PhD, Associate Professor M.A. Kuzmin¹
V.A. Dorofeev^1
1Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow
²St. Petersburg Mining University, St. Petersburg

Keywords: mental adaptation, martial arts, competitive environment, motivation, personality qualities, factors, criteria.

Background. The study considers theoretical grounds for differentiated approaches to the athletes’ precompetitive mental conditioning procedures. The differentiated mental conditioning components of the modern athletic training systems is among the top priority theoretical and practical missions of a training system. Every human activity implies certain requirements to be met by executives, and sport activities are not different in this aspect with specific sport disciplines setting specific adaptation requirements to the athletes. It should be mentioned, however, that presently the national sport science lacks due toolkit to speed up and facilitate the adaptation process to achieve due adaptation standards as it is still in need of the relevant theoretical basis whilst even components of the latter are still underdeveloped.

Objective of the study was to identify the key theoretical and empirical grounds for competitive mental adaptation in martial arts.

Methods and structure of the study. We applied the following fact-finding test methods as a basis for the study: G.D. Gorbunov’s competitive success rating test; M.A. Kuzmin’s performance conditions and outcomes rating tests; A.N. Nikolaev’s mental state (wellbeing, activity, mood, stress, anxiety, confidence, excitation) test; T. Ehlers’s motivation to success test; Y. Strelau Temperament Inventory; Brengelmann’s personality test; B.N. Smirnov’s volitional qualities test; A.L. Gorfinkel and I.L. Keleynikov Q-sort competitive spirit rating test; D. Rotter’s self-control stock test; N.I. Reinvald self-discipline rating test; Spielberger-Hanin State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) tests; Wagner hand test of aggressive behaviour; N.A. Nikolaev’s sport motivations test; and A.G. Maklakov and S.V. Cheremyanin’s adaptability rating test.

Subject to the study and tests were junior athletes (n = 563) of 15 to 21 years of age from the Children’s and Youth Sport Schools and Centres specialised in different sport disciplines including judo representing martial arts (n=139); cross country skiing representing cyclic sports (n=138); basketball representing team sports (n=142); and figure skating representing artistic sports (n=144).

Study results and discussion. Based on the athletic competitive adaptability rating tests, we developed a set of subjective competitive adaptation rating criteria including competitive environment assessment, prestart mental condition rating and competitive success forecasting ones. The competitive environment assessments may be viewed as general criteria applicable in every sport discipline, as they are basically designed to subjectively rate the following: place and environment of the upcoming competitions; food quality; information about the opponent(s); and potential risks.

The competitive success forecasts were found to be sport-specific, with martial arts being ranked first in this component. The prestart mental condition ratings were also found sport-specific, with single combat competitors being highly exposed to prestart tension, excitation and anxiety, with every mental condition element (including self-confidence, tension, activity etc.) being particularly acute prior to the fight. It should be noted that this group is particularly vulnerable to a prestart de-adaptation triggered by physical and mental overstress prior to the fight.

Basic subjective prestart adaptation rating criteria include the intellectual activity success rate and precompetitive behavioural adaptability rate, with both of the rates being expressly sport-specific. The intellectual activity success rates were the highest in martial arts; going second were the team sports; third the cyclic sports; and fourth the artistic sports.

The subjective and objective adaptability rating criteria are closely interrelated in fact; with the individual forecasts of personal competitive success rates and mental condition (including wellbeing, mood, anxiety and confidence levels) forming a basis for the system of correlations and adaptation variability forecasts.

The competitive success rates and correlations of the relevant adaptability factors are sport-specific, i.e. each sport implies its own set of general and specific adaptability rates critical for the individual competitive success; with the general rates including all the objective factors and some subjective ones, namely the overall competitive environment rating factors and the prestart conditions which are the most advantageous when a high activation is associated with low anxiety (emotional stability) and positive self-forecasts of the competitive success. In martial arts, specific adaptation criteria critical for the competitive success include at least the following: positive rating of the competitive environment with the competitive conditions being rated as safe; due information about the opponent(s); and good individual prestart condition dominated by good wellbeing and mood associated with a reasonable emotional excitement.

As far as the role of external factors of influence on the sport-specific adaptability rates is concerned (including competitive environment and social/ individual characteristics of competitors), the study generated the following data. It was found that a critical influence on the individual adaptation is played by the degree of difference of the objective and subjective (self-rated by the athletes) rates of the competitive conditions, and the higher is the difference, the more problematic is the individual adaptation to the specific environmental conditions. In martial arts, for example, the individual competitive adaptation may be undermined by the self-underestimated competitive challenges and impacts of a variety of external factors, plus overestimated risks of the upcoming bouts in particular and competitive environment on the whole.

Furthermore, the sport-specific competitive adaptation was found to be influenced by the social characteristics of the athletes including their rankings, track records in the sport on the whole and subject sport discipline in particular etc. The objective conditions were found to be of different effects on the individual athletic adaptation to particular competitions. Martial artists’ precompetitive adaptation was found particularly sensitive to the competitive process design and management, competitive conditions on the site, information about the opponent(s) and potential risks of the competitive conditions.

Moreover, the individual competitive adaptation was found sensitive to a variety of sport-specific internal (mental) factors. A correlation analysis under the study identified a set of general and specific personality qualities critical for the individual precompetitive adaptation; plus a variety of sport-unspecific personality qualities of a boosting effect on the individual precompetitive adaptation including: high motivation for success; expressed individual flexibility and adaptability (adaptive personal resource); high volitional qualities like the internal locus of control and/or high overall internality providing a basis for high internal responsibility for own life on the whole; high self-discipline; purposefulness; and determination.

The individual precompetitive adaptation in martial arts was found to be highly dependent on some specific personality qualities, with a particular positive effect of the high excitation capacity up to a reasonable aggression associated with good neuropsychic stability and control, high fighting spirit, plus high strive for leadership and domination (as provided by M.A. Kuzmin, 2012).

The general motivational factors of highest influence on competitive adaptation and, hence, potential competitive success were found to be dominated by the expressed determination for the training and competitive progress; due focus on the personal sport mission and competitive success; and high motivation for the sport career in general and specific competitive success in particular (M.A. Kuz’min, 2014).

Specific motivating factors and personal determinants were found to be sport-specific. In martial arts they were tested to be dominated by the self-improvement agenda based on certain individual volitional qualities and neuropsychic balance and largely driven by responsibility, determination for success, insistence and purposefulness (M.A. Kuz’min, 2014).

Conclusion. The study data and analyses may be beneficial for the differentiated adaptation model application projects geared to improve athletes' individual competitive adaptability and, hence, their competitive progress rates. The study data were applied and the proposed training model was successfully implemented at Moscow and Saint Petersburg universities in the academic martial artists’ training systems ((M.A. Kuz’min, 2016). As verified by the progress tests, the proposed differentiated approach to the athletes’ mental conditioning systems is highly efficient and beneficial.

References

1.  Kuz'min M.A. Metodologicheskie aspekty issledovaniya faktorov adaptirovannosti sportsmenov k sorevnovaniyam [Methodological Aspects of Study of Factors of Adaptation of Athletes to Competitions]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2014, no. 2, pp. 58–60..
2. Kuz'min M.A. Professionalnaya adaptatsiya lichnosti v sporte: sostoyanie i perspektivy [Personality Professional Adaptation in Sport]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2014, no. 6, pp. 59 –62.
3. Kuz'min M.A., Zinov'ev N.A., Svyatchenko P.B. Razvitie studencheskogo sporta v universitetakh Rossii [University sports development in Russia]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2016, no. 10, pp. 60–61.
4. Kuzmin M.A. Strukturno-funktsionalnaya model adaptatsii sportsmenov k sorevnovatelnoy deyatelnosti [Structural-functional model of adaptation of athletes to competitive activities]. Uchenye zapiski un-ta im. P.F. Lesgafta, 2011, no. 5(75). vol. 75, pp. 71–74.
5. Kuzmin M.A. Rol lichnostnykh svoystv v adaptatsii sportsmenov khudozhestvennykh vidov sporta i edinoborstv [Personal properties in adaptation of athletes engaged in artistic sports and martial arts]. Uchenye zapiski un-ta im. P.F. Lesgafta, 2012, no. 4 (86), 2012, pp. 73–77.

Corresponding author: kuwanov@mail.ru

Abstract

The study considers some issues of competitive mental adaptation in sports on the whole and competitive martial arts in particular. It offers a set of general criteria to rate the competitive mental adaptation in sports with special adaptation rating criteria applicable in martial arts, and with a special emphasis on the subjective and objective mental adaptation rating criteria. The subjective adaptation rating criteria are designed for competitive environment assessment, prestart mental condition rating and competitive success forecasts; and the objective adaptation rating criteria are designed to rate intellectual activity success and competitive adaptability. The study identified the key subjective and objective factors of the athletes’ competitive adaptation. Objective factors include competitive environment and social qualities of athlete; and the subjective factors of the individual mental conditioning include emotional, volitional and motivational personality qualities plus overall motivational background of the individual sport agenda. The competitive mental conditioning of every athlete is to be designed with due consideration for the individual competitive adaptation specifics.