Professor V.A. Sheregova¹
PhD, Associate Professor Sh.F. Farakhutdinov²
PhD, Associate Professor O.V. Ustinova^2
1Tyumen State Institute of Culture, Tyumen
²Tyumen Industrial University, Tyumen

Keywords: dance sport, socializing, physiological specifics, emotional burnout, educational mastery.

Background. The notion of socialization is being increasingly applied in the modern social sciences to define the individual acceptance of the common social rules and norms critical for success in society. The relevant study reports apply a variety of terms and definitions specific for the socialization process domains and aspects including the gender-, role-, family-, profession-, ethno-social- and other ones, including the sports-specific socialization aspects [1]. It should be mentioned that the notion of dance-sport-driven socialization has virtually never been applied so far although we believe that it may be characteristic of the socializing processes typical for the young dancers’ communities. The dance-sport-driven socialization implies a few progress stages with the relevant success factors of the individual sport careers with the growing competitive experiences.

Objective of the study was to analyze the socializing aspects of modern dance sport and its progress stages by an expert questionnaire survey.

Methods and structure of the study. The expert questionnaire survey was run in late 2017, with the experts including the leading trainers and referees from the Dance Sport Federation of Tyumen Oblast. The questionnaire survey was run using the Survey Monkey website and emails, on informed consent of every expert. On the whole, we received filled-in questionnaire forms from 56 experts out of 76 (74% of the total) and, hence, the survey data may be qualified valid and informative. The experts were encouraged to apply the survey tools on their discretion and comment on the questions and findings to substantiate their opinions.

Results and discussion. Having analyzed the survey data and the expert findings, we would classify the dance-sport-driven socialization process into the following four main stages.

Stage 1 (4-6 year-olds) starts from the moment of the child’s entrance to the dance sport group and ends up as soon as the beginner dancer comes to the first serious competitions. It should be emphasized that families often encourage children for the sport dances to help them adapt to the peer communities for comfort and progress the social adaptation domain, although there is always the risk that it may forcibly speed up the natural children’s development processes [4]. Still the modern sport dances are believed by many families to be one of the best physical progress options for their children.

The Stage 1 dancers are still rather indefinite in their sport progress agendas since at this stage. Many children attend different creative/ developmental/ sporting groups for their families want to both keep the child busy and help it explore own predispositions and gifts. A final choice is not always in favor of the dance sport albeit the dancing basics and experiences may be very important for the individual progress paths, with the group trainer typically playing the key role in the efforts to motivate the beginners for progress [3]. Families are recommended to be highly responsible and careful in selecting a dance group and trainer for their children in Stage 1.

Stage 2 (7-12 year olds) is the dance sport basics mastering stage making a special emphasis on the postural control, positioning skills, visual contacts with partner and audience etc.; plus the vestibular system, musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous system developmental and performance improvement aspects. It is important that such practices help both master the key motor skills and accumulate an intersexual communication experience with the basic progress management skills. These aspects of the dancing practices are rather important since they satisfy the natural need for social partnership that, when remain unsatisfied, may give rise to many affective, emotional and behavioral disorders [5]. The basic skills developed at Stage 2 will be tested by first tournaments. It should be mentioned that the first competitions may be highly stressful and emotional for the beginners, with families and coaches expected to be highly sensitive to children in case of failures, otherwise the latter may fast lose their enthusiasm and motivations and even leave the sport. Friendly objective contemplations and competitive performance analyses are recommended to help the young dancer realize own errors and motivate him/her for further competitive progress. The need to combine studies with trainings require special efforts to be taken to secure the individual progress in every domain, with the potential emotional burnout and tiredness of both the families and children being prevented in this stage otherwise the children may retire from the sport groups. The retirement rate, however, is not that higher as about 80% of the children are reported to retain in the groups upon completion of Stage 2.

Stage 3 (12-15 year olds) is the key and critical stage when the outflow from the dance sport groups reach its peak due to basically the following three factors. First, this is top point of the families’ careers when the parents are mostly 35-45 years old and well established in their lives and professional fields, with their interest in the children’s sporting life and accomplishments naturally and notably sagging. Second, the young athletes become fairly independent in this age, no more needing assistance in travels to the sport facilities, training and competitive processes, with the independence covering the career-related decision-making aspect. Further sport progress at this stage highly depends on the personality qualities including genuine motivations, self-discipline/ controls, responsibility etc. And, third, this is the adolescent age with its natural physiological challenges including hormonal transformations, high sensitivity to own imperfections and resources, and serious mental imbalances. It is not unusual that the group attendance discipline sags in this period, with the outflow reaching 10-15% per year. Such losses may be rather heavy for the sport groups since the retired athletes are fairly skilled and physically fit [1] with high flexibility and endurance rates, teamwork skills, reasonable discipline and, what is most important, mentally fit for competing in major tournaments.

Stage 4 (15-16-plus year olds) is the professional excellence stage when normally under 40% of the initial group numbers remain in the sport. When the young athlete reaches this stage, the probability of a sudden retirement from the sport is not high anymore, with the retirement decisions being well grounded – e.g. by serious injuries. This is the stage when every athlete fully mobilizes the individual resource and gifts for competitive success, with multiple competitions helping accumulate the indispensable experience and analyze it for further progress. Self-identification at this stage is often dominated by the dance sport, with all the other life elements viewed as additional to the sport career. Retirements from sports in this stage are normally due to the age-specific physical regresses and the associating competitive failures; plus some other reasons including marriages, childbirths, resettlements to different cities/ countries etc.

Conclusion. As demonstrated by the survey, the socializing aspects of the modern dance sport are generally age-specific. Despite the fact that the age groups are not always definite enough, their identification helps understand the key trends and stage-specific issues and problems. We would prioritize the following two ways for the trainers to mobilize the socializing aspects of dance sport: (1) education psychology driven approach that makes an emphasis on the individualized communication, understanding and cooperation; and (2) process management approach geared to find the best training models for success. Thus the teamwork and couple trainings are known to cement people, build up the team spirit and effectively prevent the human resource outflows from the teams. The above approaches are recommended being prudently combined at every stage of the socializing process.

References

1. Babanov I.V. Sportivnaya sotsializatsiya kak protsess integratsii sportsmena v professionalnoe soobshchestvo [Sports socialization as process of integrating athlete into professional community]. Vestnik RGGU. Ser.: Filosofiya. Sotsiologiya. Iskusstvovedenie. 2016. no. 4 (6). pp. 96-103.
2. Dombrovskaya E.N. Sotsializatsiya detey mladshego shkolnogo vozrasta v usloviyakh folklorno-tantsevalnoy sredyi [Socialization of primary school children in folk-dancing environment]. PhD diss.. M., 2009. 201 p.
3. Starostina Yu.A., Karabanova O.A., Zakharova E.I.,  Churbanova S.M., Vasyagin N.N. [ed.] Osobennosti motivatsionnoy sfery materey doshkolnikov v usloviyakh forsirovaniya detskogo razvitiya [Features of motivational sphere of mothers of preschoolers in children's development facilitation process]. Psikhologicheskie problemyi sovremennoy semyi [Psychological problems of modern family]. Proc. VI intern. sci. conf.. 2015. pp. 812-818.
4. Uruntaeva G.A. Detskaya psikhologiya [Child psychology]. Textbook. M.: Akademiya publ., 2006. 368 p.

Corresponding author: sheregova53@mail.ru

Abstract

The notion of socialization is being increasingly used by the modern social sciences to define the individual acceptance of the common social rules and norms critical for success in society. Objective of the study was to analyze the socializing aspects of modern dance sport by an expert questionnaire survey. Invited to the expert team were the leading trainers and referees from the Dance Sport Federation of Tyumen Oblast, with the questionnaire survey run using the Survey Monkey website and emails, on informed consent of every expert. On the whole, we received filled-in questionnaire forms from 56 experts out of 76 (74%) and, hence, the survey data may be qualified valid and informative. As demonstrated by the survey, the socializing aspects of modern dance sport are generally age-specific. Despite the fact that the age groups are not always definite enough, their identification helps understand the key trends and stage-specific issues and problems. We would prioritize the following two ways for the trainers to mobilize the socializing aspects of dance sport: (1) education psychology driven approach that makes an emphasis on the individualized communication, understanding and cooperation; and (2) process management approach geared to find the best training models for success. Thus the teamwork and couple trainings are known to cement people, build up the team spirit and effectively prevent the human resource outflows from the teams. The above approaches are recommended being prudently combined at every stage of the socializing process.