Dr.Hab. T.S. Timakova
All-Russian Research Institute of Physical Culture and Sport, Moscow

Keywords: elite sports, modern phylogenesis, typology of elite athletes, phenotypic variability.

Background. Elite sports are commonly known to provide an ideal test field to explore potential human resources [5, 2]. At some historical point this understanding gave the grounds for prominent athlete and scientist V.V. Kuznetsov to come up with a brand new domain of human science called anthropomaximology. Academician P.K. Anokhin, in his turn, in his report to the All-Russian Research Institute of Physical Culture and Sport researchers and post-graduates underlined that the modern sport science has failed to fully employ the unique human resource research model it has always had in disposal. It should be mentioned that, despite the periodic statements on the limits of human physical abilities being reportedly achieved in the modern sports, the world records are still being broken time and again and accomplishments of the seemingly unique athletes are still being successfully challenged. It is also acknowledged that achievements in the modern sports are driven by a wide variety of factors and the general development trend of the global civilization on the one hand [6]. On the other hand, studies of the constitutional variations and traits of the leading national athletes reveal certain trends in the phenotypic type variations [7]. These trends, of course, may be contradictory and trivial due to specifics and versatility of the modern sport disciplines and some developmental heterochony of different sports. At the same time, many facts point to the human abilities showing expansion trends on the whole, including the earlier progress of children in sports, growing interest and determination to the sport technicalities efficiency improvement aspects etc. Let us consider some typological differences with a special emphasis on the specific shifts in phenotypes of the leading athletes.

Objective of the study was to find and analyse the typological traits of the athletes versus their competitive accomplishments.

Methods and structure of the study. Retrospective combined test data of the athletes within the frame of their pre-Olympic qualification and training cycle was performed following the competitive period. Most valuable in the theoretical aspect appeared to be the test data of the unified qualification system applied to the elite ski racers aged 18 to 29 years [8]. Subject to the study were 102 athletes whose anthropometric and performance data for the last three years were analysed using the systemic model description logics. The subjects’ competitive experiences in the top-ranking international competitions varied from 1-2 to 20 years. Due to the consecutive qualification process, the studies were designed in a combined manner with the data arrays systematised in transversal and longitudinal lines.

At the early data mining and analysing stages, we found different influences of the qualification, sport specialisation and mastery criteria on the structural typed characteristics subject to the study. The age and body constitution were found to be of crucial effect on the mechanisms of adaptation to the sporting activity [9, 10]. Upon classification of the sample based on the anthropometrics and performance test data, we obtained the means to assume different phenotypic grounds for formation of the systemic adaptation process aspects in specific sport activities.

The first-year sample (of 39 men ski racers) classification process resulted in 7 elite athletes being classified into a special cluster, including 5 successful competitors of the 1984/ 1988 Olympic Games. Under the same system-forming characteristic (that is the summarized eight individual performance parameters СО₈), the factorial structures of the two age- and skill-specific classes were found notably different in their basic types. The junior and least skilled class (n=28) showed a wider variability of the individual parameters characteristic of the athlete’s reserve capacities, with the relevant correlations and factor loads being relatively low. The lists of the valuable characteristics showed their varied contributions to the structure of the dominant system characteristic. The junior athletes’ class, for instance, was formed basically on the passport age (PA) of the athlete and physical development rates (including body mass, chest/ shoulder sizes, body surface, strength etc.). The summarized СО₈ criterion structure in the elite racers’ class (n=7) was dominated by the impacts of the body proportions (pelvis width vs. foot size; shoulder to pelvis index, fat mass; wrist strength asymmetry index etc.). The very correlations of the physical characteristics were indicative of the shoulder girdle hypertrophy typical for elite athletes (shoulder size versus pelvis width) and the lower body mass on the whole. In the junior athletes' class, with the data array being divided into two independent constituents, the factor of passport age was found correlating with the physical working capacity and preferred competitive distance; and the body mass factor was found correlating with the maximum performance rates of the aerobic energy supply mechanism and the reserve capacities on the whole.

Upon the least fit young athletes being screened out of the study sample and the previous-cycle Olympic competitors’ retirement, the data arrays of the second- and third-year subjects (n=40 aged 21.6±2.74 years) again were broken up into two categories of characteristics by phenotypes of the racers. It should be noted that the both classes were virtually the same in terms of the previous-season competitive success rates, despite the significant differences in the skill levels. The summarized value of the reserve capacities СО₈ for the last two years was again used as a key systemic factor. The new junior class (n=20/15) was found close to the previous type by the systemic organisation factor. We should note that only one athlete in the third-year data array was classified with a different class and made success in the next Olympic seasons. The junior racers' class showed the passport/ biological age and physical development characteristics being of influence on the performance and reserve capacity mobilization rates; versus the senior/ higher skilled racers’ class (n=20/13) that showed performance rate correlations of quite a different nature. The complicated system of the data correlations showed the importance of certain body mass component correlations, the lighter body composition with the dominant contribution of the shoulder girdle and with the notable economizing trends in performance of every energy supply system versus the high performance characteristics in case of the successful elite skiers. These typological characteristics were found to correlate with the better blood-plasma lactate rates measured prior to and after the competitions.

The preference of the athletic type showing some leptosomic characteristics may be demonstrated by analysis of the test data of the nine leading athletes including the combined biochemical test data generated by the performance tests for the two years of the study. The qualitative and quantitative data indicative of the individual traits of the athletes was of special interest since different patterns of the sport form progress were obtained for the last two years of pre-season training prior to the Olympic Games. Given in Table 1 hereunder are the average rates for the 14 tests and two classes, the classification being made by the “tutor-free” method, i.e. the athlete condition was classified based on the passport/ biological age (PA/ BA); sport qualification scoring points (SQP), athletic record; and the seasonal competitive success rate (SCSR). Three racing skiers were ranked with the top class with the best performance and competitive success rates (n=5/3), with two of the three athletes being ranked with the class as the Olympic champions for the last study season and based on the test data for the last two years. It should be noted that neither of these athletes were expected by the sport experts to win the Olympic gold.

Table 1. Average indices of the subject racing skiers with variable athletic progress rates in the Olympic season (M±SD)

Note: PA passport age; BA biological age scored by the 9-pont scale (T.S. Timakova, 1972, 2006); SCSR seasonal competitive success rate;

It should be noted, that there was virtually no difference in the last-season competitive success rates versus the high-level and stable reserve capacities. We should also note that the class with the less favourable sport form progress records had to compete with the significant sag of the class performance rates whilst the last-season competitive success rates of the athletes were virtually the same.

On the whole, our studies were based on the individual-specific data processed by special software on the cybernetic modelling principles with a broad set of informative indices being applied (k=43). It gave the means to classify the subjects into the typology-specific groups.

Study results and discussion. We believe that the modern sport challenges require that the coaching team with every relevant specialist involved in the qualification/ training process should be able to clearly define typologies of the athletes and their specific aspects. It is only through due understanding of the individual specifics of every athlete the modern training and pre-season conditioning process may be duly designed and managed. The fact that it were the athletes with body constitutions falling in line with the general variation trends of the modern phenotypes that showed the best accomplishments in the Olympic Games casts a new light on the notion of sport talent on the whole [3, 4, 1].

In this context, we should note the unexpected result of the retrospective analysis of the previously qualified junior swimmers of 11 and 12 years of age. Our analysis showed the similar correlation of the body typology with the swimming style specialization and even with the preferred competitive distance [11]. The competitive success rates in this age, however, may be forecast based on fairly complicated models only with the forecast data being compared with the actual accomplishments of the athletes to correct the model. The study data and analyses underlined the importance of the top priority being given in the gifted athletes’ qualification and training process to the mental/ cognitive qualities development aspects plus the perception and agility development and excelling practices.

It should be noted that in the provisional classification of athletes into the two “extreme” types due attention needs to be paid to the coordination mechanisms development aspects irrespective of the classes and individual traits [7, 8, 10]. The athletes with harmonized/ proportional types of the athletic constitution and normally standard biological maturity terms in the individual ontogenesis are particularly in need of the skills/ techniques being early developed and excelled to be able to efficiently control their competitive performance in challenging situations. The trainees with more complex sub-athletic phenotypic characteristics normally go through a longer biological maturing process. Our studies of the ski racing sample showed the more complex phenotype being prone to fast-response mechanism formation based on the individual intuition and anticipation development process [12]. Athletes of this type need more time for their natural resource being duly mobilized to have certain advantage, upon completion of the most sensitive biological development period, over their physically better developed albeit less gifted (in sensor aspects) piers and competitors. Due allowance for this factor will increase their professional sport life chances to prevent their premature screening out or retirement from the sport due to poor individual motivations.

Conclusion. A longer active phase of the athletic ontogenesis will facilitate the athlete’s body and personality being shaped up by the external impacts with the peak of competitive accomplishments being reasonably delayed in the process.

References

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Corresponding author: vniifk@yandex.ru       

Abstract      

In the modern sport development process, coaches and other relevant specialists need to factor in the athletes’ typologies and the specific aspects thereof. It is only through due understanding of the athletes’ personalities that an efficient training and competitive process management system may be designed. Objective of the study was to find and analyse the typological traits of the athletes versus their competitive accomplishments.

Specific shifts in phenotypes of the leading athletes were found to comply with the commonly known trends in the human evolution towards the individual versatility and higher sensitivity to external effects. In modern sports higher priority is given to the mental abilities and at the same time favour - to the individuals with higher sensitivity of the nervous system, with manifestations of gender dimorphism being less significant. A longer active phase of the athletic ontogenesis will facilitate the athlete’s body and personality being shaped up by the external impacts with the peak of competitive accomplishments being reasonably delayed in the process.