Dr.Hab, Professor L.D. Nazarenko
Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University named after I.N. Ul'yanov, Ulyanovsk

Keywords: terms, concepts, inclinations, abilities, qualities, qualitative aspects of motor activity, physical education, sport training

Introduction

Scientifically grounded definitions, terms and meanings are known to help shape up the values-driven orientations, expand and build up the knowledge base and foster the scientific data processing and application skills. Professional competency of specialists in any science, including physical culture and sports science, are largely determined by the established and generally recognized terms and definitions and the relevant terminology application traditions. Every sport definition reflects specific content of a certain motor activity; and a deliberate substitute of such term may complicate understanding of the content. I.A. Zimniaya (2005) emphasizes the key role of the educator’s professional competence viewed as a principal condition for the education and training process being effective. A sport coach, educator or physical education teacher, as long as he/she is capable of keeping up his/her educational activity, shall take persistent efforts towards self-education and self-improvement that is impossible unless duly supported by clear understanding and application of the background terms, definitions and meanings that spell out the key content of the subject training and competition processes.

In actual practice of the scientific and research activity, different interpretations may be given to a variety of terms and definitions and, therefore, these terms and interpretations may be in need of serious clarifications and corrections. Correctional efforts of that kind will help both remove the differences in interpretations of the key terms and definitions and shape up the content of the framework of categories and concepts that forms a foundation for the physical education and sport training theories.

The purpose of the study was to give a theoretical and methodological substantiation for a unified term definition approach for the special terms widely applied in the physical education and sport training theory and practice.

Study results and discussion

As things now stand in the special educational, psychological and sport literature, the problem of adequate definitions and interpretations of such terms as “inclinations”, “abilities” and “qualities” appears to be among the most controversial ones. The national “theory of abilities” is based on the principle of the abilities being inseparably connected with practical activity. As stated by B.M. Teplov (1985), abilities are always a product of individual development and as such they determine the individual resources for a certain activity and the effectiveness of such activity. Individual accomplishments in the course of such activity may be characteristic of the personal abilities to attain the objectives. It is important to mention in this context that success in sport or in any other form of activity will largely depend rather on the combination of many factors and conditions including the levels of culture, education and knowledge than on the inborn abilities only.

Furthermore, effectiveness of any activity is largely dependent on specific functionalities of the higher nervous activity as described by the relevant dynamic criteria including the new information apprehension and processing rates; individual lability of the nervous processes; individual patterns of excitation/ inhibition processes; resistance to external impacts; induction relationships etc., i.e. on the close interrelation of the individual psychological and physiological criteria, inclinations and gifts viewed as the individual resources of the person. In opinion of B.M. Teplov (1985), abilities shall not be interpreted as inborn resources of an individual. It is only the anatomic and physiological features that can be considered the inborn qualities of a person for the reason that inclinations may come up one day all of a sudden and in a fully-fledged shape, whilst in other cases they may slowly develop and manifest themselves in a phased manner. Some people’s abilities may long exist in a latent form.

B.M. Teplov (1963) and V.D. Nebylitsyn (1966), in their studies of the higher nervous activity features, came to the conclusion that it is the inclinations (viewed as the inborn individual anatomic and physiological features of a person) that shall be considered a basis for the abilities emergence, manifestation and development process. It is the inclinations that form the necessary framework for the abilities being developed, as the inclinations determine the vocation-driven choice of the preferred specific activity that helps the abilities come up and shape up to perfection. Therefore, ability shall be understood as an important prerequisite for any kind of activity, including sports activity. It is the abilities that motivate the vocation-driven choice of the specific activity that provides a basis for the abilities to manifest themselves, develop and come to perfection. V.D. Shadrikov (1996), V.D. Nebylitsyn (1966) and S.L. Rubinstein (2007) believe that, in view of the above, abilities shall be considered as an important prerequisite for any kind of activity, including sports activity.

No sports activity can be successful unless the athlete develops the relevant abilities. In opinion of I.A. Zimniya (2005), abilities shall be classified as the general and special abilities. Sports activity, for instance, requires from the athlete: fast motor reactions; ability to timely distribute and redistribute muscular efforts; high self-control of the individual functionality and other resources that may be classified as general abilities. In contrast to the latter, specific abilities manifest themselves in specific sport disciplines like figure skating, for instance, where the athlete is required to be able to create an artistic character and personify it to convey his/her sentiments, emotions and feelings through motions. Artistic abilities that are normally assessed together with the performance techniques are manifested – within the relevant development framework – in the following:

• Clear feeling of the most appropriate body lines in any static and dynamic position;

• Precise spatial positioning of every body system in the process;

• Precise correlation of the mimics and gestures to the performed movement sequences;

• Excellent timing skills demonstrated, among other things, by the precise definition of the right pauses in the performance sequence, with the pauses and movements being attuned by the expressive gestures and body language; and

• Good correlation of the movement sequences with the musical illustration etc.

The above approach is largely in agreement with the opinion of A.N. Leontiyev (1959) who defines abilities as specific personal features that collectively ensure the vocation-based selected activity being highly effective.

The athlete who masters and improves some motor skill performance sequences including artistic aspects of the latter (in artistic sport disciplines, for instance) needs to rehearse the same motor actions with the associating muscular workloads being increased in a phased manner. It is through this basic training system that muscular strength and other qualitative aspects of motor activity, including a variety of physical and coordination qualities, are increased. As stated by N.A. Bernstein, coordination “means the special group of physiological mechanisms that provide for permanent structural cyclic interaction of the effector and receptor processes”. Hence, coordination may also be considered a qualitative characteristic of motor activity. Interrelation of inclinations, abilities and qualities is presented in Table 1 hereunder. I.M. Sechenov (1952) was the first to come up with the idea that voluntary motion patterns and psychological and thinking processes are reflexive by nature. The I.P. Pavlov’s (1951) theory based on the studies of reflexes spells out regularities of the higher nervous activity that provides the means to reveal the physiological mechanisms of abilities. A variety of characteristic features of the higher nervous activity including strength, mobility, composure, individual interrelation patterns etc. manifests itself in the individual specifics of the mental, intellectual and motor activities. Coordination mechanisms need to be found in this context and explored from the viewpoint of the reflexive activity. The I.P. Pavlov’s (1951) studies demonstrated that every complicated regulatory function of any organism is largely based on the interaction of excitation and inhibition processes that go in certain successions to ensure the bodily responses to different actions being adequate. Great services to the concept of central nervous coordination were rendered by Ch. Sherrington (1969). N.A. Bernstein (1966, 1991) offered a movement control scheme governed by the principle of sensory corrections that may be presented in the form of efferent-afferent ring.

Typological specifics of an individual nervous system comprise a key component when it comes to the development of inclinations and abilities geared to secure certain accomplishments in specific activity categories like music, arts, sports etc. Such understanding and interpretation of abilities is typical for the researchers experienced in this subject. It may be pertinent to rate abilities as well/ poorly expressed, although such classification would be irrelevant in case of inclinations that cannot be characterized as strong or poor. It should be emphasized that using the term “ability” in the meaning of “quality” (that is not unusual for the physical culture and sport training theoreticians) means in fact that the more broad generalized term is substituted by one of its concrete applications that implies specific qualitative aspects of the sports motor activity. Therefore, it is unlikely advisable to use, for instance, such terms as “balancing ability” or “coordinative abilities”.

Table 1 . Activity components

As mentioned by N.A. Bernstein (1996), coordination means rather the special group of physiological mechanisms creating a permanent cyclic interaction of the effector and receptor processes than some special accuracy or precision of the efferent nervous impulses. It should be noted that it was N.A. Bernstein who found that it is the motor coordination that determines such quality as flexibility which is qualified by some specialists as a physical quality and by the others as coordinative quality.

The approach dividing the qualitative aspects of motor activity into the physical (muscular strength, speed, endurance) and coordinative (agility, accuracy, mobility, flexibility, balance, jumping, precision, rhythm, plasticity etc.) qualities appears rather arbitrary in fact. Such physical quality as speed, for instance, is largely dependent on both the morphological body aspects and the nervous system functionality specifics, with the finest differentiations. And it is not unusual to find that this quality is based rather on the nervous and psychic processes than on the morphological specifics. Therefore, it may be stated with reasonable confidence that speed is largely manifested as a coordinative quality. The effectiveness of offensive and defensive actions in martial arts, for instance, is mostly dependent of the speed of motor reactions. The individual ability to foresee the motor action of the opponent, for instance, puts speed as a quality in the same category with agility, mobility and other coordinative qualities.

Conclusion

Our analysis of the psychological and educational literature and study reports on the physical culture and sport training process physiology, theories and practices give good grounds to define the meanings of such terms as “inclinations”, “abilities” and “qualities”; and to find their interrelations and interdependences. One of the key points emphasizing the appropriateness of such terms as “ability” and “quality” in the physical culture and sport training theories is the recognition of the fact that qualitative aspects of motor activity may be divided into physical and coordinative ones only on an arbitrary basis as they represent qualitative characteristics of motor activity.

References

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Corresponding author: ld_nazarenko@mail.ru