PhD, Associate Professor E.A. Izotov¹
PhD, Associate Professor N.N. Smirnova^1
1St. Petersburg Mining University, St. Petersburg

Keywords: darts, ideomotor training, precompetitive mobilisation rate.

Background. Russian darts players have been quite successful in European and World competitions, and the progress of the national sport requires the accumulated experience being analysed to find new darts training methods and tools, with a special emphasis on the mental conditioning ones that are crucial in any training system. The mental conditioning methods is to be geared to develop a positive attitude to education, training and competitive processes with a highest priority to conscientious motor activity control process based on a well-developed sensitivity to own movement patterns with the ability to analyse, adjust and control them. Fast growth of the competitive accomplishments and techniques with the increasingly intensive training and competitive loads requires the existing education and training methodologies being revised to find new ways to facilitate the sport excellence process [2]. Ideomotor training method may be considered one of such tools essentially designed to help athletes mobilise and analyse physical and muscular perceptions of the movement patterns to make timely adjustments to them and thereby improve the movement control abilities.

Ideomotor training method, as verified by many studies in modern sport psychology, may be a highly beneficial component of a precompetitive training [1] albeit it is still seldom applied in the national practical training systems.

It was in 1992 that the Saint Petersburg Darts Sport Federation was established, and since then darts sport has been recognised among the modern and promising non-traditional sport disciplines; and presently many physical education universities in the country train athletes and coaches specialising in this sport discipline. There are many study reports considering different issues of physical and technical training of darts players, and only one study giving an overview of the psychological tools applicable for the athletic performance improvement [5].

It should be noted that presently the sport is still in need of manuals, aids, practical guides and theoretical provisions for mental training systems, and this shortage largely hampers the elite athletes’ progress. For a competitive performance in modern darts being successful, an athletic training system is to give a due priority to a variety of physical, technical, tactical and psychomotor training components with a special emphasis on the relevant physical qualities including special and strength endurance, dexterity, speed, plus some specific psychomotor qualities. Discretional movement control implies the movements being programmed by a variety of positioning-, timing and efforts-specific parameters, with the relevant sensor controls and adjustments in the process. Ideomotor training method is fairly considered one of the most effective mental conditioning methods at present. As provided by the sport psychology study by A.T. Puni, the method has the following key goals: programming, training and regulatory [4].

Some studies give test data on benefits of ideomotor training models as verified by improvements in  different sport element performance and prestart mental condition test rates [7]. However, effects of ideomotor training method on the precompetitive mental fitness viewed as an integral mental quality have never been studied in fact.

Objective of the study was to assess effects of ideomotor training model on darts player’s precompetitive mobilisation rates.

Methods and structure of the study. Subject to the study were 32 students of Saint Petersburg Mining University having sport qualifications and at least two years of practical competitive experience in darts. The subjects’ precompetitive mobilisation progress was rated using an adapted version of the mobilisation rating tests applied in elite football and boxing sport [3, 6], with the sport-specific test components being replaced by the darts-specific ones to rate the relevant physical (techniques), intellectual (goal understanding and setting), motivational (fighting spirit), emotional (positive emotional background) and regulatory (self-control efficiency) abilities. The test data were processed by the standard variation statistical toolkit including calculations of mean arithmetic and standard σ deviations, with the data meaning rated by the Student t-criterion.

Ideomotor training skills were mastered in the education and training course timed to the preparatory and precompetitive training process stages and taking three months in total. Prior to the experimental course, the subjects were instructed in detail on the core ideas, mechanisms and basics of the ideomotor training model applied. The trainees were required to imagine their own movement sequences as clear as possible and focus on the physical sensations associated with them. Practical benefits of the training method were rated by a comparative analysis of the mobilisation rates prior to (Test 1) and after the experiment (Test 2) in precompetitive period.

Study results and discussion. The comparative analysis of the darts players’ performance rates prior to and after the experimental course demonstrated that the ideomotor training model provides efficient mobilisation building tools: see Table 1. The tests showed significant progress in 15 test rates out of 26, with 9 of them showing growth with 99% confidence level.

Three components of the mobilisation rate out of five were tested to significantly improve, with the intellectual (t = 2.77) and regulatory (t = 2.82) components tested to increase with 99% confidence level; and the physical component was tested to increase (t = 2.25) with 95% confidence level. The integrated mobilisation rate was also tested to significantly grow (t = 2.14; р ≤ 0.05). The experimental data and analysis demonstrated the ideomotor training model applied in the darts training process being highly efficient.

Table 1. Mobilisation rates of the darts players prior to (Test 1) and after (Test 2) the ideomotor training course, in points on a 10-point scale

Let us consider the progress of the subjects as verified by the above mobilisation rates. The physical component of the mobilisation rate was improved as verified by the following specific perception subcomponents: throw feel (t = 2.8; р ≤ 0.01), dart holding confidence (t = 2.07; р ≤ 0.05) and feel of balance (t = 2.04; р ≤ 0.05). The intellectual component of the mobilisation rate was improved as verified by the following specific subcomponents: clarity of action plan (t = 2.82; р ≤ 0.01) and goal-setting clarity (t = 2.47; р ≤ 0.05). The regulatory component of the mobilisation rate was improved as verified by the following specific subcomponents: self-control (t = 2.9; р ≤ 0.01), concentration (t = 2.3; р ≤ 0.05) and attention stability (t = 2.28; р ≤ 0.05). And the emotional component of mobilisation rate was improved as verified by the growth of emotional balance (t = 2.14; р ≤ 0.05).

Conclusion. The experimental data and analysis demonstrated the ideomotor training model applied in the standard education and training process being efficient as verified by the growth of the precompetitive mobilisation rates with the highest benefits being attained in intellectual, regulatory and physical fitness components of athletes’ mobilisation rates. Furthermore, practical benefits of the precompetitive ideomotor mobilisation model were proved by the improved competitive success rates of Mining University competitors in the top-ranking darts event in the period of 2014 to 2016, including one two-times European Championship runner-up in soft darts; two Champions of Saint Petersburg; and five Saint Petersburg University Games Champions in darts.

References

1. Belkin A.A. Ideomotornaya podgotovka v sporte [Ideomotor training in sports]. Moscow: Fizkultura i sport publ., 1983, 128 p.
2. Izotov E.A. Psikhologicheskoe professionalnoe obuchenie dartsmenov [Psychological professional training of dartsmen]. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg SI publ., 2016.
3. Mokeev G.I., Rudenko G.V., Kostromin O.V., Zaytsev A.V. Poisk zakonomernostey predsorevnovatelnoy podgotovki sportsmena [Search for Regularities of Pre-Season Training of Athlete]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2014, no. 6, pp. 69-72.
4. Orlov G.S. Formirovanie mobilizatsionnoy gotovnosti vysokokvalifitsirovannykh futbolistov k sorevnovaniyam. Dis. kand. ped. nauk [Formation of competitive mobilization fitness of highly skilled football players. PhD. diss.]. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg SUPC publ., 2006, 144 p.
5. Puni A.Ts. Polifunktsionalnost-polimodalnost predstavleniya dvizheniy i proizvolnaya regulyatsiya dvigatelnoy deyatelnosti [Polyfunctional-multimodal structure of representation of movements and arbitrary regulation of motor activity]. Psikhologicheskie voprosy trenirovki i gotovnosti sportsmena k sorevnovaniyu [Psychological issues of pre-season training and fitness]. Moscow: Fizkultura i sport publ., 1969, pp. 123-131.
6. Sidorenko A.S., Sidorenko V.S., Plotnikova S.S., Antsyferov A.N. Teoriya i praktika dartsa. Metod. posobie [Theory and practice of darts. Guide]. St. Petersburg: SPb GUAP publ., 2015, 20 p.
7. Khanin Y.L., Stambulova N.B., Kasyanik P.M. Problemy psikhomotornoy trenirovki v zarubezhnoy psikhologii sporta [Problems of psychomotor training in foreign sports psychology]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 1989, no. 3, pp. 52-54.

Corresponding author: panfilio@spmi.ru

Abstract

The article reports results of an experimental study designed to test effects of ideomotor training model on darts players' precompetitive mobilisation rates. Subject to the experiment were the leading darts playing students of Saint Petersburg Mining University. The subjects’ precompetitive mobilisation progress was rated by relevant physical, intellectual, motivational, emotional and regulatory ability rates. The experimental data and analysis demonstrated the ideomotor training model applied in the standard education and training process being efficient as verified by the growth of the precompetitive mobilisation rates with the highest benefits being attained in intellectual, regulatory and physical fitness components of athletes’ mobilisation rates. Furthermore, practical benefits of the precompetitive ideomotor mobilisation model were proved by the improved competitive success rates of Mining University competitors in the top-ranking darts event in the period of 2014 to 2016, including one two-times European Championship runner-up in soft darts; two Champions of Saint Petersburg; and five Saint Petersburg University Games Champions in darts.