Dr. Sc. Psych., Professor V.N. Smolentseva¹
A.F. Khamzin^1
1Siberian State University of Physical Culture and Sports, Omsk

Keywords: technical skill training, football player, ideomotor training, mental processes.

Background. Modern football is particularly challenging in the sense that players need to respond to rapidly changing game situations in a timely, fast and effective manner when actively opposed by the counter side with every error being potentially fatal for the team success. The increasingly challenging game conditions set high standards for the technical mastery of the players needed to be associated with high psychological stress tolerance rates to effectively scale down the errors that cannot totally be avoided even by the most skilful and experienced players [4].

As provided by the staged physical competency building theory, knowledge and skills are obtained and developed in a staged manner with the external physical actions being digested to develop the internal mental action models [2]. Every action, according to this theory, may be described as a combination of three components including a guiding component made of the following elements: perception of movement sequence; verbalization of movement elements; sensations and bodily responses the athlete experiences prior to and during exercise; and due knowledge of the technical framework of the movement sequence. Many specialists tend to believe that the knowledge and skills obtaining and mastering process may be made more efficient by a special emphasis in the training process on the guiding component with a top priority given to motor perceptions i.e. images of own ideal actions and movements with a certain mission. Ideomotor training system is the most commonly applied among the perceptions-driven mental training models and is designed to help harmonise the ideal mental image of a technical skill with the musculoskeletal system feels and responses. Such active mental visualizations of performed movement sequences are commonly recognised to facilitate the technical skills mastering and excelling process [1].

The relevant provisions of the staged physical competency building theory give grounds to assume that certain mental skills developed by special training tools including the ideomotor imaging of the key technical skills and elements and other relevant psycho-techniques geared to develop and excel the relevant mental conditioning skills to mobilise some general and specific athletic qualities [3, 5] may be highly beneficial if effectively applied in the primary skills mastering process.

Objective of the study was to test feasibility and efficiency of a variety of mental conditioning tools to facilitate the technical skills being mastered by junior football players.

Methods and structure of the study. The educational experiment was performed at the Irtysh CYORSS in Omsk city with 9-year-old football players being sampled for the experiment. The subjects were evenly split up into Study and Reference Group of 13 athletes each, with their progress under the experiment being tested by expert progress ratings and special tests.

The Study Group was given three months to master a variety of psycho-techniques geared to improve the mental settings and processes by right perceptions, images, sensations and responses driven by the external and internal attention – collectively referred to as the efficiency-improvement ideomotor training model subject to the study. Prior to each training session, the group applied a variety of respiratory, concentrating and relaxing psycho-techniques geared to help athletes develop the ability to create ideal and clear images and perceptions in their minds and keep them in focus of the internal attention. At the same time the athletes were required to physically execute the ideal ideomotor models so as to excel the relevant technical elements; in some cases, when the occasion required, athletes were also given home tasks. Prior to the training sessions, key provisions of the ideomotor setting formation concepts were reminded to the athletes.

Study results and discussion. The trainees’ progress was rated by a few tests performed prior to and after the experimental training model. The tests were designed to rate their progress in the following technical skills: flying ball strike with swivel; ball reception by the inside of the foot; and ball passing by the outside of the foot, as these techniques are considered the most challenging for beginners. The technique execution quality was rated by the counts of the errors-free execution attempts versus the total attempts per three minutes by both of the groups. The test results are given in Table 1 hereunder.

Table 1. Study Group versus Reference Group: technical skill execution success prior to and after the experiment

The tests showed growth of the percentage rates of the error-free actions in both of the groups after the experiment albeit the Study Group progress rates were significantly higher than those of the Reference group, particularly in the ball reception by the inside of the foot and ball passing by the outside of the foot skills.

Conclusion. The study data and analyses demonstrated the proposed psychological conditioning model being beneficial in the football players’ technical skills mastering process at the beginner training stage. Particularly efficient were found the psycho-techniques geared to help the athletes create ideal mental images of the mastered techniques and focus and keep their internal attention on them, with the ideomotor perceptions providing due guidance and standards for the subject technical elements.

References

1. Belkin A.A. Ideomotornaya trenirovka v sporte [Ideomotor training in sport]. Moscow: Fizkultura i sport publ., 1983.
2. Bogen M.M. Obuchenie dvigatelnym deystviyam [Motion Training]. Moscow, 1985, 192 p.
3. Blinov V.A., Arbuzin I.A. Psikhologicheskaya podgotovka yunykh futbolistov [Mental conditioning of junior football players]. Mater. Vseros. nauch.- prakt. konf. «Aktualnye problemy razvitiya futbola» [Proc. nat. res.-pract. conf. "Actual problems of development of football"]. Moscow, 2012, pp. 55-59.
4. Blinov V.A. Osobennosti podgotovki yunykh futbolistov. Metod. rekom [Features of training of junior football players. Guidance].Omsk: SSUPC publ., 2013, 36 p.
5. Smolentseva V.N. O psikhotekhnikakh, psikhicheskikh sostoyaniyakh i ikh regulyatsii v sporte. Ucheb.-metod. posobie. Izd. 2-e, dop. [Psychotechnologies, mental states and their regulation in sports. Guidance. 2nd ed., sup.]. Omsk: SSUPC publ., 2012, 144 p.

Corresponding author: Valentinaomsk333@ yandex.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to test feasibility and efficiency of a variety of psychological tools to facilitate the key technical skills being mastered by junior football players. The educational experiment was performed at the Irtysh CYORSS in Omsk city with 9-year-old football players being sampled for the experiment. The subjects were evenly split up into Study and Reference Group of 13 athletes each, with their progress under the experiment being tested by expert progress ratings and special tests. The experimental training model included special psychological tools geared to help the trainees clearly visualize in their minds the right images and focus and keep their internal attention on them to maintain the ideomotor perceptions of the ideal technical skills and apply them to facilitate the skills mastering process and step up the execution quality.