussion highlighted practical approaches for how coordinators can strengthen their mental health and effectively manage stress as well as its potential effects. The evening ended in a relaxed atmosphere with a get-together and a buffet in the DSHS foyer, which provided an opportunity for networking and sharing experiences. A special highlight of the get-together was an acrobatic performance by “SafeClubs” staff member Sina Kiekbusch, who demonstrated her skills on her Cyr wheel. Day 2: Closing Event of the “SafeClubs” Project: Presentation of the Transfer Products for Practical Application The second day of the event began with opening remarks by Prof. Dr. Bettina Rulofs of the German Sport University Cologne, who is involved in the “SafeClubs” project as the lead researcher for two subprojects. Dr. Jeannine Ohlert, the project’s consortium leader, then presented the key aspects of “SafeClubs.” She explained the original context and motivation that led to the project’s launch 2.5 years ago and walked the audience through the development process. The goal of the project is to support sports clubs in the areas of analysis, prevention, and intervention regarding sexualized violence and to provide practical materials. These materials were developed in close collaboration with academia and sports practitioners and provided participants with important insights for establishing safe club structures. The day centered on two workshop sessions that addressed the specific transfer products developed. Participants were able to engage interactively with topics such as risk analysis, the design of protection strategies, preventive workshops for adults in the club setting, coaches and athletes, as well as self-care. The practice-oriented content was very well received and provided valuable insights for practical work. Following the workshop phase, the final item on the forum’s agenda was the “Club Marketplace” in the afternoon. Here, two club representatives and a sports psychologist shared their experiences and challenges in implementing child protection measures—and, in particular, the “SafeClubs” products—in sports settings. Clubs presented their approaches, measures, and experiences, providing participants with valuable inspiration for their own work. Conclusion: A Strong Commitment to Safety in Sports According to the organizers, the “Safe Sport in Safe Clubs” forum was a resounding success, offering a platform for exchange, professional development, and the integration of research and practice. Participants particularly appreciated the combination of theoretical insights, practical workshops, and opportunities for dialogue. The forum also served to honor the “SafeClubs” project. The materials developed as part of the project will play a crucial role in strengthening sports clubs in their efforts to prevent violence and in establishing sustainable protection structures. All materials will be permanently available free of charge on the website www.safe-clubs.de by the end of the year at the latest. With the annual Safe Sport Forum, the dsj is also sending a clear message: safety in sports is not an option, but an obligation.

This symposium was organized by the Professional Association of German Psychologists (bdp) in collaboration with the German Soccer Academy (DFB Academy) and focused on the crucial role of mental well-being in soccer. The event, tailored for psychologists and sports psychologists, highlighted the importance of the well-being of all those involved in high-performance soccer. MentalGestärkt was presented as part of a marketplace for organizations dedicated to mental health in German competitive sports. The VDV and the Robert Enke Foundation were also able to present themselves within this same framework, ensuring that participants took note of the nationwide range of services available and leading to fruitful discussions and further important networking opportunities.