Associate professor, Ph.D. E.T. Kolunin
Institute of Physical Culture of Tyumen State University, Tyumen

Keywords: convergence, gymnastic means, initial training, sport reserve, sports training

Introduction

Elite sport development agenda in the context of modern challenges brings to the forefront the need to improve the children/ youth sport research and development programs.

It should be confessed that the efficiency of the ongoing work in the children/ youth sports on the whole, with a few exceptions for the highest individual achievements of Russian athletes, still fails to meet the increasingly strict requirements to the sports training and conditioning standards needed to compete in major international and national events. It may be one of the reasons why many winners of junior and youth championships fail to be qualified to the relevant national teams and disappointedly retire from their sports – often before even entering adult sport teams [7]. In addition, the sport statistics for the last few decades shows the negative trend in the health conditions of the national sport reserves since the newcomer athletes are increasingly vulnerable to the sport-specific injuries and musculoskeletal deformities that, in their turn, motivate them to retire or otherwise may evolve to chronic diseases that are not unusual for elite athletes [6, 7].

We may further give many reasons for the irretrievable losses of gifted new athletes, although mentioned first in this list should rather be the serious mistakes in the vocational orientation and selection process aggravated by inadequately designed special vocational training system, particularly its initial component that provides a basis for successful sport career.

This initial training period, as the leading scholars tend to believe, is the time when the foundation for the individual health and overall physical working capacity, dependability and harmonic functionality of the body systems on the whole is formed, and when the overall and special physical fitness qualities are formed as an indispensable prerequisite for future accomplishments. These objectives can be attained only by a variety of special physical exercises and techniques being applied in the training process [1, 8, 9].

It should be mentioned that gymnastics as a sport discipline has accumulated for its history a set of specific means and methods to secure harmonious physical education of those practicing it. Gymnastic exercises differ from other types of physical exercises in the sense that most of them are purposefully designed for focused and very effective actions on specific body organs and systems.

As seen from the study of the modern research, educational and methodological literature and the available practical experience, many leading sport specialists acting in a wide variety of sport disciplines have to make resort today to gymnastic exercises and techniques to step up the athletic training process efficiency [2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11].

However, despite some progress in acknowledging the relevance of the problem and even its coverage in a few researches, the modern sport theory still lacks a scientific substantiation for convergence of gymnastic means to the sports training processes with due consideration for requirements of every sport discipline.

The purpose of the study was to give a theoretical substantiation for and meaning of convergence of gymnastic means in the initial training process as a basis for successful sports career. 

Research methods. The research methods applied in the study were as follows: analysis of available sport science literature, analysis of available archives and documentary chronicles; and monitoring in the educational process.

Results and discussion. It was around 1950ies that convergence first emerged as a term in politics and economics meaning the process of the economic/ political/ and ideological differences of the capitalist and socialist systems being gradually leveled to eventually come to complete integration [14].

Lately the term convergence has been increasingly in use in quite a few other sciences. Being applied in media-economics, for instance, convergence means the integration of a few communication platforms into a new system including integration of their primary communication flows into a joint information product. In addition to economics and media-economics, the term convergence is being increasingly used in communication industry and different humanitarian, natural, social and political sciences.

In culturology, for instance, convergence means the process of gradual merger of cultural systems into a new integrated system having new qualities. In its cognitive application, the term convergence means the dialogue on the level of core cognitive structures that implies mutual assimilation of these structures up to the same identification; in its social applications, the term means the virtual merger of different cultural subjects. Furthermore, in sociology the term means the process of gradual harmonization of opposite societies or systems. In biological sciences, the term convergence means the evolution-driven emergence of similar structures and functions in unrelated organisms due to their adjustment to the much the same environmental conditions.

Having studied the modern meanings of the term convergence in different scientific and social applications, we would recommend using this term in the physical culture and sport science. Being applied in the physical culture and sport science, convergence will mean the infiltration of resources and methods specific for physical, technical and integrative athletic training processes from one sport discipline to the other with an objective to improve sport results, overcome growth barriers, prevent common sport-specific injuries and diseases and improve athletes' health.

It may be important to mention in this context that some elements of convergence in the above meaning have been widely applied in the sport science and practice for many years in fact. Guzov N.M. (1990), for example, found through special educational experiments that the children engaged in gymnastic exercises (regardless of their objectives that could address general development, field fitness, acrobatic/ applied skills etc.) showed much better physical culture and fitness criteria than their peers not engaged in gymnastics [3].

Furthermore, Topol’ A.I. (2002) demonstrated that acrobatic exercises being included in the special training systems help improve the speed-strength and motor-coordination qualities of junior tennis players of 12 to 13 years of age. As demonstrated by his study, a variety of gymnastic exercises including straight and side rolls, falls etc. in a balanced combination with the general development practices was of significant positive effect on the physical fitness ratings of 12 to 13 years-old boys practicing tennis [10].

Tyshler D.A. (2007) highlighted in his study that motor skill focused training must be given a top priority in the fencer training systems, with the conditioning gymnastic exercises being recommendable as a basis for formation of necessary physical qualities [11].

Gayvoronskaya A.A. (2009) developed and justified an efficient methodology for initial aerobic training practices being applied in the basketball training systems that proved beneficial for the functional capacities and physical fitness of the athletes [2].

Shamonin A.V. (2010) demonstrated that special sets of selected balancing capacity improvement exercises dominated by the gymnastic practices largely contributed to the technical skills development training systems in application to junior football players of 7 to 11 years of age [13].

Recognizing the great importance of the above studies, we should mention, however, the lack of strictly regulated model or policy for convergence of training technologies from one sport discipline to the others in the modern sport science.

With this situation in mind, we understand the gymnastic means convergence in the training process initial phase of the long sport career as the set of sequential actions geared to integrate the relevant gymnastic exercises and techniques in the program of sports training systems with a special emphasis on preventing musculoskeletal deformities and removing the barriers for the individual progress of sport careers, with due consideration for specific requirements of one or another sport discipline and model characteristics of the best athletes.

The gymnastic means convergence process, in our opinion, should be implemented in accordance with the following plan (Figure 1):

1. In the first year of training, every athlete must practice the same set of general gymnastic exercises regardless of the vocational sport disciplines (general application). Work loads of these exercises and techniques in the initial phase must come to 35% of the total work load of the whole training process, regardless of the special sport disciplines. The gymnastic exercises applicable in this time period must be geared to improve health of the trainees, form good body shape and stance, facilitate harmonized physical development of beginner athletes and develop their primary physical qualities (including speed, strength, flexibility, coordination and endurance). In addition, the gymnastic exercises must be applied in the training progress control system to duly rate the physical fitness of the trainees in the process and thereby facilitate and improve the efficiency of the vocational orientation and selection processes. We would offer the following classification of the gymnastic exercises recommendable for all sport disciplines: field exercises, conditioning exercises with or without apparatuses, acrobatic exercises, applied and free exercises.

Figure 1. Gymnastic means convergence in the sport reserve initial training process

2. In the second year of training, the gymnastic practices should be selected with consideration for the specific sport discipline classification with the relevant group (specific application phase). As things now stand, there are a few classifications of sport disciplines in sport science based on different sets of criteria (by Farfel’ V.S., 1969; Matveev L.P., 1977; Verkhoshansky Y.V., 1985; Keller V.S., 1986) and each of them appears to be well grounded. We have based our study on the classification offered by V.P. Filin.

For the purposes of the study, we listed the following most popular classic sport disciplines included in the Summer and Winter Olympics: football, track and field athletics, swimming, judo, boxing, Greco-Roman wrestling, cross-country skiing and ice hockey. Each of these sport disciplines has its own sport traditions, training systems and methodologies. We grouped these sport disciplines based on the dominant physical qualities most valuable in the relevant competitive activity and the related necessary training actions on individual physical qualities of the athletes (Table 1).

Table 1. Groups of sport disciplines subject to gymnastic means convergence (based on the partially revised V.P. Filin’s classification)

When designing the training process, the gymnastic exercises are to be selected and applied with due consideration for the specific requirements of the relevant group, and the gymnastic work is to make up to 35% of the total work load in the training process. Top priority in the selected gymnastic practices is to be given to the exercises and techniques geared to help develop the key motor skills and physical qualities as required by the relevant specific sport discipline. The junior athletes engaged in the speed-strength sport disciplines should be trained with due regard to the complex coordination- and speed-and-strength- developing exercises dominated by leg muscle trainings through games and continuous practices. In combat sports, the training process is to be supported by pair exercises and different acrobatic practices to help master the individual safety techniques with elements of practical applied exercises (carrying the partner, climbing, clambering etc.) designed to develop mostly the speed and speed-and-strength qualities in the shoulder girdle and arms. In the cyclic sport disciplines, the training process is to be supported by selected special gymnastic exercises intended to develop the general endurance by conditioning exercises, free exercises, obstacle courses and respiratory gymnastics.

3. In the third year of the training process, top priority should be given to the actions to develop the efficient motor techniques and facilitate the special physical training process (individual application phase).

The gymnastic practices and techniques will be selected with consideration for the specific requirements of the sport discipline (football, ice hockey, judo, boxing, track and field athletics and swimming) and individual qualities of the trainees to help develop the sport-specific qualities and capacities and establish a basis for the key techniques of the specific sport discipline being mastered. In this stage, gymnastic exercises will come to 30% of the total training work.

The above plan of the gymnastic means convergence will secure the gymnastic practice integration in the sport reserve initial training process in a most efficient manner. The plan will enable the gymnastic practices and techniques applicable in the athletic training systems being put in good sequence and integrated in the special training systems with due consideration for the specific sport requirements, individual qualities of the trainees, objectives and tasks of the training process, training seasons and model qualities of the leading athletes. Special selected control gymnastics-based exercises will help fairly assess the individual progress of the beginner athletes in the training process.

Conclusions

1. Our analysis of the modern sport reserve initial training systems applied in the country (with their focus on early specialization that often leads to musculoskeletal deformities and chronic diseases) demonstrate the urgent need in the training programs, plans and methodologies being revised.

2. Gymnastic means convergence in other sport disciplines helps prevent the early musculoskeletal deformities and remove the existing barriers for growth with due consideration for the specific requirements of the sport disciplines and model qualities of the leading athletes, and thereby contribute to the sport reserve training quality.

3. The gymnastic means convergence process includes the following elements: general application (covering the basic gymnastic exercises and techniques regardless of the special sport requirements geared to improve health of the trainees and step up their physical fitness levels); specific application (dominated by the gymnastic exercises broadly tailored to the specific requirements of the sport group); and the individual application (that includes special gymnastic exercises and techniques focused on the specific individual requirements of the sport discipline and individual qualities of the trainees).

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Corresponding author: kolunin2@mail.ru