Sports training is the principal pedagogical approach to achieving educational objectives in college-level sports courses, where the demands on students’ practical sports skills are increasingly stringent. This study formulates an evaluation index system for the sports practice abilities of college students tailored to the contemporary requirements of sports training in higher education institutions. The entropy value method was employed to determine the weights of the indices in this system. Using colleges as a case study, the gray correlation model was applied to assess the comprehensive practical abilities of students, leading to the development of targeted sports training optimization strategies. Additionally, the effectiveness of these strategies was evaluated. The findings indicate that the weight coefficient for sports character is the most significant at 0.41659, highlighting its substantial role in overall practical ability. Beyond basic physical skills, significant improvements were observed in the experimental class’s sports cognition, health behavior, and sports character scores (P<0.05). The practical ability system proposed in this paper serves as a valuable guide for instruction and has proven effective in enhancing students’ practical sports skills.