PhD, Associate professor N.I. Khokhlova
PhD T.A. Rodermel
PhD, Associate professor T.M. Mamkina
Surgut State University, Surgut

Keywords: wushu sport, willpower, determination, primary school age.

Introduction

It is a matter of common knowledge that virtually every sport sector is on the rise today in terms of sport intensity and accomplishments, with the athletic training process claiming more and more long-term efforts that should be often focused rather on the personality development aspects than on the purely physical ones. It should be noted that national sport schools are often helpless in facing the modern negative trend of some 10-60% of the primary pupils going in for some sport for 3-6 years suddenly quit the trainings and almost never report their true reasons for leaving the sport saying something like “no more time” or “feeling it difficult” etc., albeit one of the true reasons is the reluctance to take own volitional efforts when facing the crisis. It is natural for any competitive sport discipline that the underage athlete comes to the critical point in the sport career when he/she needs to make transition in motivations from “doing it for him(her)self” to “doing it for victory”. To put it in other words, the first period of going in for sport is driven by personal incentives related to initial natural interest, pleasure and health implications etc. that may later on fade under the growing workloads, heavy competitive stresses and goal-focused challenges. Stressful changes of that kind may be coped with only by a person with relatively high intellectual assets and high personality development level including high volitional qualities which are manifested, among other things, in determination that may be interpreted as the ability to be governed by certain rules –or the self-control ability.

In the situation when the junior trainees come to the crisis in the personal hierarchy of values and core activities being revised, most of the coaches tend to take either a distracted and inactive position saying something like “we have to let him grow through it”, or an aggressive and authoritarian position claiming that “you have to work hard and force yourself”. Each of these attitudes falls short of the real need of the underage athlete in understanding and support, and it is only natural that he/she responds by a sudden negativism in the personal attitude to the sport trainings, interpersonal relations etc. This is the point when the coach urgently needs to come up with a set of efficient tools to activate and build up the personal willpower and help form determined behaviour in the primary pupil. Since any sport activity is always focused on clearly preset objectives (often set by the coach) reasonably tailored to the actual physical abilities and qualities of the trainee, it may be beneficial for the coach – when it comes to the crisis point in the personal hierarchy of values being revised by the trainee – to consider taking some other way based on the trainee’s intrapersonal condition assessment. We assumed that it is competitive wushu that may offer the relevant tools for the reason that this sport discipline is largely based on tenets of oriental philosophy that gives a high priority to self-reliance attitudes with reasonable distraction from minute hardships and aspiration to spiritual freedoms backed by high self-discipline, care and strict control [4]. This process stage in the children’s sport training may be described as the shift of priorities from the technical side to the personality aspects to help open up other personal visions and assets and foster the relevant specific personal qualities, including the volitional ones [1, 2, 3, 5].

Objective of the study was to obtain scientific substantiations for and efficiency ratings of competitive wushu in shaping up the personal volitional qualities and determined behaviour in primary pupils.

Methods and structure of the study. The study was based on a comparative progress rating analysis of the following two groups of primary pupils: Group A engaged in competitive wushu versus Group B of their non-sporting peers. Subject to the study were the primary pupils of a gymnasium in the city of Surgut. The Group A children attended the regular wushu training classes at the gymnasium plus the sport-centre-based training sessions under control of a staff coach from the Children’s and Youth Sport School #3. The Group A training workload amounted to 5 hours per week including 2 hours of swimming in pool. Subject to the study were 26 primary pupils including 12 (7 girls and 5 boys) wushu trainees.

We proceeded from the hypothesis that manifestations and ratings of volitional qualities (including self-disciplining ability, self-reliance, insistence, endurance, self-management, decisiveness, initiative etc.) should be higher in the competitive wushu Group A versus that in the Group B of their non-sporting peers. The volitional quality ratings were based on the expert assessments by the school class principals, physical education teachers and special subject teachers based on the set of criteria developed by A.I. Vysotskiy in his report “Volitional qualities rating by monitoring method” [1]. The volitional qualities under the study were rated using a five-point system – from 1 point (not found) to 5 points (highly developed volitional quality). The personal average ratings of every subject are given in Table 1 hereunder.

Table 1. Volitional quality rates of the junior wushu trainees versus that of their non-sporting peers

Note: Sport means competitive sport trainings plus school physical education classes including education and swimming lessons; CA means class education activity; and OCA means off-class activity

Study results and discussion. The Group A versus Group B willpower rating data were found significantly different in statistical terms as verified by the Student criterion (p≤0.001 and p≤0.05) with the only exclusion for the “decisiveness” rates. The study data were processed and calculated using SPSS 19.0 Software toolkit.

The experts rated the subjects as confidently fulfilling the decisions made, with the rating being true for the majority of both of the Groups; and both of Groups were found to show almost no hesitation in making decisions in challenging conditions – for example, during the indicative (progress control) tests. It may be pertinent to mention that all the rated children were subject to qualification tests prior to entering the gymnasium, with some of them passing the qualifications being 5 years old (entering the 0 class) and some being 6-7 years old (coming to the 1^st class) [6]. Furthermore, the school policies give a top priority to the high competitive motivations being maintained in the education process, and this may be the reason for both of the Groups showing high “decisiveness” and “insistence” rates. The Group A pupils being rated in the “self-disciplining” category were found to be attentive to the teachers’ instructions, responsive to the requirements both in the school education process and the off-school and sport activity. The Group B students were rated as not always attentive to the instructions and requirements and rather focused on socially valuable criteria. When a task falls beyond the purely educative context, they may be inclined to avoid fulfilling it. The Group A pupils were found more (versus the Group B ones) self-reliant and self-managed in every activity domain. Furthermore, the Group A pupils showed higher “endurance” qualities as manifested by higher patience at work and the ability to restrain themselves in conflict situations, versus that in the Group B rated by around 3 points in this category. It should be noted that the experts were very controversial in the “self-management” rates, particularly in the education domain. It may not always be simple, for example, to rate the student’s self-management ability when he/she not always maintains the same good order (in keeping the books/ workplace neat etc.) but shows good action planning ability, timing and punctuality – that were generally found better developed in the Group A. However, it should be confessed that both of the Groups were not always skilful enough in sorting out and managing their actions in changing situations. Furthermore, both of the Groups showed a wide variation range of the “initiative” rates (from 2 to 5 points) that may be explained by the activity preferences and their variations in both of the Groups. We should mention that the study revealed unusual children showing uncommon qualities and high creativity rates in both of the Groups. And in both of the Groups we found some children reluctant to perform creativity-intensive tasks and rather looking for easy ways to get hold of the “books” (meaning the tokens for reading the recommended books that are summarized at some point in the course with the winner being nominated). 

We should mention the certain stability of volitional quality rates averaging at and above 4 points in Group A, as compared to that in Group B where only two rates (“endurance” and “decisiveness) were found to vary within the range of 3 to 5 points. We would also note that the rates referring to the sport and education activity are generally stable in both of the Groups, whilst the off-class activity is the domain of lower rates in both of the Groups. It may be pertinent to quote in this context the statement of the author of the study method that “when some volitional quality rated high and stable in two or more activity domains, it is rather the natural quality of the personality” [1, p. 238]. (Since the off-class activity is no priority for the subject educational establishment, the other activity domains may be viewed as compensating). 

Conclusions. Volitional quality ratings of both of the Groups were found significantly different in statistical terms, with the only exclusion for the “decisiveness” rate. The following facts deserve special mentioning in the study findings: first, the physical education curriculum of both of the Groups takes more time than the regular secondary school standard and, hence, the differences between the sporting and non-sporting children are naturally less expressed; and second, both of the Group children were subject to qualification tests when entering the educational establishment and, therefore, are higher (than average) fit for school on the whole and more motivated in particular both for the school education and determined behaviour formation process.

Therefore, competitive wushu course included as a propedeutic/ extra module in the future athletes’ training process will be beneficial for the determined behaviour formation in the primary pupils and, as a result, will help improve their motivation for competitive sports.

References

1. Ilyin E.P. Psikhologiya voli (Psychology will) / E.P. Ilyin. – St. Petersburg: Piter, 2009. – 368 p.
2. Smirnova E.O. Detskaya psikhologiya (Child psychology) / E.O. Smirnova. – Moscow: VLADOS, 2003. – 365 p.
3. Khokhlova N.I. Printsipy issledovaniya kombinatoriki u detey doshkol'nogo vozrasta (Research principles of theory of combinations in preschoolers) / N.I. Khokhlova // Nauchny dialog. – 2012. – №1. – P. 97–108.
4. Khokhlova N.I. Mera intuitivnogo v vostochnoy filosofii (na primere origami) (Measure of intuition in Eastern philosophy (case study of origami) / N.I. Khokhlova / Col. res. P.18. Humanities: in 2 P. P. 2. Law. Pedagogics. Psychology. Linguistics. / SSU. – Surgut: SSU pub. h-se, 2004. – P. 198–203.
5. http://webmyoffice.ru/site/phoenix_wushu/1705/

Corresponding author: Hohlova-ni@yandex.ru

Abstract
Primary school age is known to be a critical period in a competitive sport career when the personal sport motivations come to a watershed point where the initial natural interest, pleasure and health implications etc. tend to rapidly fade under the growing workloads, heavy competitive stresses and goal-focused chal-lenges. Stressful changes of that kind may be coped with only by a person with relatively high intellectual assets and high personality development level including high volitional qualities which are manifested, among other things, in determination that may be interpreted as the ability to conscientiously adhere to certain rules – or the self-control ability. Therefore, this age is the time when the coach is in need of a set of highly efficient tools to motivate the underage pupil for further intensified competitive sport career by, among other things, the personal volitional qualities being efficiently mobilized and formed to help build up a determined behaviour in primary pupils. We assumed that competitive wushu may offer such tools for the reason that this sport discipline is largely based on tenets of oriental philosophy that gives a high priority to self-reliance attitudes and aspiration to spiritual freedoms backed by high self-discipline and strict control. This process stage in the children’s sport training may be described as the shift of priorities from the technical side to the personality aspects to help open up other personal visions and assets and foster the relevant specific personal qualities, including the volitional ones. The authors made a compara-tive analysis under the study to rate progress of the schoolchildren engaged in competitive wushu versus that of their non-sporting peers. The volitional quality rates of both of the groups were found significantly different in statistical terms that is indicative of competitive wushu being beneficial for the willpower de-velopment in primary pupils.