Dr.Hab., Professor L.I. Lubysheva¹
PhD, Associate Professor S.A. Pronin^2
1Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism (GTSOLIFK), Moscow
²St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (University ITMO), St. Petersburg

Keywords: coverage of publications, age range of reference literature, problems of sport science, Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury (TIPFK) Journal.

Background. Last year of 2015 when Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury (TIPFK) Journal celebrated its 90^th (!) anniversary, the Editorial Board received lots and lots of congratulations and gifts including a full digital version of the TIPFK publications since 1925 till now from P.F. Lesgaft NSU (now available on the Journal website: http://www.teoriya.ru/ru/node/3280 [... 3281–3286, 3625–3627]); and even a TIPFK anthem from Tyumen State University: https://yadi.sk/d/pXeS8W8okigqz.

However, an anniversary is the time for summaries and contemplations rather than for celebrations only since no progress can be sustainable unless supported by some kind of analytical reflexion. It is through the analysis and contemplation of the Journal history and accomplishments that we have found a few pivotal evolutionary points and highlighted the current challenges [2, 7].

TIPFK is commonly acknowledged today as a leading Russian edition specializing in the physical culture and sports theory and practice and objectively addressing the problems and priority issues of the national sport science, with its every developmental fluctuation and aspect being detected and covered by the litmus tests of the Journal team.

Objective of the study was to highlight the priority problems in the national sport science.

Study results and discussion. One of the most expressed trends noticeable in the TIPFK-2016 coverage is the reduction of the reference literature period from the sky-high last 20 years to the more reasonable range of 13-15 years, depending on the core subject, and this success might be due to the Anti-Plagiarism System that was implemented and has proved highly efficient.

We have to confess that the current economic crisis has notably undermined the publishing activity of many authors, with the total publications for the last two years falling to around half a thousand (508) articles per annum compared to the average of 900 publications per annum in the booming period of early 2010ies. However, the crisis has done no harm to the general thematic structure of the publications as verified by the analysis.

The ratio of the physical culture related articles (52.0%) to the sports-centred ones (48.0%) was found to firmly vary around 1:1, albeit some wide topical variations may be found within each of these segments. The sport segment, for instance, demonstrates fairly stable shares of general sport topics (32.0%), martial arts (18.8%), cyclic sports (16.0%) and intellectual sport disciplines (2.5%), although acyclic sport disciplines (10.2%) have lately showed a persistent sagging trend versus the team sports related publications being on the rise (20.5%).

It should be further noted that the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro gave some boost to the sport-specific and Olympics coverage of the Journal for the period, with the doping scandal also acting a sort of catalyst for the publishing activity at that time. Both of the topics were subject to a fair, sound and multisided examination by V.V. Platonov, one of the leaders of the national sport science [3]. The doping problem, however, can unlikely be ever covered enough as it deserves permanent and comprehensive consideration and discussion in a variety of formats including round tables.

The physical culture segment of the annual coverage has given a high priority to the reinstated GTO Complex implementation initiative which is presently ranked a key social project by the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation. The reinstated GTO (Ready for Labour and Defence complex) system related publications have increased in numbers and, most importantly, in quality. It is the prime reason for these articles found to gradually migrate from the purely informational “From slushpile” section to the “In search of New Breakthrough” section that has lately evolved to a sort of analytical Mecca for the national sport research community.

Otherwise the physical culture segment of the annual coverage has been dominated by the national education related issues (75.0%) and general matters of the national physical culture (25.0%), the ratio being quite stable for the period. It should be emphasised, however, that the growth of the academic physical culture related coverage to as much as 57.2% (29.7% of the total TIPFK-2016 coverage) is clearly too much of a good thing.

We have mentioned earlier that the above disproportion is of negative effect both on the Journal’s impact factor on the one hand (since international scientific periodicals show little if any interest to this topic and, hence, poorly cite it) and the overall success of the academic physical culture theory and practice on the other hand [1]. The problem is aggravated by the fact that these studies tend to go in circles year after year around the same mammoth-old topics: students’ motor skills mastering and/or physical performance improvement techniques; professional/ applied academic physical education aspects; and the institutional matters of the national physical culture sector [5].

We believe that real benefits from the academic research run by physical education personnel could be much higher if the study subjects were reasonably customized with the priority fields of their higher educational establishments to more efficiently employ the vast special theoretical and practical resources of the latter; all the more that these establishments in some cases have unique and modern experimental resources at their disposal. This recommendation appears to be particularly timely and relevant in view of the fact that many physical culture, sport and education establishments nowadays report high and growing demand for modern research equipment albeit the supplies are very limited. This may be one of the prime reasons for the experimental research reporting publications being on the sagging trend for the last few years.

Modern research activity is much similar to a sport career in some aspects as generally it is designed to discover new knowledge, with the researcher who attains this objective receiving due acknowledgement for the personal accomplishments in the science; to put it in sporting terms – he wins the championship and the research title as a prize. However, the present situation in the modern biomechanical research, for instance, implies the priorities being supported by the 3D study data (presently the articles featuring 2D materials are not accepted by the relevant foreign editions). However, the necessary research instruments for these kinds of analysis may be found if any only in Moscow...

The same is true for the other key fields of the modern sport science including biochemistry, psychology and physiology. The situation forces the research analysts to look for priorities in the relevant theoretical domains; and no wonder that the theoretical study reports are being on the rise albeit the efforts to put in system the inflows of the theoretical and practical information meet more and more difficulties with time. This may be basically explained by the fact that, first of all, the inflow of high-priority experimental studies is notably on the fall; and, on the other hand, next to no reliable documented data on the sport teams training process are available.

It should also be noted that a success of theoretical studies hugely depends on the consistency and interpretations of the terms and definitions applied. Regretfully, a language and semantic barrier is still found between the modern Russian and English terms and definitions; so the authors seeking to submit their papers to the leading international research editions have to harmonize the applied terminology using the relevant glossaries of the sport science terms. These editions, however, have always been very limited and published once in 5-7 years. Regretfully and surprisingly, only one edition of that kind – 30 years old in fact – may be found in the Russian Federation at the moment in the funds of the Russian National Library…

The modern sport research activities are certainly driven by not only the aspirations for priorities but also the physical education improvement agenda. After all, the modern sport science forming theories (sports, physical education, physical culture theories etc.) have been developed to meet the needs of the practical education process i.e. to provide the conceptual toolkits for the educational activity and make it more efficient. This field has been addressed by quite many publications lately albeit their focus has largely shifted towards the institutional aspects of the field whilst many other important matters are still waiting for consideration. To give a case in point, we would take the issue of the education and training process management domain of the academic curricula. Striving to give this top-priority competency to the students, the national physical education universities offer some courses although they are driven by the methodology so obsolete that we should rather pass it over in silence...

As things now stand in the academic studies, students have to build up their professional competences by acquiring individual practical training experience in vocational sport disciplines. To put it in other words, they are just mimicking the skills of their coaches and, as a result, the training process is dominated by feeble imitations of the outdated methods and techniques.

As a result, the coach training system in different sport disciplines has come to virtually total stagnation, and this negative situation has effectively hampered the progress of the national sports lately albeit, in our opinion, it still may be corrected if we could develop an information system to offer an “electronic athlete” model to help the students efficiently design and manage the individual training process on a permanent and multisided basis and thereby advance the relevant process control and management competences using the most sophisticated tools and methods. The key and most serious problem of this corrective model is that it will be based, above all, on large-scale procurements of modern experimental equipment that is critically needed today as we mentioned above. Moreover, all research studies in the national sport science should be coordinated on a strictly centralized basis. At the moment, we have to confess that the research is not coordinated at all, and has long been uncoordinated in fact.

 It was forty years ago that the-then leader of the national sport science clearly and publicly spelled out the developmental prospects and key development vectors of the national sport science [2]. Sergey Pavlov demonstrated his genius by not only setting a clear succession of goals for the national sport science at that time but also supporting the development model by a set of prudent and efficient management policies. It was largely to those policies that the national sport was so highly reputed in those days the world over – no little than Russian ballet and space flights – as a great social phenomenon and showcase of the USSR social system progress.

Since the Sergey Pavlov’s untimely demise, the developmental problems of the national sport science have never been plainly addressed nor publicized by the top management of the sector, and for some time the sport research communities were even optimistic about this silence hoping for some great and confidential ideas being behind it, some mysterious secret and ambitious policies masterminded...

However, with time these rose-colored clouds of looming hopes have cleared away... and the disappointing reality has come out. The sport community found that the top management bodies of the sport science have opted for the pseudo-pragmatic sector control policies. They questioned themselves why should they care wasting lots of finance to procure modern research instruments and equipment, train top-class research personnel at home, establish and advance due information technologies, teams and environments and so on and so forth? Why should they take such troubles when it is much easier to buy a ready-made solution, a standard service package including a foreign top-ranking coach with his service team, as the deal would claim about the same money whilst the potential benefits could be higher and almost guaranteed? Tactically, these policies could bring benefits, at least some and short-term ones... may be. Strategically, they inevitably have come to heavy losses since their gross long-term cultural benefits are close to zero in fact.

Great Moses leaded the Jews wandering for forty years back and forth across the Arabian deserts – waiting for the spirit of slavery vanishing in their hearts. The national sport science leaders have taken about the same time to lead the national research people back and forth across the financial and technological deserts. So what?

Conclusions. The national sport science needs to:

• Drastically advance the quality and quantity of the test/ experimental assets;
• Radically improve the research data provisioning system for the studies; and
• Totally reform the Russian sport science system.

References

1. Lubysheva L.I., Litvinenko S.N. Sostoyanie i perspektivy razvitiya sportivnoy nauki Rossii v kontekste nauchno-sportivnoy periodiki [Status and prospects of development of Russian sports science in context of scientific sports periodicals]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury., 2016, no. 3, pp. 94-95.
2. Pavlov S.P. Perspektivy razvitiya sovetskoy sportivnoy nauki [Prospects of development of Soviet sports science]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 1975, no. 1, pp. 2-5
3. Platonov V.N. Doping v olimpiyskom sporte: krizisnye yavleniya i puti ikh preodoleniya [Doping in Olympic sports: crisis and solutions]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2016, no. 10, pp. 94-98.
4. Pronin S.A. «Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury»: 90 let na sluzhbe sportivnoy nauki [«Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury»: 90 years of service for sports science]. Moscow: Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury i sporta publ., 2015, 52 p.
5. Pronin S.A., Rumyantseva O.L. Tendentsii dokumentalnogo dissertatsionnogo potoka po problemam fizicheskoy kultury v vysshih uchebnykh zavedeniyakh [Trends of documentary theses on the problems of physical culture in higher education]. Mater. Vseros. nauch.-prakt. konf. «Fizicheskaya kultura i sport v sisteme obrazovaniya Rossii: innovatsii i perspektivy razvitiya» [Proc. res.-pract. conf. "Physical Culture and Sports in the Russian education system: innovations and development prospects]. SPbSU, St. Petersburg: s.n., 2016.
6. Lubysheva L., Pronin S. Evolution of the journal “Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul'tury” (1925–1915). Рhysical education and sport through the ages, 2015, vol. 2, N 1. pp. 6–31.
7. Wörterbuch der Sportwissenschaft (Dictionary of sport science): Dt., Engl., fr. Erich Beyer.  [Schorndorf]: Hofmann, Cop. 1987, 770 p.

Corresponding author: fizkult@teoriya.ru

Abstract

Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury (TIPFK) Journal acting in its role of the leading Russian theoretical and practical edition for the national physical culture and sports sector strives to objectively cover the priority problems of the national sport science.

One of the most expressed trends noticeable in the TIPFK-2016 coverage is the reduction of the reference literature period from around 20 years to the more reasonable range of the last 13-15 years, depending on the subject.

Objective of the study was to highlight the key problems of the national sport science addressed by the TIPFK-2016 publications. Content analysis under the study found the alarming trend of the experimental studies being on the fall. It should be noted in this context that one of the major problems of the modern national theory and practice is the stagnation of the coach training system in different sport disciplines. This negative situation that has effectively hampered progress of the national sports lately may be corrected if we could develop an information system to offer an “electronic athlete” model to help the students efficiently design and manage the individual training process on a permanent and multisided basis and thereby advance the relevant process control and management competencies using on the most sophisticated tools and methods.

Based on the study data and analyses, the authors came to conclusion that the national sport science needs to take the initiatives to: drastically advance the quality and quantity of the test/ experimental assets; radically improve the research data provisioning system for the studies; and totally reform the Russian sport science system.