bioMAP - Development of a software for the retrospective analysis of biopsychosocial health trajectories in elite sport

Abstract

The individualized management and control of training processes poses a significant challenge for coaches, particularly in team sports. Existing approaches for the management and control of training processes in elite sports have mostly been medically or technologically oriented; only a few instruments are available for specifically recording health trajectories and developmental processes. However, health-related developmental processes as well as the athletes’ individual life worlds have a considerable influence on their performance development. In this report, we describe a service project, which was aimed at developing an analytical instrument that enables an intra- and inter-individual comparison of biopsychosocial health trajectories of young elite athletes while taking their lifeworld into account. The project was carried out in close cooperation with the German federal youth training base for Volleyball of the VC Olympia Berlin. The analysis tool was developed in the form of a software program for a tablet computer, which allows the recording but also the immediate analysis and interpretation of the data. With the bioMAP method, it is now possible to identify the characteristics athletes exhibit in several biopsychosocial health indicators over a certain period of time. Using the salutogenesis model as the basis for our theoretical framework, we also performed an exemplary analysis of the biopsychosocial health trajectories of 24 young elite athletes collected during the field test of the software’s beta version. The bioMAP software has proved to be an instrument that offers added value for both coaches and athletes and that allows a direct collection and analysis of data. We expect that the biographical mapping approach with the bioMAP software has considerable potential for new and additional insights, particularly if used for extensive coach-athlete discussions.