S.V. Mukhaev
Basketball club "Dynamo-GUVD", Novosibirsk

Key words: young female basketball players, physical training, technical and tactical training, planning and organization of training.

Introduction. The problem of the insufficiently high for joining masters’ teams fitness level of the graduates of basketball children and youth sports schools was marked rather long ago in the works of the leading basketball experts [1,4,6,10] and is still acute. The physical, technical and tactical fitness levels of the majority of female basketball players, CYSS graduates, claiming for further training in professional club reserve teams do not comply with the contemporary demands [7]. Fitness problems of young female basketball players are not completely eliminated during further training in the teams of the children and youth basketball league and youth teams of professional clubs, resulting in the majority of women’s youth basketball team players being unclaimed by the Premier league clubs when reaching the age qualification.

Another criterion determining the fitness level of female CYSS graduates is the results of Russian cadet national teams at European championships. Cadet national teams are made of the best 16-17-year old female basketball players, participating in the championship of the children and youth basketball league (CYBL). In its turn, the CYBL teams are made up with the most perspective female basketball players of CYSS.  The results of performances of female cadet national teams of the country at European championships are adduced in Table 1. The year of the European championship is stipulated in the first line, rank - in the second line of Table 1.

As shown in Table 1, in the 90-s Russian female cadet national teams were the leaders in the European basketball. In 2000-s Russian female cadet national teams lost their leadership in European basketball. Nowadays female cadet national teams succeed only occasionally in European championships.  By the analysis of the experts working with cadet national teams, our girls yield to their foreign coevals in individual fitness, first of all, in physical “conditions” and quick execution of techniques, namely speed technique. 

Table 1. The results of performances of Russian female cadet national teams at European championships

Fitness problems of female basketball players of CYSS are caused by the present system of long-term training in the children and youth basketball. Proceeding from the literature analysis, long-term training in the children and youth basketball has not been properly covered yet. There is a small range of scientific publications devoted to single aspects of various kinds of training, but the main sections of long-term training such as physical, technical, tactical ones and the issues of sports training in the children and youth basketball are hardly substantiated.

In addition, in spite of the present data on the peculiarities of development of girls’ development and specific responses to training effects in different age periods, copying of the methodologies of youth training is the main approach in training of female basketball players in CYSS. This approach does not facilitate the revelation of the kinesiological potential of young female athletes.  

The purpose of the present study was to prove the methodological conditions of efficiency of the process of long-term training of female basketball players in children's basketball.

The goals were as follows: 1. To investigate the issues of organization of the long-term physical, technical and tactical trainings in CYSS. 2. To analyze the accepted in the children and youth basketball approaches to planning and organizing of the training process. 3. To determine the methodological conditions of enhancement of the training process in the children and youth basketball.

Materials and methods. The researches were carried out mainly with the use of theoretical methods of analysis and synthesis, stipulating for studying of the courseware documents and literature sources on the issues of physical, technical and tactical training of female basketball players in CYSS, planning and organizing of training with further systematization of the material and substantiation of the most crucial issues.

In accordance with the first task, the accepted approaches to physical training in the children and youth basketball were studied and the main problems inhibiting obtaining of the high physical fitness level were determined. The approach to physical training based on the ideas on other sports, such as track and field athletics and weightlifting, is one of the main problems in physical fitness of female basketball players of CYSS. As a result the kinematic and motor structure of the game of basketball is not taken into account [8]. Motor qualities are developed beyond the structure of basketball techniques, preventing from realizing of the physical potential in the playing activity. Moreover, exercises taken from other sports can have a negative influence on the style of basketball techniques.

When settling the second task the problems impeding obtaining of the high level of speed skills were revealed. The indicated problems follow from the existing approach to formation and enhancement of technical skills in basketball, based on focusing on correctness up to overlearning, fixing the techniques being learnt in the modes not related to the playing ones in the central nervous and other body systems. In addition, children are constantly increasing their functional capabilities by ageing and fitness enhancement. The contradiction occurs in the long-term training process, consisting in the need for constant retraining of the new rhythm and speed structure of the formed skills as children grow and their functional capacities increase stipulated by sports training [9]. Consequently, a vast number of training hours and work is required for learning the whole volume of basketball players’ skills. Besides, even if the whole volume of basketball players’ skills is stabilized then they won’t correspond to the competitive execution states.

Ultimately, most of the time in children sport schools is dedicated to enhancement of technical skills at the expense of other sections - physical and tactical trainings, which provokes serious shortcomings in speed skills and physical and tactical fitness of basketball players of CYSS.

Moreover, low physical fitness of female basketball players of CYSS limits formation of good technical skills of young female athletes. Complex motions can be learnt only in case of high physical fitness level, facilitating the best use of the technical and tactical fitness in competitions.

Low tactical fitness level of female basketball players of CYSS is to a certain extent the reason for the orientation of tactical training, when the main focus is shifted to rehearsing standard combination moves to the prejudice of improvement of creative mechanisms of group tactical solutions [1,5]. The lack of the single tactical school in the CYSS female graduates is a limiting factor of their introduction in professional lineups.

Apart from the existing approaches, impeding obtaining of the high fitness level by the CYSS graduates, a lot of incorrectly represented data in the sports training program for children and youth sports schools, specialized children and youth sports schools of Olympic reserve render a negative influence on the training process [2]. For example, Table 2 contains the data of the ratio of body conditioning / specialized conditioning methods from different tables of the program. The data in the form of the number of hours a year from the curriculum of the long-term training are adduced in the first line of Table 2 [2, P. 19]. The data in the number of hours a year, from time schedules for each academic year are stipulated in the second line of Table 2 [2, P. 23-46]. The third line of the table contains the percentage for body conditioning / specialized conditioning in year training cycles [2, P. 20].

As shown in Table 2, the number of hours provided for body conditioning / specialized conditioning in the curriculum and time schedules for every year can: coincide (SP-3); coincide roughly (TG-1, TG-2); differ (IT-3, TG-3, TG-4, TG-5, SP-1, SP-2). The body conditioning / specialized conditioning ratio represented in hours in the program curriculum frequently differs from the relevant data of the year time schedules and can differ from the percentage represented in the third line of Table (TG-4).

Table 2. The number of hours and the ratio of body conditioning / specialized conditioning methods of the program for CYSS

The data of the ratio of methods of technical and tactical training also differ in different tables of the program, as presented in Table 3.

As seen in Table 3, the number of hours provided for technical and tactical training from the curriculum and time schedules for every year can coincide (SP-3); distinguish upwards in the annual plan (SP-2); differ downwards in the hours provided for technical training and upwards in the hours to be spent for tactical training (IT-3, TG-1); have various ratio in hours and percentage (IT-3, TG-1, TG-5). 

Table 3. The number of hours and the ratio of methods of technical/ tactical program of CYSS

Table 4 contains the information of the program related to the hours provided for physical, technical and tactical and playing trainings per year. The data are taken from time schedules for academic years and calculated in respect to orientation and amount of work by kinds of training in the adduced microcycles in the relevant year cycles.

Proceeding from Table 4, much less hours were given for physical training in microcycles, compared to the hours stipulated in the time schedules, provided we referred all hours allocated in the microcycles at individual training classes to the classes of physical training. Although in practice approximately a half of the volume of the individual work falls on technical training.

Table 4. The year-wise number of hours in time schedules and microcycles provided for physical, technical and tactical and playing trainings

When planning a technical and tactical training the following situation is observed: the number of hours in the training microcycles exceeds the relevant characteristics in time schedules up to the groups of sports perfection, where everything changes in the opposite direction. 

The playing training indicators for the youth age are significantly higher in the training microcycles, coincide in training groups of the third, fourth and fifth academic years and are much higher in the time schedules in the groups of sports perfection.

In accordance with the common approach of the program to allocating of the multidirectional work, the incorrect allocation of work in respect to kinds of training is especially obvious in training microcycles, which is irrational in respect to the process of physical training. The groups of initial training (9-12 year olds) are to train in the conditioning microcycles twice a week, 1 hour at the first class and 2 hours at the second class. The first-year training groups (12-13 year olds) also train twice a week for 2 and 2,5 hours respectively [2, P. 25, 28]. The point is that physical training classes are very energy consuming and stressful. Even in professional teams one class of physical training very seldom lasts more than an hour and a half. The allocated by the program 2-2,5-hour physical training classes do not conform to children’s psychophysiological capacities and can be bad for their health.

In the specialized training microcycles the groups of initial training are to train 1 hour a week, the first and second-year training groups - 2,5 and 2 hours once a week respectively. One class a week, even if it is 2,5 hours long, is not enough to develop special physical qualities of a basketball player. Physical training classes are not provided for the pre-season and season microcycles. Consequently, physical training classes are interrupted for three weeks in the groups of initial training and up to six weeks in the first mesocycle of the first-year training groups and three weeks in each of the next phases of the long-term training. Obviously, such breaks are not good for creating long-term adaptive changes in the relevant body systems. Time and forces are finally wasted but the physical fitness level remains low. Based on the represented in the microcycles allocation of work in respect to kinds of training, female basketball players of CYSS are to have gaps in physical fitness, which is practically proved [7].

Moreover, inadequate regulations for the test “40 sec running” for the third-year female basketball players of the groups of sports perfection were presented in Table 19 of the program [2, P. 78]. The authors assume that the athletes are to run across nine courts within this time. According to simple analyses, even if girls run with the speed 20 m per 3.5 sec, as stated in the qualifying standard of the program for “limited agility”, they will need 44,1 sec to cover nine courts, apart from the losses due to baseline deceleration and acceleration. Over 50 female athletes from junior and youth teams were tested in running across 8 courts. The quickest and fit female basketball players cover eight courts for 43-45 seconds. And here is another divergence: Table 20 of the program [2, P. 79] contains the inadequate regulations for the test “Speed dribble”. Numerous test data of female basketball players of CYBL teams and youth teams, reveal that in case of doing the given test in accordance with the instructions stipulated in the program [2, P. 74], the practical results will be approximately ten seconds slower than in the table 20 of the program.

Due to the incorrectly represented data in the program, CYSS coaches doubt what to take as a basis when planning and organizing the training process: long-term training curriculum, annual time schedules or allocation of work in respect to kinds of training, represented in microcycles. Therefore the third task of our study was to analyze the long-term training plan accepted in the children and youth basketball, which revealed specific problems.

According to the program for CYSS, the phased structure of training is recommended. The cycles of recapturing shape are to be divided into the phases of initial and special trainings, where first the basis, the foundation, is to be created via numerous conditioning methods being applied then at the phase of special training.

But nowadays it is known that the approach to the training organization based on the drive for creating the full value foundation for future sports results is possible only when the task of the involved ones is physical recreation, but not high sports results [3]. “Only training of low-qualified athletes can be based on the conditioning methods” [3, P. 9]. This approach contradicts to the indicated in the program “…goal of training of young athletes for high sport skills” [1, P. 7]. The case is that “…at phased organization of the above marked cycles athletes recapture shape first in the conditioning methods and then - special ones. By the moment of recapturing shape the obtained overall fitness level decreases in special conditioning exercises by the end of the specialized training phase, which is not good for transferring fitness from conditioning methods to special ones” [3, P. 20].

In addition, when using this method of organization of training cycles, female basketball players of CYSS most frequently will not recapture shape by the competitions held during school holidays. As an example we analyzed the training cycle in the fifth-year training groups. Development of physical fitness will take place in the following way. The conditioning phase (three weeks) will hardly emhance basketball player’s sports shape, for conditioning training exercises and technical and tactical exercises outside the playing environment (teaching new material) do not facilitate recapturing of this shape. The process of development of sports shape by a player starts only at the special training phase and continues at the pre-season one, since the applied training methods correspond to basketball players’ actions in a game in respect to motor structure and execution modes. Training classes at the special training and preseason phases total to 49, which is enough for recapturing shape, provided all classes, including physical and individual trainings, are conducted with the use of only special developing and competitive exercises. But it is impossible to make a week microcycle with nine to eleven developing trainings. In three-four weeks such training effects will result in the overload of the endocrine system, increase the risk of muscle injuries due to deficiency in the relaxation ability and can provoke myocardosis. Therefore, in practice three days of training in the two-time mode are followed by training in the recovery mode. The methods of physical training include conditioning exercises for restoration. So by the start of the competitions during school holidays the players will not have enough of special developing trainings to recapture their shape.

According to the program, such cycles are repeated three more times within the year cycle, meaning that one is to start with new changes, being not in shape and with incomplete long-term adaptive changes in different body systems. Such an organization of the training process slows down the progress in the fitness of female basketball players of CYSS. 

Herewith, more training classes are required at the phased method of organization of the cycles of development of sports shape. According to the program of the training microcycles for groups of initial training and the first-year training groups, the week microcycle contains five training classes. Seven – for the second-year TG and ten trainings a week in the third- and fourth-year TG and eleven training classes a week in the TG of the fifth academic year and groups of sports perfection. In practice it happens very seldom in most of the groups of CYSS that training classes are held more than five-six times a week due to occupancy of gyms and young athletes being busy studying at comprehensive schools. Thus another method of organization of the training process is to be designed, capable of getting players into shape by the competitions during school holidays.

We assume that the fourth task can not be solved only by changing approaches to main kinds of training and eliminating the existing shortcomings in the CYSS program. The course of the long-term training in the children’s and youth basketball is to be build based on the “fitness transfer” [3, P. 3]. Since numerous exercises are used in the training practice of female basketball players when learning and mastering technical skills, developing physical qualities, efficiency of the training process depends mainly on the consideration of their interaction during specific training classes, micro-, meso- and macrocycles of training and methods of their construction. The directed fitness transfer is mostly related to the used intensity zones, volumes of training loadings and applied modes of muscle work. Organization of the training process from the position of fitness transfer determines the approaches to physical, technical and tactical training, along with planning and organizing of training. Besides, the training methodology in the children’s and youth basketball is to be enriched via the conversion of the technologies and methodologies well-established in various sports.

In addition, the process of long-term training of young female basketball players is to be implemented according to the principle of age adequacy of sports activity expressed in the efficient use of various exercises, methods of their application, the ratio of multi-directed loadings, in respect to developmental age rates and related morphological and psychophysical changes in the structure of functioning of the junior and senior girls’ bodies.

The study resulted in the conclusions:

1. Underdeveloped matters of the use of methods of physical training in micro-, meso- and macrocycles are the main problem of physical training in children's basketball. Moreover, the use of the methodologies of motor development out of the structure of technical actions renders a negative influence on the physical fitness of young female basketball players, preventing from realization of the physical potential in the playing activity.

The problems associated with faults in speed technique are caused by focusing on the appropriate performance up to automation, resulting in the technical methods being learnt, establishing in the central nervous system and other body systems in the modes not related to playing ones. Furthermore, the low physical fitness level limits the formation of the high level of technical skills and motor development out of the structure of technical actions influences negatively the technique of performance of basketball maneuvers.

The issues of tactical fitness of female basketball players of CYSS are caused by focusing mainly on rehearsing combination moves with prejudice to enhancing of creative mechanisms of group tactical solutions.

2. The established system of design and organization of the training process not facilitating the formation of long-term adaptive reorganizations in various body systems is an inhibitive factor of development of fitness of young female basketball players.

3. The popular practice of copying training methodologies of young male basketball players disregards the psychophysiological characteristics of the body reaction to training effects among young female athletes.

4. The quality of the long-term training methodology for female basketball players in the children’s and youth basketball can be enhanced via conversing the present achievements in the theory and methodology of sport, ensuring arranging the training process in view of fitness transfer and technologies and methodologies of elite sport, capable of settling the problems in the approaches to physical and technical trainings.

The goal of the next investigation phase is to prove efficient principles and methods of organization of the main training phases in the children’s and youth basketball based on conversion of the advanced sports technologies and methodologies.

References

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Author’s contacts: mob.ph.: +7-913-958-4971,  e-mail: smukhaev@bk.ru