Speed, Strength & Endurance
Background to the Research Field
In many individual and team sports, athletic performance is fundamentally shaped by an athlete’s or player’s physical and physiological capabilities. Among these, speed, strength, and endurance represent core determinants of both long-term success and development. These capabilities influence an athlete’s ability to execute sport-specific actions efficiently, tolerate high training loads, and can reduce the likelihood of injury.
Systematic testing plays a central role in understanding these capabilities. Through structured assessments, it becomes possible to identify an athlete’s strengths as well as specific performance limitations. This information supports individualized training prescription and enables evidence‑based decisions regarding load management, return‑to‑sport processes, and targeted performance development. Testing also contributes to talent identification by providing objective markers that reflect physical potential and capacities relevant for progression in high-performance pathways. Considering speed, strength, and endurance together allows for a multidimensional profile rather than relying on isolated measures.
While standardized testing offers detailed and reliable insights, it is typically limited to specific time points within the training cycle or season. Therefore, continuous athlete monitoring has become an essential complementary approach. Regular physiological and physical-related data provide relevant information on how athletes and players cope with the imposed training stimuli. Integrating periodic testing with continuous monitoring creates a comprehensive understanding of an athlete’s and player’s physiological and physical status to support the long-term development of individualized training interventions.
Projects within the Research Field
Within this field of research, we conduct a broad range of cross‑sectional, longitudinal, and intervention studies aimed at improving how physical and physiological capabilities are assessed and developed in sport. Our work spans endurance, speed, strength, power, agility, and monitoring approaches, with a consistent focus on scientific rigor and practical applicability.
A substantial part of our endurance research focuses on the validation of accessible and cost‑efficient diagnostic tools. We examine methods such as submaximal exercise heart rates or data obtained from commercial smartwatch technologies and compare them with established gold-standard procedures like lactate diagnostics or gas analysis. Beyond methodological validation, we explore individualization strategies in both individual and team sports, using approaches such as physiological and locomotor profiling – e.g., by means of the anaerobic speed reserve – or the role of the anaerobic energy system in endurance performance. In soccer, we additionally investigate development trajectories and position-specific endurance profiles, providing insight into how aerobic and anaerobic capacities evolve during adolescence and playing roles at the professional adult level.
In the area of speed, particularly in soccer, our work includes validation studies of emerging technologies such as timing gates, GPS units, radar systems, and magnetic tracking solutions. Longitudinal research examines the development of sprint performance during adolescence, while training and monitoring studies focus on how sprint capabilities adapt to different training stimuli.
Our strength and power research centers on validating assessment tools such as force plates and contact mats to ensure reliable, sport-relevant diagnostics.
Monitoring is another key component of our work. Given the limitations of commonly used biomarkers like creatine kinase for assessing load and recovery, we investigate metabolomics –the comprehensive analysis of metabolic products in the human body – as an innovative monitoring tool to assess acute responses to load of a player or athlete. Furthermore, we study load monitoring and acute responses to training in youth soccer, evaluating the practicability and usefulness of applied methods.
Finally, our research on agility in team sports addresses its dual physical and cognitive nature. Through a series of studies, we analyze how agility actions occur in match play and derive appropriate testing and training approaches that reflect real performance demands.
Through this comprehensive research program, we contribute to a deeper understanding of athletic performance capacities, including speed, strength, and endurance, and support their evidence‑based application in sporting practice.
