L.A. Karpenko, professor, Ph.D., Honorary Worker of Higher Education of the RF
National State University of Physical Culture, Sport and Health named after P.F. Lesgaft, St. Petersburg
J.R. Nigmatulina, candidate
St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg

Keywords: mass sport, additional education, sports clubs, mass sports branches of rhythmic gymnastics.

Introduction. The modern system of additional education is ready to offer a child a wide selection of educational programs on various sports kinds of creative activity. Rhythmic gymnastics is among the most spectacular sports, that has been massively developed and is becoming increasingly popular among children and parents. On the one hand, it is an elite sport, on the other - a kind of motor activity, promoting improvement of health of many girls. A distinctive feature of rhythmic gymnastics is to ensure the harmonious development of the girl’s body owing to the diversity of its techniques. Gymnastics classes have a positive effect on the development of purely feminine qualities such as softness, grace and fluency. Angularity and awkward shape and movements during the development of the body lead to shyness and often reluctance to engage in physical activity. Rhythmic gymnastics exercises help girls get rid of restraint and awkwardness regardless of the purpose of classes and results.

In 1968, at the All-Union Conference the classification of gymnastics [2] was approved, including three areas of work: education, health-improvement and sport, all of which, in turn, were subdivided into more specific types. Over time, the development of gymnastics led to the formation of three levels of functioning of rhythmic gymnastics [1]: the higher level - the elite and Olympic sport - (Olympic training centers), the medium level - the sports and education (children and youth sports schools, specialized children and youth sports schools of the Olympic reserve and universities) and the mass level which included health-improvement and development (fitness clubs, school and university sports sections). The special literature contains a lot of research regarding the first two levels, but the third level (health-improvement and development) is poorly elaborated. Meanwhile, such studies are now important, particularly, with regard to the shift in the priorities of society to health-improvement through the development of mass sports.

Figure 1. Mass rhythmic gymnastics organization in St. Petersburg

The relevance of research in the field of mass rhythmic gymnastics can be confirmed by the following information. According to our data, currently there is a wide network of establishments with specialized sports sections of rhythmic gymnastics in St. Petersburg, included in the system of additional education of children (Figure 1). Sections in comprehensive schools and sports clubs for teenagers and youth have the most developed system of classes. This type of educational institutions plays a unique role under modern conditions as it enables children to adapt to social life, forms background knowledge and makes it possible to organize meaningful leisure.

The purpose of the study was to analyze the development of mass rhythmic gymnastics in club associations.

Results and discussion. In recent years, sports rhythmic gymnastics imposes extremely high demands on natural characteristics and abilities of students and so it is available to a very limited circle of girls. In this regard, new mass sports branches of rhythmic gymnastics emerge every year, ready to accept every person who has no medical contraindications. The work with children in this case is focused on their physical improvement and promotion of a healthy lifestyle.

At the moment, more than 30 such branches are available only in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, 20 of which were opened in the last 10-12 years. This indicates that now mass rhythmic gymnastics can be considered as an independent sector which involves more than 1500 gymnasts (90 groups) and more than 60 trainers and specialists.

In the clubs training sessions are free of charge (20%); partly free of charge and partly on a paid basis (26% for the groups of initial training); only on a paid basis (54%). Today, rhythmic gymnastics sessions for children under 6 years in all children and youth sports schools and specialized children and youth sports schools of the Olympic reserve of the city require payment.

We conducted interviews with coaches and teachers in the mass sports sector of rhythmic gymnastics to identify their level of education, experience, reasons for the choice of work in this area and priorities. The study involved 34 trainers in mass rhythmic gymnastics.

It was found that 29 mass trainers (85%) have a university degree, 4 people (12%) have incomplete higher education and one trainer (3%) completed only secondary education. Of these, 25 trainers got pedagogical education as a result of graduation from a specialized physical education institution and 9 - psychologists, lawyers, engineers, government officials and journalists. All trainers have a sports qualification: Master of Sports (71%), Candidate Master of Sports (26%) and the I senior degree (3%).

Teaching rhythmic gymnastics in various mass sports institutions and organizations is a primary job for 28 specialists surveyed. Six people have more than one job. They are working in accordance with their primary occupation in sports schools or other organizations not related to sports and training is seen as a hobby or a source of extra earnings.

The respondents were mostly in the age of 20-30 years (23 people - 68%). 9 trainers (26%) were older than thirty years old; 2 people (6%) - younger than 20 years. The work experience: 5 years - 10 people, 5-10 years - 13 people, 10 years - 6 people and more than 20 years - 6 people.

To the question "Why did you choose to work in mass sports clubs instead of sports schools, schools of Olympic reserve, etc.?" we received different answers, the essence of which can be summarized as follows:

– an opportunity to independently train students from an initial training group to the group of improvement of sports skills, while keeping promising children so they aren't taken away by the head trainer, as in youth sports schools, schools of Olympic reserve, etc .;

– the simplified club system is more preferable, the opportunity to plan competitions independently and to work for the sake of harmonious development of children -  not just for results, as in youth sports schools, schools of Olympic reserve, etc .;

– more freedom of action for a trainer, more space for experiments;

– the desire to contribute to the development of mass sports;

– the lack of sports schools in vicinity to the place of residence or the lack of free vacancies;

– the invitation for a job in the club (or such an opportunity) was received in the period of study at the university, the job was convenient to combine with the studies and so a person continued to work there after graduation;

– little amount of work, the opportunity to combine it with other activities;

– good team relations and relaxed atmosphere at work;

– the ability to earn more or the need for additional income.

When identifying the main goals of teaching in the mass sports branches of rhythmic gymnastics, it proved to be useful to distinguish three groups of motivations:

1^st - the development and support of mass rhythmic gymnastics in different areas of the city and in Russia in general; fostering in girls the desire to train for a long time even without achieving good results; the desire to help everyone, to enable every child to be engaged, especially those "unpromising" girls who are not predisposed to rhythmic gymnastics and who wouldn't have been qualified to a sports school;

2^nd - the desire to give children the opportunity to select training objectives and change them without changing sport due to the existence of health-improving and sports groups, and the possibility to move from one group to another;

3^rd - achievement of results, qualification for a category in this sport (mainly in the clubs located in the regions without sports schools).

When analyzing the positive and negative aspects of training children in mass rhythmic gymnastics, we established the following:

– pros: independent planning of work without restrictive framework; boundless creativity; lots of friendly club competitions for all children regardless of their fitness, each gymnast can prove herself; no high requirements on constant results; an opportunity to work with different groups of students;

– cons: students and level of their fitness in one group are very different, that limits sports achievements and professional growth; insufficient state support of the development of mass sports, the lack of funding, limited time of training in gyms.

The particular attention was paid to the question "What is more important to you: to reserve the number of students or results of individual gifted gymnasts?" According to the survey 53% of respondents (18 out of 34 trainers) think that it is more important to preserve the number of students; 21% (7 respondents) see the achievement of results by individual gymnasts as the most important goal; 26% (9 trainers) answered that both issues are equally important.

Conclusion. Our studies have revealed a strong interest in domiciliary classes of mass rhythmic gymnastics. Gyms are being rented, clubs are being created, a wellness section is being opened, where healthy lifestyle is being promoted, helping children in hardening, acquiring essential applied and vitally important motor skills and uniting for active leisure. However, wide independent development of mass rhythmic gymnastics requires the elaboration of the methodology of teaching. Until now, the branches of rhythmic gymnastics focused on the elite Olympic level and the branches focused on education have the same curriculum for youth sports schools [3]; the health-improving and developmental institutions continue to work while having no curriculum whatsoever. It is obvious that this problem should be solved by carrying out comprehensive scientific research, aimed at optimal representation of the existing level of mass rhythmic gymnastics in the program documents and clear description of its similarities and differences with elite Olympic sports and with educational gymnastics.

References

1. Karpenko, L.A. Problemy mnogourovnevogo funktsionirovaniya sovremennoy khudozhestvennoy gimnastiki (Problems of multilevel functioning of modern rhythmic gymnastics) / L.A. Karpenko // Izbrannoe iz noveyshikh issledovaniy po khudozhestvennoy gimnastike (Selection from the latest research in rhythmic gymnastics). 2008. – P. 6–11.
2. Smolevsky, V.M. O nauchno-metodicheskom obosnovanii massovoy gimnastiki (On scientific and methodical substantiation of mass gymnastics) // Gimnastika. – 1985. – P. 8–12.
3. Khudozhestvennaya gimnastika: uchebnaya programma (Rhythmic Gymnastics: curriculum) / Comp. by: J.A. Belokopytova, L.A. Karpenko, G.G. Romanova. Kiev: MUDMS, 1991. – 86 P.

Corresponding author: yulia_migmik@mail.ru