The landscape of sports psychology training is currently undergoing a dynamic development process, resulting in a variety of different providers and training or study programs. This diversity necessitates a nuanced evaluation of the individual study programs, their content, and their conditions.

Below, we present three different training pathways. The goal of all these pathways may be to gain entry into the asp Expert Database for Competitive Sports (EDL).

1) asp Curriculum

The Association for Sports Psychology (asp) offers a postgraduate training program called “Sports Psychological Coaching and Training in Competitive Sports”. The certificate courses are conducted by the Center of Mental Excellence (CME) under an asp license.

The CME offers two forms of participation: full attendance and guest attendance.
Only the full attendance qualifies for accreditation to the EDL upon successful completion. A prerequisite for this is a university degree accredited by the German Association for Sport Science (dvs) or by the Professional Association of German Psychologists (BDP), specifically a M. Sc. in Sports Science or Psychology, which is based on a corresponding B. Sc. in these two fields.

2) University Training

As an alternative to the postgraduate asp curriculum, accreditation into the EDL can be achieved through sports psychology master's programs, provided they are based on a university degree accredited by the dvs or BDP-accredited B.Sc. in Sports Science or Psychology (see above).

Equivalent and partially equivalent master's programs are distinguished.

a) Equivalent Programs

The following sports psychology master's programs are currently considered equivalent to the asp curriculum (as of 11/25) and allow for (subject to the aforementioned academic criteria) direct admission to the EDL upon successful completion.

• Applied Sports Psychology (M.A.) at Martin Luther University Halle and
• Sports Psychology (M.Sc.) at BSP Business School Berlin

b) Partially Equivalent Programs

The following sports psychology master's programs are currently considered partially equivalent to the asp curriculum (as of 11/25).

• Psychology in Sport and Exercise (M.Sc.) at DSHS Cologne and
• Sport and Exercise Psychology (M.Sc.) at the University of Leipzig

Content not covered here can be made up at BSP Berlin, MLU Halle-Wittenberg, or at CME (only applicable for Cologne). The practical and supervision/intervision modules can also be made up privately. After that, accreditation into the EDL can also take place.