Dr. Hab., Associate Professor A.V. Ponomarev¹
PhD N.V. Popova¹
PhD L.K. Tropina ¹
PhD A.N. Popov^1
1 Ural Federal University named after First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg

Keywords: sports, sports giftedness, youth, athletes, promotion, support, motivation.

Background. National competitive successes in sports are increasingly ranked among the effective tools of the global policy makers as they are viewed an indicator of the authority and strength of a state; and this is the reason why the national governments give a growing priority to the sports talents’ selection, promotion and motivation. On the one hand, athletic talents are often revealed and their sporting careers are planned in early days – in spite of the fact that progress in modern sports is associated with high physical and mental stressors, financial burdens on the families and multiple limitations in everyday life and socializing agenda. On the other hand, talented children and their families, when making their decisions in favor of sports, are largely motivated by the guarantees of successful socialization in the future provided by the elite sports systems. This contradiction is among the factors that urge the governments to support gifted youth by special promotional provisions and institutions to facilitate education, athletic progress and self-fulfillment for the young prospects.

Objective of the study was to analyze the gifted sports youth selection, promotion and motivating situaiton in the Sverdlovsk Oblast based on a questionnaire suvey data.

Methods and structure of the study. The study was based on the relevant federal and regional strategic and programmatic legal and regulatory provisions for physical education and sports of talented children and youth [1]. We sampled for the survey the 14-30 year old athletes (n=100, 43% female and 57% male sample), with 50% of the sample trained at Children and Youth Sport Schools (CYSS), Children and Youth Olympic Reserve Sport Schools (CYORSS), sports centers and clubs (and the rest unemployed) having qualifications of Honored Masters of Sports, World Class Masters of Sports, Grandmasters of Russia; with some of them titled Masters of Sports before 21 years of age (save for the rhythmic gymnasts); and some competing for professional teams under 21 years of age. The sample included 4 leading athletes (ranked with the 2017 top ten) of the Ural Federal University with successful competitive records in the top national and international events. We interpreted sports giftedness, based on definitions of a few researchers, as the combination of individual sport-specific qualities and abilities that makes the athlete potentially fit for the highest competitive success in sports.

Results and discussion. A comparative analysis of the foreign and national talent selection, promotion and motivation systems and experiences showed the systems being different in many aspects [2-5]. Thus the European school, college and university sports are well supplied by modern sports service infrastructure, and the sports service is geared to help families engage their children in sports. The Russian system has lately demonstrated some progress in the young talents selection and motivation aspects too.

Expert interviews of the young highly skilled athletes found them basically motivated for sports career by their trainer, everyday hard trainings with progress motivations, interest in the sport and support from their families [10, 11]. They expect the promotion and support system to include: good financing/ remuneration; good sports infrastructure and equipment; good outfits; high-quality field training services; encouragements for competitive progress; medical service; and opportunities "to be noticed". It may be worth mentioning the following statements in this context: “Financial support is the best motivation although it should be reasonable to keep an athlete hungry and angry”; “It is not unusual that finance is viewed as the key promotion tool; it should not be like that”.

Modern promotion and motivation provisions for the young athletes, in their opinions, should be geared to: offer as many competitions as possible for competitive progress; run field training services; keep the young prospects in view of the national team coaches; hold regular master classes with the sports celebrities; offer services of special training camps/ centers and sporting tours for the best young athletes; and improve the sports infrastructure in communities of young athletes. They believe that most beneficial for selection, promotion and motivation of young talents are the existing CYSS, sports training centers, CYORSS, colleges and universities; Ministry of Sports; municipal governments; and sports clubs and groups. The experts emphasize that the Talented Young Athletes Support Program “may not be accessible to everyone due to the shortage or remoteness of sports facilities, qualified trainers and sports managers to organize competitions”.

The efforts to motivate and promote young athletes should be based on good understanding of their priority motivations for sports. Our questionnaire survey of the talented young athletes found the following key motivations: physical progress and character tempering (72%); joy from sports (59%); and travel and new things learning opportunities (45%). The sports progress hampering factors were reported as follows: short financing (24%); and studies (22%). The main reasons for retirement from sports were the following: health issues and injuries (31%); low income (18%); change of interests (17%); conflicts with coaches or senior managers (15%); low discipline (8%); poor academic performance (7%); problems with drugs or alcohol (4%).

Furthermore, the respondents mentioned the following limitations for promotion of young talents in sports: poor quality of sports facilities, equipment, special accessories, etc. (rated by 4.08 points on a 5-point scale); insufficient and/ or inaccessible sports schools, groups and clubs (3.75); shortage of qualified trainers and educators (3.72); poor support and promotion system for talented youth (3.69); poor incentives for sports businesses to select and promote talented young athletes (3.6); inefficient selection and promotion system for talented young athletes (3.2); progress limitations for the young talented athletes having no personal connections (3.18). Actively competing young athletes were tested with a wide range of sports-unrelated interests, with the top three including arts (15%); reading books (14%); and learning (11%). Most of the sample (79%) reported “seeing personal progress opportunities in sports”. Of the 7 optional satisfaction criteria, the sample reported mostly satisfied with the trainer’s service, team spirit and the numbers of competitions (4.43; 4.41 and 3.88 points, respectively).

Conclusion. The questionnaire survey found the talented and gifted sporting children and youth in the Sverdlovsk Oblast being mostly motivated by "the physical progress and character tempering", plus "joy from sports". The main reported limitation for progress is the shortage of funding. The sample reported both objective and subjective reasons for retirement from sports. One of three young athletes was found unsatisfied with the sports school services and progress provisions. Actively sporting young people reported a wide range of sports-unrelated interests albeit most of them give a special priority to sports as a professional progress field. Since more than a half of the sample was unemployed, these young athletes reported to resort to other jobs for living. For the young SGs promotion and motivation, they need good funding; accessible sports facilities, equipment, outfits and accessories; high-quality field training services and competitions; medical service; and chances to “be noticed”. To support talented athletes, the national sports system is recommended to offer them field training services and competitions for progress; keep the young athletes in view of the national team coaches; and offer them master classes with the sports celebrities. A special priority will be given to special sports training camps/ centers and tours to encourage the best young athletes, and to the sports infrastructure expansion/ modernization projects in the young athletes’ communities. Based on the study findings, we made recommendations to update the Talented Youth Support Program of the Sverdlovsk Oblast government.

References

1. The concept of a nationwide system for young talents spotting and development (approved by the President of the Russian Federation on 04/03/2012) [Electronic resource] Available at: http://www.consultant.ru/law/review/1453003.html (date of access: 05.07.2019)
2. Report on the lecture by Robert Babb - Sports management and scholarships for athletes in the United States [Electronic resource]. 2018. Available at: https://gradstudyabroad.ru/education-news/robert-babb-sports-management-... (date of access: 15.01.2018)
3. Reish N.A. Talent Management for successful work with HiPo employees [Electronic resource]. Moscow Business School. Available at: http://www.cfin.ru/management/people/motivation/Talent_Management.shtml (date of access 26.02.2019).
4. Recruiting athletes in American student sports [Electronic resource]. Available at: https://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/alexskryagin/911044.html (date of access: 15.07.2019)
5. Student sports abroad: how do like-minded people live in other countries Electronic resource]. Available at: http://studentsport.ru/news/others/20805/ (date of access: 15.07.2019)
6. Ponomarev A.V. et al.; Ponomarev A.V. [ed.], Popova N.V. [ed.] Youth policy trends in the mirror of social sciences and technologies. Yekaterinburg: Ural un-ty publ., 2018. 260 p.
7. Shurmanov E.G., Tambovskiy A.N., Sidorenko T.A., Kalashnikov A.V. Information and analytical abilities of trainer as key component of his activity. Uchenye zapiski universiteta im. P.F. Lesgafta. St. Petersburg,  2015. No. 12 (130). pp. 250-254.

Corresponding author: a.v.ponomarev@urfu.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to analyze and summarize the opinions of young athletes about realization of sports talent.
Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed the world's and domestic experience of work with gifted in sports youngsters, identified the opportunities for realizing their sports talent, as well as determined the positive and negative aspects of the system of support to the gifted and talented in sports youth that exists in the Sverdlovsk region. We carried out an expert opinion poll, with the leading student athletes of Ural Federal University being subject to the poll, as well as individual interviews with gifted in sports schoolchildren and students. We studied the opinions of young professional athletes about their sports achievements and assessment of the current situation in sports, compiled proposals for supporting gifted athletes.

Study results and conclusions. The questionnaire survey of young athletes helped determine their motives for sports activities; reasons for premature termination of a sports career; factors that limit the realization of their sports potential; athletes' interests in other activities; educational and professional plans; level of satisfaction of the subjects of sports activity. The study results showed that the issues of realization of sports talent of the youth are relevant both for Russia and the Sverdlovsk region and for foreign countries. Based on the findings, the proposals into the Support program for the gifted and talented youth of the Sverdlovsk region were formulated.