"Leipzig sportlich": think-tanks for Olympic top-athletes

	Research in the ski-jump wind tunnel

Interdisciplinary research in four sectors

FKS emerged from a fusion of the research department of DHfK, founded 1956, and the Institute for Sports Medicine, founded in 1961. Its foundation as an independent institute in 1969 effected the separation from teaching assignments and a focussing on research into the special demands of particular disciplines. By now, many countries have copied essential approaches, structures and working methods of FKS. Several of the approximately 25 sports research institutions integrated into national top-sports concepts, do exemplary work, including the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), which made a major contribution to the preparation of the Australian athletes for the Olympic Games in Sydney, and the institutes in Beijing, Colorado Springs and the INSEP in Paris.
The focus of the work of the discipline-specific research groups of the FKS was on the continuous improvement of the effectiveness of training concepts developed in cooperation with the responsible trainers. The working method of these groups, which worked in the four sectors of stamina, rapid power, technical-acrobatic disciplines, and duelling sports, was characterised by its interdisciplinary approach. I.e. the performance structure of the respective disciplines was decisive for the cooperation of training scientists, biomechanics, engineers, psychologists, sports medical specialists, performance physiology specialists, educators, and informatics specialists. Up to 20 scientists worked in such discipline-specific teams to boost the performance of young talents and top athletes alike.
...

Harold Tünnemann