PhD, Associate Professor S.A. Vorobyev¹
Dr. Biol., Professor V.A. Rogozkin^1
1St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture, St. Petersburg

Keywords: Institute of Physical Culture, development, research, efficiency.

The year of 2018 marks the 85^th anniversary since the first ever national scientific research establishment specialized in the mass physical education and sport studies, the-then Leningrad Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture (now St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture, SPSRIPC) was founded back in 1933 by severing from the P.F. Lesgaft State Institute of Physical Education (now P.F. Lesgaft National State University). Since then the SPSRIPC research activity has always been focused on the priority issues of the national physical education and sports sector, with the studies leaded, designed and managed by many globally and nationally renowned leaders of the Russian science.

Since the very first days the research school of the Institute gave a special priority to the educational and biomedical fields of research. The educational research was leaded by many renowned scientists including A.I. Puni, S.V. Yananis, V.A. Bulkin, A.G. Komkov, V.B. Issurin et al.; and the research activity was spearheaded by A.N. Krestovnikov, A.Y. Zelikson, V.K. Dobrovolsky, A.I. Kurachenkov, A.G. Dembo, R.D. Dibner, P.V. Bundzen, A.G. Falaleev et al. It was through the initiative of Professor N.N. Yakovlev that the Sport Biochemistry Unit was soon established at the Institute to form with time a foundation for the national sport biochemistry research school with its multiannual studies of the metabolic process variations in the athletic training and competitive processes. The research school has been successful in its efforts to find new knowledge and logics in functional biochemistry with a special emphasis on the physical activity related metabolic processes, their regulation mechanisms and special diets at different stages of the training process.

It was in the mid-1970s that the Institute launched the large-scale studies to offer new physical and chemical tests and analytical methods to detect a variety of agents and synthetic steroid hormones classified with the doping agents prohibited for use in sports. The research team was the first in our country to obtain antiserums for anabolic steroids and improve a few radio-immune test methods to detect these agents. A large group of the Institute staff researchers helped design and manage the doping control service in the ХХII Olympic Games in Moscow, with the team service prior to and during the Olympics highly appreciated and still remembered as one of the most honorable and brightest pages in the Institute history.

The Institute is running multiannual studies of the gene polymorphic processes and polymorphs behind the individual physical predispositions and different physical qualities – that laid a foundation for the sport genetics in our country. A special priority in these studies is now given to analyses of the most abundant DNA polymorphs associated with different physical and mental qualities of special importance for everyday physical activity on the whole and professional athletic activity in particular.

The Institute has given a special attention to the theoretical and practical research projects to support the sport elite training systems in the country for many decades. These research projects has been designed to offer special physical resource building technologies applicable in the beginner/ advanced/ excellence stages of the training process, with the efficiency secured by the relevant cutting-edge computerized technological tools. The Institute teams have developed a range of the computerized test systems to profile biological feedback factors in the artificial process control environment building initiatives. The computerized systems make it possible to efficiently test the athletes’ physical resource and give recommendations on how the training process may be corrected and managed to secure good progress. The test systems have been successfully applied in swimming (including large-distance heats), academic rowing and some other sport disciplines as verified by the competitive successes in many events including the top-ranking ones.

Since 1990 the Institute has represented the Russian Federation in the International Health and Behavior of Schoolchildren (HBSC) Project under the auspices of the World Health Organization. Presently 44 nations contribute to the HBSC Project activity, with the SPSRIPC team being the only formal corporate participant from Russia.

Since 2003 the Institute has given a special priority to the research projects to serve the national Paralympic and Surdolympic teams, with the service initiated and leaded by Dr. Ped., Professor S.P. Yevseyev. For this time the research team has contributed to more than 650 theoretical and practical projects to support the Paralympic and Surdolympic teams including more than 12,000 individual study reports. Special Paralympic and Surdolympic team training systems based on the theoretical and practical developments of the Institute helped the national athletes make progress for the relatively short time as verified by their successes in many top-ranking events. Further developments in this research field are expected to contribute to the competitive accomplishments of the national athletes and facilitate rehabilitation of the people with health impairments to advance their socializing and mental integration processes.

Since 2009 the Institute has been running a few extensive research projects in the doping control and prevention domain, with the research accomplishments reported at the 2016 International Sport Forum ‘Russia, a Sporting Nation’.

At this juncture, the Institute is running a wide range of research projects to: analyze the human movement coordination qualities; rate and forecast natural mental capacities and predispositions for different activities; mine data on the bodily functionality reserves and physical working capacity at different stages of multiannual training process; rate athletic performance and fitness and profile a variety of training and overtraining conditions; explore physical and mental performances in extreme conditions for the healthy and health-deficient samples etc. The Institute takes focused efforts to develop and implement new methods and tools to identify and mobilize the untapped bodily reserves. The IT department of the Institute has offered a wide range of application software tools to test, analyze and improve the training and competitive processes. A special software toolkit was offered for the sport diet design and management purposes. Some of the ongoing research projects are unparalleled the world over.

The Institute management gives a special priority to the international cooperation with the relevant foreign research institutes, universities and laboratories. The research conferences and symposia hosted by the Institute have welcomed many leading foreign researchers from the US and European countries (K.Cooper, D.Costil, D. Dempsey, B.Edgerton et al.); and the researchers of the Institute have participated in their turn in many international congresses and conferences abroad. Since the European College of Sport Sciences was established in 1995 in Germany (Cologne), the Institute specialists have been regular participants and reporters in its annual congresses hosted by different European cities.

Presently the Institute still makes a special emphasis on its international research activity. Thus in 2017 the Institute successfully hosted an International Conference of Doping Control and Prevention Solutions with participation of delegates from the Russian Ministry of Sports, EC, WADA, German Anti-doping Agency, Russian Anti-doping Agency, and many experts from Saint-Petersburg-based universities, sport federations and non-governmental organizations. On September 27-28, 2018, the Institute hosted an even more representative Pan-Russian Theoretical and Practical Conference ‘Priority Issues of Physical Education and Sports’ timed to the 85^th anniversary of the Institute, with participation of delegates from the leading national and foreign universities and sport organizations.

Conclusion. The Institute management is taking persistent efforts to contribute to the ongoing reforms of the Russian science; improve efficiency of the research project activity in the new market economy; further commercialize the research activity and complement the still limited financing from the governmental and sport establishments by a variety of non-governmental sources interested in the theoretical and practical developments. A special priority in the initiatives to promote the scientific developments is given to the mutually beneficial cooperation with the small- and medium-size innovative companies potent enough to secure production of the research-intensive products on a cost- and time-efficient basis – at no sacrifice for the research projects run on the governmental commissions and contracts.

References

1. Vorobyev S.A. 85-letie Sankt-Peterburgskogo nauchno-issledovatelskogo instituta fizicheskoy kultury: osnovnye etapy razvitiya [85th anniversary of St.Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture: main stages of development]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2018, no. 3, P. 43.
2. Evseev S.P. Stanovlenie i razvitie adaptivnoy fizicheskoy kultury v Rossii [Adaptive physical education: formation and development in Russia]. Sankt-Peterburgskiy nauchno-issledovatelskiy institut fizicheskoy kultury: istoriya i sovremennost [St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture: history and modernity]. St. Petersburg: SPbSRIPC, 2008, pp. 111-128.
3. Evseev S.P., Rogozkin V.A. K 75-letiyu gosudarstvennogo uchrezhdeniya «Sankt-Peterburgskiy nauchno-issledovatelskiy institut fizicheskoy kultury» [To the 75th anniversary of St.Petersburg research institute of physical culture]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2008, no. 3, pp. 3-7.
4. Rogozkin V.A. Perspektivyi ispolzovaniya dostizheniy genetiki v olimpiyskom dvizhenii [Prospects for using progress in genetics in Olympic movement]. Olimpiyskoe dvizhenie i sotsialnye protsessy: mater. konf. v ramkakh 11-go Mezhdunarodnogo foruma «Molodezh – Nauka – Olimpizm» [Olympic movement and social processes: Proc. Conf. within 11th International Forum "Youth - Science - Olympism"], 2002, pp. 177-181.

Corresponding author: skorobey64@mail.ru

Abstract

The study analyzes the history of St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture that has always been among the leaders of the national research in a wide range of physical education and sport training issues; and is proud of its renowned scholars and achievements in many research fields. Presently St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture gives a high priority to research projects in the following fields: movement coordination qualities; natural psychological qualities and predispositions for specific activities; bodily physical and functional reserves and physical working capacity in the multiannual/ annual training processes; physical fitness, training and overtraining rating methods; physical and mental activity specifics under extreme conditions, including those in case of health limitations etc.