Volitional qualities of a person and ways of their formation in sports

The concept, content and tasks of psychological training of an athlete

Three types of athlete training have long been distinguished as the basis of sports mastery - physical, technical and tactical. In their totality and mutual connection, they ensure the achievement of high sports results. All three types of training are permeated with psychological content, which requires the participation of certain psychological processes - specialized actions, attention, thinking, etc. - and their high skill. This calls for the need for psychological study of sports activity, and at the same time to develop methodological techniques for the formation and development of mental functions specific to it. Sports psychology has achieved its greatest success in the analysis of the psychological structure of motor skills, as well as in the study of emotions and volitional processes and their specificity in sports. It has become possible to talk about special volitional training of an athlete as the main part and repressive process.

However, the athlete's volitional training does not cover all the many meanings of mental functions, the importance of the development and improvement of which is increasingly understood by coaches and athletes as an extremely necessary condition for success in sports activities. Thus, a new problem arose in sports psychology - the psychological preparation of the athlete. This term was first proposed at the III All-Union Conference on Sports Psychology (1960) by G.M. Gagaeva.

Initially, the psychological preparation of the athlete was understood as the preparation of the athlete for the following meanings. At the same time, special attention was paid to the education of the athlete's ability to overcome a negative emotional state, characteristic mainly for the period of significance, to the formation of the athlete's greatest readiness for maximum volitional loads to overcome difficulties arising in the process of the general struggle, to the excitation of an active desire for victory and, in connection with this, the emergence of a sense of confidence in one's abilities in the athlete. In a number of studies, special methods of such psychological preparation of an athlete for subsequent values were established.

But subsequent works in this area (G.M. Gagaeva, F. Genov, B.I. Novikov, O.A. Chernikov) showed that the psychological preparation of an athlete, which is only considered as preparation for subsequent values, does not exhaust all those great opportunities that are final in the application of psychological methods for the purpose of improving sports qualifications. It was proved that psychological preparation for subsequent values is only a part of the general psychological preparation of an athlete and that its effectiveness is to a lesser extent determined by the success of the general psychological preparation of the athlete.

In this regard, the stages are divided in sports training into 2 sections of psychological preparation:

a) general psychological preparation of an athlete;

b) psychological preparation of an athlete for subsequent competitions.

These sections of psychological training are interconnected, but they differ in significant and special features that must be taken into account in the methodology of sports training.

The general psychological training of an athlete should be put on a par with physical, technical and tactical training. It is aimed at solving sports problems, and not only at preparing him for the next competition. Solving these problems is training by forming and developing in the athlete special, only in his area, mental functions, abilities and personal qualities necessary for the athlete to succeed in sports activities.

General psychological training consists of the real part of sports training, cannot be limited only to the interests of the next meaning, it must be carried out throughout all stages of sports training.

The following can be attributed to special (with comparison in physical, technical and tactical training) tasks of general psychological training:

Education of moral and personal qualities of the athlete: collectivism, versatile qualities, correct attitude to sports and other qualities of personality, as an important basis for success in sports activities. It is very important in the process of sports training and not only to properly prepare the athlete physically, technically and tactically, but to help positively influence the development of his character. And this is possible only in the process of long and daily educational work. In between, very few people pay attention to it.

Development of influence processes, in the frequency of formation and improvement of special types of influence, such as “sense of time”, “sense of distance”, etc.

Development of attention, in the frequency of its feeling, confidence, switching from one object to another, speed of mobilization, the athlete’s ability to resist different responses.

Development of observation, the ability to quickly and correctly grasp the difficult features of a sports competition.

Development of memory and imagination, in the frequency of the ability to accurately remember, quickly and correctly "grasp" tactical techniques and combinations; development of muscle-motor training, etc.

Development of consistent - acting thinking, the ability to quickly and correctly assess the situation, make effective decisions and control actions.

Development of the ability to mobilize emotions aimed at solving sports problems, the ability to manage one's emotions in the process of sports activity.

8. Development of the athlete's volitional qualities in relation to the requirements of volitional training.

The importance of the athlete's general psychological training can be shown by the example of the development of the psychological characteristics of his "sports form".

Participation in competitions requires the athlete to have appropriate physical, technical, tactical and volitional training and, as a result, the so-called "sports form" or state of fitness. The latter are characterized by the athlete's good physical well-being, which is based on the development of the physical qualities necessary for this type of sport, absolute mastery of the corresponding motor skills, supported by positive emotions and the athlete's confidence in his strengths and capabilities.

When an athlete is in normal "sports form", his volitional efforts during competitions, due to their structural psychological characteristics, are aimed at the maximum manifestation of motor energy in full relation to the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the dynamic stereotypes of sports action developed and fixed in the process of training.

The "sports form" achieved in the process of training is not always possible to maintain during competitions. This is primarily explained by the fact that the concern for maintaining "sports form" by competition participants falls under conditions of activity that require maximum physical and mental stress from them. "Sports form" is very sensitive and confirmed by the strong influence of various negative factors, sometimes capable of leading to its complete destruction. About instability, as a characteristic feature of sports form, the honored master of sports, experienced coach P. Lunko spoke very figuratively: "Race: is this very sports form a sensitive thing? To me it is like an artery filled to the brim with water. Try to bring this artery, without spilling a single drop, to a certain goal. It is necessary to carry it at a good pace, sometimes at the maximum. And how, there is a lot in this sports skill of individuality, sharply distinguishing one athlete."

"Sports form" can be significantly weakened and even completely destroyed under the influence of two types of negative factors that cause a harmful effect on the ANS at the time of competition - the so-called stresses and psychological barriers.

Analysis of the physiological nature of stress (N.V. Zynkin) shows that there is excessive tension of nervous processes, which are caused by very strong or long-acting stimuli, not encountered in such a form in the process of pre-start sports training, which is why the athlete could not adapt to them, master effective ways of solving them. An example is a fencing competition in modern pentathlon. With a large number of participants, it sometimes drags on for many hours, and the athlete, who has not accustomed himself to multiple fights during one day, cannot fully withstand it due to the measured load on the nervous system, as a result of which his sports performance decreases sharply.

Volitional efforts aimed at overcoming stress and maintaining "sports form" at the time of competition are usually unsuccessful and only further exhaust the athlete's nervous system. The reason for this is that the athlete has not developed in the process of general long psychological training the ability to effectively mobilize volitional efforts that could overcome stress.

Volitional efforts not prepared by previous training are distinguished by a certain amorphousness and some general direction towards weakening of stress-related nervous excitations from the very beginning acquire a sharply pronounced dominant character. In these cases, persistent stimulation for volitional overcoming of stress can only lead to a long weakening of the athlete's abilities to show volitional efforts.

Fighting the harmful effects of stress can be successful only when it has a preventive nature and is based on the athlete's volitional qualities, brought up in his real psychological training, etc. When an athlete is exposed to stimuli that cause stress, he learns to overcome them in the process of sports training.

Studies of the features of psychological barriers (V.G. Gavrilyuk, G.A. Kalashnikov, T.M. Maikson, O.A. Chernikova, etc.) show that the basis of psychological barriers are obsessive thoughts, organically connected with strong negative emotions - fear, nervousness, a feeling of insecurity in one's abilities, etc. The destructive development of psychological barriers based on the athlete's training is due to the fact that the state of their obsessive thoughts transform the nature of dominant processes, strong excitation processes appear in connection with them in nerve centers, causing inhibition of all other centers, including those that determine the actual execution of sports actions necessary in competitions. Psychological barriers have a sharply expressed conditioned-reflex nature and are always associated with the appearance of certain stimuli or with the mention of them. In this regard, volitional feelings aimed at overcoming negative processes of psychological barriers, the development of the athlete's ability to fully maintain attention on sports action, when the nerve centers of this level become so dominant that side stimuli are no longer able to destroy the athlete's working nervous system in competitions. This can be achieved only through long-term general psychological training.

Of great importance in the development of appropriate volitional efforts is also competitive experience, which involves suppressing relevant thoughts, concentrating attention only on the main sports actions.

The psychological preparation of an athlete for the next competition is usually limited to the tasks that arise before the athlete precisely in these competitions. The following can be included among them:

1. Awareness of the features and sports tasks of the following significance.

2. Awareness of the specific conditions of the next competition (time, place, track, climatic conditions, etc.) and preparation for effective actions in these conditions.

3. Awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent and preparation for actions taking into account these features of the opponent.

4. Testing and bringing to automatism the abilities to possess demanding motor skills, taking into account their psychological structure.

5. Arousing an active desire to win (a goal to win) in the next competitions.

6. Formation of strength and confidence in one's strengths and capabilities to achieve victory in the next competitions.

7. Overcoming negative emotions caused by the next competitions, awareness and support of the emotional state - a characteristic feature of "sports form".

8. Arousing readiness for maximum volitional loads and the ability to demonstrate them in the conditions of the next competition.

The listed tasks require great attention, since they are associated with the special features of the athlete's attention in the following competitions. As a rule, these tasks arise only in the pre-start period and cannot permeate the entire process of sports training throughout its entire length. However, they cannot be successfully solved without the correct general psychological preparation of the athlete.

So, at present, the requirements of the tasks of the athlete's psychological preparation only in the interests of participation in subsequent competitions and the associated deficiency in general psychological preparation are a known obstacle to the athlete's achievement of a high level of sportsmanship. Athletes and coaches face a great task - scientifically substantiate and develop effective methods of general psychological preparation and adopt them throughout the process of sports training in accordance with its stages.

Some conclusions of studying the issues of the athlete's willpower training

The problem of will is one of the old and at the same time still very new, if I may say so, very new, problems of sports psychology.

Since the first years of the emergence of sports psychology, individual issues of this problem have been raised on the pages of scientific and special sports magazines, its various aspects have been the subject of identification by specialists. In this sense, the problem of will is old.

The acuteness and practical significance of this problem have not only not decreased, but have increased even more now - at a new stage of development of the physical culture movement, at a new stage of development of sports. This follows, firstly, that from among the various spiritual forces of the individual in building society, the formation of strong-willed qualities of character is one of the leading tasks of education, and this task should be largely solved in the process of engaging in physical culture and sports of the broad masses, secondly, this follows from the facts of athletes' performances at the Olympic Games (XX Olympic Games in Turin).

The development of a psychological theory of will based on the study of the practice of volitional training and experimentation is of great importance for illuminating the path of future sports improvement, for mastering skills in sports.

All this is dictated by the need to look back at the path already traveled and draw some conclusions about what has been done in recent years in the development of the athlete's volitional training.

The problem of the athlete's volitional training is studied in two interrelated aspects - theoretical and practical.

It should be noted that the mutual connection of these aspects is ensured by the joint participation in the research of psychologists, teachers of sports departments of physical culture institutes and specialist trainers in sports, physiologists and teachers.

Theoretical developments of volitional training

The development of the problem of volitional training in the theoretical aspect allows creating a certain basis for solving practical issues of the methodology of volitional training, as an internal aspect of the content of sports training.

The starting point for all future research in the field of the problem of the athlete's volitional training is the understanding of will as a function of a normally working brain, as freedom of will as the ability to make decisions with knowledge of the case, its determinism of the objective circumstances of people's life and activities. The second starting point is the characterization by I.M. Segenov of the will and the integrity of mental activity as the activity of the side of reason and moral qualities as a regulator of human actions and skills.

The theoretical development of these starting points allows us to draw on the entire wealth of the teachings of I.M. Segenov, I.P. Pavlov and his school at the modern level of development about the reflex nature of mental phenomena for understanding the mechanisms of will. It allows us to draw on the reflex theory, as an expression of dialectical-material determinism, for understanding the mechanism of human volitional manifestations in a specific area of general practice - in sports activities. Particularly important here are the principles of volitional self-regulation of the athlete's motor activity as a result of the systemic (according to Lyavkov's expression - total) work of the cerebral cortex, based on the units of the first and second signal systems of reality and proceeding according to all the laws of higher nervous activity. To understand the mechanism of self-regulation, L.E. Antokhin developed and developed the theory of the action acceptor, based on the phenomena of exceeding the reflection of reality and the reverse (controlling and sanctioning) information in the activity of the central nervous system.

Useful for the development of these general provisions were the studies of specialists in sports physiology (E.N. Zhukov; Yu.Z. Zakharyants, A.B. Gendelsman; N.V. Zimkin, A.V. Korbkov, K.M. Smirnov, etc.). They show the importance for understanding the mechanisms of will and solving questions of the methodology of volitional training of an athlete is the doctrine of the dominant A.A. Pukhtovsky, the adaptability of the central nervous system and vegetative organs to the specific for each sport type of tension and emotional effects (types of stress), increasing the nonspecific resistance of the organism to various kinds of adverse conditions of the external and internal environment (overheating, cooling, hypoxemia, etc.), the range of automation of motor skills, the features of the course of the main cortical nervous processes from the point of view of their strength, mobility, balance.

The theoretical development of Segenovsky's understanding of will allowed to clarify the meaning of the moral and intellectual foundations of the athlete's will training and to form provisions about them (A.T. Pikuni, V.V. Belousova, G.M. Khaneeva, P.A. Rudyk, etc.). The ability of the moral foundation is based on the need to form in the athlete ideas, concepts, views, educated fundamental feelings, skills and habits of behavior, from the principles of the moral code. This is connected with the social conditioning of athletes' volitional manifestations. This is connected with the motivation of their actions and deeds in sports and in other areas of activity.

The ability of the intellectual basis is also laid in the unconditional necessity of the existence of mental development and activity of the athlete based on mastering a certain system of general and social issues, various development of the quality of his mind in the course of using the mastered knowledge to solve problems related to willful manifestations when facing difficulties of varying degrees of difficulty.

The creation of moral and intellectual foundations of volitional manifestations has a certain importance for the regulation of actions of sportsmen in connection with other reasons.

A large place in theoretical studies is occupied by the issue of overcoming difficulties as separate conditions for the manifestation and development of the athlete's will.

In general psychology, the concepts of overcoming and difficulty are not separated. It is not possible to determine whether they are considered synonyms or are differentiated in some way. The same situation exists in the psychology of sports.

The scientific materialist approach to understanding the existence of obstacles should be based on the recognition of the determinism of the will of the objective conditions of the external environment and the activities of people, on the IPs that develop it. Pavlov's provisions about the unity of the organism and the environment. They are of fundamental importance for understanding the main thesis, which refers to the characterization of the essence of obstacles and difficulties: without the actions of a person in the process of his active activity from the external environment, before that the whole society, as well as with nature, there are and cannot be obstacles or difficulties.

They arise only when a person meets the appearance of nature with the objective conditions of social life and activities of changing the state of the internal environment of the organism, and with such phenomena, conditions, relations and conditions that prevent the achievement of a certain goal, the successful solution of specific tasks of activity.

Obstacles should be calculated objectively and change the conditions of the external environment, objectively and also change the state of the internal environment of the organism, which are obstacles in achieving the intended goal, in solving specific tasks of activity.

Difficulties are signs of external and internal obstacles. They are characterized by the amount of effort, the amount of energy expenditure required to overcome obstacles. It is well known that in mountaineering, mountain routes, passes, mountain peaks have up to 10 degrees of climbing difficulty. It is well known that in other sports, such as gymnastics, figure skating, diving, etc., there is also a division and assessment of exercises based on degrees of difficulty.

So, consistently, bearing in mind the conditions for the manifestation and development of the will, purposefully talk about overcoming various degrees of difficulty, and sometimes bearing in mind their contextual features that relate to specific obstacles.

How do difficulties of varying severity arise? How do time-indifferent objects, phenomena of the external environment, relationships between people, the state of the body, etc. become difficult?

The facts show that this takes place when there is a relative disparity (they arise gradually or suddenly, or are created specifically) of the athlete's physical, tactical, technical and other capabilities, his actions, attitudes, motives, representations, thoughts, feelings, etc., and the objective nature, conditions and goals of the activity.

At least two of the many facts accumulated in the course of research can be used to explain the developing provisions.

If difficulties of various degrees arise when there is a relative difference between the athlete's capabilities, his usual methods of action, representations, thoughts, attitudes, etc. and the objective requirements of the activity, which means that it is necessary in the process, tactics, physical and other types of training of the athlete, and the practical possibilities of solving the problems of training the will are hidden.

It is necessary that in the process of education and upbringing in sports training, positive attitudes of the athlete towards meeting obstacles and their unconditional destruction are formed.

The athlete’s willpower can be considered higher the faster and more consistently he is able to eliminate emerging inconsistencies or the more freely and longer he can act, striving to achieve a better sports result in conditions when these inconsistencies cannot be completely eliminated.

Some scientists and coaches understand inconsistencies as an absolute category. Such an understanding contradicts the dialectical essence of this idea. Inconsistent capabilities of an athlete with objective conditions of activity – a relative and always specific category: the athlete’s capabilities change – and this inconsistency decreases.

In general psychology, a division of obstacles into internal and external has been established. This division is natural. However, in understanding them, there are principles: external conditions are called all possible ideas that arise from the inside and are hindered by human actions. This is correct. As for internal difficulties, they mean human actions. This is incorrect, since the subjective state and experiences expressed in this order are in no way connected with the objective processes that arise from the inside of the organism, and primarily in the nervous system.

This circumstance serves as the basis for the fact that in modern works on the problems of the athlete's willpower training, the position was put forward that under external obstacles one should understand the difficulties in activity that arise from the outside.

Under internal difficulties - obstacles that arise from the inside of the organism, and as a rule, are determined by the same external causes.

It was proposed to consider the subjective state and experience as a reflection, as a product of the reflex activity of the brain as a result of the interaction of internal and external causes. All this is a very important position for understanding the regulatory functions of the will and for solving practical problems of the athlete's willpower training in the process of eliminating various degrees of difficulty. The essence of these provisions is that the reduction of external difficulties can be achieved by full or partial regulation of internal processes and changes on the basis of the athlete's subjective states and experiences.

Such an understanding of the essence of difficulties and obstacles, the causes of their occurrence, internal and external obstacles and their effects on the athlete's subjective states.

Another issue of understanding volitional efforts differs from those existing in the literature on sports psychology and is presented as having significance for the practical solution of the tasks of the athlete's volitional training. It, of course, requires further research in this direction.

The second issue is about the dynamic structure of volitional qualities in the performance of various sports.

Finally, mention should be made of such theoretical and practical significant issues as the question of the general special development of will and the question of self-education of will.

It can be said that the development of the problem of will in the theoretical aspect allows us to reveal the essence of volitional training as a process of spiritual improvement of an athlete in terms of the ability to freely and holistically regulate their actions and behavior in difficult conditions of activity, to cultivate in them a positive and active attitude towards the elimination of various degrees of difficulties.

It also allows us to determine the scientific psychological basic methods of volitional training of an athlete.

Practical developments of volitional training

The main conclusions of the development of the problem of volitional training in the practical aspect are directly related to the methodology of volitional training.

A new direction in the study of the issue of difficulties as mandatory factors for the manifestation and development of the athlete's will appeared with the study of K.A. Slobenikov on the difficulties of various obstacles in gymnastics competitions. He systematized these obstacles into certain groups and gave their psychological analysis.

In this regard, a study was conducted by Yu.Ya. Kisinev on the difficulties that suddenly arise in wrestling and weightlifting competitions. Clarification of the urgently arising obstacles is of great importance, since at the same time, when studying them, problems arise in the athlete's willpower training, leading to defeat or a decrease in sports results.

It is not possible to consider these issues of difficulties in each sport, as well as difficulties in competition conditions.

Therefore, it is necessary to dwell only on the principles of using obstacles of a sharp degree of difficulty in solving problems of willpower training.

First of all, this is the principle of an individual approach based on knowledge of strengths and weaknesses in the development of willpower. These sides are determined by the criteria established in the characteristics of people's willpower with mandatory specifications of the conditions for seeing gaps in the development of one or another quality in specific situations of sports activity. For example, you can use the characteristics of individual features of the development of willpower in two gymnasts according to M.D. Kasyanyk. They are presented in table №1 next page.

The second principle is the creation and improvement of the moral and intellectual foundations of the manifestation of willpower, taking into account the physical, technical, and tactical preparedness of the athlete.

The third principle is the creation of a gradual, growing, but transformed for this athlete, discrepancy between his capabilities and the objective conditions of activity.

Assumptives in the development of willpower

Horting athletes	Willpower
Horting athletes	Purposefulness	Stubbornness	Determination and resilience	Initiative and independence	Patience and self-control
blue belt	Insufficient observation to solve every problem and every action	Decreased energy and activity with internal state difficulties (fatigue)	Insufficient thoughtfulness in decisions. Fear of independent actions at appropriate moments	Inability to understand changes in conditions and the need to change one's actions. Uncritical attitude to comments, copying the actions of other athletes	Excitement, anger at failures and mistakes. Inability to pass, desire to finish the competition, inability to continue it
yellow belt	The same	The same in connection with failures or mistakes	Inability to find the integrity of solutions to implement solutions. Uncertainty in actions	Lack of flexibility in changing normal movements	Inability to cope with depression when faced with mistakes and failures, especially when competing

The fourth principle is the formation of a theoretical attitude to the destruction of obstacles. In this regard, it should be noted that in a number of sports the assumptions of B.N. Smirnov, A.A. Filipov, Z.A. Voron, N.I. Boldin, etc. are used. The method of using heavy in (light) conditions. This reduces the degree of difficulty of the exercises, reduces the discrepancy between the objective requirements for performance and its capabilities. This allows us to implement the principle of a categorical attitude.

The fifth principle is the connection of the directed influence of the coach and the athlete to self-education of will.

This principle has been implemented in research and practical coaching work in the implementation with gymnasts, track and field athletes, fencers by M.D. Kasyanyk, E.V. Kopytov, B.N. Smirnov, A.A. Filipov, V.I. Fedorov and gave great results.

General conclusion of volitional training

Therefore, the problem of will in the psychology of sports consists in certain scientific results of the methodology of volitional training of an athlete, in the use of these explanations in methodological research and in the practice of physical education and sports activities.

Of course, this does not provide a complete solution to all issues of the problem. It is important that its development is already now helping the practice of physical education and sports. Another thing is also important. The study of the problems of will in the psychology of sports and the results achieved now go beyond this area of psychological science and practice. It turns out that they have a certain significance for general psychology, for the theory and practice of educating the will of athletes in the conditions of upbringing, training and the practical significance of activity in general.

There are a number of unresolved issues in the problem of will. For example, about methods of objective study of volitional manifestations of an athlete, or quantitative characteristics, allowing to bring modern mathematical methods for processing and analyzing the results of the study.

A comprehensive and coordinated study of such issues constitutes the immediate task of sports psychology.

The specific scope of these questions and their analysis requires a special article, perhaps even more than one, and the organization of a special symposium to serve it.