Dr.Hab., Professor L.I. Lubysheva¹
PhD, Associate professor N.V. Peshkova^2
1Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sport, Youth and Tourism (GTSOLIFK), Moscow
²Surgut State University, Surgut

Keywords: sportization, university sport, integration, sport club, physical education department, competitive activity.

Introduction

Modern stage in the university sport movement in our country puts forth new challenges in the young people’s physical education process that imply both the physical qualities being improved and the relevant values and priorities in the personal health agenda being formed to encourage interest of the students to physical self-perfection and self-assertion in many ways including sport competitions [4]. It is important to make the university physical education practices and sports an integral component of the young people’s lifestyle so that later on they were always given the top priority for the whole life. We believe that it is the university educational environment sportization process that will help meet every of these challenges. 

It is the conversion of the key elements of the sport training technologies that has proved most beneficial for the physical education system that will form a conceptual basis for the sportization process [1]. V.K. Bal'sevich, G.G. Natalov and Y.K. Chernyshenko came up with the idea that a motor activity culture should be considered an intact basis of such conversion since this culture, in their opinion, forms essential content and entities of any physical education and sport system [2].

We believe that it is the competitive activity that the relevant motor activity culture finds its supreme manifestation through – and that is of much stronger impact on the young personality shaping process than any other form of socializing activity. In this context, we feel it is necessary to create sport-promoting educational environment in the higher educational establishments with its content and the educational and personality-development effects being largely dependent on the activity integration quality of the relevant university units, i.e. the Physical Education Department and sport club.

Objective of the study was to provide scientific substantiations for a sport club model management structure and the ways to integrate operations of a sports club and Physical Education Department to advance university sports.

Study results and discussion. A variety of matters with concern to the physical education and sport club structure and management have been addressed by N.M. Akhtemzyanova (2011); B.N. Vinokurov (2004); O.S. Zdanovich (2011); S.V. Kushenko (2005); A.V. Nikulina (2008); T.I. Chedova (2012); Y.A. Cherepov (2015) et al.

Multiple reports considering a wide variety of aspects and showing the highest interest to the organization and management of sport club activity in different domains demonstrate, on the one hand, the high priority given to these aspects and, on the other hand, the high complexity of the processes related to apprehension, understanding and coming to an agreed point of view on these matters.

The available methodological recommendations on school/ university sport clubs established in the national educational system consider a sport club as the most promising institutional form of mass sport advancement among students and young people [6]. As provided by the valid “School and Sport Club Activity Management Procedure” [6], a sport club may be founded in an educational institution either as a constituent unit of the latter or as a public association other than a legal entity; the club system will be designed with due consideration for expectations of the students and educators and actual eligible resources/ funds of the relevant educational establishment. It may be important to mention that the valid legal and regulatory documents and recommendations give no provisions on the newly formed sport club interaction with university departments on the whole and the Physical Education Department in particular. 

O.V. Kostromin [3], for instance, makes a design and performance analysis of the existing sport clubs based in Saint Petersburg and highlights the following three most promising formats of their operation and development: (1) sport club designed as a separate university division with its independent staff fully responsible for the mass sport events design and management; (2) sport club designed as a financially independent university division with its staff coaches free from the Physical Education Department control; and (3) sport club integrated in the physical education department.

It is the third option that may bring, in opinion of the authors, the highest benefits since the sport club and university department in this format work shoulder to shoulder in every their operation.

This opinion is not necessary supported by other sport analysts. B. Semirkhanov, Deputy Manager of Plekhanov Russian Economic University, for instance, believes that “the system will be clearly divided into a physical education department responsible strictly for the academic curriculum, and the remaining off-class time may be employed by a sport club responsible, among other things, for mass sport events, university sport asset management, organizational support of the university sport sections and first university teams; cooperation with fans; profit-making activity and the university brand name promotion activity” (http://studentsport.ru/).

However, we still tend to believe that a sport club will be established as a separate university division and its operations will be coordinated with the academic curriculum of the Physical Education Department to create favourable conditions to advance university sports and sport mastery and foster sport culture in students in the sport-promoting (“sportizated”) educational environment.

Given on Figure 1 hereunder is the university sport club management structure model.

Figure 1. University sport club management structure model

Integration, as defined by the modern Dictionary of Physical Culture and Sport Terminology by V.A. Golov (2008) is the (1) “process or action that results in unity”; or (2) “unification, merger, restoration of unity”. The “Russian Thesaurus” (2005) defines integration as the “situation when different system parts/ functions are interconnected into a unity – and the process leading to such a situation”. In context of the present study, we would consider integration as the process geared to sort out, harmonize and unite individual units with their core responsibilities and operations into a single holistic body – in application to the sport club unification with the Physical Education Department with the strategic purpose of university sport advancement (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Integration of the sport club and Physical Education Department operations in the university sport advancement domain

As presented above on Figure 2, the key purpose of the Physical Education Department and sport club operations integration is to advance and increase efficiency of university sports – essentially through encouraging the students’ engagement in active training and competitive process. Given on Figure 3 hereunder is the intra-university system of base mass sports/ physical education/ health improvement events. Content, numbers, priorities of the events and their qualification for the University Sport Festivals are variable i.e. they may be updated and/ or extended to meet requirements of the higher-level competitions, students’ expectations, changing conditions of the improved sport infrastructure of the university etc.

Figure 3. Intra-university system of base mass sports/ physical education/ health improvement events

It is important to emphasize that special attention will be given to the university competitive process design and management efforts, as the university competitions are recognized as an integral part of the sport-promoting educational environment. We would support our own study data and analyses by the data reported by M.V. Prokhorova and A.G. Semenov [5, 7] to list the following key benefits of the sport competitions as a personality-development and socialization tool:

• They give students emotional contentment and motivations for success, and it should be emphasized that the success-focused motivation may become an important personal asset generally applicable to other important goals in life and imperative for the professional career of a young person;
• They create favourable situation for the self-testing and self-assessment of the personal physical/ mental qualities and skills that are necessary in the personal physical/ mental status formation and assertion process;
• Competitions help develop individual self-control abilities as they offer multiple challenges and unpredictable situations to test the person’s ability to keep own temper, resist to provocative actions and keep stiff upper leap when facing sudden problems;
• They heavily contribute to the personal life experience in many aspects being imperative, among other things, for good socializing skills being formed in a dynamic social environment; and help develop high interference immunity that is always valued high on the competitive professional labour markets; and
• Competitions may facilitate the personality development process not only in the direct competitors but in their spectators as well. Many students confess being engaged in active sports through the spectators’ seats as the emotions and compassion triggered by successes and failures of the favourite athletes you watch naturally urge you to try your own qualities on the sport arenas and may even motivate you for the highest sport accomplishments; and this is the way for many people to come to sports and start the difficult self-improvement and excelling process.

Conclusion. The pilot experiment under the study we completed at Surgut State University shows that integration of the sport club and Physical Education Department operations to advance university sports may be beneficial as it creates a favourable sport-promoting educational environment that engages first-year students in active sports and stimulates their interest to the physical self-improvement and self-assertion through the academic sport education and participation in a variety of sport events.

References

1. Bal'sevich V.K. Sportivny vektor fizicheskogo vospitaniya v rossiyskoy shkole (Sport vector of physical education in schools of Russia) / V.K. Bal'sevich. – Moscow: Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul'tury i sporta, 2006. – 112 p.
2. Bal'sevich V.K. Konversiya osnovnykh polozheniy teorii sportivnoy podgotovki v protsesse fizicheskogo vospitaniya (Conversion of fundamentals of sport training theory in the course of physical education) / V.K. Bal'sevich, G.G. Natalov, J.K. Chernyshenko // Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. – 1997. – № 6. – P. 15–25.
3. Kostromin O. V. Organizatsionno-pedagogicheskoe upravlenie sportivnym klubom tekhnicheskogo vuza (Organizational and pedagogical management of sports club in technical university) / O.V. Kostromin // Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. – 2014. – № 2. – P. 55-57.
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5. Prokhorova M.V. Bor'ba – tsel', smysl i stikhiya zhizni (Competition - goal. meaning and element of life) / M.V. Prokhorova, A.G. Semenov, I.D. Pososhkov. – St. Petersburg: SPbSUEF, 2000. – 477 p.
6. Sbornik metodicheskikh rekomendatsiy po sozdaniyu i organizatsii deyatel'nosti shkol'nykh i studencheskikh sportivnykh klubov v strukture obrazovatel'nykh organizatsiy, podvedomstvennykh Departamentu obrazovaniya g. Moskvy (Collected guidelines on establishment and organization of activity of school and student sport clubs in the structure of educational institutions subordinate to the Department of Education of Moscow) / comp. M.V. Anisimova, V.V. Zakharova. – Moscow, 2014. – 66 p.
7. Semenov A.G. Aktivizatsiya vospitatel'nogo potentsiala sportivnykh sorevnovaniy sredi studentov (Enhancement of educational potential of sport competitions among students) / A.G. Semenov, M.V. Prokhorova // Kul'tura fizicheskaya i zdorov'e. – 2006. – № 3(9). – P. 22–24.