Background and Significance
The individual value orientations of school-aged and university athletes participating in combat horting play a significant role in shaping healthy lifestyle behaviors. These values reflect a comprehensive model of athletes' daily lives, characterized by the integration of systematic training, self-organization, self-discipline, self-regulation, and continuous personal development. Together, these processes strengthen the body's adaptive capacity while promoting the realization of individual abilities, talents, and potential through both general cultural development and professional growth within combat horting.
A healthy lifestyle provides an educational environment that facilitates the development of physical culture and the acquisition of health-related values among schoolchildren and university students participating in combat horting programs offered through educational institutions. Such an environment promotes creativity, productivity, civic engagement, psychological well-being, and the full realization of an individual's psychophysiological potential while encouraging continuous self-improvement. Within this framework, personal responsibility for health becomes an integral component of overall cultural development, reflected in consistent patterns of behavior and in an individual's ability to construct a meaningful life grounded in physical, moral, and spiritual well-being.
Review of the Literature
Considerable attention has been devoted to the development of physical culture, health education, military-patriotic competence, and healthy lifestyle formation through combat horting. Important contributions have been made by I. D. Bekh, O. A. Bukhtiyarov, V. L. Hryshchuk, Z. M. Dikhtiarenko, N. Yu. Dovhan, S. I. Zhevaha, M. D. Zubalii, V. V. Ivashkovskyi, O. I. Ostapenko, S. P. Paranytsia, M. V. Tymchyk, V. F. Cherkasov, V. V. Chmeliuk, and other scholars. However, existing methodological recommendations primarily address competitive sport and generally overlook developmental differences associated with age. Furthermore, the literature lacks a comprehensive pedagogical framework for cultivating physical culture, health-related values, and military-patriotic competencies through combat horting among schoolchildren and university students participating in sports clubs and educational programs.
Consequently, physical education programs in secondary schools frequently emphasize motor skill acquisition and physiological workload without adequately integrating educational and character-development objectives. This gap highlights the need for systematic investigation of the psychological and pedagogical conditions necessary for fostering military-patriotic competencies, physical culture, and health education through combat horting in educational settings.
Health-related (valeological) aspects of physical education and the optimization of physical activity among schoolchildren and university students have been examined by M. D. Zubalii, O. A. Ostrianska, S. I. Prysiazhniuk, A. V. Khatko, and others. The value-based dimensions of healthy lifestyles among university students have been explored by I. D. Bekh, K. O. Zhurba, V. I. Kyrychenko, A. M. Lytvynenko, V. M. Orzhekhovska, and T. Ye. Fedorchenko. Despite these contributions, the use of combat horting as an evidence-based educational tool for developing healthy lifestyle values among university students has not been the subject of dedicated scientific investigation.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to identify and scientifically substantiate the pedagogical conditions that facilitate the development of physical culture and health-related values through combat horting among schoolchildren and university students participating in sports programs at secondary schools and higher education institutions.
Results and Discussion
The National Federation of Combat Horting of Ukraine has conducted extensive investigations into the personal characteristics of athletes engaged in combat horting across different stages of long-term participation, including periods of three months, one year, two years, three years, five years, seven years, and longer. However, analyses of highly qualified athletes, including International-Class Masters of Sport of Ukraine, did not support the hypothesis of a single personality profile associated with elite performance. At this level of athletic achievement, success appears to depend largely on exceptional individual talents, both athletic and non-athletic.
A more productive approach has been the identification of common personality characteristics consistently associated with success in combat horting. These include heightened sensitivity to training stimuli, emotional stability, and proactive persistence in overcoming obstacles.
Overall, both personality traits and individual typological characteristics should be considered when designing individualized approaches to athlete development and coaching. The influence of physical culture, health-related values, and individual personality characteristics on athletic success has also become increasingly important in studies examining the long-term reliability and professional development of combat horting athletes.
Foundations for the Acquisition of Health-Related Values Through Combat Horting
The concept of health-related values has become an important construct in sociology, particularly in research examining personality development and social behavior. Values embody the significance that individuals and societies assign to objects, ideas, and social phenomena. They represent socially acquired elements of an individual's value system and function as stable conceptions of what is desirable. Existing independently as components of culture, values become integrated into the spiritual and moral development of combat horting athletes and serve as essential regulators of behavior to the extent that individuals internalize the values of their cultural environment. Every culture, historical period, nation, ethnic community, and social group possesses its own distinctive system of values.
Accordingly, when discussing the value potential of combat horting within society, it is important to distinguish between two interrelated levels of values: societal values and personal values, while recognizing the mechanisms through which socially established values become internalized by the individual.
At the societal level, combat horting encompasses accumulated scientific knowledge, sport techniques, training technologies, health-promotion methodologies, exemplary models of motor performance, and athletic achievements developed to enhance physical fitness, health, and healthy lifestyles. Of particular importance are the intentional values of combat horting, which determine its social significance and prestige relative to other social institutions. Public funding, legal recognition, and favorable public opinion constitute key indicators of the societal importance of combat horting. Collectively, these indicators also reflect the broader level of social development, cultural maturity, and civil society within a nation.
At the individual level, the acquisition of combat horting values is reflected in knowledge related to physical development, motor skills and competencies, the ability to organize and maintain healthy lifestyle behaviors, positive psychosocial attitudes, and sustained engagement in physical activity and sport.
Of particular significance is the acquisition of the mobilization values associated with combat horting. These values prepare individuals to respond effectively to challenging and potentially life-threatening situations, including illness, injury, environmental emergencies, accidents, and other unexpected events. Participation in combat horting enhances the body's functional, psychological, and physical capacities, creating physiological and psychological reserves that improve resilience under conditions requiring rapid adaptation and performance. Consequently, the health-related values of combat horting encompass its broader educational, physical, and developmental functions.
Health-related values derived from combat horting include scientifically validated knowledge concerning the application of physical exercise for physical development, body composition, physical conditioning, improved work capacity, and enhanced psychological resilience. Their integrative nature stems from the incorporation of movement-related competencies—including motor skills, physical fitness, and functional capacity—which collectively determine an individual's overall health status.
Similarly, the mobilization values of combat horting possess a strong health-promoting orientation. The ability to organize a healthy lifestyle and effectively respond to adverse environmental influences represents an important outcome of acquiring these values.
Ultimately, the health-related values of combat horting contribute to the development of intrinsic motivation, sustained interest, and personal responsibility for maintaining health throughout the lifespan.
Although the values promoted through combat horting overlap substantially with the broader objectives of physical culture, important functional distinctions remain. Physical culture emerged historically as one of the earliest mechanisms of socialization, whereas sport evolved as a means through which exceptional human abilities receive social recognition.
The specific values of combat horting as a competitive sport demonstrate considerable integrative and adaptive potential. This is particularly evident in its educational function. Combat horting has frequently been described as a school of character, emotional development, willpower, and fair play, emphasizing its contributions to moral, emotional, and aesthetic education.
Within the broader international sport movement, combat horting also contributes to social integration and international cooperation. Because sport transcends linguistic barriers and is grounded in universally understood principles of human interaction and competition, it serves as an effective medium for intercultural communication.
The value of combat horting also lies in its contribution to scientific understanding of human performance limits. By continually expanding the boundaries of physical capability, elite combat horting athletes demonstrate previously unrealized human potential while establishing new benchmarks for future achievement. In this respect, combat horting fulfills an important pioneering function in advancing knowledge of human performance and represents a significant social value.
Finally, the social value of combat horting extends to its economic impact. The intense international competition to host World and European Combat Horting Championships reflects the substantial economic benefits associated with major sporting events. Investments in sport generate returns that extend beyond public health improvements to include measurable economic benefits through sport-related industries, tourism, and commercial development.
The Value Potential of Combat Horting
The value potential of combat horting extends well beyond the characteristics discussed above. As society evolves, combat horting, like other social institutions, continues to expand its influence on individual and community life. Although its social functions develop over time, the underlying structure of its value system remains relatively stable, making it possible to analyze and classify its principal components.
Two primary categories of values may be distinguished within combat horting:
The foundation of the societal value system of combat horting consists of the accumulated body of knowledge concerning methods and strategies for developing and enhancing human physical potential. This scientific and technological foundation represents the intellectual basis of combat horting and includes specialized knowledge regarding human movement, physical activity, training principles, and evidence-based approaches to athlete development. Generated through medicine, physiology, pedagogy, psychology, sport science, and numerous related disciplines, this knowledge constitutes one of combat horting's most significant contributions and serves as a shared resource for society.
At the same time, this body of knowledge connects combat horting with numerous other academic disciplines and with broader cultural traditions, creating opportunities for mutual enrichment between sport and other fields of human inquiry.
Another important societal value of combat horting is the collective experience accumulated through physical education, athletic preparation, and organized physical activity among children and young adults. Historically, practical experience represented the principal mechanism for transmitting knowledge about physical activity and human development. Through traditions, customs, and cultural practices, Ukrainian physical culture evolved and was transmitted across generations. Although scientific evidence now provides the primary foundation for training methodology, experiential knowledge continues to play an essential role, particularly within family-based physical education and community sport.
Just as music and visual arts preserve the masterpieces of outstanding artists, physical culture preserves exemplary achievements in human movement and athletic performance. Until relatively recently, many of these accomplishments could not be systematically documented, limiting their contribution to cultural heritage. Nevertheless, such achievements remain important evidence of the continuous advancement of human physical capability and represent valuable milestones in the development of physical culture.
Another important, though still insufficiently examined, component of combat horting's social value is public perception, including its social prestige and the factors that determine its popularity within society. These indicators provide valuable insight into the level of development and social significance of combat horting within particular countries and cultural contexts.
Contemporary Approaches to Value Formation Through Combat Horting
The modern system of value acquisition in combat horting is grounded in theoretical frameworks that emphasize innovative educational approaches and contemporary pedagogical technologies developed within combat horting theory and methodology over the past decade.
Several innovative directions define both the educational philosophy and practical implementation of combat horting. Among these, physical culture education represents one of the most significant.
Physical Culture Education
Contemporary educational programs in combat horting explicitly emphasize the development of physical culture and health-related values among schoolchildren and university students participating in sports clubs and educational programs. This educational orientation reflects a philosophical and cultural approach to physical education that extends beyond traditional athletic training.
Historically, physical education focused primarily on physical development, physical conditioning, motor skills, and athletic performance. Such an approach emphasized biological adaptation and motor competence.
In contrast, physical culture education pursues broader educational objectives by developing the individual through culture and by facilitating the acquisition of the values embedded within combat horting. Accordingly, physical culture education should be understood primarily as a pedagogical process directed toward the formation of an individual's physical culture.
The principal indicators of physical culture among combat horting athletes include:
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commitment to maintaining and improving physical health, physical fitness, and functional capacity;
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the ability to effectively apply diverse methods and resources for physical self-improvement;
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adherence to socially valued behavioral norms related to health and physical activity;
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knowledge of human physiology, physical fitness, and evidence-based training methods;
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a sustained orientation toward maintaining personal health and physical well-being; and
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willingness and competence to assist others in improving their own health and physical fitness.
Achieving these objectives requires viewing individuals as integrated biological, psychological, and social beings. Consequently, the philosophical foundation of physical culture education in combat horting is based on a holistic understanding of human development and on recognizing the cultural significance of participation in physical activity and sport.
The theoretical framework supporting physical culture education is grounded in several pedagogical principles, including humanization, individualization through multiple instructional pathways, and harmonization of physical activity with broader educational objectives.
A fundamental principle of combat horting education is the integration of intellectual, value-based, and motor development.
Its pedagogical implementation relies on learner-centered, activity-based instruction that prioritizes meaningful educational experiences, positive emotional engagement, enjoyment, and sustained achievement.
The content of physical culture education encompasses three interrelated domains:
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social and psychological development;
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intellectual development; and
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motor (physical) development.
The social and psychological component focuses on helping athletes develop a personal philosophy that supports lifelong engagement in physical activity and promotes the internalization of combat horting values. Positive educational outcomes are achieved when these values become personally meaningful, are consciously accepted as important components of life, and are reinforced through regular participation in physical and sport-related activities.
The intellectual component seeks to develop comprehensive theoretical knowledge encompassing philosophical, medical, physiological, pedagogical, and sport-science perspectives that support informed participation in physical activity and lifelong health promotion.
The specific component of physical culture education for combat horting athletes includes the solution of motor tasks: the development of physical qualities, the formation of abilities and skills for movement control, as well as the ability to use physical potential rationally.
New approaches to the formation of physical culture of society and the individual require fundamental changes in organizational structures, educational institutions, higher professional training of teachers, coaches, and social educators, as well as the modernization of methodological documentation, curricula, and educational programs that support the process of innovation.
Health-oriented education
The foundation of health-oriented education for combat horting athletes is based on informational and practical approaches to the development of physical culture and the acquisition of health-improving values of combat horting by schoolchildren and students engaged in sports sections of educational institutions, as well as the formation of a healthy lifestyle. This includes introducing children and young people to a variety of traditional and non-traditional means and methods of maintaining and strengthening health, and fostering the need for a healthy lifestyle [22].
Human health is a problem that has extended far beyond the boundaries of medical science. According to a number of researchers, maintaining health largely depends on an individual's own attitude toward this valuable natural resource, as well as on their lifestyle and behavior. No external factor or institution can preserve, improve, or, conversely, destroy a person’s health to the same extent as the person themselves. We observe with concern examples of deviant behavior among children, including those from seemingly prosperous families. Drug addiction, alcoholism, and other forms of destructive behavior may exist even in economically developed societies.
The solution to these problems primarily lies in an individual's awareness of personal responsibility and influence over their own health, which, as combat horting specialists rightly emphasize, cannot be purchased in a pharmacy. From childhood, combat horting athletes should be taught to carefully and responsibly preserve their health potential, treating it as a valuable resource and protecting the natural abilities inherent in every person.
There is no need to prove the significant importance of regular combat horting training and physical exercise for strengthening human health. Combat horting, as a means of physical culture, presents the individual as a biosocial unity and offers a wide range of forms, methods, and tools for managing personal physical and functional conditions. Therefore, it can be argued that due to its strong health-oriented potential and its ability to preserve and enhance the health of combat horting athletes, this phenomenon is one of the most significant and effective approaches, since every value of combat horting contributes, to some extent, to improving human health.
In this regard, the role of health-oriented education of combat horting athletes is increasing, with its key objective being the process of forming an individual’s physical culture.
The program of health-oriented education for combat horting athletes, in addition to other components of combat horting methodology, includes the following priority areas:
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development of the physical culture of combat horting athletes;
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formation of the need for and skills of a healthy lifestyle;
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practical acquisition of health-improving systems.
Sports education of combat horting athletes
Within the content of sports education of combat horting athletes, considered as a process of developing physical culture and acquiring health-improving values of combat horting by schoolchildren and students engaged in sports sections of educational institutions, priority is given to mastering the values of physical culture, primarily through understanding their historical and humanistic potential.
One of the ways to implement humanitarian education, which promotes the priority of universal moral and spiritual values, is the use of the complete ideological and educational content of combat horting as a Ukrainian national professionally applied sport. Physical and spiritual self-improvement of the individual, a full and active human life, health, a healthy lifestyle, the spirit of competition, respect, and empathy are the human values underlying the physical and sports culture of combat horting.
Combat horting as a sport possesses an integrating power that enriches physical education and sports training with philosophical meaning and, as stated in the Declaration of the National Federation of Combat Horting of Ukraine, unites all the virtues of the body, will, and mind into a balanced whole. Combat horting, as a Ukrainian national professionally applied sport, represents a socio-cultural phenomenon based on the principles of democracy, humanism, liberal values, and universal moral and ethical principles. It integrates the processes of education, upbringing, and culture, thereby creating the foundations for the formation of horting culture based on humanitarian and humanistic values of physical culture and sport.
The culture of combat horting, with its powerful humanistic content, is capable of overcoming the established utilitarian perception of physical culture and enriching physical education and sports training with cultural and spiritual meaning based on the ideals embodied in the Declaration of Combat Horting.
The culture of combat horting represents a specific philosophy of life that incorporates the spiritual dimension of sport. It contains historical, worldview, and axiological potential. In this context, the role of horting education increases, with its content determined by the acquisition of the values of horting culture.
The program of horting education for children and youth includes three main areas: cognitive, motivational, and practical.
Area I: Formation of knowledge about combat horting as a national sport, the history of the horting movement, and the humanistic ideals and values of combat horting.
Area II: Formation of interest in sport, the need for sports participation, and the desire to achieve athletic performance.
Area III: Formation of abilities and skills for the practical acquisition of combat horting principles and values through active participation of children and youth in traditional and non-traditional models of physical culture and sports activities (sports competitions, forums, games and festivals of combat horting, and cultural-sporting events).
The transmission of horting culture through the education system contributes to the integration of sport, education, healthy lifestyle principles, and the rapprochement of people within the health-oriented movement of combat horting.
The preparation of specialists in teaching the methodology of acquiring health-improving values of combat horting is ensured through three main components:
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motivational and moral component (stimulating the professional activity of future specialists);
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cognitive component (ensuring comprehensive mastery of educational content);
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motor component (reflecting the professional specificity and providing the mechanism of practical knowledge acquisition).
All components are aimed at mastering the values of professional physical education in the field of combat horting and achieving its main goal — the formation of the personal culture of a combat horting specialist.
According to these provisions, the first level identifies general cultural values that have universal human significance and reflect the interaction between education and culture within the framework of new pedagogical thinking (Table 1).
Table 1
General Cultural Level of Value Functioning in the Educational and Training Process of School-Age and Student-Age Combat Horting Athletes
| Value Group |
Value Components |
Purpose of Values |
| Universal Human Values |
Goodness, beauty, truth |
Society |
| Values of the philosophy, pedagogy, and psychology of combat horting; values of the Ukrainian education system |
Morality, humanism, spirituality, unity, fundamentality, comprehensiveness, integrity of knowledge acquisition |
|
The selection of these values is not accidental. Goodness, beauty, and truth have deep historical roots, forming the foundation of ancient philosophical and cultural perceptions and being expressed through the concept of “kalokagathia” — the harmonious combination of morality, aesthetics, and knowledge within the individual. Kalokagathia (Ancient Greek: καλοκαγαθία, from καλòς καì àγαθός) is a concept of ancient Greek aesthetics. Today, this concept remains relevant because it defines human behavior and consciousness and represents, in essence, a central component of the value system and a criterion for evaluating the activities of individuals and society.
In addition, at the general cultural level, it is appropriate to consider the values of the national education system — morality, humanism, spirituality, unity, fundamentality, comprehensiveness, and integrity in understanding the surrounding reality — values promoted by Ukrainian educators, researchers, thinkers, and representatives of the National Federation of Combat Horting of Ukraine.
The main value at this level is society, which requires highly qualified specialists capable of meeting diverse needs in the field of combat horting and physical culture, ensuring the necessary biological potential of the population for active and comprehensive life activity. At the same time, society preserves and reproduces the values of combat horting.
At the next level, specific values are identified (Table 2).
Table 2
Specific Level of Value Functioning in the Educational and Training Process of School-Age and Student-Age Combat Horting Athletes
| Value Group |
Value Components |
Purpose of Values |
| Values of the Combat Horting and Physical Culture System |
Intellectual, motor, technological, mobilization, intentional, and communicative values |
Combat horting coaches and specialists in the field of physical culture and sports |
| Values of Professional (Specialized) Training |
Foundations of professional pedagogical mastery |
|
The characteristics of these values are determined by the fact that professional training, on the one hand, belongs to the education system, and on the other hand, to the system of physical culture. Therefore, the training of combat horting specialists incorporates the values of physical culture. Along with these values, personality components that create the prerequisites for developing the most important professional value of a specialist — professional pedagogical mastery — are of particular importance.
The foundation of this complex of specific combat horting values is represented by specialists in the field of physical culture. These values are further specified not only at the specific level but also at the personal level (Table 3).
Table 3
Personal Level of Value Functioning in the Educational and Training Process of School-Age and Student-Age Combat Horting Athletes
| Value Group |
Value Components |
Purpose of Values |
| Values of the Motivational and Moral Sphere of Personality |
Morality, purposeful activity engagement |
Individual personality |
| Values of the Cognitive Sphere of Personality |
Education, ability to research objects and phenomena |
Individual personality |
| Values of the Motor Sphere of Personality |
Comprehensive development, universality of abilities, capacity for independent creative activity |
Individual personality |
At this level, values directly associated with an individual person are identified. Their achievement is ensured through the motivational, motor, and informational-cognitive spheres of combat horting athletes’ activities. As a result of the development of the motivational sphere, such values as personal morality and purposeful, socially meaningful activity are formed. The development of the cognitive component is aimed at fostering education, the ability to investigate and solve emerging problems from a scientifically grounded perspective.
The motor sphere is oriented toward the comprehensive development and universality of the combat horting athlete’s personality, as well as the ability to engage in independent creative activity. Particular emphasis should be placed on such a value as personal spirituality, which has a non-utilitarian and ideal nature. It is through this value that the human dimension within the individual develops.
At this level, the central value is the human personality itself. The culture of a combat horting athlete is formed through the development of personal integrity, namely, the integration and harmonious relationship between the biological and spiritual dimensions of human nature, as well as the integration of motivational, cognitive, and motor spheres.