Professor, Dr.Hab. V.A. Taymazov
Professor, Dr.Hab. S.E. Bakulev¹
Associate Professor, PhD A.M. Simakov¹
Associate Professor, PhD A.V. Pavlenko
Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health, St. Petersburg

Background. As things now stand in competitive martial arts, their training systems are in need of certain modernization with new, more efficient methods and designs of the long-term training process being found and implemented. The sports badly need such reforms due to a variety of economic, social, psychological and environmental aspects that has come up in the modern society development process. This is the reason why the studies considering improvements in the traditional training systems in competitive martial arts are highly topical at present. However, when it comes to the topicality and promises of one or another research avenue, the researchers should always bear in mind that it is the sport community that is their major client for and consumer of the research product, i.e. coaches, athletes and sport managers. In this context, we would propose to consider the studies of competitive martial arts as a social order. The researchers and analysts should know perfectly well the benefits expected by the sport community from the studies of competitive martial arts. With this purpose in mind, the research team of the Boxing Theory and Practice Department of Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health (St. Petersburg) made an attempt to put together conceptual basics for the modern research through an opinion poll of sport coaches, elite martial arts athletes, sport practitioners and managers.

Objective of the study was to make a sociological analysis of the study reports considering the competitive martial arts and find the most promising fields for the research.

Methods and structure of the study. It was in the period of 2014-2016 that the research team run a few opinion polls including detailed interviews of leading specialists in boxing and taekwondo (WTF and ITF versions [World Taekwondo Federation and International Taekwondo Federation]) taken as the case martial arts for the study. Subject to the poll were a few categories of specialists. Mentioned first will be Category I and top-level coaches and Honored Coaches of Russia. Second, elite martial arts athletes (Masters of Sport, International Class Masters of Sport and Honored Masters of Sport) from boxing and taekwondo sport organizations based in Saint Petersburg, including the Children’s and Youth Olympic Reserve Sport School (CYORSS) “Comet”, the CYSS “Dolphin” and university students, masters and post-graduates majoring in the relevant specialties at the Boxing Theory and Practice Department of Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health (St. Petersburg) were polled. And, third and last but not least, the sport management officers from the Boxing Sport Federation of Saint Petersburg and the Taekwondo Sport Federation of Saint Petersburg were interviewed under the study.

For the purposes of the study, we developed a questionnaire form composed of the following four blocks of questions grouped by the top priority fields and content of research in boxing and taekwondo sports.

Block 1: Questions to have the respondents' opinions on the general situation with the theoretic support of the boxing/ taekwondo training systems, including the applicability of the new research developments on the whole, their accessibility for the coaching community and athletes, and their implementation degrees in the actual training systems.

Block 2: Questions on the degrees of the available theoretical support for some aspects of the boxing/ taekwondo training systems, including those to explore the relevance of the physical/ technical/ tactical training and mental conditioning systems in the subject sport disciplines.

Block 3: Questions to explore the boxing/ taekwondo experts’ viewpoints on the actual development levels of the biomedical support system and whether or not they meet the modern requirements.

Block 4: Questions with concern to the present developmental level of the education control system applied in the boxing/ taekwondo training systems.

Responses to the above classified questions were used to identify the prevailing expert opinions on the model fitness rates applied at different stages of the long-term training process. Each of the above blocks of questions was offered to the boxing/ taekwondo coaches, athletes and managers, respectively. Responses obtained by the survey were processed to identify the prevailing expert opinions on specific issues of the social demand for research product being formed in the relevant Olympic sport disciplines, i.e. the competitive boxing and taekwondo sports.

Study results and discussion. The above questionnaire survey made it possible to obtain an overview of the leading boxing/ taekwondo experts’ opinions and use them to identify the priority fields for research by the research team of the Boxing Theory and Practice Department of Lesgaft National State University.

Block 1 analysis found that the implementation degree of the research developments in training practices was viewed as insufficient by 58% and sufficient by 24% of the experts polled; with 18% of the respondents being uncertain on the issue. The accessibility level of the research findings were rated as insufficient by 52% of the experts polled; and sufficient by 20%; whilst 28% were uncertain about that. Furthermore, the analysis showed the new research methodologies designed to obtain one or another set of the athletes’ performance rates being considered fairly difficult for practical implementation by the martial arts experts for they normally require special theoretical background or instruments to be put in practice [3, 5, 6, 8].

Block 2 analysis found that the experts do believe that a top priority in the studies designed to improve the elite boxing/ taekwondo training process shoul be given to the efforts to develop theoretically grounded methods for the special physical training systems tailored to the maximum possible degree to the modern competitive requirements, the opinion being supported by 83% of the experts polled.

As far as the modern studies of the junior martial artists’ physical training process are concerned, most of the respondents (74%) recommend focusing them on the issues of physical fitness of this athletic category with an emphasis on the health improvement and harmonic development matters.

Still highly topical, in the respondents’ opinion, are the studies of the technical and tactical issues of the elite martial arts athletes' training process, with 72% of the people polled emphasizing the importance of the tactical training models and their design methods. The experts believe that these efforts are highly important in view of the rules of competitions in martial arts being highly volatile at present.

Analysis of the experts’ opinions on the new research developments in the field of mental conditioning in the subject martial arts athletes showed that these issues are viewed as highly critical at present. Most of the coaches and athletes polled (85%) believe that at this juncture the sport practices are in urgent need of accessible and efficient mental conditioning methods adapted to the modern practical training process.

Due attention should be given to the theoretically grounded methodologies of mental conditioning of junior martial arts athletes. In opinions of the majority of the experts polled (78%), such methodologies adapted to the actual training process are still non-existent at present in fact, although the junior boxing/ taekwondo competitive and training systems are in urgent need of the athletes’ psychological fitness rating methods. It is not unusual that undue psychological fitness aspects play the key role, among other things, in the junior athletes’ decisions to retire from sport. As a result, a junior martial arts athlete fails to make a successful career in the sport and the nation probably loses future awards in top competitions. This is the reason why the theoretical research designed to develop efficient mental conditioning methodologies for junior martial arts athletes are ranked among the top priorities at present.

Block 3 analyses designed to explore the boxing/ taekwondo experts’ viewpoints on the actual development levels of the regional biomedical support systems showed the overwhelming majority of the experts believing in the need to improve the awareness levels of the coaches and athletes on the doping misuse and anti-doping policies related issues.

Block 4 analyses were designed to assess the present development level of the education control system applied in the boxing/ taekwondo training systems; and objective of these questions was to find ways to improve efficiency of the valid Federal Standards of the competitive boxing/ taekwondo training implementation process. Subject to a special focus were the boxing/ taekwondo experts’ opinions on the content of the studies geared to produce model characteristics of special fitness at different stages of an annual training cycle and improve the educational control system in these martial arts.

Most of the experts polled (64%) do believe that there is a need for certain revision of the progress tests and performance classification standards in the valid federal boxing/ taekwondo training programs. A particular emphasis is to be made on special physical training in the subject sports in the sport excellence stage and elite mastery stage of the training processes. The existing sets of criteria give the means to profile only the overall technical and tactical performance rates of the athletes and, therefore, these criteria are insufficient for elite martial arts athletes. The outdated rating criteria complicate the efforts to find new efficient tools and methods of individualized technical and tactical training in the competitive boxing and taekwondo sports [2, 4]. Coaches of the regional boxing/ taekwondo picked teams, as reported by 76% of the experts polled, are in need of accessible educational process control and psychological fitness rating tools. The relevant methodologies may be found in study reports, theses and monographs, but they are almost of no avail for the sport practitioners due to the findings being poorly adapted to the actual training systems.

Conclusion. The study findings reported herein confirm the need for research studies to improve the boxing and taekwondo training systems and develop model characteristics of the elite athletes’ special fitness rates in these sport disciplines.

The study was performed under the State Order by the Federal State Higher Education Establishment Supported by Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education P.F. Lesgaft National State University, St. Petersburg, for the Research Project “Developing model characteristics of special fitness at different stages of annual training cycle and improving the educational control system (case study of football, artistic gymnastics and boxing)”, pursuant to the Ministry of Sports of Russia Order #318 of April 07, 2015.

References

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Corresponding author: rectorlesgaft@mail.ru

Abstract

Striking martial arts have a long history as sport disciplines that were popular even at the times of the first Olympic Games in ancient Greece. The striking martial arts including boxing, taekwondo, Thai boxing, savat, karate etc. have always been given a due priority by the sport science in view of certain specifics in their training and competitive activity. Being widely different in the rules of competitions, the striking martial arts are still based on largely the same technical and tactical fundamental concepts and apply largely the same physical and mental fitness rating criteria. It is based on these concepts and criteria that the modern long-term training systems of martial arts are based on. There are quite a few issues coming up in context of the present explosive progress of the striking martial arts, and these issues wait to be solved.