Dr.Hab., Associate Professor V.L. Botyaev¹
Postgraduate M.S. Pozdysheva^1
1Surgut State Pedagogical University, Surgut

Keywords: motor abilities, conditioning and coordination abilities, interrelations, gymnastics exercises.

Background. The ongoing reforms of the academic education system with its transition to the two-tier (bachelor, master) design have significantly affected the pedagogical university curricula and revised the range of educational process missions and competences developed in the bachelors [4]. The relevant education process goals need to be solved based on the modern educational technologies to secure high-quality education standards and meet the cognitive needs of the students. An analysis of the modern professional sets of competences shows that some of them cannot be built unless the trainee is physically fit enough; and this situation required due objective motor skill rating and ranking tests being applied to profile the students’ practical progress in sport disciplines of the variable module.

Objective of the study was to make a theoretical and empirical test data analysis to rate the motor coordination skills in pedagogical university students and find correlations in the motor abilities rates versus the technical progress in the practical academic sports.

Methods and structure of the study. The questionnaire survey and interviews of the academic educators and specialists in practical disciplines at the first stage of the study enabled us to identify the core motor abilities pivotal for the practical academic progress and contributing to the students’ competences and practical skills. It should be noted that most of the educators were found to know well the modern body conditioning progress rating and assessment procedures albeit at the same time not always versatile enough when designing the coordination ability rating tests. No surprise that they tend to prefer the 3х9/ 3х10m shuttle sprint test irrespective of the academic disciplines they are specialised in [2]. The same problem is mentioned by some other researchers [1, 3] who have addressed the issues of the coordination ability tests and standards presently applied in different sport disciplines where the shuttle run tests are still so popular.

Based on the preliminary survey data and analyses, we formed the following two test modules: Module 1 designed to rate the conditioning progress by special test exercises versus the fitness standards in different disciplines of the practical academic sports (n=12); and Module 2 designed to rate the coordination abilities by special tests (n=20) to obtain the key coordination ability rates. It should be noted that the above abilities were rated not only by the motor skill tests but also by modern laboratory tests with application of the relevant information technologies to obtain more accurate and duly classified physical qualities rating data.

The Module 1 conditioning progress rating tests included the following: standing long jump; standing high jump; 30m sprint; pull-ups on a horizontal bar; push-ups on parallel bars; suspended leg lifts to touch a horizontal bar; rope climbing; standing medicine ball chest throws; seated medicine ball behind the neck throws; L-sit on parallel bars; seated bends forward; and 50cm box jumps.

The prior correlation analysis of the coordination ability tests gave us the means to screen a set of the most efficient tests (n=16) generating the data arrays with mean and high correlations, as follows:

Movement coordination ability tests:

• Back-down prone supported movement test;
• Gymnastic stick overstepping test;
• Standing high jump tests with/ without arm swings;
• Coloured balls shuffling test. 

Orienteering ability tests:

• Angular velocity rating test;
• Segment length rating test;

Pacing ability tests:

• Jumping pace keeping test;
• Jumping pace minimal stepping test;

Kinaesthetic ability tests:

• Spatial angles reproducing ability test using a cinematometer;
• Muscular effort dosing ability rating test at 50% maximum wrist dynamometric force rate;
• Muscular effort dosing ability rating test at 50% maximum torso dynamometric force rate; 

Balancing ability tests

• Romberg stance on a low balance beam test;
• Triple 360° rotation test on the low versus high balance beam.

Response ability test

• Response to moving object test.

Statokinetic ability (vestibular stability) tests

• Five platform rotations coming back to the starting position test;
• Rotary jump test.

Subject to the educational process study were first- and second-year bachelor course students of the Physical Education and Sports Department (n=18; n=14).

Study results and discussion. The primary-stage tests showed fairly high conditioning abilities in the subjects, with only the flexibility rates being below the mean level whilst all the rest qualities were tested mean and higher. The coordination ability tests showed a generally opposite picture with occasional high rates mixed up with very low ones typical for primary- and secondary-age schoolchildren rather than university students, the test data found fully supportive of our prior conclusions [1, 2].

At the next study stage, we used the above test data to profile the progress correlations i.e. the impacts of the tested abilities and qualities on the technical progress in different academic sport disciplines. Our correlation analysis of the conditioning ability test rates in the gymnastics skills mastering process found these rates being not informative enough. Only three tests were found to generate data arrays with mean-level correlations, namely the L-sit on parallel bars test; 50cm box jump test; and push-ups on parallel bars test, with r=0.583; r=0.468 and r=0.435, respectively. 

Table 1. The first- and second-year students’ conditioning ability versus technical fitness test rates in the gymnastics mastering course

Most interesting results were obtained by the correlation analysis of the conditioning ability versus the technical fitness test rates in the gymnastics mastering course under the academic Gymnastics with Training Practices discipline: see Table 2. The highest correlations were found in the following tests: gymnastic stick overstepping test (0.812) rating the movement harmonisation qualities; muscular effort dosing ability rating test at 50% maximum torso dynamometric force rate (0.824) characteristic of the kinaesthetic abilities dominated by the proprioceptive sensitivity; and rotary jump test (0.838) rating individual static-kinetic stability. 

Table 2. The first- and second-year students’ coordination ability versus technical fitness test rates in the gymnastics mastering course

* Strong and statistically significant correlation

Some of the test data arrays showed weak and statistically insignificant correlations. These tests were rated as non-informative albeit they still may generate objective data to rate the students’ potential ability to make progress in other practical academic sport disciplines.

Conclusion. The study data and analyses showed that the students’ progress in the academic Gymnastics with Training Practices discipline is largely determined by their coordination ability rates. Most of the coordination ability tests were found fairly informative i.e. giving the means to objectively rate the students’ progress in the gymnastics course, with the coordination ability rating test data making it possible to individualise the technical excelling process on the whole and the core coordination abilities within the practical academic sport course in particular.

References

1. Boychenko S.D., E.N. Karseko, V.V. Leonov O nekotorykh aspektakh kontseptsii koordinatsii i koordinatsionnykh sposobnostey v fizicheskom vospitanii i sportivnoy trenirovke [Some aspects of concept of coordination and coordination abilities in physical education and sport training]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2003, no. 8, pp. 15-21.
2. Botyaev V.L. Spetsifika proyavleniya i kontrol koordinatsionnykh sposobnostey v slozhno-koordinatsionnykh vidakh sporta [Specific Features of Manifestation and Control of Coordinating Abilities in Complicated Coordination Sports]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2010, no. 2, pp. 21-23.
3. Gorskaya I.Y. Otsenka koordinatsionnoy podgotovlennosti v sporte [Rating coordination abilities in sports]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2010, no. 7, pp. 86-88.
4. Prikaz ministerstva obrazovaniya i nauki RF ot 04.12.2015 no. 1426 ob «Utverzhdenii federalnogo gosudarstvennogo obrazovatelnogo standarta vysshego obrazovaniya po napravleniyu podgotovki 44.03.01 Pedagogicheskoe obrazovanie (uroven bakalavriata)» [Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated 04.12.2015 no. 1426 on "Approval of the federal state educational standard of higher education in the major 44.03.01 Pedagogical education (bachelor's course)"]

Corresponding author: vl_bot53@mail.ru

Abstract

The study considers the students’ motor coordination abilities rates versus their progress in the academic sports on the whole and the academic Gymnastics with Training Practices discipline in particular. Subject to the education process study were first- and second-year bachelor course students of the Physical Education and Sports Department.

The education process study showed a multilevel structure of the motor abilities development process. The students demonstrated better performance rates in the conditioning ability tests versus the coordination ability tests. The physical abilities rating tests versus the gymnastics skills progress profiling data showed that the coordination ability test rates are the most informative in the data arrays since it is the coordination abilities that determine the individual progress in the gymnastics skills mastering process and, hence, they are pivotal in the students’ professional competency building process to make them fit for a practical education service.