PhD, Associate Professor E.N. Narkhova¹
PhD, Associate Professor I.M. Dobrynin¹
PhD, Associate Professor D.Yu. Narkhov^1
1 Ural Federal University named after First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg

Keywords: physical education and sports, national youth policies, sports infrastructure, interactive map, surveys, youth sports, Sverdlovsk Oblast, healthy lifestyle.

Background. For the last decade the national sports have evolved into the inspiring and promising socio-cultural phenomenon with the clear growth trends in the social sporting resource mobilizing efforts – with the passive supportive forms (I am interested in sports information, I support the sporting events) gradually replaced by the active contributions to the local mass sporting movements and events, and growths of habitually sporting communities in every population group [1, 4 ]. Since the share of habitually sporting population is ranked among the key benchmarks by the federal and regional physical education and sport service development, the relevant agencies bear a growing responsibility for monitoring of the key progress trends, problems and contradictions in the physical education and sport sector; with a special priority given to the youth sports having enormous potential for the life quality (the key social culture indicator) improvement agenda.

Lately the national government has made progress in the sport infrastructure development and rehabilitation projects; and now the country may readily host top-ranking global and international events: for example, new stadiums in 11 cities were successful in hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup. An equally important youth sports development mission is to create and modernize the municipal sports facilities to cater for the sporting needs of the local communities, primarily children and youth viewed as a strategic social resource. Thus the Youth Policies Department of the Sverdlovsk Oblast government with the relevant system of regulatory, institutional, managerial, informational and analytical units and provisions require the relevant physical education and sports management agencies to synergize their efforts for youth sporting potential mobilizing purposes. The motivational efforts to help the young people realize their physical education and sport resource and development interests in positive social activities in every life area are considered important for the regional and federal physical education and sport sector progress. It should be mentioned that despite the general progress in the youth sports promotion initiatives, the progress is still hampered to a degree by the interdepartmental disharmonies in the federal youth policies implementation efforts, with the relevant complications for the municipal physical education and sports/ youth sports policies and practices.

Objective of the study was to analyze the demand of the young population of the Sverdlovsk Oblast for youth  sports and other physical education and sport services versus the supply from the municipal sport infrastructure.

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed for the purposes of the study the relevant legal and regulatory provisions of the Sverdlovsk Oblast legislative and executive authorities, statistical reports and other relevant data available in the open sources. It should be noted that the data mining efforts were somewhat limited by the lack of consolidated statistics on the youth (14-30 year-olds’) physical education and sport service; and we had to make a few assumptions based on the indirect data mined in the relevant agencies.

Results and discussion. Municipal service system for the youth policies and practices may be described as a mix of provisions, responsibilities, principles, methods and tools usable by the local authorities to protect lawful interests and rights of and guarantees for different youth groups and facilitate their innovative and creative physical education and sport resource mobilizing efforts. For the system being operable, efficient and effective, the relevant municipal institutions need to harmonize and synergize their youth policies initiatives. As far as the Sverdlovsk Oblast is concerned, its weaknesses in terms of the federal youth policies domain were as follows: still underdeveloped infrastructure in most remote territorial units; need for special youth policies management bodies or the relevant interdepartmental associations; significant differences in the municipal institutional systems for the youth policies goals; and the poor inter-sector cooperation in the priority areas of the federal youth policies [5]. These shortages and weaknesses had been of hampering effect on the healthy lifestyle and modern physical education and sports projects in the youth communities.

When the Sverdlovsk Oblast Youth Policies Department was handed over from the Ministry of Physical Education and Sports to the Ministry of Education and Youth Policies, the situation was further aggravated at first; and urged the regional government to create an effective inter-sector cooperation mechanism for the youth physical education and sport progress. The structural realignment of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Youth Policies Department has resulted in difficulties for the youth healthy lifestyle cultivation and physical education and sport promotion situation due to the functional mismatches in the infrastructural and regulatory system and provisions for the ongoing programs. This was the reason for the regional government to recognize the need for new cooperative forms and methods for the relevant physical education and sport and youth policies management agencies at the municipal level. The relevant initiatives are being taken under a new youth policies program for the period up to 2024 that replaced the past program [6].

The youth sports infrastructure is a system of material objects (buildings, indoor and outdoor structures and facilities) to meet the physical education and sports needs of the local young people, plus the relevant institutional system to facilitate the youth socializing and self-assertion agendas. For efficiency of the youth healthy lifestyle and physical education and sports projects and services, the above infrastructure will be complemented by the physical education and sport system reporting to the Ministry of Sports, otherwise we may fact the risk of a growing gap between the elite junior professional sports and the mass amateur youth physical education and sport system. With the developing sports infrastructure, the existing youth sports system needs to be improved and expended to embrace the advanced education system and leisure-time facilities for success of the federal youth policies and programs. Our analysis of the available data gives reasons to believe that the Ministry of Physical Education and Sports has been generally successful so far in its infrastructure development and competitive events organizing policies and practices.

As things now stand, the Sverdlovsk Oblast includes 94 municipal areas with 68 urban counties, 5 municipal districts, 5 town municipalities and 16 rural municipalities. As reported by the federal statistics agency, residing in the Sverdlovsk Oblast as of 2019 were 728 thousand 14-29 year-olds making up 17% of the total Sverdlovsk Oblast population [8]; with the share of habitually sporting children and youth estimated at 82.7% of the total youth population [7]. We give hereunder as a case in point the relevant statistics for a regional capital city and the most typical Sverdlovsk Oblast municipality.

In 2018, more than 352.5 thousand young (14-30 year old) people lived in Yekaterinburg city [5] with a total permanent population of 1515.8 thousand people. As of the late 2018, Yekaterinburg physical education and sport assets included 2,385 sports facilities [2, p. 52]. Ranked with this category are the sports assets of the urban infrastructure regardless of their ownership, including outdoor workout sites, bike tracks, equipped fitness sites, fenced hockey courts, sports gyms, swimming pools, ski bases etc. This means that every sport facility may serve 147 young people on average i.e. the operational workload is relatively high.

Reasonably diverse sports infrastructure makes it possible to fully meet the demand of the local young generation for healthy lifestyles and physical education and sport services. In 2018, the Yekaterinburg municipality reported to host 1,176 regional and municipal events for 432.5 thousand competitors and physical education and sport activists. One of three Yekaterinburg residents was reported committed for systemic physical education and sport activity (regretfully, no further age classification is provided). The municipal physical education and sport assets available for the youth sports include 11 municipal physical education and sport facilities and 123 local physical education and sport clubs that reported to serve 97.6 thousand residents in 2018.

As of 2016, 6160 young people were reported to live in Alapayevsk municipal district with a total population of 37.2 thousand (as of 01.01.2019). In the late 2017, the city reported to run 104 sports facilities including 59 outdoor sports grounds (15 football fields), 29 indoor gyms, 2 shooting ranges and 14 other sports assets. Every sport facility was estimated to potentially serve 59 young people, i.e. 4 times more than in the regional capital. At the same time (late 2017), the municipal physical education and sport encouragement program reported 10.7 thousand habitually sporting people i.e. one of three residents of the city – that puts it abreast with the Yekaterinburg statistics. The physical education and sport and youth policies department of the municipal district organized 148 mass sports, physical education and sport and health events joined by 10,236 people in 2017 – despite the fact that the municipal district has only two youth policies agencies including the above mentioned.

Conclusion. Our progress analysis of the ongoing healthy lifestyle, youth sports and physical education and sport programs being implemented by the Ministry of Sports has found that the Sverdlovsk Oblast population demonstrates a growing interest in and motivations for the sporting lifestyles in the context of the physical education and sport infrastructure development and mass sports promotion initiatives. The federal and local programs to develop the mass physical education and sport infrastructure and encourage mass sports (particularly the local communal ones within a walking distance) have provided an impetus for the popular physical education and sport. It should be confessed, however, that contributions of the local youth policies agencies to the youth physical education and sport progress are still limited due to the functional disharmonies in the executive government system. To pursue the youth policies on a more efficient and effective basis, the local youth policies agencies need to harmonize and synergize their efforts with the line ministries to monitor progress and actual situations in the local physical education and sport service infrastructure and make timely corrections to the healthy lifestyle cultivation and youth sports promotion initiatives when necessary.

References

1. Galeev A.R., Dulina N.V., Ikingrin E.N. et al. Heritage of 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi: sociological analysis. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2019. No. 8. pp. 63–65.
2. Results of the socio-economic development of the municipal entity “Yekaterinburg city” in 2018. Yekaterinburg: Department of Economics of the Administration of the city of Yekaterinburg, 2019. 158 p.
3. Lubysheva L.I. Sociology of Physical Culture and Sports. Study guide for students of higher educational institutions. 3rd ed., rev., sup.. Moscow: Akademia publ., 2010. 272 p.
4. Lubysheva L.I. Sector strategic resources: municipal and regional aspects. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2018. No. 9. p. 93.
5. On approval of the Concept of youth policy and patriotic education of citizens in the Sverdlovsk region for the period until 2035. Order of the Department of Youth Policy of the Sverdlovsk Region No. 202 dated 11/01/2018. [Electronic resource] Tekhekspert. Available at: http://docs.cntd.ru/document/550250981 (date of access: 12.12.2019).
6. On approval of the state program of the Sverdlovsk region "Implementation of youth policy and patriotic education of citizens in the Sverdlovsk region until 2024" (as amended on December 12, 2019) (expired on the basis of the decree of the Government of the Sverdlovsk region dated 19.12.2019 No. 920-PP). [Electronic resource]. Tekhekspert. Available at: http://docs.cntd.ru/document/543539182 (date of access 30.12.2019).
7. On approval of the state program of the Sverdlovsk region “Development of physical education and sports in the Sverdlovsk region until 2024” (as amended on December 19, 2019). Decree of the Government of the Sverdlovsk Region No. 1332-PP dated October 29, 2013. [Electronic resource] Tekhekspert. Available at: http://docs.cntd.ru/document/453135166 (date of access 20.12.2019).
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Corresponding author: e_narkhova@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to analyze the demand of the young population of the Sverdlovsk Oblast for youth  sports and other physical education and sport services versus the supply from the municipal sport infrastructure.

Methods and structure of the study. The authors analyzed for the purposes of the study the relevant legal and regulatory provisions of the Sverdlovsk Oblast legislative and executive authorities, statistical reports and other relevant data available in the open sources. It should be noted that the data mining efforts were somewhat limited by the lack of consolidated statistics on the youth (14-30 year-olds’) physical education and sport service; and we had to make a few assumptions based on the indirect data mined in the relevant agencies.

Study results and conclusions. The analysis of the open statistical data and regulatory documents indicated a growing interest of young people in sports events, disclosed disharmony in the structure and functions of the executive authorities in terms of implementation of the State Youth Policy aimed to promote a sports lifestyle and form healthy lifestyle values. The authors substantiated the need for searching new forms of interaction between the brunch ministries to maximize the resource potential of the municipal infrastructure for the implementation of the State Youth Policy geared towards promotion of sports activity among youth.