Associate Professor S.S. Namozova
Professor, Dr.Hab. S.Z. Khubbiev
PhD L.V. Shadrin
Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg

Keywords: educational process, university sports, elite sports, adaptation, functional state, physical activity.

Background. Progress of university sports is largely based on efficiency of the consolidation of efforts of the university administration, departments, academic personnel, educators, students and sport clubs for the benefit of the physical culture and health improvement process and for competitive training for different sport events. High priority is given at present to the university sports development process. Therefore, it may be pertinent to explore the university sport organization levels and university athletes’ performance criteria that could provide guidance for the athletic training process control.

Objective of the study was to identify and substantiate university sport (US) levels and athletic functionality rating criteria for the athletic training process control purposes.

Study results and discussion. As provided by the Federal Law #329-FL “On Physical Culture and Sports in the RF” of 04.12.2007 (updated version of 03.11.2015), university sports will provide for physical education of students in the higher education establishments and for their training for sport competitions including official ones. Sport specialists believe that modern university sports are to be viewed as a reserve for the national elite sports (ES) and one of its integral parts [2], including the academic Physical Education (PE) curricula [7]. Since the picked university teams may be viewed as interim-level sport contributors, this is the reason for the university sports being classified into three levels. The US structure, training system priorities, workload volumes and intensities at every US level are specific and need to be considered in detail.

Level I is the stage of the academic PE lessons designed mostly to facilitate the students’ adaptation potential and health improvement process. Missions at this level are the following: develop students’ motor qualities; improve performance of body organs and systems; help students adapt to the controlled health-improvement workloads; correct malfunctions in their cardiorespiratory, muscular, nervous and other systems and their mental and intellectual performance drawbacks. The health improvement physical activity at this level is to be limited by 4 hours per week, with intensities varying within the range of 50-80% of the MOС (maximal oxygen consumption) at heart rate (HR) ranging from 130 to 160 bpm. The level must give the students' general cultural competences in the physical culture and sports (PCS) sector [11] including: good knowledge base, motor skills and practical abilities, plus due values-centred orientation; adherence to healthy lifestyles including reasonable physical activity; well-developed physical qualities, personality virtues and due motivations; good movement techniques; and a practical experience in application of the knowledge, skills and qualities in their own physical culture and health improvement activity. In the competence rating process, the students’ practical performance monitoring/ rating data and the theoretical knowledge test data will be applied. The study data analysis gives the means to identify and rate benefits of the physical education lessons for the students’ performance and it was found that good performance criteria are associated with a higher potential for health improvement, professional growth, academic success and good competitiveness on the labour markets [3].

Level II is the stage of the students’ training in the picked university teams with due provisions for the academic training process cycles. The students’ progress in the athletic training process at this stage closely depends on their psychological conditioning to secure their competitive potential being mobilized in full. Current performance control based on the relevant medical education procedures is not efficient enough to objectively rate the athlete’s body and mind adaptation to the workloads. Advanced sets of methods and special surveys by specialists of sport medicine are necessary for that. Missions at this stage are the following: facilitate the sport excellence process; optimize functions of the body systems and organs in harmony with the mental conditioning for the benefit of the competitive fitness; improve the adaptation reserves of competitive, educational, labour, socializing and communicative abilities. Detailed studies of the athletic performance at this stage should encourage the process of the most appropriate performance rating methodologies being found [5] and help design due algorithms for the training process. Physical activity at this stage will come to 6-10 hours per week with the loads of 80-100% of the MOC at heart rate (HR) of 170-180 bpm.

Level III is the stage of the athlete being trained to qualify for elite sport system, including: selection and orientation; athletic training; competitions; due accounting of the off-training and off-competitive factors. Training process at this stage will be planned based on a schedule of official events and the academic education process cycles with the goal to shape up a highly skilled amateur athlete. The training process will be designed to: advance and deepen the medical examinations; apply due psychobiological and genetic test methods to control the competitive performance and forecast its results; make allowance for the sport specifics and professional athlete training technologies; shape up and consolidate the relevant morphological, functional and psychomotor adaptation specifics, including “athletic heart”, special structures of muscular fibres, due compensatory mechanisms etc. Objective of this level is to shape up the athlete’s ability to attain the necessary level of the body and mind adaptation, keep it up for a long time and apply in the most effective and economic manner.

In the university athletic training process, special emphasis should be made on the athlete’s individual traits manifested, among other things, in performance of the body systems and organs, including hormonal system, state of mind and social identity. An analysis of the performance rates and interrelations of these systems gives the means to find regularities in their functionality and interactions and makes due allowance for these findings in designing the formation algorithms for the sets of the athlete’s testing and examination methods to facilitate selection, orientation, athletic training and competitive activity.

When an athlete reaches his/her peak fitness for the competitive activity, normally he/she becomes prone to adaptive imbalance for the reason that the competitive activity requires a variety of complex mechanisms being activated to support performance of the body and mind at the top level. This process may, as reported by R.S. Suzdal’nitskiy and V.A. Levando, trigger secondary immunodeficiency due to disorders of immunological homeostasis evoked by the adaptation reserves of the immune system being exhausted [10]. Physical activity at this stage comes, as provided by the federal athletic fitness standards for picked sport teams, to at least 24-32 hours per week with the loads of 80-100% of the MOC at heart rate (HR) of at least 195-210 bpm [12, 13]. 

University sports may be described as a complex social and education system having its due place in the modern sport system. It may be pertinent to note that the US Olympic team includes about 60% of university athletes [7]. Percentages of university athletes are significant in the national teams of other countries including Russia.  

The above levels of university sports imply certain continuity in between the levels since Level I makes the student fit for training at Level II, and the latter excels his/her skills to help qualify for Level III. The university sport levels may be viewed as closely integrated. We agree with V.I. Grigoriev et al. [1], albeit offer somewhat different view on the integration (see Figure 1 hereunder). This integration originates in the mutual integration zones at the Levels where the athletic reserve is accumulated to outflow to the higher levels. However, the contrary process may take place when there is no facilitating environment for a progress.

In view of the university sport complexity, we further detailed its structure to 7 levels. Students may go in for sports at every of this US levels customized for their individual health conditions, physical and sporting needs, interests and motivations, and the actual physical and competitive fitness levels (see Figure 1 hereunder).

 The content of the detailed US levels is the following: Level 1 offers theoretical, procedural-and- practical (PP) and sporting (including chess and draughts) sessions in special health groups (HG-B); Level 2 includes theoretical, practical, PP, health improvement PC programs in special HG-A; Level 3 gives theoretical, PP, practical PC and athletic training sessions in the preparatory and main HG; Level 4 includes athletic training of picked university teams; Level 5 is the stage of athletic training in top-priority university teams participating in the All-Russian and international university sport competitions; Level 6 covers the sport excellence training in the national teams of the RF; and Level 7 is the elite athletic trainings and excelling stage for the record holders, prize-winners of top-ranking events, World champions and Olympic champions.

Figure 1. University sport levels

The university athletes’ performance and athletic fitness are to be rated in the training and competitive processes, with the following methodologies being applied (see Table 1 hereunder).

Table 1. Athletic performance rating methods applied in university sports                           

In the physical education training and competitive processes in university sports, due priority should be given to the HR tests as they provide a labile, informative and integral rate of the athletic functionality and body adaptation to workloads. Knowing the HR, a coach may quite efficiently control the training process since the HR variations in athletes are directly or indirectly indicative of the physical load variations [5, 6, 8].

With due consideration for the opinions of M.R. Smirnov [8], V. Poptsov [6] and findings of our own studies, we believe that a training process in university sports is to be designed and controlled based on the following HR variability parameters: at Level 1 high loads are not advisable; at Level 2 the HR varies within the range of 110-140 bpm; at Level 3 the HR is kept within the range of 180-190 bpm; at Level 4 the HR varies within the range of 160-180 bpm; at Level 5 – 180-190 bpm; at Level 6 –  190-210 bpm; and at Level 7 –210-220 bpm and more.

Conclusion

1. Modern university sports are classified into 7 levels by health rates, sport interests, needs and motivations, and the physical and competitive fitness criteria for the physical education process being successful.

2. In the physical training and athletic excelling process in university sports, it is always beneficial to apply HR as a highly important integral rate of athlete’s functionality.

The study was supported by the Russian Research Foundation Grant financing under Project #14-50-00069, St. Petersburg State University.

References                                       

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Corresponding author: khubbiev@gmail.com

Abstract

University sports generally have the following hierarchical structure: (1) academic physical education curriculum; (2) athletic training in picked university teams; and (3) elite training in the national teams of the RF. The first level of the sport system is designed to: develop the basic motor skills; improve performance of the body systems and organs; form adaptive responses to the reasonably controlled health-improvement loads; correct functional disorders in cardio-respiratory, muscular, nervous and other systems and in the mental and intellectual performance drawbacks. The health improvement physical activity is to be limited by 4 hours per week, with intensities within 50-80% of the MOС (maximal oxygen consumption) at heart rate (HR) of 130-160 bpm. At the second training level, the university athletes’ activity is to be designed as required by the education process cycles. High priority at this athletic training stage should be given to mental conditioning geared to fully mobilize the competitive potential, with the following goals: improve the students’ competitive fitness; optimize performance of the body systems and organs in due interaction with mental conditioning to attain the highest competitive fitness standards; further increase the adaptive capabilities in competitive, educational, professional, communicational and social domains. Physical activity at this stage should come to 6-10 hours per week with the loads of 80-100% of the MOC at heart rate (HR) of 170-180 bpm. At the third training level, the main goal is to make the amateur athlete fit for elite sport competitions. For doing that, the following needs to be done: expand and intensify the medical support service; and apply the relevant psychobiological and genetic test methods to control and forecast competitive performance and step up the amateur performance standards to make them as close as possible to the professional ones. Physical activity at this stage should come, as provided by the federal athletic fitness standards for picked sport teams, to at least 24-32 hours per week with the loads of 80-100% of the MOC at heart rate (HR) of at least 195-210 bpm.