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Ingo Froböse: "The art lies in showing performance at the right time and not arbitrarily at any time."
July 31, 2024
Philip Reichardt
Sports scientist Ingo Froböse in an interview: He talks, among other things, about the improvement of athletic performance, the power of the mind – and that of evolution.
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As a professor of sports science Ingo Froböse led the German Sport University Cologne for ten years and taught as a guest lecturer at various universities. Today, the now 67-year-old is a member of several sports medicine associations and committees committed to health through exercise.
Froböse recently published a series of guides on fitness and health topics, most recently on the healing power of muscles ( Muscles, the Healers, Ullstein Verlag ). Before his career as a scientist, Ingo Froböse was a successful track and field athlete. In the early 1980s, he was one of the best sprinters in Germany, and in 1981 he became the German runner-up in the 100 meters.
Mr. Froböse, your best time for 100 meters is 10.4 seconds. Do you know how fast you are today?
No. Since I ended my career as a track and field athlete, I have never run against the clock again and am glad I don't have to anymore.
With today's knowledge, with today's training methodology: Could you have run faster back then?
I'm pretty sure about that. Back then, I had no idea what I know today. I made big mistakes in the training process and in the field of nutrition. The topics of sports and nutrition were by far not as closely linked as they are today.
With 10.4, you would still be in the final of the German championships today. But that's an exception. If you use the development of world records as a benchmark, performance has increased in most disciplines. Or is that impression deceptive?
No, that's true. Although the records in athletics are more stable than in swimming, for example. We see new world records every year there.
Apart from doping: What are the reasons why athletes can swim, run or cycle faster today than 30, 40 years ago?
It starts with the anthropometric changes. The volume and height of people have increased in Germany over the past 40 years, which means people are taller and heavier than they were 40 years ago. This is shown by data from the Bundeswehr, for example, and can be seen in the shoe sizes of today's 15-year-olds.
In some sports it's an advantage, in others not.
The second thing is: diagnostic methods have improved enormously.
"We have significantly better ways to listen into the body."
We have far better ways of listening inside the body, gathering data from it, and analyzing it.
This allows us to interpret the body's reactions much more accurately.
We're not able to do that before, there was only the lactate test.Diagnostics are a very important key to success.
From this, much more professional and differentiated training and care concepts develop.
The training of coaches has also improved because of this. The men's, 8.95 meters, consists for 33 years now, the world record in high jump, 2.45 meters, is more than thirty years old. How is that to be explained?
At some point we will see a high jumper like Javier Sotomayor again, who has the physical prerequisites to jump over 2.45 meters. We've seen it in pole vaulting too: After Sergei Bubka, who dominated from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s and set record after record, came years of stagnation before Armand Duplantis set new world records almost in sequence. As I said, people are also evolving. To set new world records, new exceptional athletes are necessary.
"According to the teachings and knowledge of that time, Usain Bolt could never have existed."
What makes an exceptional athlete?
Take Usain Bolt. According to the teachings of the time, according to the knowledge of the time, Usain Bolt could never have existed. All mechanical calculations spoke against the fact that someone with such long legs could run so fast.
When he was then seen, it was recognized: When certain body features interact, it is indeed possible. In many disciplines, the performance of athletes—under the conditions that people currently bring—is exhausted. Only a combination of special physical features will lead to athletes breaking into completely new areas. We have to wait for the next step in evolution for that. But that can happen quickly.
In which disciplines do you still see potential?
Especially in the speed power disciplines, where performance depends on talent and physical conditions. There is definitely potential for improvement in the running distances over 200 meters, 400 meters, or 800 meters.
I also see potential in the jumping sports that involve technical components: in the long jump, for instance, but especially in the high jump. This also has to do with the surfaces in the stadiums. In the past, tartan was laid on concrete. Today, a springy substrate is installed underneath, which returns energy.
New technology combined with individual abilities will lead to new records. On the other hand, all sports where success depends on the volume of training are relatively exhausted. For years, marathon runners have been trying to cover the 42 kilometers in under two hours. Even more training does not make them faster.
Do you see more potential in women than in men?The fact that there is currently no woman in Germany who jumps over 1.90m in the high jump is actually not normal. Or that in the long jump most land at 6.30 m. And despite the hype around Gina Lückenkemper, I think it is fatal that with a time of 11.5 seconds you can get into the German national team.
The density of performance has completely been lost there. In principle, the development potentials in women are significantly greater. Some disciplines were very strongly shaped by athletes from the former Eastern Bloc, who set records with the help of doping that reached unimaginable heights. It will take a little longer for the level to normalize in some disciplines. But then I see great potential.
There is the rule of thumb that a person reaches the peak of their physical performance at around 25 years of age. Does this also apply to top athletes?
In the fast-twitch muscle disciplines, with sprinters and jumpers, this holds true because at this age the speed of transmission between nerves and muscles is highest. But in strength and endurance sports, strengths develop much later. The world records in discus or hammer throwing, for example, were all set by athletes over thirty.
Aside from exceptional athletes: What distinguishes the very good from the very best? Those who regularly make it to the finals and those who become world champions and Olympic winners?
The difference is made by mental strength. We know that the influence of mental strength on acute performance is about three to five percent, provided it can be accessed. This is a magnitude that is difficult to calculate. This means, in turn, that mental strength is the decisive criterion for who wins and who doesn't.
What does mental strength show in?In optimism, in being stress-free, in confidence in one's own performance, and also in relaxed muscles.
A good example of this also seems to be the Bayer Leverkusen team. They have scored 14 goals in added time this season. Why is that?
In their self-image of never giving up, in their belief in being able to score a goal at the last minute. Unlike other teams, who then hope for the football god or for luck to help them, the belief in themselves releases the decisive resources and makes the difference.
Andrea Petkovic, the former tennis player, wrote that the difference between good players, like she was, and those who win Grand Slam tournaments is that they regularly manage to get into a flow.
Being in the flow means believing in oneself. It only arises in competition, with oneself or with an opponent. You get into this flow when you have maximum confidence in the situation you are currently in, even though you are moving in a border area.
That is the crucial thing: a momentum of danger combined with a momentum of performance. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were not more successful than others because they had a greater repertoire of strokes. They are stronger in the head, they have higher resilience, and their belief in themselves is more pronounced.
Performance fluctuations in top athletes, for example in football, are often explained by a lack of mentality. If a team of superior players loses to a significantly weaker team, it is often said that mentality was lacking. What does that mean from a sports science perspective?
Behind this formulation lies the realization that motivation is subject to fluctuations, a daily form. This happens very often, especially in teams. Because the captain has told you off, because you made a mistake, because the crowd whistled.
These are things that get under your skin and can cause you to lose a bit of mental sharpness if you don't have the appropriate self-confidence. This would never have happened to Usain Bolt. If the audience had booed him, he would have been twice as strong.
A frequently used, popular The phrase is, he or she could not "access their performance".
Anyone who says that is not suitable for elite sports. Because that's exactly what the art is: showing performance at the right time and not arbitrarily at some point. That's exactly what the knowledge and opportunities that trainers have at their disposal aim to make athletes fit at the right time so that they know they can deliver the performance. Whoever achieves that becomes an Olympic champion.
The entrepreneur Aron D’Souza wants to host so-called Enhanced Games at the end of this year, a series of competitions in which everything that enhances the performance of athletes and is usually prohibited should be allowed. Can you see something in this idea?
No, nothing at all. Anyone who participates in such competitions is a bad role model. We must protect our children from that. Young people should gain a lifelong joy in sports. This idea completely perverts that. The medicalization of society must not continue in sports.
He does have one point: Doping is officially banned but is not consistently pursued and sanctioned. Wouldn't legalization be more honest?
It would only be more honest if everyone had the same prerequisites when it comes to doping. But that's not the case, there are also huge differences. I wouldn't approve it just so that children and teenagers don't come into contact with this system.
Do you have a good definition at hand that says what is a permissible aid and what is not?
Anything that is supplied externally, interferes with the body's physiology, and changes it is a doping agent for me.
Are there any findings on how the performance level of amateur athletes has developed?The top amateur athletes have become very, very good if you take marathons or the German Cycling Cup series of races as a basis. The level is significantly higher than in the past. At the same time, you also see the excesses in amateur sports that you know from professional sports - in terms of doping, technology, and excessive material battles.
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© Sebastian Bahr
Knows from personal experience what he is talking about. Ingo Froböse, 67, was one of the best German sprinters. Next athletic goal: 186 kilometers around Lake Garda by racing bike.
© Adobe Stock
Ingo Froböse's best time? 100 meters in 10.4 seconds
