Dr. Hab., Associate Professor L.I. Kostyunina¹
Postgraduate Dugufana Bagayoko¹
Postgraduate D.S. Nikolaev^1
1Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University named after I.N. Ulyanov, Ulyanovsk

Keywords: customizable training model, nervous system type, movement coordination skills, junior footballers.

Background. Sports psychologists believe that the individual competitive styles and success largely depend on the key qualities of the nervous system that forms a basis for many predispositions, capacities and athletic resources [5]. As found by many studies, individuals with a strong nervous system are generally more tolerant to fatigue and stressors and, hence, more successful in competitions due to the better volitional mobilization and concentration, and more effective in the self-control and in combining hard work with relaxation. Individuals with a relatively weak nervous system better adapt to monotonous work keeping high working capacity, better in mastering difficult technologies and have good attention control qualities [3-5].

Some researchers underline that the nervous system qualities shall be taken into account by the junior (pubertal age) footballers’ training systems, particularly in the speed-strength and coordination training domains, with a special attention to the game positions. Such individualized approach helps, in their opinion, speed up progress in the technical and tactical skills and performance efficiency and facilitate management of the theoretical and practical training process [2, 4]. Studies of the nervous system qualities and their effects on the key technical and tactical and movement coordination skills training process have always been of special interest for the junior (8-10 years old) footballers’ training system designers. Football experts believe that the 8-10 year-olds are most sensitive to startup speed, motor response, running speed, kinesthetic differentiation ability, body balancing, adaptability, movement control and special skills training tools [1, 6, 8].

Objective of the study was to test theoretical and practical design and benefits of a customizable movement coordination skills training model for the 8-10-year-old football players individualized for their nervous system types.

Methods and structure of the study. School experiment to test the new customizable movement coordination skills training model was run at Volga Olympic School of Sports Reserve named after N.P. Starostin in Ulyanovsk in 2018-2019. We sampled the 1-2 year 8-10 year-old footballers (n=31) and spit them up into Experimental Group (EG, n=16) and Control Group (CG, n=15). The Control Group trainings were traditional for the Olympic School of Sports Reserve, and the EG training system was complemented by the new customizable movement coordination skills training model in view of the individual nervous system types.

Results and discussion. Special movement coordination skills in football may be formed and excelled by a long-term training system customizable to the natural sensitive progress periods and offering special exercises to improve the competitive movement coordination skills at every training stage [6]. Based on the motor skills classification concept by L.D. Nazarenko (2015), every motor skill quality largely depends on the relevant movement coordination skills with the sports-specific aspects critical for competitive success, and coaches, therefore, are recommended to use special movement coordination skills training tools, particularly in the sensitive periods [7].

We run a questionnaire survey of the football coaches (n=48) from Volga Olympic Sports Reserve School named after N.P. Starostin in Ulyanovsk to rank the key movement coordination skills critical for progress of the 8-10-year-old footballers and contributing to their new motor skills and special techniques mastering efforts. Knowing that the football-specific motor skills are largely interdependent and interconnected, the coaches still ranked the key movement coordination skills as follows: accuracy (21%), balance (19%), agility/ motor response (15%) and speed (14%). This ranking was found to agree with recommendations of the leading experts on the football-specific movement coordination skills training system design and management [1, 6, 8].

Accuracy may be defined as one of the key movement coordination skills that secures the spatial-temporal and spatial-strength controls being well harmonized to attain goals of the motor skills [7]. Purposeful trainings to develop kinesthetic sensations differentiation skills with special perceptions ("feel of the ball") shall start as soon as possible, with a special priority to the footwork and ball control skills to lay a sound basis for the growing technical and tactical skills  on a reasonably versatile basis [1]. Balance (static and dynamic) may be defined as the postural control or ability to keep body stable as required by every game situation. No wonder that it is ranked among the key coordination skills interconnected with and contributing to the other key motor skills in the movement coordination skills [7, 8]. And agility/ motor responsiveness may be defined as the ability to control/ maximize the movement pace/ tempo and speed for success in every technical and tactical action with/ without the ball for success of the teamwork. Individual agility in football implies, among other things, the ability to quickly master new motor skills; complex coordination movement coordination skills in standard and nonstandard match situations; and timely respond to every match situation.

The EG trainings were designed to develop the key movement coordination skills on an individualized basis, i.e. as required by the nervous system type. Based on the pre-experimental tapping test data (most popular nervous system typing express test adapted by E.P. Ilyin), we split up the EG as follows: EG-1 composed of individuals with weak (17.4%) and moderate (40.6%) nervous system types (n=9); and EG-2 of those with moderate-strong (34.8%) and strong (7.2%) nervous system types (n=7), respectively.

When planning a weekly training cycle for the EG for the basic training stage (3 months of 3 trainings per week), we gave a special priority to the speed and agility training elements; at the second stage to the accuracy and balance; and third stage to the balance and agility training elements. This combined system was designed knowing that none of the movement coordination skills may be trained separately from the others, and every training session shall be focused on no more than two motor skills [6]. The movement coordination skills training tools were selected with account of the movement coordination intensity of the preparatory and special exercises traditional for junior footballers, plus artistic gymnastics, acrobatics, athletics and active game training elements helpful for the movement coordination skills mastering and excelling purposes.

On the whole, the specific movement coordination skills trainings made up to 40% of every training session, with the movement coordination skills training elements grouped as follows depending on the training stage: basic conditioning/ special preparatory stage: 40/30%, 45/50% and 15/20% for the low, moderate and high levels, respectively. The special movement coordination skills practices were designed to complement the preparatory and beginner stages of every training session. The warm-up and final stages of every training session were dominated by the flexibility and motility excelling practices to improve the movement amplitude and freedom, mitigate post-training pains and prevent injuries.

The nervous-system-type-specific training practices were varied in the total times; rest breaks; and intensities, i.e. repetitions/ series. The EG-1 (weak nervous system type) trainings were dominated by controlled workloads, with the training goals attained by increased repetitions/ series and rest breaks. The EG-2 (strong nervous system type) trainings were dominated by intensive workloads with stepped increase of reps and reduced rest breaks. The EG trainings were naturally complicated by the fact that children of this age are still difficult to manage and control as their self-control skills and discipline are still underdeveloped and, hence, special attention shall be paid to secure due discipline and determination in the training process, with every exercise in every subgroup strictly controlled and managed by the coach.

Despite the obvious subjective difficulties, the pre- versus post-experimental tests showed the new customizable movement coordination skills training model being beneficial. Thus the pre-experimental tests found the intergroup (CG vs. EG) physical fitness rates insignificantly (р> 0.05) different. The post-experimental tests found significant (p <0.05) intergroup differences in the static/ dynamic balance, agility, accuracy (muscle efforts differentiation) and speed tests, with both groups found to make different progresses in these aspects.

Thus the pre- versus post-experimental dynamic balance on a gymnastics bench test found progress of 10.4% and 3.1% (p <0.05) in the EG and Control Group, respectively. The pre- versus post-experimental Romberg's static balance test found progress of 24.5% and 14.7% (p <0.05) in the EG and Control Group, respectively. The pre- versus post-experimental stuffed balls run test found progress of 18.2% and 9.1% (p <0.05) in the EG and Control Group, respectively. The pre- versus post-experimental target shot test found progress of 13.2% and 6.9% (p <0.05) in the EG and Control Group, respectively. And the pre- versus post-experimental muscular efforts differentiation accuracy (standing long jump) test found progress of 17.9% and 6.7% (p <0.05) in the Experimental and Control Group, respectively. The similar significant differences in the group progress was found by the running around sticks, dribbling slalom and ball juggling (agility and rhythm) tests. Traditional physical fitness tests also found significant (p <0.05) intergroup (EG vs. CG) differences on the speed-strength and speed test scales.

Conclusion. The new customizable movement coordination skills training model testing experiment, with the training service individualized for the nervous system types, was tested beneficial for the 8-10-year-old football players, as it was found to secure, in the basic training stages, good progress in the physical fitness and special motor skills to lay a sound basis for progress in the sport-specific technical and tactical skills, physicality and functionality for competitive success.

References

1. Averyanov I.V. Methodology for improving kinesthetic coordination abilities of 10-11-year-old footballers. PhD diss.. Omsk, 2008. 240 p.;
2. Bandakov M.P., Polevoy G.G. Method of customizable development of specific coordination abilities of 11-12 year-old footballers in typological features in view of nervous system properties. Nauchnoe obozrenie. Pedagogicheskie nauki. 2015. No. 1. pp. 65-66.
3. Vyatkin B.A. Selected psychological studies of individuality: theory, experiment, practice. Knizhny mir publ.. Perm, 2005. 392 p.
4. Drandrov G.L. Building speed-strength qualities and agility in 13-16- year-old footballers based on typological features of manifestation of nervous system properties. PhD diss. Abstract. Omsk, 1989. 20 p.
5. Ilyin E.P. Psychology of individual differences. St. Petersburg: Piter publ., il. (Ser. «Masters of Psychology»), 2004. pp. 330-356.
6. Lyakh V.I., Witkowski Z. Coordination training in football. M.: Sovetsky sport publ., 2010. 216 p.
7. Nazarenko L.D. The concept of classification of motor coordination. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2015, no. 3, pp. 99-101.
8. Shamonin A.V. Actions to improve technical training when building balancing skills in 7-11-year-old footballers. PhD thesis. Abstract. Yekaterinburg, 2010. 22 p.

Corresponding author: likost@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to test theoretical and practical design and benefits of a customizable movement coordination skills training model for the 8-10 year old football players individualized for their nervous system types.

Methods and structure of the study. The new customizable movement coordination skills training model testing experiment was run at Volga Olympic Sports Reserve School of named after N.P. Starostin in Ulyanovsk in 2018-2019. We sampled the 1-2-year 8-10 years-old footballers (n=31) and spit them up into Experimental Group (n=16) and Control Group (n=15). The Control Group training was traditional for the Olympic Sports Reserve School, and the Experimental Group training system was complemented by the new customizable movement coordination skills training model with account of the individual nervous system types.

Results and discussion. The study was designed to first classify the sample by the muscular and mental activity regulation types into the provisionally weak/ strong nervous system types. The nervous-system-type-specific group trainings were geared to test benefits of a customizable movement coordination skills training model on a nervous-system-type-specific basis. The new model was tested beneficial for the movement coordination skills trainings of the junior footballers as the pre- versus post-experimental tests showed meaningful progress of the Experimental Group versus Control Group in every traditional physical fitness and special movement coordination skills / motor skills test.