Associate Professor, PhD A.V. Titovskiy
D.M. Gadzhiev
N.M. Nutsalov
V.V. Averyasov
Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow

Keywords: educational, developmental and culturing functions of the tournaments, personal qualities, player’s rating, teamwork spirit at university.

Background. The Physical Culture and Sports Development Strategy of the RF for the period up to 2020 sets forth a few goals, and one of the most ambitious and challenging ones is to increase the share of the sporting students’ population in the national higher education system up to 80% by the year of 2020.

Physical education departments in national universities are among the major contributors to the above initiative as their key mission is to implement the Federal State Higher Education Standards (FSHES) in the Physical Education and Sport disciplines and contribute to the national University Competitions. However, the Russian Statistics Agency reports about 60% of university students having different health disorders and impairments that will be taken into consideration when the optional sport disciplines are implemented at the universities at no detriment to the valid concepts and practices of physical therapy.

The national physical education theory and practice are now in the process of different sport disciplines being tested for application to the students diagnosed with health disorders and impairments with the objective to both effectively increase their motivations and values for systemic sporting activity and to help form their demand for a competitive activity on the whole [4, 5]. It should be mentioned in this context that it has become traditional for the last five years for Russian State Agrarian University “Moscow Agricultural Academy” (RSAU-MAA) named after K.A. Timiryazev to summon the “World of Equal Opportunities” Festivals for handicapped students of special health departments. The competitive programs of the Festival offer mini-golf, darts, badminton, table tennis and chess competitions to the participants and spectators. The Festival study team reports the competition-centred academic educational process being highly beneficial for the students’ neuromuscular control, coordination and mental workability improvement process [1, 3, 4].

Objective of the study was to provide theoretical grounds for the model billiards tournaments being used to lure handicapped university students from special health groups into a systemic sporting activity.

Methods and structure of the study. Subject to the study was a Study Group of 340 students of 18-23 years of age. The study analyzed competitive reports of the university billiards competitions in the “free pyramid” discipline. The competitions were designed to attain a variety of educational, developmental and training objectives in the process [7, 8, 9].

The educational function of the competitive process implies a few important competences being formed including the knowledge of the regulations of competitions; basic rules of the billiards game and rules of competitions in the specific billiard disciplines; tournament progress/ elimination schedules; statutes of the competitions; rules of the competitive draws; game result reporting rules; and the final competitive report performing rules.

The developmental function of the competitive game implies the students developing a few important competences including the self-control competence with due mental and functional self-management components; competitive process control and players’ interaction control competences; and knowledge of the refereeing, servicing and supervising rules of the tournaments. In addition, it is within this function that the best players of individual rounds and tournament on the whole are nominated.

The training function of the competitive game implies a set of valuable individual mental qualities being formed in the students with the relevant corporate/ teamwork culture including the communication skills; due interaction skills for the benefit of the students’ sport activity at the university; and positive attitudes to the sport culture and accomplishments.

Practical implementation of the educational function may be designed as follows. Prior to the tournament, the players will go through a draw to have equal chances for victory. An unfavourable draw that may result in a defeat from a stronger player still gives the player a chance to reach finals and, maybe, meet the same opponent. Knowing that, a player may design his own tournament schedule with due consideration for the potential opposition and duly prepare for the competition.

The tournaments enable students, academic staff member and teachers to obtain good knowledge of the billiards game basics and gain primary experience; they discuss rules of the game when playing in couples; refer to the regulations of the competitions and apply to the chief referee for explanations in case of disputes etc.

In the competitive period, each player may study the tournament schedule in detail as it differs a lot from other popular competitive systems and provides for a player being eliminated from the tournament only after two defeats. 

Each tournament is designed to nominate the best of 16 players (and we do not see serious grounds at the moment for increasing the membership up to 32) representing 9 departments of the University. Formal rules and regulations of the tournament require the winner score 3 wins in preliminary rounds and 4 wins in semi-finals and final games. To optimize the daily tournament schedule, the regulation requires the winner score 2 wins in the preliminary games and 3 wins in the semi-finals and final games. This regulation makes it possible to nominate a winner for 1 hour and, if it is impossible, decide the win by penalty shots made by the runner-ups. The proposed regulation gives the means to hold 5 games in the upper division of the tournament schedule and 8 games in the lower division, and this provision allows optimizing the tournament timeframe that normally takes 7-8 hours only.

We recommend 8 tournaments being held per year as required by the academic educational process timeframe (February, March, April, May, June, September, October, November and December); plus, with no extra motivation being required, we organize a New Year Tournament for top-ranking players. The players score ranking points in every of these monthly tournaments (pursuant to the World Championship ranking system as proposed by the Federation of Billiards Sport of Russia), and the total scores determine the players’ ranking positions for competitions. The rating points are summarized by the year end, with winners and runner-ups of the tournaments scoring the relevant ranking points.

Practical implementation of the developmental function may be quite diverse and generally includes the following components:

• Cognitive skills making it possible to assess the position on the table, calculate strategic and tactical shots and the best winning sequence;
• Cue action (feel of the shot, pace, screw action, ball movement trajectory etc.), relaxation technique in the table time intervals or after games;
• Mental fitness (including adequate self-assessment and opponent’s fitness assessment within game time intervals); and
• Ability to come to top form by due bodily functionality control abilities, with an emphasis on the ability to concentrate prior to the game and relax in the game/ inter-game intervals;

Cognitive skills are undoubtedly acquired and strengthened by practical experience gained in ranking events on the whole and in games with leading and experienced players in particular. It is not unusual that a single tactical error results in the frame or game being lost.

Technical skills are determined, among other things, by the highest dedication of the player and his persistence in the long-term training process. However, a mental condition of the player is always ranked among the key factors of influence on the practical technical skills. 

Furthermore, it is important that the player knows in detail every rule of the game including the provisions on the rest breaks in games and tournament, and be able to use the rules with the maximum benefits for the individual needs and tactical purposes in games with certain opponents. Breaks in tournaments will be used with top efficiency to analyse the game tactics and strategies and revise them when necessary. An experienced player must be capable of revising the game plan during the rest break and/or use the break to derail the opponent’s game rhythm or tactics. Breaks in the tournament schedule give the means for the players to design and master new strategies and tactical models of the game to choose the right game plan of a few options.

It should be noted that the developmental function of the game is never ended up with the end of the active competitive career in the sport for the reason that billiards is always open and highly attractive for people of any age group and, therefore, the individual development process in this sport virtually never ends and takes the whole life. 

Practical implementation of the training function may be described as the process to form a variety of personal qualities including the ability to concentrate; competitive spirit; high respect to the opponents; ability and desire to win; and the ability to lose with dignity. Moreover, the process will shape up the corporate/ teamwork culture and functionality including the team spirit making the player feeling himself an integral part of a strong team; mutual support in challenging game situations, including team discussions of the game positions, solutions and game plans. In the training process, the player accepts the common behavioural rules and styles, including the dress code, respect to the tournament organizers, service staff and opponents in the competitions; and, based on that, further progress of the tournament rules and practices are secured by the due individual contribution.

Conclusion

• Competitions in billiards are beneficial for the students with health disorders and impairments for they help them form the professionally important and general-cultural competences through a practical competitive experience, the acquired competences being highly important for their future careers in the national economy.
• The educational function of the competitive process makes it possible to form a few competences including the knowledge of regulations of the competitions; basic rules of the billiards game and rules of competitions in its specific disciplines; tournament progress/ elimination schedules; statutes of competitions; rules of competitive draws; game result reporting rules; and final competitive report performing rules.
• The developmental function of the game implies the students developing a few important competences including the self-control competence with due mental and functional self-management components; competitive process control and players’ interaction control competences; and knowledge of the refereeing, servicing and supervising rules of the tournaments. In addition, it is within this function that the best players of individual rounds and tournament are nominated.
• And the training function of the game implies the valuable individual mental qualities being formed in the students with the relevant corporate/ teamwork culture including the communication skills and due interaction skills for the benefit of the students’ sport activity at the university; and positive attitudes to the sport culture and accomplishments.

Corresponding author: avtitovskiy@yandex.ru

Abstract

The article presents a billiards tournament design model geared to engage university students of all health groups in a systemic sport activity. Main competitive competences of the student players in the billiards tournaments are identified and considered in detail in the study.

Subject to the study was a Study Group of 340 students of 18-23 years of age. The study analyzed the competitive reports of the university billiards competitions in the “free pyramid” discipline. The competitions were designed to attain a variety of educational, developmental and training objectives in the process. The study found that billiards competitions are an efficient tool to help develop a set of professionally valuable general-cultural competences in students diagnosed with health disorders and impairments based on practical competitive experience, the acquired competences being highly important for their future careers in the national economy.

The educational function of the competitive process implies that it forms a few competences including the knowledge of regulations of the competitions; basic rules of the billiards game and rules of billiards competitions in its specific disciplines; tournament progress/ elimination schedules; statutes of competitions; rules of competitive draws; game result reporting rules; and final competitive report performing rules. The developmental function of the game implies the students developing a few important competences including the self-control competence with due mental and functional self-management components; competitive process control and players’ interaction control competences; and knowledge of the refereeing, servicing and supervising rules of the tournaments. And the training function of the game implies the valuable individual mental qualities being formed in the students with the relevant corporate/ teamwork culture including due communication skills; proper teamwork skills for the benefit of the students’ sport activity at the university; and positive attitudes to the sport culture and accomplishments.

References

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