PhD, Associate Professor V.V. Nakhodkin¹
PhD, Professor M.G. Kolodeznikova¹
Associate Professor A.N. Semenov^1
1Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk

Keywords: freestyle wrestling, athlete, mental conditioning, mental stress tolerance, competitions, ideomotor training, mental control.

Background. Modern elite sports favor those who are better mentally fit for the fight, successful in the daily regimen and diet planning and management and knowledgeable and skillful in the modern mental control and conditioning tools [4].

Objective of the study was to analyze benefits of an ideomotor training model for precompetitive conditioning, fight planning and inspiration in the elite wrestling sport.

Methods and structure of the study. We used interactive discussions, training process surveys, and adapted Competitive Behavior Test method for the study purposes. Sampled for the study were elite freestyle wrestlers (n=20 including Masters of Sports) trained at the National Sport Teams Training Center. We used a questionnaire survey including the following questions: (1) Are you aware of the modern trends in freestyle wrestling holds? (2) What are your favorite (15s limit) holds of special importance under competitive pressures? (3) Please analyze your last loss with a special attention to the fight plan broken down by the expected attacks and defenses. The survey made it possible to rate the individual mental fitness for competitions and fight planning capacities that determine the individual competitive mental stress tolerance rate.

Results and discussion. Most of the sample was found poorly fit for the competitive ideomotor training viewed as a basis for the fight planning/ tactical skills: see Figure 1 hereunder. Thus the sample was found poorly informed about the rivals including their technical and tactical fitness aspects, their strengths and weaknesses and their fight control styles; and this is the reason why we recommend the precompetitive trainings making a special emphasis on analyses of the rivals’ competitive performance data. The analyses should be geared to develop and detail a fight plan/ tactics and rehearse it in the athlete’s mind.

No matter how strong the individual technical mastery is, it may not be efficient enough unless supported by a high tactical mastery developed by special trainings. The tactical skills will secure the opponent being caught by surprise when unfit for defense, with the ability to force him into an unfavorable fight situation. On the whole, the more versatile and perfect is the technical toolkit, the better should be the tactical mastery. Modern theoretical and practical training systems shall include comprehensive analyses to find the best fight techniques and tactics (work out the fight plans) with due metal "anchoring"/ conditioning elements for success.

Figure 1. Ideomotor training levels of the sample

A tactically fit athlete will skillfully manage his own resource to build up his advantage and minimize/ effectively counter the opponent’s strengths, with a special role played by the mental controls and willpower in the fight plan implementation. A willful and mentally fit wrestler will pursue an active attacking tactics and impose his own fight style to suppress the opponent’s initiative and will.

One of the key problems of the traditional trainings systems is the deficient if any competitive mental conditioning element that implies the mental training process being planned on a systemic basis. It is still not unusual to find the individual training systems being designed on a hectic/ unsystematic basis with the athlete’s negligent attitudes and mechanical fulfillment of the coach’s instructions. The core reason for such negligence is a vague if any idea of the individual progress goals and tools. As a result, the trainings are driven mostly by the practical trial-and-error experiences with the often incorrect/ mismanaged training models designed in violation of many logics of the modern training system designs.

The mental stress tolerance building trainings shall be governed by the one-attempt concept as the core psychological principle – designed to put the athlete in the must-win situation and make it habitual i.e. develop adaptation to the alike competitive challenges. The athlete should develop the must-win mental mindset/ stereotype with the relevant transformations in the performance and functions (vegetative shifts, emotional stress controls, emotional sensitivity to the performance, responsibility, willpower, attention concentration etc.) that may be described as the psychophysical conditioning for the competitive stressors. It is also important that progress in the mental conditioning component should help build up and consolidate the individual competitive determination and confidence and, hence, suppress the fear of error.

Conclusion. A highly mentally fit athlete with due ideomotor training level is expected to have at least 5-6 key holds in his combat toolkit. A competitive success is often due to a single scoring attack in the crucial moment, and this is the reason why the must-win mental conditioning component should be in top priority in the training system to secure the mental conditioning element modeling as close as possible to the real fight situations in the top-ranking tournaments. The fight plans will be prudently thought out and analyzed with a reasonable detailing level i.e. with a special priority to the core goals.

References

1. Akopyan A.O., Pankov V.A., Kim A.Yu. Formation of training methodology for Greco-Roman wrestlers in the new conditions of competitive activity.Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury. 2006. no. 2. pp. 21-23.
2. Nakhodkin V.V. Science to win, or how to bring up winner?. Coach's Guidelines. Yakutsk: ID SVFU publ., 2016. 80 p.
3. Nakhodkin V.V. Psychological problems in wrestler competitive activity or psychological aspects of big events. State, experience and prospects of development of sports movement of Yakutia, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of development of physical education and sports in Russia. Proc. reg. res.-pract. conf. Yakutsk: ID SVFU publ., 2013. pp. 109-110.
4. Nakhodkin V.V., Portnyagin I.I. Study of mental states of adult and junior freestyle wrestling teams. Vysshee obrazovanie segodnya. 2016. no. 1. pp. 77-80.
5. Nakhodkin V.V., Aprosimov V.A., Prokopev V.E. Comparative analysis of personality characteristics of elite athletes. Obshchestvo: sotsiologiya, psikhologiya, pedagogika. 2018. no. 2. pp. 77-82.

Corresponding author: yadruk@mail.ru

Abstract

Competitive success of the sport elite is known to heavily depend on the competitive fitness with its components including the individual mental control and conditioning skills, healthy lifestyles, diets etc., with the mental controls playing the key role in the precompetitive trainings. Objective of the study was to analyze benefits of an ideomotor training model for precompetitive conditioning, fight planning and inspiration in the elite wrestling sport. We used interactive discussions, training process surveys, and adapted Competitive Behaviors Test method for the study purposes, with 20 freestyle wrestlers sampled for the survey. The survey included three questions to rate the following: individual versatility in the wrestling techniques; favored actions within a 15s certain timeframe in extreme competitive situations; and mental control skills and stress tolerance in the extreme competitive situations. The study data gives the grounds to conclude that mental conditioning tools are highly beneficial when the trainings mimic as close as possible the real upcoming bouts, with the fight plans recommended being drafted for every bout albeit reasonably limited in details, with only the key points being specified and trained.