Associate professor, Ph.D. M.A. Kuz'min¹
N.A. Zinov'ev^2
1Gubkin Russian State Oil and Gas University, Moscow
²National Mineral Resources University "Mining University", St. Petersburg

Keywords: university sport, development, university, mass university sport, elite sport, information support.

Introduction. Nowadays efforts on creation of sport clubs and development of university sport in Russian universities have been intensified. This activity fully complies with the Message of the President of the Russian Federation, V.V. Putin, to Federal Assembly dated 12.12.2012.

Currently the system of university sport development is structurally organized in the leading universities of Moscow and St. Petersburg in the form of a pyramid containing functional elements. Mass university sport forms the foundation of this structure, with elite sport on the top. One can review how the sport and physical culture and sports activities are organized in Russia, taking the leading Moscow and St. Petersburg universities as an example.

The purpose of this study was to scientifically justify the model of development of modern university sport.

Results and discussion. In National Mineral Resources University (“Mining University”), which is one of the university sport leaders in St. Petersburg, 70 sports are being cultivated at the moment. Necessary conditions have been created in Mining University for the students to master different sports, and they have an opportunity to continue education and training in the university on their own sport specialization. The student can always make a choice from a big range of sports.

The variety of sports at the university is determined by the structure of the main inter-university competitions for students: Spartakiad held in St. Petersburg by the Physical Culture and Sports Committee of the St. Petersburg Government, Regional St. Petersburg Social Students Sports Organization “Burevestnik” (“Burevestnik” RSSSO) and the Scientific and Methodological Council (SMC) which includes university championships in 70 sports.

In each university there are university sport teams which defend the reputation of the university in inter-university competitions. These sports teams consist of the best athletes of the university and athletes performing in inter-university Spartakiads between the departments. The department teams are made of the strongest athletes studying at the department who proved themselves in competitions between study groups.

Regulations on St. Petersburg Spartakiad is structured in such a way that the overall result or absolute team classification is determined in view of the quantity and quality coefficients of the participating university teams which takes into account the number of sports the university participates in and places taken by the university in each kind of sports. Accordingly, the more sports the university participates in, the lower quantity coefficient the university will have (the lower is better) and the higher place in the final standings in the overall team classification. The quality coefficient is determined by the number of places taken by the team from the first to the sixth place in the overall team classification in different sports. Consequently, the higher place the university takes in the team classification, the lower quality coefficient is (according to the formula, the lower is better) and the higher place the university will take in the final standings. When the university's place is lower than the sixth team place, the points are awarded only for participation.

К1 – coefficient of mass (number) – characterizes relative number of sports, in which a given university participates.

, where

Nmax – number of sports of the university – leader on this position.

N – number of sports of a given university.

S1 – total number of top places (out of six) of a given university.

К1 – the less, the better.

К2 – quality coefficient – characterizes the level of achievements of a given university in the sports in which it competes.

, where

S2 – the sum of 1st places × 1 + the sum of 2nd places × 2 + the sum of 3rd places × 3, etc. up to 6th place.

К2 – the lower, the better.

К – total coefficient.

К = К1× К2

К – the lower, the better.

The university with the smallest К coefficient becomes the leader of the final standing.

The dynamics of participation of Mining University in the championships of St. Petersburg universities during recent years is as follows: In 2005 the university participated in 12 championships of St. Petersburg universities and was 24^th in the final team standing. In 2006 the university participated in 45 championships of St. Petersburg universities and was 10^th in the final team standing. In 2007 the university participated in 68 sport programs and was in top 3 of the strongest St. Petersburg universities. At that time, Mining University for the first time in the history of the championships of St. Petersburg participated in all championships of the city. Starting from 2008, Mining University never took places lower than the 2^nd in the final team standing, and in 2013 became 3-times champion of St. Petersburg in the final team standing.

This approach helped to identify the vector of development of university sport in St. Petersburg for the coming 10 years. The leading universities of the city started to introduce their teams in as many sports as possible. The number of the university teams participating in the championships of St. Petersburg universities is growing, and, accordingly, the number of the students participating in the competitions is rising too.

A big variety of sports with the participation of the university in all championships has enabled the students, on the one hand, to disclose their individual potential, find their own sport or select their favorite sport, and, on the other hand, has secured the top place of the university in the final team standing, which is one of the criteria for evaluation of physical culture and sports activities in the universities and development of university sport in the universities as a whole.

The number of the teams participating in the championships is linked to the list of sports being cultivated in the universities. The universities may have the teams not in all sports, as not all sports are systematically developed in universities, which involves, first of all, availability of three main structure components of the system: trainer, training and methodological support, and the budget. Subsequently, in the sports, which are not being fully developed, there is no system, and for the championships the universities come up with the student-athletes who are training in other sport societies or clubs of the city. Thereby, they organize participation of the university in the championships on the sport, which is not cultivated in the university, and the university gets additional points in the program of the Spartakiad of St. Petersburg.

Athletes engaged in sports, which are not cultivated in the universities, are identified via questionnaire, which is organized on an annual basis in the universities at the first institutional classes or lectures for the 1^st year students. Therefore, all contingent of the students entering the university is covered and engaged in mass university sport.

The practical side and prospects of this approach is that in certain time, the groups of students based on sport interests started to appear in the universities, and then whole teams appeared in specific sports that had not been cultivated before in the universities, which certainly laid sufficient grounds for raising the issue of development of a given sport in the university. This is how the university teams were formed in Mining University and the sports, such as multidiscipline car sports, taekwondo, rugby, kettlebell lifting, floorball, hockey, handball, etc. received system development.

Preconditions and then conditions were created in Mining University for development of mass university sport. In particular, once again the domestic approach and the Soviet paradigm “from the quantity to quality” was implemented in practice.

Elite sport is on top of the pyramid described above. In this direction, the sports were separated where highly-skilled trainers on regular and system basis trained highly-skilled athletes, who became prize winners and winners of different Russian and international competitions. It has to be noted that highly-skilled trainers can be found in practically all universities of St. Petersburg. Therefore, the challenge was to provide these specialists with proper conditions, cover all their needs, create a comfortable psychological environment for them to efficiently do their job, in which they are professionals.

There is no doubt that elite sport in the universities is a “show-case” of the university, its bright sport face, the indicator of the university’s social wealth and health. As of today, the university cannot get positively rated, accepted by social and professional environment as a harmonically developing university without having university sport or highly-skilled athletes, “brand” athletes or teams representing the university at major domestic and international sports forums.

In Mining University everything looked transparent for quite a long time, with boxing and judo being considered main sports, and the judo team being a multiple winner of the championships of the universities of Leningrad and St. Petersburg and several masters of sports of the USSR and Russia raised in it.

Later these sports were used as the basis for forming the students’ Combat Sports Center in the universities of St. Petersburg, which included different sports, such as kyokushin kaikan karate, jiu-jitsu, taekwondo, Greco-Roman wrestling, combat sambo and many others. Therefore, during 7 years of work in Mining University, in particular, 7 world champions and 2 Honoured Masters of Sports in professional boxing, jiu-jitsu and kyokushin kaikan karate were raised.

Moreover, one of the most important challenges was to create a balanced (gender-based) system in the sport being developed and offered to the students. With a great number of combat sports in the Mining University, the number of the offers for the girls or “women's” sports was significantly less compared to “men’s”, which resulted in a certain misbalance in the university sports system being created. The goal of balance was finally resolved. New sport sections were organized in the university, for example, ballroom dance sport and cheerleading were developed. That being said, both of the sports developed so successfully that in a while the university ballroom dance team became the leader of university sport of St. Petersburg in this direction, and several European Cheerleading Champions were raised.

Development of university sport in Moscow is reviewed based on the example of Gubkin Russian State Oil and Gas University, which is one of the leaders of university sport in the capital city of the country. Gubkin Russian State Oil and Gas University is among top 5 strongest universities of Moscow out of 105 participating in Moscow Students Sport Games (MSSI).

Moscow Student Sport Games (MSSG) are the main Moscow competition for the students of Moscow city and neighboring Moscow region universities.

The MSSI are organized and staged by the Moscow Regional Branch of the “Russian University Sports Union” Russian Public Organization (MRB of the “RSSU” RPO), the competitions are also supported by the Moscow Sports Committee and the Moscow Rectors Council and different sport federations.

The MSSG in many respects is similar to the University Spartakiad organized in St. Petersburg. In the framework of the MSSG championships in 78 sports are conducted. The principle of calculation of the team standing is similar; though, there are some differences. The similarity is expressed in approximately the same number of sports included in the program of MSSI, as well as similar summing-up results system, similar approach, i.e., the more sports the university participates in, the more points it gets, and the higher its result in the total standing is. So the universities try to participate in as many championships as possible, which, no doubt, increases the number of the students participating in the competitions and conforms with the Strategy of development of physical culture and sports in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020, which was approved by the Resolution of the RF Government dated 07.08.2009 No.1101-r, according to which 80% of the total number of students by 2020 must go in for sports.

The difference in the system of points calculation in Moscow and St. Petersburg is that in the MSSG summarizing of the results is more differentiated, as the results calculation formula of the MSSG takes into account each team standing (from the 1^st to the last), as well as the total number of the universities participating in a given sport championship. Accordingly, the more universities participate in Moscow Championships in a given sport, the more points the universities gain.

The number of points corresponding to the place taken by the university in a given sport is multiplied to the coefficient corresponding to the number of the teams participating in a given sport competition. For example: the university took the 1^st place in a competition in specific sport with participation of 16 teams. The number of points for calculation of the total standing is: 150 х 1.16 = 174. In case of 24 teams participating: 150 х 1.24 = 186, etc. The more points the university gains, the higher the university’s final team standing is.

In St. Petersburg the universities get the same points for the places taken in different championships, independent from the number of the universities participating in St. Petersburg University Championships, with a smaller degree of differentiation.

Gubkin Russian State Oil and Gas University participates in the MSSG in 50 sports. The approach to participation is similar to that of St. Petersburg. Educational and training activities in 35 sports are systematically conducted in the University. That is, skilled trainers are available in these sports who conduct educational and training classes, along with appropriate training conditions; necessary equipment and inventory.

Approximately in 15 sports the MSSI competitions involve the teams made of the athletes training in other Moscow city sport societies or clubs. These athletes are also identified via questionnaire for the 1^st year students, and then the Department of Physical Culture, in particular, Deputy Head of Department for sport work and the university sport club, is responsible for supervision of these athletes.

A big and important contribution to the sport performance of the university’s Department of Physical Culture is worth a special note. In many respects the Department of Physical Culture, provides an opportunity to carry out high-quality educational and training work and ensure control over the athletes’ activities and HR work with the students; thanks to the organizational capabilities of the Department of Physical Culture, the University teams are formed with new athletes added every year.

Much also depends on the Head of Division (Deputy Head of Department of Physical Culture and Sport), his general motivation, successful interaction with the Rector, commitment to results, activity, desire to develop the sport in practice, but not only nominally.

Information support in university sport deserves a special note. Development of university sport in general in many respects depends on the quality of implementation of this work. The current situation with the information support (and this is an objective factor) seems insufficient; however, there are some individual positive trends. In particular, in Moscow, starting from 2012, the Moscow Regional Branch of Russian University Sports Union (MRO RSSS) intensified efforts on coverage of the Moscow City Sport Games. This organization has created an information resource - MSSI web-site, where they promptly place necessary information for the participants, competition rules and regulations, current information, announcements, reports, photo reports, etc. Starting from 2014, for the 27^th MSSI the MRO RSSS has changed to electronic application submission, which, no doubt, is the call of the times. Certainly, it was not easy to change the system, as many university trainers are aged people. The issue is being resolved via attracting team members from among the students to this work. Assistants, team captains or administrators have taken the responsibility for this informational and technical aspect of work.

A similar approach is taken by the leading universities, who open web-sites of sport clubs, create fan groups in social networks, where they promptly post the information on the competitions in progress and future sport events. These information resources enable students to keep track of the events and changes in the sports calendar and attract new members in popular university sport. This resource can be also used to adjust students to sports student life, and to public life conditions in general.

In St. Petersburg Mining University one of the first groups was created to cover sport activities in social networks (the group is called “Gornyak” Sport Club), which today is the largest in number in the Russian university sport segment. To a great extent thanks to the right approach and efficient information coverage, Mining University has become the leading university in St. Petersburg and the leader in information support of its activities in Russia.

In addition, it is worth noting the group of enthusiasts who have organized the “University Cup”, which is a quite interesting and socially useful project. The idea is that upon results of the sport year, the leading university is awarded a big rolling trophy - “University Cup”. The trophy is positioned as the most prestigious university sport trophy in St. Petersburg. The first “University Cup” upon results of 2012/2013 was handed to Mining University, the winner of St. Petersburg’s final team standing, and to State Polytechnic University - the winner in 2013/2014. Apart from awarding the “University Cup”, this group of enthusiasts has created the “University Cup” web-site, where they promptly published sports results, total results, announcements, competition regulations and many other things. This useful initiative should be further supported and promoted, which requires certain financial support.

Conclusions. New approaches in the work on development of university sport in the Moscow and St. Petersburg universities, based on the example of the leading universities, are similar in many respects and have a common development vector. As of today, we can state that upon study of the work of these title universities, we have presented the common model of development of university sport in the universities. The goal at the current stage is to update this model, make it better and improve its individual parameters. If speaking of development of university sport in the given university, this in many respects depends on the interest and desire of the leader, in particular, the Head of the Department of Physical Culture and Sport of the university, whereas the direction of development of the university itself is identified by the Head of the University. The Rector of the University is the leader responsible for all directions of the university activities, quality, general supervision and, accordingly, the level of development of university sport in his institution.

References

1. Zinov'ev, N.A. Formirovanie zdorovogo obraza zhizni studentov tekhnicheskogo vuza v protsesse fizicheskogo vospitaniya (Formation of healthy lifestyle of technical university students within physical education) / N.A. Zinov'ev // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul'tury. – 2014. – № 2. – P. 6.
2. Lubysheva, L.I. Analiz razvitiya studencheskogo sporta: sostoyanie i perspektivy (Analysis of development of university sport: Status and Prospects) / L.I. Lubysheva, N.V. Peshkova // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul'tury. – 2014. – № 1. – P. 39.

Corresponding author: kuzmin-maxim@yandex.ru