PhD, Associate Professor K.P. Bakeshin
St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, St. Petersburg

Keywords: cognitive qualities, civil engineering student, tactics, counterattack, boxing.

Background. Each technical action (strike, defense, feint etc.) in modern combat sports is designed to attain specific goals. Boxing sport with its extreme stressors and fast versatile tactics requires certain anticipation and the ability to respond by the most efficient stereotyped actions [8, 9]. It should be mentioned that boxing coaches and instructors often underestimate the importance of good cognitive qualities and fail to build sound tactical skills in the trainees using the individual reflecting and analyzing skills excelling elements [1].

Objective of the study was to test benefits of the cognitive qualities activating boxing tactics mastering model for civil engineering students.

Methods and structure of the study. The model was tested on two equivalent groups of the beginner (2-year) academic boxers of St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering by an experiment including the following two stages. Preparatory Stage 1 (01.09 to 01.12.2017) was designed to test the cognitive qualities excelling methods and tools. And Stage 2 (01.12.2017 to 01.07.2018) applied the newly developed cognitive qualities building model to a 2-year civil engineering students sample split up into Reference Group (RG, n=20) and Experimental Group (n=20). Both of the groups were trained twice a week with the progress tested by the standard physicality and functionality tests. The RG was trained using the standard method and the EG was trained using our own cognitive qualities activation model with the relevant interrelated goals and staged progress building and testing system. We run the pre-experimental surveys, tests and expert analyses [2, 4, 5] to rate the background cognitive qualities in the sample.

The model implies the cognitive qualities trainings starting from the civil engineering students’ positive motivations/ attitudes encouraging elements designed on an individualized and needs-sensitive basis to spur up the cognitive-qualities-specific motivations and agenda. Theoretical provisions for the cognitive qualities activation model were developed based on the intellectual capacity staged progress theory [3] and our own cognitive qualities activation model applicable in the theoretical and practical training process [2]. The cognitive qualities activation model in this study was designed on a 4-phase basis with an emphasis on the boxing counterattack trainings with the relevant interrelated goals, tasks, methods and tools in every progress stage as follows.

Stage 1 included theoretical trainings to master counterattacks in a range of typical bout situations, with the specific tools and methods geared to: familiarize the students with the standard fight situations and master the relevant counteractions. The progress goals were attained by: instructions on the counterattack techniques and tactics to build the knowledgebase on a systemic basis; demonstrations with verbal explanations of the counterattack techniques and their tactical purposes; and group discussions to stimulate the individual comprehensions and analyses. With time the technical and tactical tasks difficulty levels were stepped up in every cognitive qualities excellence phase.

Stage 2 was designed to facilitate further cognitive qualities progress on the fight-situation-specific basis with a special attention to the attack markers (body weight shift to the rear leg, squat, back swing, etc.) and typical/ repeated attack sequences. The training methods and tools were focused on the attack marker detection – first in the simple situations followed by more difficult ones trained in the fight mimicking and spurring bouts. Progress in this stage was facilitated by: instructions on the most typical attack markers on a simple-to-complex basis; and the "boxing school" fight simulation elements [7]. For example, the coach would demonstrate an attack marker followed by attack with the trainee expected to counter with the best possible defenses and counterattacks. In the fight mimicking and spurring bouts designed on the stepped simple-to-complex basis, the trainees would master the attack detection skills in every step/ phase and predict the opponent’s actions in the standard situations both by the attack markers and repeated/ typical actions. Upon such trainings, every trainee was expected to fairly analyze and rate the own performance.

Stage 3 of the cognitive qualities excellence in the civil engineering students sample was intended to further excel the counterattack skills on a situation-specific basis using the instructor-student interaction algorithm [2] with the cognitive qualities activation in the skills excellence process. The trainings included special tactical goals attainable using the target technical skills.

Stage 4 of the cognitive qualities excellence model was geared to streamline and automate the situation-specific counterattack skills. The students were encouraged to tackle particularly the most challenging tasks with variable tactical solutions in different modeled competitive conditions. The experimental trainings made an emphasis on the motivational and emotional aspects on a competitive-situation-specific basis. Upon the experimental training, the cognitive qualities of the sample was probed and rated by the questionnaire surveys, educational tests and expert analyses using the relevant sets of progress rating criteria [2, 4, 5].

Results and discussion. The pre- versus post-experimental cognitive qualities tests found significant progress in the EG: see Table 1.

Table 1. Pre- versus post-experimental cognitive qualities test data of the EG (n=20)

The physical fitness and technical/ tactical skills test data were also indicative of the significant progress made by the EG: see Table 2.

Table 2. Pre- versus post-experimental physical fitness and technical/ tactical skills test data of the sample

Furthermore, the EG was tested with significant progress in the intellectual efficiency tests: see Table 3.

Table 3. Pre- versus post-experimental intellectual efficiency test data of the sample

It may be pertinent to mention that 12 EG boxers were promoted in the sport qualifications as a result of the experimental training – versus 7 peers in the RG.

Conclusion. The cognitive qualities excelling boxing tactics mastering model was tested beneficial for the academic boxers as verified by the tests and competitive progress.

References

1. Bakeshin K.P. Self-reliant education and training style formation and manifestations: case study of boxing groups at Civil Engineering University. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2017, no.  11, pp. 36–38.
2. Bakeshin K.P. Self-reliant cognitive ability phased building model applied in academic boxing course at civil engineering university. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2018. no.  9. pp. 42-44.
3. Volkov K.N. Psychologists on problems of education. Moscow: Prosveshchenie publ., 1981, pp.  27–42.
4. Ilyin E.P. Psychology of will. St. Petersburg: Piter publ., 2000, pp. 236-239.
5. Kukharev N.V. Building mental independence. Minsk: Narodnaya asvetapubl., 1972. p. 25.
6. Nikishkin V.A. Improvement of academic physical education system. Fizkultura i sport publ., 2012, no. 5, 314 p.
7. Romanov V.M. Long, medium fight and infighting. M.: Fizkultura i sport publ., 1979. 189  p.
8. Mokeev G.I., Rudenko G.V., Mokeeva E.G., Panchenko I.A. Experimental studies of the relationship of training effects, conditions and competitive activity of boxers. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2015, no. 5, pp.  79-82.
9. Rudenko G.V., Mokeev G.I. Junior boxers' integrated training system. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2017, no. 5, pp. 53-55.

Corresponding author: bakeshin@bk.ru

Abstract

Each technical action (strike, defense, feint etc.) in modern combat sports is designed to attain specific goals. Boxing sport with its extreme stressors and fast versatile tactics requires certain anticipation and the ability to respond by the most efficient stereotyped actions. It should be mentioned that boxing coaches and instructors often underestimate the importance of good cognitive qualities and fail to equip the trainees with sound tactical skills using the individual reflection and analyses encouraging elements. The cognitive qualities activation issues are presently given a high priority by the sport communities. The study analyzes benefits of the cognitive qualities activating boxing tactics mastering model tested on a sample of the St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering students. Cognitive qualities are interpreted as the integrative personality characteristic including a knowledgebase and skills developed by focused cognitive efforts with the tactical solutions analyzing and finding abilities indispensable for success. We believe that the well-developed tactical thinking skills facilitate progress in academic studies. The new model was designed based on our studies of the civil engineering university students’ cognitive qualities improvement potential in the boxing tactics (particularly counterattacks) mastering trainings. The model was tested on two equivalent groups of the beginner (2-year) academic boxers of the Civil Engineering Department. We found the new cognitive qualities mobilizing boxing tactics mastering model beneficial for the self-reliant cognitive abilities training in students.