Associate Professor, PhD J.S. Zhemchug
V.V. Sokolov
I.Y. Gryaznov
M.V. Lebedkina
J.S. Krasil'nikova
Kozma Minin Nizhny Novgorod State University (Minin University), Nizhny Novgorod           

Keywords: picked team formation, training process, group sessions, picked team competitive process.

Background. Modern university sports in our country are presently considered an important component of the national sport system on the whole. Professional athletes normally graduate from higher education establishments when their athletic careers are still in progress, albeit some still study at universities upon retirement from sports.

The national higher education establishments may be presently described as integrated social institutions that equally develop amateur, mass, professional and elite sports. However, university sports are still somewhat different from the fully professional ones in terms of the age limits and limitations imposed by the academic process and environment. It is natural for a student to give a top priority to university studies and at the same time both university athletes and other students enjoy special facilitating conditions for sport careers, including academic sport facilities, sport equipment and competitions of the relevant levels.

As provided by the valid regulatory framework for the educational system sports, these sports are ranked as a part of the national sport system designed for physical education and training of students at the relevant secondary and higher professional education establishments to make them fit both for mass sports and competitive events, including formal major competitions [4].

The «Futsal for Universities” Project has offered new promising opportunities for the university futsal sport teams – both the women’s and men’s ones. In this context, studies of the women’s university team formation and training specifics, with due consideration for the gender-specific challenges of the training process, deserve being given due priority by the sport science [3].

Objective of the study was to analyze specific requirements to the women’s university teams training process at the Nizhny Novgorod regional universities.

Study results and discussion. As things now stand in university sports, the most popular form of sport practices, apart from the mandatory academic physical education curriculum, is the group training system. It is the group sessions which are normally used by the university sport instructors and physical education teachers to compose and train picked university teams in different sports. This form is quite traditional for university sports, all the more that school picked teams are also traditionally trained in the group training format. It was in the late 20^th century that the indoor football (futsal) became quite popular among the school and university students of the Nizhny Novgorod region. School children were given every opportunity to go in for futsal and compete in school events as this sport is reasonably accessible [1].

The higher educational establishments in the Nizhny Novgorod region have also taken persistent efforts to train and pick gifted university athletes for the university futsal teams. With the growing popularity of futsal, the interest in and support of the sport by the local authorities has also been on the rise. With time the sport was formally qualified for the major university competitions, including, for example, traditional University Games of the Nizhny Novgorod region universities that include competitions in different sports and are designed to promote and advance university sports in the Nizhny Novgorod City and region. On the whole, the University Games include competitions in 20 sport disciplines, and every university picked team is expected to participate in the events.

In the first months of the futsal picked team training process, the coach-instructor composes the first string of the team and backup athletes to substitute first-string players. Then the coach analyzes the schedule of the upcoming competition to rank them by priorities for the team [2]. For the basic competitions which are partially used to pick the best players for the major/ top-ranking university events, the coach enlists the strongest string of the futsal team both in women’s and men’s competitions. In the less important (secondary) events, it is reasonable to test the best first-year prospects and backup athletes to maintain their motivation for the competitive practices and experience.

Conclusion. In the regular training and pre-season training process design prior to an academic year, the coach-instructor of a picked university futsal team solves a variety of problems that need to be addressed by at least the first string and backup university players for the team being picked on a timely basis. Competitions during the academic year are scheduled and prioritized into the basic and secondary ones to give due practice both to the first-string and backup players. And, last but not least, the team objectives and goals for the academic year are set with a breakdown by the training process and competitive objectives, with an emphasis on the players’ motivations for training and competing in the picked university team being duly maintained.

References

1. Zhemchug J.S. Sektsionnaya rabota po mini-futbolu (Sectional futsal activities) / J.S. Zhemchug // Fizicheskaya kultura v shkole. – 2006. – # 2. – P. 59-60.
2. Zhemchug J.S. Formirovanie komandnoy motivatsii i urovnya prityazaniy v lyubitel'skom sporte (Formation of team motivation and level of aspirations in amateur sports) / J.S. Zhemchug // Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. – 2007. – # 11. – P. 46-49.
3. Zhemchug J.S. Antropnye tekhnologii v komplektatsii i organizatsii trenirovochnogo protsessa zhenskoy sbornoy komandy po mini-futbolu v vuze (Anthropic technologies in arrangement and organization of training process of university women's futsal team) / J.S. Zhemchug, S.S. Ivanova // Anthropic educational technologies in physical culture sector. – Nizhniy Novgorod: NGPU im. K. Minina, 2015. – P. 166 – 169.
4. Federal'ny zakon ot 04.12.2007 # 329-FZ (am. 28.07.2012, am. 03.12.2012) «O fizicheskoy kul'ture i sporte v Rossiyskoy Federatsii» (Federal Law 04.12.2007 # 329-FL (am. 28.07.2012, am. 03.12.2012) «On Physical Culture and Sports in the Russian Federation).

Corresponding author: pearl1979@list.ru

Abstract

Modern university sports in Russia are viewed as an integral part of the national physical culture and sports system and include virtually every sport discipline from mass sports to elite sports. On the other hand, university sports may be considered a special sports category as they are limited by the academic timeframe and many specifics of the academic education process of effect on the physical education practices, including actual conditions and infrastructure for the training process at a higher educational establishment.

It is futsal that is now ranked high among the most popular sports by the university athletes of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. As things now stand in the university picked futsal teams training practices all over the region, they are dominated by group sessions. At the beginning of every academic year, the team coach would examine the newcomers to the university, rate the fitness levels of the active team players of the past academic year and set forth the coaching and team performance goals for the upcoming academic year. It is traditional for many local universities to run special team (mostly women’s team) training sessions prior to competitions to identify the optimal team composition at the moment.

The easy format and accessibility of the indoor futsal practices facilitate this football discipline being widely applied both as an academic and mass sport discipline. Futsal has won high popularity among young women and some of them have succeeded in qualifying for the national Russian team through high-quality training and competitions in the university picked teams. Therefore, high priority in the sport science needs to be given to the academic futsal team training and picking issues and the training and competitive process design and management issues.