PhD V.V. Efimov
PhD, Professor A.N. Sharipov
Head of the department of physical training and sports O.B. Ryzhak
Perm Military Institute of Internal Troops Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Perm

Keywords: physical and special service fitness, cadets, sport training, professional activity, shooting simulator.

Background. It has always been traditional for interior troops to highly appreciate the “all-rounders”, i.e. the all-round servicemen having harmonically developed physical and special service qualities making it easy for them to perfectly perform different physical practices, special service techniques and actions [4]. One of the key methods to train the all-round servicemen is the combat competitive all-round events that are known to be of multisided effect on a human body and an excellent tool to build up the physical and special service fitness. Competitive combat all-round events are being actively promoted in the interior service academies under the Interior Ministry of the RF, including the summer officer’s triathlon launched in 2010 as one of the sport disciplines with the following events: 25 m MH-3 (Makarov handgun) shooting event (30 shots); 300 m swimming event; and 3000 m race event. Athletic training systems for competitions in these sports are normally designed to include meso-, macro- and micro-cycles within an annual training cycle [1, 2].

The Russian Interior Ministry troops rate high the combat competitive all-round events and summer officer’s triathlon (hereinafter referred to as the CCA-SOT) among the special service sport disciplines included in the academic competitions; and this is the reason for every military education establishment of the interior troops to have its own all-round team composed of some 10 to 20 athletes trained on a professional basis. Given in Table 1 hereunder are the interior academic athletes’ progress data in the sport discipline. The data show the growth of accomplishments and qualifications of the athletes as verified by the Russian Interior Ministry Troops championships in the period of 2010-15 and demonstrates the persistent growth of the training process quality and general competitiveness in the CCA-SOT.

Table 1. All-round academic athletes’ progress data as verified by competitions in the CCA-SOT championships of the Interior Ministry Troops of Russia

Education and training process in military education establishment has its own specifics not always favourable for the training and education sessions being attended by sporting cadets on a systemic and regular basis. Reasons for that absenteeism include, among other things, the athletes’ participation in professional service sessions and service duties in combat/ service missions. The total athlete’ absenteeism in the yearly education and training process is reported to average 50-55% of the time. In addition, the academic training educators have to work with the sporting cadets having good fitness in at least one of the three all-round events. In this context, the educators are in need of a new training technology for all-round athletes being trained in shortest possible time using innovative approaches in the training systems.

Our analysis of the available special literature on the subject shows that the coverage of the issues of the competitive athletic training procedures for cadet all-round athletes by the modern education science is presently insufficient, with most of the works dating back to 1989, 1995 and 1997; and, therefore, innovative approaches are required to improve the CCA-SOT training process. It should be also mentioned that improvements in the sporting cadets’ fitness standards are always associated with positive practical implications for the education process in the military education establishment on the whole since the active competitive training technologies, competitions and elements of combat competitive sports in the regular education process help improve the academic progress in the Physical Education discipline (including professional applied physical training), i.e. in further sportization of the academic physical education [10].

Objective of the study was to develop a professional applied sporting physical training technology for cadet all-round athletes in a micro-cycle of an annual training period based on innovative training methods and tools using, among other things, a training simulator system.

Methodology and structure of the study. The study was performed at the Physical Education and Sports Department of Perm Military Institute of the Interior Ministry Troops of Russia. Subject to the study were 20 all-round cadet athletes from the picked CCA-SOT team of Perm Military Institute. The all-round cadet athletes were split up into a Reference Group (RG) and a Study Group (SG) of 10 people each. At the initial stage of the training process, both of the groups showed no statistically significant differences (see Table 2) since the cadets were grouped strictly based on their age, training/ competitive records and experiences and sport qualifications. The difficult mission of the academic coaching educators of the Physical Education and Sports Department in the project was to help the all-round sporting cadets develop to elite athletes in the shortest possible time in the situation of the acute shortage of time for the education and training sessions. The annual time budget for the professional applied athletic training included the hours scheduled for the education and training practices of 30 days per year with 2-3 sessions per day and the hours of the regular education and training sessions making up 6 days per week with 2-hour trainings per day during an academic year.

At the pilot stage of the study in the academic year of 2014–15, the following methods were applied: analysis of the available theoretical, practical and special literature [1-3, 8, 9]; analysis and summaries of the education and training works completed prior to the study; educational monitoring; tests [2]; and the standard mathematical data processing methods. Works under the study were designed using the classical pattern, i.e. the RG was trained under the common methodology of the academic curricula of the Interior Ministry military education establishments, whilst the SG was trained in the micro-cycle of the annual training period (see Table 2) by a variety of training tools including the Makarov handgun simulation shooting on the SKATT Shooting Simulator plus combined training of the cadets’ shooting skills following the competitive swimming and cross-country racing practices.

The innovative aspect of the training methodology was in the athletic training micro-cycle design based on a variety of mutually supporting components, as follows:

– Versatility of the physical training methods applied including repeated, interval, steady, combined, simulator training tools logically built up within the timeframe of the training micro-cycle;

– Multiple physical load grading methods applied (including wavelike, gradual, stepped intensity rising methods) both at preparatory and competitive all-round athlete’s training stages duly designed to build up the relevant macro- and meso-cycles in the training process; and

– Innovative approaches applied in the training process, including special SKATT Shooting Simulator application procedures to secure high-quality shooting fitness for the all-round cadet athletes having variable functionality [5-7, 9].

Table 2. Annual training micro-cycle of the cadet all-round athletes from the picked team of Perm Military Institute of the Interior Ministry Troops of Russia

Design conditions for the training micro-cycle being efficient in the annual training cycle are the following:

• Scope and intensities of the physical loads over the annual training cycle of the cadet all-round athlete at the preparatory stage will be controlled to ensure gradual growth of the loads; at the transitional stage, the loads will be stepped; and in the competitive period – designed in a wavelike format.
• When micro-cycle is used to build up the meso- and macro-cycles within the annual training cycle, the following goals will be achieved: (a) adjust to the everyday physical practices; build up the body functional capacities; and correct exercise performance techniques; (b) develop aerobic and anaerobic capacities; excel performance technique; and master the tactics of exercises, techniques and actions; (c) cultivate the ability to perform at maximum of the body abilities; overcome the shortage of confidence in own powers; and develop the right-decision-making ability in the exercise performance process.

In addition to the above, an important condition for the new athletic training technology being efficient was the due support of the coaching educator in the systemic and reasonably designed and managed education and training process including the SKATT Shooting Simulator system application [7, 8]. All the above helped form both necessary physical qualities in the cadets and develop a set of requirements to the key mental personality qualities of the cadets to set forth that “the mental structure of the skills and qualities formed using the  SKATT Shooting Simulator system will be dominated by emotional confidence in own powers” and facilitate the athletic motor skills being performed in the right manner [4, 6].

Study results and discussion. We applied the relevant Makarov handgun shooting technique and the physical work capacity and physical fitness test rates as objective criteria to analyse the efficiency of the innovative athletic training micro-cycle within the annual training cycle. The RG versus SG test results were found different in the key test rates (see Table 3). The practically implemented innovative professional applied athletic training technology for the cadet all-round athletes was proved highly efficient. The physical loads prudently controlled in the technology by the relevant consistent algorithm of physical impacts on the trainees’ bodies were found to cause significant positive changes in the physical work capacity, shooting skills and physical fitness test rates of the trainees as verified by the RG versus SG test results given hereunder in Table 3.

Table 3. Makarov handgun shooting technique, physical work capacity and physical fitness test rates of the subjects to experiment, x̅±σ

*Combined strength cycle on the horizontal bar includes the following four exercises: (1) Pull-up; (2) Long underswing upstart; (3) Hanging straight leg raises to the bar; and (4) Vertical pull-up with straight arms to support.

Conclusion. The innovative professional applied athletic training technology for the cadet all-round athletes developed through the experiment was found to give the means to the athletes to fully develop physical qualities and skills to secure stable success in the Russia’s Interior Ministry Troops championships. The technology was found efficient not only in improving the fitness of the cadet all-round athletes, but also in heavily contributing to the physical improvement process efficiency in the non-sporting cadets of the military education establishment to increase their overall physical and special service fitness for the combat/ service missions.

The shooting practices using the SKATT Shooting Simulator following the cross-country racing and swimming practices were found to: help the cadets control their training process and find their individual specific reasons for the performance efficiency variations; improve the repeatability of the body positions by multiple shooting sequence excelling practices on the simulator; and effectively control the shooting sequence performance technique due to the simulator being prudently designed to facilitate progress in the shooting skills (including the shooting technique being mastered along with the body spatial balancing technique) subject to the excelling practices.

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