Enhancement of the System of Sports Training on the Basis of Development of Athlete's Intellectual Capabilities

Фотографии: 

ˑ: 

L.D. Nazarenko, professor, Dr.Hab.
Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University, Ulyanovsk

 

Key words: intellectual activity, sports activity, formation, evaluation criteria, educational experiment.

 Relevance. The problem of improving the indicators of sports skills is one of the most difficult ones. Many sports theorists and practitioners believe that growth of performance in various kinds of sports activity has reached its limits, as the increment in motor coordination, moral and volitional qualities, improvement of the technique of physical exercises cannot be infinite. At the same time, the research data (Balsevich V.K., 2012; Vizitey N.N., 1989; Kolesnik I.S., 2008, 2010; Korenberg V.B., 1996; Lubysheva L.I., 2006; Piloyan R.A., 1985, Stolyarov V.I., 2009, et al.) suggest that not all the resources were used during training, which when identified open up additional opportunities for growth of sports achievements.

The purpose of the study was the theoretical substantiation of a new paradigm of enhancement of sports training as a condition for improving results of competitive activity.

The conceptual position on the "unity of consciousness and activity" by A.N. Leont'ev (1983) is expressed in the dynamics of understanding different levels of sports activity:

Level I provides for mastering the technique of motor actions in accordance with the characteristics of spatio-temporal and spatial-force parameters, which enhances their performance;

Level II is characterized by the conscious desire to improve the individual technique of physical exercises by better management of competitive activity.

Understanding is associated with cognitive abilities conditioned by the level of the development of thinking. The problem of development of intellectual qualities has been considered by many authors [1, 5, 7, 12, et al.]. The findings of scientific publications show the dependence of sports results from the level of formation of the main intellectual personality traits such as: perception, attention, memory, thinking and analytical skills, the implementation of which can be represented as follows (Fig. 1).

This approach to determination of the place of intellectual qualities in the system of sports training, when each cognitive property is a separate unit of thinking activity with its inherent specific features and goals, indicates their equivalence.

According to the materials of our studies [11, 12], thinking, which we regard as the ability to adequate perception and evaluation of incoming information, is most clearly manifested in stressful situations of a sports competition when an athlete is to choose the most effective way of fulfilling a complex motor task. And the level of development of thinking is determined by the objective evaluation of new information. Other intellectual qualities are required for fulfilling more specific tasks. Thus, perception is based on feelings; if an idea or a concept can be understood then certain feelings, arising under the influence of sensory systems, cause the corresponding perception. An image of a perceived motor action or a technical movement is provided by the functions of the system of analyzers as well as by the processes of excitation and inhibition in the cortex. Attention is seen as the ability to focus on the main stimulus: while on athletic track - it includes the actions and behavior of the opponents; in boxing - it is the features of the opponent's attacking movement etc.

Memory is the process of capturing, saving and reproducing the necessary information. The memory is based on temporal neural connections. This way a sprinter, due to the experience of competitive activity, begins his final acceleration much earlier in a similar situation; a boxer, knowing his opponent's favourite move, prepares to ward it off in advance and applies a set of effective defensive actions. Usually, the analysis and summarizing of characteristics of motor actions are carried out after the completion of the program of competitive activity.

Thus, if perception, attention, memory and analytical skills contribute to fulfilling specific tasks, arising in the course of confrontation with an opponent, thinking is involved in the holistic process of competitive activity. So we can consider thinking outside the linear relationship with other intellectual properties of personality, by presenting the nature of their interaction as follows (Fig. 2).

The ability to think is determined by the inner state of an athlete, whose level of sports skills and training and competitive experience reflect the degree of compliance with top achievements in chosen sport.

Genetically determined latent properties of a person (speed of motor reaction, stability of the body, muscle strength and others) determine the choice of a specific type of sports activity. It is important that motivation, which we regard as a sense of doing sports, coincide with the possibilities of a person, increasing the desire for self-knowledge, self-development and self-actualization.

In the process of improving individual sports skills an athlete initially follows the instructions of a coach, however, they don't always correspond to the previously developed image of motor action and only with the help of thinking (logical, creative or imaginative), which should continuously, consistently and gradually evolve, the external information becomes person's own beliefs. After this, the athlete consciously makes necessary corrections in the sports program, this way sprinter's individual running style is formed or individual fighting style of a boxer etc.

In the development of thinking a big role belongs to the second signal system which forms the ability for internal dialogue by comparing the perceived external (explanations, instructions and commands of a coach) mental images with one's own, which gradually emerge. According to P.K. Anokhin (1975) in the process of automation of motor skills, when a motor act becomes automated and doesn't require constant correction, thinking is not involved any more in motor activity, but even minor deviations from rational techniques (under the influence of one or more stimuli: fatigue, intense pain as a result of attacking punch - in boxing, etc.) cause it to get involved again as a corrective factor. All this indicates that sports training should be started with the formation of "sports thinking" aimed at the understanding of each motor action being mastered.

Materials and methods.  The proposed approach to organization of training process was tested using an educational experiment, involving 24 female sprinters aged 18-22 of the 1 sports category, including candidates for master and masters of sports. A control group (CG) - 11 people - and an experimental group (EG) - 12 people - were organized. Before the start of the educational experiment sprinters were tested to identify the initial level of physical fitness using a set of control exercises: 30 m running (s), 60 m running (s) - from a standing; 1000 m running (min), standing long jump (cm), triple jump (cm) and shot put (3 kg) - m.

Results and discussion. The analysis of test results did not reveal any significant differences in the level of physical fitness of the sprinters of CG and EG (p>0,05). Also the initial level of special running fitness was determined during the following tests: 100 m (s), 150 m (s), 200 m (s) and 300 m (s) running from a standing start. The processing of study materials did not reveal no significant differences in the level of special running fitness in CG and EG (p>0,05).

In CG training sessions were conducted using standard technique in accordance with the program of sports training for sprinters approved by ARAF. In EG the focus was on the development of thinking in accordance with the nature of its relationship with perception, attention and other cognitive personality traits. In order to determine the initial level of perception formation, female athletes were to detect the peculiarities of performance of special running exercises and the parameters of running steps by monitoring sprinters of varying skill levels. The degree of compliance of their objective data with the level of special running fitness showed the level of manifestation of perception in motor activity. The indicators of attention formation were determined by the individual features identified for each sprinter. Memory was assessed by the amount and accuracy of execution of the parameters of running steps during next training session. Analytical skills were determined by the degree of formation of the skill of analysis and synthesis of information that characterizes the level of fitness of individual sprinters.

We determined the degree of development of thinking based on the ability to objective evaluation of the compliance of individual technique of skilled female sprinters with the accepted standard (in sprint such standard - the parameters of Valery Borzov's running steps).

The processing of the findings revealed no significant differences in CG and EG (p>0,05). In EG we used a set of special tasks intended to improve the indicators of thinking and other cognitive processes. This way, for the sake of development and improvement of perception of motor actions, the female sprinters of EG were to do the following tasks: identify the most characteristic parameters of performance of special running exercises; determine the distinctive features of the parameters of running steps in different conditions (uphill, on sand, on shallow water); determine the nature of change in take-off for female athletes of varying skill levels and others.

The following tasks were suggested to improve attention: determine the features of body parts' arrangement when running a competitive distance for female sprinters with different ratio of statural-weight values; determine the amplitude of oscillatory movements of the body in anteroposterior and lateral directions; identify the degree of coherence of movements of upper and lower limbs, etc.

Memory was improved by means of determining the similarity of the key parameters of running steps of sprinters, who performed in the national team in different periods of time; by comparing the sprint style of senior and junior female athletes; by reproducing the order of performance of special running exercises, their dosage and basic parameters over a specified period of time, depending on the tasks of sports training.

The systematic and purposeful development of analytical skills was implemented via the completion of the following tasks: analyze one's performances over the past season, determine their dynamics, provide an objective assessment of the change in the fitness level; based on the analysis of one's achieved sports shape predict the results of one's future performances in the upcoming competitions; determine the dependence of sport results from the psycho-emotional state and from the ability to control motor activity; choose the optimum ratio of the amount and intensity of training load, etc.

The degree of formation of thinking was determined by the ability of female sprinters to convert the coach's instructions on how to improve the individual technique of running steps into their own ideas and beliefs. For this purpose, based on the sports teacher's notes the sprinters were making the necessary adjustments in the spatio-temporal and spatial-force parameters of running steps, in movements at the moment of take-off from the support, learning different ways of controlling the straightness of running etc. Based on how they had understood and rethought the coach's notes, the athletes were making some corrections to their own programs of performance of running steps that indicated the degree of understanding.

After the completion of the educational experiment we conducted the second test of general physical fitness and special running fitness. The results showed the improvement of the studied parameters in both groups but in EG it was more significant.

Conclusions. Proceeding from the results of the educational experiment, intellectual training of athletes is a complex process aimed not only at the formation of individual cognitive personality traits like perception, attention, memory and analytical skills, but also at the development and improvement of special "sports thinking", so that each mastered motor action could be understood with regard to the conditions of its performance and the factors influencing the effectiveness of competitive activity. These studies have shown that thinking process must be considered along with such categories as worldview and consciousness. This causes another direction of the training process that provides the search and the application of new techniques of improvement of sports skills.

 

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Corresponding author: elena_funina@mail.ru