Institutional and legal provisions for athletic training process programming

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ˑ: 

PhD E.Ya. Mikhaylova
Dr.Hab., Professor S.S. Filippov
PhD, Associate Professor V.V. Ermilova
National State University of Physical Culture, Sport and Health named after P.F. Lesgaft, St. Petersburg

Keywords: athletic training program, legal provisions for programming, program content analysis, typical errors in programs.

Introduction. The present situation of the national physical culture and sport sector may be described as facing a number of serious institutional challenges. It is the critical need for an efficient children’s and youth sports system with the relevant sport reserve selection and training capacity for the national teams that was mentioned among the top priority challenges by the “Physical Culture and Sports Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2020”. Furthermore, rated high among the critical problems in this context are the institutional, management, regulatory and legal problems of the system. The situation is further complicated by the fast progress of and growing competition in the global elite sports. This is the reason why the top priority is being given to the national athletic training system modernization initiatives viewed as highly promising for the sport movement advancing in our country.

Objective of the study was to analyze and substantiate the institutional and legal provisions for the athletic training process programming by the national sport schools.

Methodology of the study. Applied in the study were a few research methods including valid legal documentation analysis; statistical data analysis; and content analysis.

Study results and discussion. The existing national sport reserve training system was fairly well designed, has been in operation for a few decades and proved successful in terms of the sport accomplishments. To give an idea of the system scope, we would provide some statistical survey data as of 2014 [2]. According to the survey, the existing sport schools are basically controlled by the relevant local physical culture and sport system management and education system management bodies (see Figure 1 hereunder).

Figure 1. National sport school system management structure

Note: CYSS Children’s and Youth Sport School; ORCYSS Olympic Reserve Children’s and Youth Sport School; ORC Olympic Reserve College; STC Sports Training Centre

It is easy to note from the above that the total numbers of the CYSS under control of the education management system versus that of the physical culture and sports management system are about the same; albeit the physical culture and sports management system controls much more Olympic Reserve sport schools (ORCYSS).

Furthermore, the statistical survey of 2014 reports as many as 3,278,048 young athletes going in for 112 sport disciplines at the sport schools. It is a matter of common knowledge that an athletic training process goes through a few stages. Given in Table 1 hereunder are the numbers of athletes at every athletic training stage, with the primary training stage clearly dominating in the sport statistics.

It should be noted, however, that a variety of modern challenges faced by the national children’s sports and sport reserve training system call for new approaches to the contents and designs of the athletic training systems. As provided by the “Physical Culture and Sports Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2020”, there are a few priority ways to address the above challenges. 

Table 1. National sport reserve training system of the Russian Federation [2]

Institutions

Counts of trainees by training stages

HFS*

TTS

ATS

SES

ESS

Total

CYSS

547550

1136763

646300

18755

1999

2351367

Education system

307033

558901

307082

5219

321

1178556

Physical culture and sport system

235811

561400

325915

12164

1472

1136762

Other

4706

16462

13303

1372

206

36049

ORCYSS

83170

416512

286068

27016

7390

820156

Education system

462

5406

5283

492

22

11665

Physical culture and sport system

79242

408063

276415

25792

7126

796638

Other

3466

3043

4370

732

242

11853

Count of trainees engaged in the subject athletic training programs

TOTAL

-

169299

122610

17377

8451

317737

*HFS health and fitness stage; ITS initial training stage; ATS advanced training stage; SES sport excellence stage; ESS elite sport stage

It is the institutional and legal provisions for the national sport reserve training system that will be viewed as one of the key avenues for the children’s and youth sports modernization initiatives. Special attention in this context will be given to the legal documents regulating the sport reserve training/ education process. The newly adopted Federal Law [3] may be considered a starting point for the sport training system modernization process. This important regulatory document plus the package of other legal and regulatory provisions put into effect lately have totally changed the regulatory framework of the sport school system operations. Knowing the scope of the sport reserve training/ education system operations (as provided above in Table 1 and Figure 1), one can get an idea of how many institutions and relevant management officers and coaches have faced problems in meeting requirements of the new legal and regulatory provisions in the sport reserve training process.

Nevertheless, the national sport school system has started transition to the new sport reserve training standards as verified by the number of trainees engaged in the special athletic training programs (see Table 1, the last line).

It should be noted in this context that new notions were approved by the relevant legal documents [3] that offer revised meanings for a variety of key term including: athletic training; sport reserve; athletic training program; Federal Athletic Training Standards etc. Given hereunder are the definitions of the two key terms directly related to the subject matter of the study.

 Athletic training program means the program of phased individual training in some sport discipline(s) that spells out the key components and conditions of the athletic training process in every its phase, the program being developed and implemented by the relevant institution in charge of the national athletic training process in compliance with the relevant Federal Athletic Training Standards; and

Federal Athletic Training Standards mean the set of requirements to the sport-specific athletic training process design (save for the applied combat/ service/ national sport disciplines) developed and approved pursuant to the present Federal Law and compulsory for the relevant institutions in charge of the national athletic training process design.

As provided by the relevant provision [3] of the Russian Federation, every sport discipline (save for the applied combat/ service/ national sport disciplines) registered with the Russian Register of Sport Disciplines will be governed by the relevant Federal Athletic Training Standards (FATS) applicable, on a mandatory basis, to the athletic training program design and implementation process.

Furthermore, acting pursuant to the Laws of the Russian Federation, the national Ministry of Sports issued a few orders to regulate operations of the national sport school system. Given on Figure 2 hereunder are the key orders that regulate the athletic training programming process. The key point of the new sport reserve training system is that the whole training process will be governed by the relevant Federal Athletic Training Standards specific for the sport discipline [4].  It is based on these standards and the package of the relevant legal and regulatory documents that every relevant institution in charge of the athletic training process shall develop its local regulations for the local athletic training program development and implementation initiatives.

In the context of the newly effectuated basic regulatory and legal documents, the valid system of legal provisions for the athletic training program development and implementation process may be outlined, in our opinion, as given on Figure 2 hereunder.

The relevant institutions involved in the athletic training program implementation process will give the high priority to the independent program development initiatives based on the sport-specific FATS. Therefore, National State University of Physical Culture, Sport and Health named after P.F. Lesgaft (St. Petersburg) came up with a training course geared to provide background methodological knowledge to the deputy directors and methodologists (97 people in total) of the sport schools based in St. Petersburg city [4]. At the end of the training course every trainee was required to present his/ her athletic training program drafted based on the relevant sport-specific FATS that the subject institution shall be governed by. The trainees drafted and presented 87 training programs in total. Of much help in the programs drafting process were the Methodological Recommendations for the Sport Training Process Organisers in the Russian Federation issued by the Ministry of Sports [4]. 

The program drafts presented by the trainees were rated by content analysis based on a set of the relevant qualitative and quantitative criteria. Applied as a semantic rating unit in the content analysis was the indicator rating the compliance degree of program content with the applicable sport-specific FATS.

Figure 2. System of the valid legal provisions for the athletic training program development and implementation process

The content analysis of the presented athletic training programs for specific sport disciplines in the context of the sport-specific FATS compliance control have showed the following.

Having analyzed the program content and based on the data obtained in the interviews of the sport school specialists who drafted these programs, we had good grounds to conclude that the program drafts were basically free of serious errors, whilst the inaccuracies detected in the content were largely due, on the one hand, to the shortage of experience applying the new FATS and the relevant documents and, on the other hand, to the diverse interpretations of some of the FATS requirements.

Furthermore, the total number of inaccuracies in the programs was found to be in excess of 100% that means that some documents contained a few sections incompliant with the FATS in some points. The content analysis showed that the most problematic for the program developers were a few sections including “Methodology” and “Control system and qualification requirements”. Moreover, it was not always easy for the programming specialists to draft the section “List of informational provisions” that refers to the relatively unusual aspect of the sport school system operations as methodological service has never worked on these matters purposefully when accumulating the necessary background theoretical and practical literature on the athletic training process design. It should be mentioned that the relevant Internet content was found virtually unrepresented in the programs, with the only exclusion for the official websites of the relevant management agencies.

Conclusion. The ongoing athletic training system programming process designed in compliance with the Federal Athletic Training Standards and the program implementation efforts of the sport school system need to be duly supported by the relevant theoretical and methodological provisions.

References

  1. Metodicheskie rekomendatsii po organizatsii sportivnoy podgotovki v Rossiyskoy Federatsii (Guidelines for sport training procedure in the Russian Federation) / Ministerstvo sporta Rossiyskoy Federatsii. – Moscow: Sovetskiy sport, 2014. – 132 p.
  2. Svodny otchet 5-FK za 2014 god (Summary Report 5-FC for 2014) [Electronic resource] // URL: http://www.minsport.gov.ru/sport/podgotovka/82/1452/. – Date of access: 30.10.2015.

Corresponding author: prorektor_zao@mail.ru