Ph.D., Associate Professor M.S. Ponomareva
Institute of Physical Culture and Sport of M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk city

Key words: physical culture and sport, acmeological specifics, studentship period, professional development

Introduction. Findings of the sociological studies focused on specific individual merits of future physical culture and sport specialists need to be broader used to improve the quality of professional education in higher educational establishments.

The purpose of the study was to highlight the acmeological specifics of the studentship period to facilitate the formation and growth of future specialists in “Sport training” of M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University.

Materials and methods. The study was based on a documented public opinion poll. Random sample of 80 graduate students of M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University was polled under the study.

Results and discussion. The graduate students polled stated that they were initially involved in their favorite sport through special sport groups in public secondary schools or special children and youth sport schools. This way of coming to elite sport is very typical for the simple reason that it is almost impossible for anyone to enter a high educational establishment specialized in physical culture and sports and be successful in studies and sports unless he or she has mastered the sport basics through prior trainings.

Breakdown of responses to the question “How old were you when you made your occupational choice?” are given hereunder in Table 1.

Table 1

Our analysis of the poll results has shown that the graduates give the highest priority to the following three major motivators when coming to their vocational decision:

• The desire to have high achievements in sport;
• To acquire prestige profession; and
• To contribute to the development of the favorite sport in the Republic.

The above data demonstrate that the desire to have high sports achievements is an important starting point for the vocational decision by the future students. The graduates tend to believe that their personal achievements in sport will help them contribute to the development of their favorite sport in the Republic.

Responses to the question “Who was of influence on your vocational decision?” may be broken down into the following categories:

• “It was my own decision”:  85%;
• “My coach”: 10%;
• “My parents”: 5%.

The high proportion of the non-influenced individual vocational decisions appears to run contrary to the traditional notion that the primary school students normally make their vocational choice under influence of their parents.

The acmeological studentship stage in the professional career is never free of certain problems when the individual has to adapt to the new environment. The poll results show that 48% of the graduates polled report having faced serious adaptation problems in the first 2 months of the educational process while the other 52% say they have never had any problems. This situation is not unusual considering the fact that most of the students come to the university from rural areas straight into totally unknown environment where they have to actively interact with their fellow students, coaches, teachers, dwell at the students’ hostels, master the curriculum, face new educational and tutorial challenges, adapt to the new sport training conditions etc.

The respondents have also given their views on the sports coach vocation during the poll. The most frequent answers may be grouped as follows:

• It requires lots of physical efforts and spirit;
• It is exciting;
• It gives you the way to come in touch with interesting people;
• It gives you highest satisfaction when your trainees win;
• It is rather challenging.

Responses to the question “What personal qualities a sport coach must have?” may be generalized as follows:

• He/ she must be respected by the trainees;
• He/ she must be knowledgeable and skillful in applying modern training methodologies;
• He/ she must be demanding;
• He/ she must be highly sociable; and
• He/ she must have good managing skills.

The educational and sport process is designed to allow the student to attend classes, duly train and be reasonably involved in the university research and social activity. The respondents also highlight the two major challenges of this period that are marriage and child-bringing. Every student confesses being in need of some encouragement and normally gets it from parents, coaches, spouse and/or friends. The poll shows that 20% of graduates are married.

The poll data gives the basis to mark the following acmeological development stages in the studentship period (Table 2):

Table 2. Acmeological development stages in the studentship period

70% of the polled graduates believe that it was during the 2nd year at the university that they acquired enough knowledge and skills to be able to understand the basics of coaching process. In the 3^rd and 4^th year of education their knowledge about the sport coaching activity became much deeper. 30% of the respondents state that it was on the 3^rd year of the studies that they clearly realized the basics of sport coaching process.

Responding to the question “What is the most important thing that you acquired from the university?” most of the graduates say the following: first of all, an excellent education; and second, great confidence in personal career. 100% of the athletes polled state with confidence that the university studies gave them both the profession and the ability to efficiently manage their life and improve their communication skills.

One of the objectives of the poll was to find whether or not the graduates are happy with the quality of education at the university. The responses are the following: 96% are happy enough, and 4% are unhappy. Furthermore 92% of the graduates polled confirm that their profession is of highest importance for them and 8% say it is of some importance.

Conclusions.  The study has revealed the following acmeological specifics of the graduate students: the vocation-targeted efforts of the sport school coaches helped the students in making their vocational choices; individual dialogues of the school coaches with trainees and meetings with top-ranking athletes were the decisive factors for these decisions; it was at 15 to 17 years of age when they made final decisions to become a sport coach; the expected high achievements in the favorite sport were the important motivator for their choice; it is on the 2^nd year of studies that the students acquire some practical knowledge about the sport coach profession; it gives the means for them to realize the potential vocational challenges and specific problems they may face on the way before their future vocational activity will yield good benefits to them; in addition to the educational and sport-related problems, the students are concerned with the problems of marriage and parenthood; they are in need of encouragement from parents, coaches and families; the study highlights 2 main acmeological stages in the studentship period of professional formation, namely years 1 and 2 is the formation stage and years 3 and 4 is the perfection stage; educational and practical trainings heavily contribute to their professional growth; and the studentship years are the best period for active development of individual communication skills.

References

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3. Khozyainov, G.I. Akmeologiya fizicheskoy kul'tury i sporta (Acmeology of Physical Culture and Sport) / G.I. Khozyainov, N.V. Kuz'mina, L.E. Varfolomeeva. – Moscow: Akademiya, 2007. – 208 P.

Corresponding author: ponmarsem@mail.ru