Dr.Hab., Professor S.B. Elipkhanov¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.A. Batukaev¹
A.A. Tsetiev^2
1Chechen State Pedagogical University, Grozny
²Chechen State University, Grozny

Keywords: questionnaire survey, sports, university students, physical education and sports, efficiency, physical fitness, physical activity.

Background. Academic physical education and sports service geared to secure optimal physical fitness and progress in motor skills and physical qualities has long been in high priority for the national physical education and sports expert community. It is paramount in this context to find ways to effectively customize the physical education and sports service to the actual progress needs and interests of the academic communities. We believe that the academic physical education and sports-specific customization initiatives shall be designed to secure necessary physical activity for the student groups – based on the methodological and institutional foundation for the sports-prioritizing youth physical education and sports service laid by V.K. Bal’sevich and L.I. Lubysheva [1, 2].

Objective of the study was to find and analyze attitudes of the academic youth to the academic physical education and sports service.

Methods and structure of the study. The Chechen State Pedagogical University’s Physical Education Department faculty run two questionnaire surveys of the 1-3rd year full-time students (n=277 and n=1903) of different university departments to profile their attitudes to the academic physical education and sports service on a sport-specific basis.

Results and discussion. The survey found 277 students preferring sport group practices as demonstrated by the responses to the question "What sports practicing sites do you prefer?", with most preferring communal sports at places of residence to the university group sports. We should note that 74% of the sample opted for university group sport services. To have more detailed survey data, we run a second survey (n=1903) of the 1-3rd year students: see Table 1 hereunder.

Table 1. 1-3 year students’: sport preferences survey data

Students were offered to highlight their preferences in 19 sports. The survey found 52% of the sample preferring team sports; of which 9.87% prefer volleyball and 32% other team sports. The rest of the sample mostly preferred martial arts (22%); and the smallest preference was found for powerlifting and kettlebell sports (0.05% and 0.01%, respectively).  The students were found driven in their preferences by the available material and technical base, coaching service quality and regional progresses of the sport disciplines. The high proportion of those opting for martial arts may be explained by the traditional priority to these sports in the region. We also found modern fitness service being highly popular (33%) – apparently due to the pedagogical university student community being dominated by women, plus the fact that the fitness groups enjoy three training gyms well served by experienced instructors. We also found 7.8% of the sample opting for chess and checkers. We were concerned to find as many as 47.4% of the sample opting for the standard physical training curriculum in the academic physical education and sports service – that means that they appear to underestimate the health and physical progress benefits of the modern academic sports that facilitate morphological and functional progress and provide great mass sporting, competitive and physical education / health experiences.

Conclusion. The survey found the regional academic youth giving the highest preferences to fitness, volleyball, judo, chess, football, freestyle wrestling and table tennis services in the academic physical education and sports curriculum. At the same time, we found the sample being still unaware of the great benefits of academic sports for the physical, morphological and functional progress. We recommend promoting the academic sport club activities to cultivate the physical education / health/ sporting lifestyles in the academic communities.

References

1.   Bal’sevich V.K. Sports vector of physical education in Russian school. M.: Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury i sporta publ., 2006. 112 p., il.
2. Bal’sevich V.K., Lubysheva L.I. Sports-centered physical education; educational and social aspects. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2003. No. 5. pp. 19-22.
3. Bondarchuk A.P. Sportization of physical education. M.: Olimpiya Press, 2007. 272 p.
4.  Lubysheva L.I. Conversion of high-tech sport as methodological principle of sportizated physical education and "sport for all". Fizicheskaya kultura: vospitanie, obrazovanie, trenirovka, 2015, no. 4, pp. 6–8.
5.  Lubysheva L.I., Mochenov V.P. New conceptual approach to modern understanding of social nature of sport. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2015, no. 4, pp. 94-101.
6.  Lubysheva L.I., Zagrevskaya A.I., Peredelskiy A.A. et al. Sportization in physical education system: from scientific idea to innovative practice. Moscow: Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury i sporta, 2017, 200 p.

Corresponding author: sbelphnv@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to find and analyze attitudes of the academic youth to the academic physical education and sports service.

Methods and structure of the study. The Chechen State Pedagogical University’s Physical Education Department faculty run two questionnaire surveys of the 1-3rd year full-time students (n=277 and n=1903) of different university departments to profile their attitudes to the academic physical education and sports service on a sport-specific basis.

Results and conclusions. The survey found the regional academic youth giving the highest preferences to fitness, volleyball, judo, chess, football, freestyle wrestling and table tennis services in the academic physical education and sports curriculum. At the same time, we found the sample being still unaware of the great benefits of academic sports for the physical, morphological and functional progress. We recommend promoting the academic sport club activities to cultivate the physical education / health/ sporting lifestyles in the academic communities.