Dr.Hab., Professor I.I. Portnyagin¹
Ph.D., Associate Professor V.G. Torgovkin¹
N.D. Nikolaev^1
1Institute of Physical Culture and Sport of North-Eastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosov, Yakutsk

Keywords: individualization, fitness, training process, university wrestlers, freestyle wrestling

Introduction

Quite a few physical culture and sport specialists tend to believe that it is the training process individualization that plays today an increasingly important role in further progress of the wrestling sport theory and training systems [4]. This notion has been apparently proved by the practical experience of sports development in the Sakha (Yakytiya) Republic for at least the last five years when the individualization policies have been given a due priority both in the special physical conditioning system and the long-term elite athletes’ training system.

Modern sport specialists in many research reports and publications have repeatedly emphasized the need for the existing athletic training system being upgraded based on an individualized approach [1, 2, 3, 4]. Despite the above mentioned progress in this issue, many aspects of the training process individualization theory and practices still need to be developed and implemented in many sports, including freestyle wrestling.

The purpose of the study was to improve the freestyle wrestlers’ training and education process by due priority being given to the training workloads being individually tailored to the actual athlete’s needs and skills.

Materials and methods

The study was designed to revise the freestyle wrestlers’ training and education system based on analysis of the individual special physical fitness data obtained by widely accepted standard test methods; and analysis of the objective technical and tactical criteria of the individual wrestling techniques being formed within a hierarchical pillars of the human body biomechanics [2].

The competitive educational experiment under the study was completed at the premises of North-Eastern Federal University and the “Triumph” Sport Training Centre of the Sakha (Yakutiya) Republic within the frame of preparations for the XXVI International Golden Grand-Prix "Ivan Yarygin" Freestyle Wrestling Tournament; with 20 freestyle wrestlers, 4 freestyle wrestling coaches and 1 sport physician being sampled as subjects for the study and survey. The subject athletes included: 1 Honoured Master of Sport; 2 International Class Masters of Sport; 12 Masters of Sport; and 5 Candidates for Master of Sport of the Russian Federation. The Honoured Sport Master’s training process was surveyed separately from the other surveys.

One of the training process efficiency improvement factors indispensable for the university freestyle wrestlers’ training system and process management policies is the individual specifics of the wrestlers that manifest themselves in at least individual types and styles of the bout control – that may be basically classified as explosive, high-speed, high-pace, universal style etc.; and due knowledge of these specifics may help in the efforts to purposefully control the sport skills and qualities formation and excelling process.

Performance of the athletes was profiled by “snap shots” at the starting and final periods of the training camp using a set of tests to obtain key data indicative of the individual speed-strength qualities and skills and aerobic- and anaerobic-phase muscular workability levels of the athletes. The following methods were applied in the tests: OMEGA-C-based test method; cardiographic control tests; wellness-assessment tests; lactate content analysis; and heart rate tests during aerobic exercises using “Polar” system. The aerobic tests were performed in the course of 2000 m races indoors during the winter training cycle.

The training sessions were rated for 21-day workloads broken down by three weekly cycles, including: Week 1 (adaptation phase) dominated by aerobic exercises; Week 2 (shock load phase) scheduled for aerobic impact anaerobic-and-aerobic exercises; and Week 3 scheduled for anaerobic-and-aerobic loads with prevalence of the aerobic ones.

The athletes’ performance of anaerobic and aerobic exercises was tested using OMEGA-C system that gives the means for the physical condition assessments. The OMEGA-C tests provided the data indicative of the athletes’ fitness levels varying within the range of 3 to 5 points on the 5-point scale.

Results and discussion

Given hereunder in Table 1 are the resultant test data indicative of the wrestlers’ fitness levels.

Table 1. Wrestlers’ special fitness assessment criteria

Analysis of the proportions of special training tools in the training system content for the study group athletes shows that the training system was generally designed to develop the individual skills and qualities giving some competitive advantages over the other athletes. As has been proved by the practice, the athletes whose pre-season training loads were geared to purposefully improve the least developed individual qualities and skills and master certain technical and tactical actions based on the hierarchical pillars of the body biomechanics – coped with the anaerobic loads much better than the others. In regular season, attention of the training teams was mostly focused on the individual mastering of the genetically specific qualities and skills critical when performing in aerobic and anaerobic conditions [1].

Table 2. Proportions of special training tools in pre-season

The data given above in Table 2 demonstrate advantages of the individualized approaches to the training process design, i.e. substantiate the notion that was fairly obvious prior to the study. It should be mentioned, however, that the effect on the performance criteria was particularly explicit for the 2000 m race results of the study group athletes versus that of the reference group ones, as the latter showed the growth of only 0.9-2.7% versus 3.1-6.0% achieved by the study group.

To assess the individualized process management efficiency for the key training tools, we applied comparison analysis to the tests results of the study group versus the reference one with the test data being obtained in the starting and finishing stages of the annual training cycle.

General strategy of the study group athletes’ training process design made an emphasis on the focused development of those individual qualities that could give advantages over wrestlers from other regions of Russia. In the regular season, the training process was focused on such specific individual qualities being developed in every athlete that were most important for the working capacity being maintained at highest possible levels in anaerobic and aerobic conditions.

To put the university students’ training process management on a more efficient basis, we implemented target wrestlers’ training process structure and due system control to sort out and put in controllable sequence the program training process and ensure the process being duly controllable by a systemic control mechanism. When taking efforts to design the optimal training process control version, we developed the relevant set of objective assessment criteria to assess wrestlers' technical and tactical qualities and skills; the assessment system being special in the sense that the technical and tactical skills mastering process is managed to form individual wrestling techniques within a hierarchical system of the individual bodily biomechanics. We define it as the athletic technical skills and qualities individualization and excelling aspect.

Conclusion

The individualized approach presented herein is designed to offer the wrestling qualities and skills self-improvement system applicable both to the gifted athletes having necessary natural morphological and functional capabilities and the athletes with underdeveloped functional characteristics, the system being equipped with the necessary individualized toolkit for the technical and tactical qualities and skills being effectively developed in the athletes. The system gives the means for the wresters’ training process being put on an individualized basis to attain the best possible results in regular season and in the university training period.

References

1. Verkhoshanskiy, Yu.V. Osnovy spetsial'noy fizicheskoy podgotovki sportsmenov: ucheb. posobie (Fundamentals of special physical training of athletes: study guide) / Yu.V. Verkhoshanskiy. – 3rd ed. – Moscow: Sovetskiy sport, 2013. – 216 s. il.
2. Zatsiorskiy, V.M. Fizicheskie kachestva sportsmena: osnovy teorii i metodiki vospitaniya (Athlete's physical qualities: theoretical and methodological basics of training) / V.M. Zatsiorskiy. 3rd ed. – Moscow: Sovetskiy sport, 2009. – 200 P. ISBN 978-5-9718-0340-9.
3. Novikov, A.A. Osnovy sportivnogo masterstva: monografiya (Fundamentals of sportsmanship: monograph) / A.A. Novikov. – 2nd ed., rev. and sup. – Moscow: Sovetskiy sport, 2012. – 256 P.
4. Shakhmuradov, Yu.A. Vol'naya bor'ba: ucheb. posobie (Freestyle wrestling: study guide) / Yu.A. Shakhmuradov. – Makhachkala: Epokha, 2011. – 368 P.

Corresponding author: iosif.portnyagin@mail.ru