Dr. Hab., Professor V.G. Shilko¹
A.B. Sharafeeva^1
1National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk

Keywords: physical fitness, health standards, physical education and sports infrastructure, physical health, physical activity.

Background. The national physical education and sport sector made progress for the last decade as mentioned in the physical education and sports Progress Report of the Russian Federation for 2019 [2], with special advances in the following domains: sports facilities accessibility rate reported to grow up to 55.7%; habitually sporting 3-79 years old population reported to grow to 42.3%; 78 new mass sports facilities and 33 football fields with artificial surface were commissioned; 112 Children and Youth Olympic Reserve Sport Schools (CYORSS) were modernized and re-equipped, etc.

However, the planned progress has not been made in a few other domains. On the whole, the national physical education and sports progress and mass physical education and sport service supply still lags behind the demand of different population groups. It should be mentioned that the demand for physical education and sport services tend to grow with the improving living standards. As provided by T.S. Susikova and N.R. Arbuzin, the physical education and sport service infrastructure in the Russian Federation is still less developed than reported by most of the leading sporting nations. For example, the national supply of the outdoor sports facilities is still 2.7 and 6.8 times lower than in Japan and Italy, respectively; and supply of swimming pools is 30 and 7.7 times lower than in both countries, etc. [3].

Objective of the study was to find the factors of hampering effect on the university students’ motivations for habitual physical education and sports practices.

Methods and structure of the study. We tested and analyzed variations of the physical fitness and health standard in the 1-3-year National Research Tomsk State University (NRTSU) students (n=6000) sampled at 20 NRTSU institutes and departments, with their progress tests and medical examinations run for 10 years (2009-2019). The physical fitness and health standards test and analytical data were verified by annual questionnaire surveys of the students that yielded subjective physical fitness and health self-rates.

Results and discussion. The questionnaire survey found the students still ranking the poor physical fitness and health standards on top of their problems, as was the case in previous years. This was the finding of a ten-year (2009-2019) physical fitness and health standards survey of 6000 NRTSU students, and we have sound reasons to assume that the situation is much the same for many other universities of the Russian Federation, since the students has come to NRTSU from 23 Russia’s constituents. The survey found 15%, 30%, 45% and 10% of respondents self-ranking their physical health standards as high, good, moderate and low, respectively. Real health situation, however, was found different from the self-rates – as verified by the annual medical examinations that rated 5%, 20%, 35% and 40% of the sample high, good, moderate and low on the physical health standards scale, respectively.

The situation was largely the same for the physical fitness tests and self-rates. The survey found 5%, 20%, 45% and 30% of the sample self-rating the physical fitness as high, good, moderate and low; whilst the actual physical fitness tests ranked the sample only 2%, 10%, 38% and 50% high, good, moderate and low on the physical fitness scale, respectively. It should be noted that most (65%) of the NRTSU sample self-rated their physical fitness and physical health standards insufficient, whilst the rest (35%) were quite happy with them. Furthermore, the annual medical examinations of the 1-3-year student population classified by the academic health groups showed no changes in the health situation for the last 10 years (2009-2019): see Table 1 hereunder.

Table 1. Health test data of the sample of 2009 and 2019

On the whole, the physical health standards of the students made insignificant (p <0.05) progress for the 10 years [1]. The study also found that the obligatory physical education and sport service of 4 hours per week fails to facilitate physical progress as verified by the poor physical fitness test data and secure the physiological minimum of physical activity of 6-8 hours a week to keep up the key mental and physical health standards. Thus only 57% of the 2019 sample was successful in the standard physical fitness tests. We also found drops for the last few years (to 3-4%) in the numbers of university entrants having sports qualifications. Note that this figure includes most (up to 80%) the Physical Education Department entrants having sports qualifications.

The still substandard physical fitness is confirmed by the regular GTO Complex tests that have been run by the NRTSU’s GTO Complex Training and Test Center for the last four years since it was established. The Center reports 1715 qualifiers for the tests for the period, with only 24, 18 and 94 successful in tests for gold, silver and bronze badges, respectively (n=136 in total that makes about 8% of the tested population).

The annual questionnaire surveys found that the key reason for the students being still low motivated for the standard academic physical education and sport service is the short supply of modern sports facilities, equipment and accessories. Thus about 80% of the sample mentioned the substandard sports infrastructure as the core reason for their reluctance to train – as most of their sports and physical activity needs and interests are rather specific. These needs should be met by modern gyms, stadiums, outdoor sports arenas, swimming pools, etc. Note that NRTSU presently holds only one sports building commissioned in 1969 and never rehabilitated since then for 50 years.

The situation is largely the same for the sporting student population. Most of the qualified academic athletes have to excel in their sports beyond the NRTSU and face multiple problems, from the time-taking daily trips to costly (and not always affordable) commercial physical education and sport services. This is the reason why most of the qualified athletes have to retire from sports after they enter NRTSU. Presently the students competing in the university teams account for less than 5.8% of the total NRTSU population.

In addition to the obligatory standard physical education classes, NRTSU hosts many off-class physical education and sports events on holidays and weekends; although these events expected to encourage the students’ physical activity fail to offer solutions for multiple problems faced by the academic physical education and sport service at present for the above mentioned reasons.

Conclusion. The study data and analyses showed that the university still fails to successfully solve many problems faced by the physical education and sport service as it badly needs a modern service infrastructure with the cutting-edge physical education and sports technologies, and with due contributions from the modern physical education and sports theory and practice, sports training systems, sports psychology, biomechanics, pharmacology, medicine, nanotechnology, etc.

References

1. Zagrevskaya A.I., Guseva N.L., Galaychuk T.V. Academic physical education model designed on ontokinesiological approach. Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury. 2019. No. 11. pp. 6-8.
2. Report on the implementation of the State program of the Russian Federation "Development of physical education and sports" in 2019. Available at: http://www. https://www.minsport.gov.ru/activities/reports/9/32033/ date of access: 26.04.2020).
3. Susikova T.S., Arbuzina N.R. Trends and problems of development of material and technical base in physical education and sport sector. Vestnik Sibirskogo instituta biznesa i informatsionnykh tekhnologiy. 2019. No. 1 (29). pp. 62-66.

Corresponding author: vshilko@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to find the factors of hampering effect on the university students’ motivations for habitual physical education and sports practices.

Methods and structure of the study. We tested and analyzed variations of the physical fitness and health standard in the 1-3-year National Research Tomsk State University (NRTSU) students (n=6000) sampled at 20 NRTSU institutes and departments, with their progress tests and medical examinations run for 10 years (2009-2019). The physical fitness and health standards test and analytical data were verified by annual questionnaire surveys of the students that yielded subjective physical fitness and health self-rates.

Results and conclusions. It is shown that, despite the positive changes in the socio-economic situation of the country and the significant improvement in the basic development indicators of the physical culture and sports sector, which are reflected in the report on the success of implementation of the Russian Federation State Program "Development of physical culture and sports sector" over the past 10 years (2009-2019). There were no qualitative changes in the students' state of health and physical fitness. The authors believe that the pace of development of the physical culture and sports sector in the Russian Federation still lags behind the real possibilities of the majority of Russia's population in satisfying their physical education and sports interests and needs, since the improvement of the standard of living of the population indirectly implies the severization of requirements for the creation of a comfortable environment for physical education and sports activities. In order to meet the challenges facing the physical culture and sports sector, it is necessary to speed up the process of establishing a modern physical culture and sports infrastructure, equipping it with modern sports equipment, developing and introducing modern pedagogical technologies, etc.