Cognitive factors such as anticipation and decision making skills or general executive functions are considered important performance factors in football. In light of the already highly differentiated diagnostics and training methods for physiological performance factors (endurance, speed, strength), both researchers and practitioners consider cognitive factors to have an important potential for performance enhancement.

In order to investigate this potential through an applied perspective, the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund, DFB) instructed the Department of Sport Psychology and Research Methods from the Institute of Sports Science in Tübingen to develop diagnostics with respect to anticipation and decision making in cooperation with coaches from the DFB. In the first phase of this project, which started in April, existing sport psychological approaches are being identified. Therefore, a workshop with experts from Australia was hosted at the Institute of Sports Science in Tübingen [more].