Senior teacher, master's degree student S.V. Kondratovich¹
PhD, Professor A.V. Zakharova^1
1Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg

Keywords: response rate, age peculiarities, junior football players, simple visual-motor response, complex visual-motor response.

Background. Team sports, among which is football, impose high requirements for athletes’ individual psychophysiological characteristics. It can be argued that a response rate, as an aspect of the functional state of the nervous system, is the psychophysiological basis of motor activity in football, and the role of fast-decision making in unexpected extreme situations is growing in importance with age [2].

In experimental psychology, there are empiric materials relating to sensorimotor response in humans. The patterns that express the dependence of the response rate on individual typological qualities, as well as the characteristics of human mental health, were identified earlier [1, 3, 4, 7]. At the same time, the one-time screening of the psychophysiological characteristics of highly-skilled athletes provided a series of case studies, while the data obtained in the children and adolescents were provided without the interpretation of the findings in view of the level of age-related development or sports specialization. The psychophysiological characteristics of the athletes in ontogenesis were virtually unexplored.

Experts in sport psychology consider adolescence to be a sensitive period for the development of a number of mental qualities. Thus, 10-15 years is one of the most important age periods in a teenager’s life. It is in this period that objective prerequisites for performing complex, previously unavailable motor tasks are created. In the first half of this period, sensorimotor qualities are developed, in the second half - cognitive ones [5].

The lack of age-specific qualifying standards for sporting children and adolescents makes it difficult to characterize various aspects of the psychophysiological determination of junior athletes' activities for practical purposes. Thus, it seemed relevant to examine the response rate in its long-term dynamics as an aspect that ensures successful sports activities.

To conduct a thorough study of the age-specific dynamics of the response rate and accurately describe the age-specific changes, a longitudinal method is recommended to be used. A longitudinal study is a long-term study of the identified factors in one population, which makes it possible to identify the age-related dynamics and forecast further development.

Objective of the study was to identify the age-specific dynamics of the response rates in the 10-15 year-old football players.

Methods and structure of the study. Sampled for the study was a group of male athletes born in 2004 - trainees of the Sports School of Olympic Reserve "VIZ", Yekaterinburg, with 3-5 years of training experience.  The tests were run in the period from November 2015 through December 2019 on the basis of the laboratory "Technologies of Sports Rehabilitation and Selection" of the Common Use Center of Ural State University in the competitive (May 2016 (n=17); April-May 2017 (n=20)); preparatory (November 2015 (n=13); October 2016 (n=15); September 2017/2018 (n=22; 20); October-December 2019 (n=22)) periods, as well as in the pre-season (February 2017/2018 (n=20; 17); March 2019 (n=24)). We analyzed the test results of 18 athletes who had participated in all the stages of the study.

The individual peculiarities of the response rate in the junior football players were studied using the hardware and software complex "NS-PsychoTest" (LLC "Neurosoft", Ivanovo city, Russia). A red light signal was used to determine the simple visual-motor response rate while the complex visual-motor response rate was measured based on the choice between two alternatives.

Results and discussion. It was found that the simple visual-motor response time in the junior football players was significantly reduced with age (Table 1). This was particularly evident between 10 and 12 years and 14 and 15 years. On the one hand, the identified drivers for change are natural age-related psychomotor function improvement processes and, on the other hand - the effects of regular training.

Table 1. Age-specific rates of athletes’ response to a single-type stimulus (M±SD, (min-max)

Note. * – significance of differences (р≤0.05) compared to the previous year.

The decrease in the standard deviation of the response rate with age also indicates an improvement in the response stability. In addition, with each age period, the response rate decreased from 5.56±0.4 errors in the first test (10-11 years) to 2.67±0.29 errors in the final test (14-15 years).

The complex visual-motor response test includes a motor component similar to that in simple visual-motor response, signal detection and decision-making in response to the signal. These parameters can be used to assess the development of the decision-making speed. The central delay rate calculated by the formula the formula M_CVMR - M_SVMR was used to assess the data processing speed (Table 2).

Table 2. Age-specific rates of athletes’ reaction of choice between two alternatives (M±SD), (min-max)

Note. * – significance of differences (р≤0.05) compared to the previous year

The annual increase in the simple visual-motor response rate in the football players from 10-11 to 15 years was 8.1%, 4.8%, 1.1% and 3.8%, respectively, and the annual increase in the complex visual-motor response rate was 9.2%, 15.2%, 6.8% and 14.4%. The detected increase is in sync with the sensitive period for the development of the simple visual-motor response - 10-12 years, and for the development of choice reaction - 13-14 years. At the age of 14-15 years, the visual sensory system is maturing intensively [2, 5, 7]. This ensures better functionality of the athletes, which has a positive effect on their reactivity on the playing ground.

Table 3 presents the study data on the response rates in the football players of "VIZ-2004" and the data obtained by other authors [1, 4, 6, 8] in athletes of different ages. It was found that the pattern of development of athletes' response in ontogenesis is similar to that described in other literary sources.

Table 3. Simple visual-motor response rates in 10-15 year-old football players, (M±SD), мс

Conclusions. It was found that the response rates in junior and adolescent athletes are associated with the age-specific psychophysiological features and tend to improve. The results demonstrated by the successful 10-15 year-old football players can be used as due reference values in monitoring of the effectiveness of the training process and selection of junior football players. Age-specific psychophysiological features are essential to the individually-differentiated approach in football training.

The work was carried out with the financial support from the Russian Federation Government Resolution  No. 211, Contract No. 02.A03.21.0006.

References

1. Belenko I.S. Psychophysiological characteristics of junior team athletes of different age and fitness. Vestnik TSPU. 2009. no. 3 (81). P. 54-57.
2. Boyko E.I. Age-related changes in reaction time in children and adults. Border problems of psychology and physiology. Moscow: APS RSFSR publ., 1961. pp. 162-169.
3. Grushko A.I., Bochaver K.A. Diagnostics of the motor reaction time in various sport. Sportivny psikholog, 2016. No. 1 (40). pp. 82-87.
4. Guba V.P., Marynich V.V. Comparative analysis of psychophysiological indicators of young football and hockey players. Sportivny psikholog. 2014. No. 2 (33). pp. 68-74.
5. Ilyin E.P. Differential psychophysiology. St. Petersburg: Piter publ., 2001. 464 p.
6. Sergienko L.P. Sports selection: theory and practice. Moscow: Sovetskiy sport publ., 2013. 1048 p.
7. Feygenberg I.M. Speed of motor reaction and probabilistic forecasting [Speed of motor response and forecasting. Human physiology. 2008. No. 5. pp. 51-62.
8. Horshid F.H.A. Regional sports selection system development technology. Teaching aid. Kiev: USUPES publ., 1996. 39 p.
9. Carron Α.V., Bailey D.A. А longitudinal examination of speed of reaction time and speed movement in young boys from 7 to 13 years. Hum. Biol., V.45,1973, No.4. рр. 663 – 681.

Corresponding author: s.v.kondratovich@urfu.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to identify the age-specific dynamics of the response rates in the 10-15 year-old football players.

Methods and structure of the study. Sampled for the study were the 10-15 year-old football players (n=18) training at the Sports School of Olympic Reserve "VIZ-Sinara", winners of the Russian futsal championships (2018; 2019-2020), many-time finalists and medal winners of the regional and national futsal tournaments. The longitudinal study of the subjects’ psychomotor system performance indicators was carried out using the hardware and software complex "NS-Psychotest" ("Neurosoft" LLC, Ivanovo city). We analyzed the football players’ simple (SVMR) and complex visual-motor response rates. A total of 190 samples were analyzed over 5 years (2014-2019).

The statistical data processing was made using the STATISTICA 23.0 software package. The statistical significance of differences was determined by the parametric Student's t-test.

Results of the study and conclusions. The simple visual-motor response rates in the football players ranged from 226.5±76.46 ms in the 10-11 year-olds to 188.67±33.44 ms in the 15 year-olds. The complex visual-motor response rates were also characterized by an upward trend: from 483.32±45.8 ms in the 10 year-olds to 297.51±27.81ms in the 14-15 year-olds. The results presented can be used as due reference values in monitoring the effectiveness of the training process and selection of junior football players.