The pandemic COVID-19 constituted one of the greatest ordeals the world has seen in the last decades. Social isolation has changed athletes’ lives completely and brought a number of consequences – both technical and psychological. The aim of this study was to investigate the dominant psychic conditions and perfectionism and their relation to the preferred coping strategies during the pandemic COVID-19 among sports students from Bulgaria and Russia and to outline their specificity depending on their gender, kind of sport, qualification, and nationality. The research was done among 199 sports students from Bulgaria and Russia who practice 18 kinds of sport, aged between 16 and 32 years, divided into groups according to their gender, kind of sport, level of qualification, nationality. The research methods included: 1) Sociodemographic, personal and sports evaluation; 2) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS, Frost, Marten, Lahart & Rosenblate, 1990), adapted for Bulgarian conditions by T. Iancheva, 2009; 3) Profile of Mood States (McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1971); 4) Approach to Coping in Sport Questionnaire (ACSQ-1; Kim 1999; Kim & Duda, 1997).There are significant differences depending on gender, kind of sport, qualification, and nationality. The specific role of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism was viewed in relation to the dominant psychic conditions during social isolation and the preferred coping strategies.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has spread worldwide and become the world’s leading health concern. Individuals are advised to stay inside and do exercise at home to avoid exposure to the disease and their psychological state is concerned. This study aims to investigate physical exercise behavior and psychological states during COVID-19, and to provide helpful suggestions for making right policies or designing effective intervention programs to help the mass respond to the pandemic.Methods: we tested the hypotheses by conducting a national survey among 542 individuals, the data covered 28 provinces in China. Information about physical exercise habits, psycho-logical states, perceived infection likelihood, perceived threat, attitudes towards exercise, and demographics was collected. A series of T-tests were applied to test the hypotheses. Results: The individuals who do exercise both before and during COVID-19 outbreak in-creased the physical exercise frequency and reduced the categories of physical activities during COVID-19. Individuals who perceive high-level threat increased future exercise time and consumption, whereas individuals surrounded by more confirmed cases (high-level objective threat) increased current exercise frequency and intensity. With the company of family members, individuals’ exercise intention, frequency, intensity and the possibility of future exercise time and activities was significantly higher.Conclusion: Under the threat of COVID-19, proximal defense (self-preservation) and distal defense (self-esteem enhancement) motivate individuals to increase exercise frequency. Individuals reduce types of physical activities and do exercise with family members to receive psycho-logical security. Terror management theory and behavioral immune system provide theoretical explanations on individuals’ exercise behavior and psychology.

Introduction and aim. The problem of constructing a training process for highly skilled players at the special preparation phase is not researched well enough. The special preparation phase should involve the specificity of the competition calendar, development of the structure and content of the corresponding types of micro cycles, and scientifically based selection of methods of training. The aim of the research is to analyze the structure and content of the training process of highly skilled football players during the special preparation phase of the preparation period at the first macrocycle of the annual cycle. Materials and methods. 22 highly skilled football players of Kamianets-Pod?lskyi National Ivan Ohiienko University aged 18-23 participated in the research. All of them are MA students and elite athletes. Methods of analysis of scientific literature, pedagogical observation, timing of training work, and mathematical statistics were used in the research. Results and conclusions. The special preparation phase con-sists of two mesocycles. The basic stabilizing (control and preparation) mesocycle - the volume and intensity of training sessions - was characterized by the widespread use of special-training exercises. In comparison with previous mesocycles, considerably more trainings were devoted to technical, tactical and game preparation. Technical and tactical training was carried out in the form of adaptive training exercises along with special physical training. Precompetition mesocycle rolled up the preparation of the athletes for the competition period. The reparation in this mesocycle had an expressed “integral” character. In this mesocycle, one should not forget about maintaining the level of special physical fitness. Maintaining it throughout the mesocycle is one of the important prerequisites for the steady growth of athletes’ physical state, but the composition of the means significantly changed by increasing the proportion of special technical and tactical exercises being held. In this mesocycle, the largest number of control games, starts, competitions, etc. were carried out. A special place in precompetition mesocycle was taken by tactical and psychological training. The proportion of theoretical training also increased.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe some anthropometric characteristics, to trace the physical preparedness level and the technical skills of children (girls and boys) up to 14 years old participating in competitive basketball, to make comparative analysis of the average values of both totalities, and to find the relation and dependence between the anthropometric characteristics, physical preparedness and basketball skills of both sexes. Methods: One hundred twenty-nine children were subjected to study, out of which sixty-three basketball players (boys) at the age of 13 ± 0,7 and 66 basketball players (girls) at the age of 13 ± 0,5. Sport-pedagogical test was applied to the participants, and a probated and standardized test battery including twenty indicators was used. The basketball players participated in the test voluntarily, they received no money or financial compensation for their contribution and their anonymity was guaranteed. Data analysis: Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS-23 and variation, correlation and comparative analysis were made, t-criterion of Student and U-criterion of Mann-Whitney were used.Results: As we had supposed and as it was proven by the results for that group, the gender differences had a more substantial impact on some physical development indications and great-er part of the physical preparedness indications. In favor of the boys these differences were more strongly expressed in their height, degree of body mass and horizontal stretch, while in favor of the girls the differences were in the functional capacity of the chest. Boys were fully favored as far as rapidity, speed abilities, explosive strength of the lower limbs were concerned.Conclusion: We have to note that the accumulated training experience and the biological ripening impact positively on the performance of young male and female basketball players. The results of this study showed that there were statistically significant differences between boys and girls in terms of technical skills (TS) only along two indicators.

The penalty corner (PC) is one of the most important game situations in hockey (both out-doors and indoors), which results in 30 – 40% of all goals. The aim of this paper is to study the influence of the quasi-experimental methodology on the dynamics in the development of indicators characterizing the accuracy of shooting when performing PC in the potentially effective goal zones. Through the application of InterCriteria Analysis (ICrA), the research team sought to establish relationships and directions of dependencies between indicators reflecting the accuracy of zone shooting.Four elite female indoor hockey players from the team of the National Sports Academy in Bulgaria, participants in the European Indoor Hockey Clubs Challenge, were involved in the examination sessions. According to the requirements of the quasi-experimental “Push & Flick” methodology, the duration of the specialized training was set to 16 weeks. Each player per-formed 4,800 shootings, or approximately 300 shootings each week. Tests were carried out at the beginning (the first week) and at the end (the sixteenth week) of the experiment in order to determine the accuracy of the shooting – push/flick from a penalty corner spot (9 meters, central from the goal line). We used InterCriteria Analysis and Variance Analysis to analyze the results.The results of the study provide valuable information related to the training and specialization of elite hockey players profiled in the execution of a penalty corner.

One of the characteristics of modern figure skating is the progressive complication of the competitive programs. This process develops, in particular, in the way of athletes’ mastery of complex coordination elements and compounds of a rotating nature, which appear to be a strong irritant to the vestibular analyzer. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of anthropometric factors on the balance stability of female figure skaters. The study’s tasks, which are divided into three groups, as well as the subject and object of the study, are presented. The used methods are described. The methodology of the study is separated and detailed. Also, the different abilities of the body for balance resistance, in various motor actions are described. One of the main used methods is called Stabilometry. The design of the study is followed. The results are visualized in six tables, which are illustrated by five figures. In conclusion, the dependence of Anthropometric status is noted in accordance with the height and length of the lower limbs and the width of the pelvis. The dynamic retention of the balance in landing position is more effective than the static balance in the Romberg posture, which is explained by the specificity of the sport figure skating. There is a worsening of the balance in the increase of anthropometric parameters – height, weight and chest circumference. Balance fluctuations in the Romberg position are significantly dependent on the weight and chest circumference, while the height of the skaters affects the balance – with increasing amplitude there is also an increase in balance fluctuations in the landing position after a jump, i.e. the balance is unstable, which is explained by a higher placement of the center of gravity of the body.

The manuscript presents the model for conditional training implemented in 2018 in the new female volleyball national team. The methods of the Bulgarian training system Fit Motion-Professional were used with a female national team for the first time. The training scheme follows the modular principle and is based on innovative methods and principles, various means and parallel-consecutive planning aimed mostly at the development of the motor qualities in each module. The interrelations between the basic motor qualities have been surveyed as well as the dynamics in their development at the different stages and in the different modules, and their efficiency in the volleyball game. The major aim of this manuscript is to study the efficiency of the model for conditional training of elite female volleyball players.Some new equipment and facilities have been designed for functional-conditional training in relation to the team’s preparation. In order to prove the higher efficiency of the model compared to the standard conditioning training used in Bulgaria, an experiment was further carried out with the Republican Women’s Volleyball Champion, the team of Maritsa Plovdiv.

This study focuses on a carbohydrate-containing beverage with water, 1.5% skim milk powder and lucuma fruit powder (Pouteria Lucuma). The aim is to analyze the influence of the beverage on the sports performance of young men with different levels of motor activity. The analysis of the results was based on the changes in some biometric parameters and the level of motor activity of 8 young men (experimental group; EG) consuming the beverage half an hour before fitness exercises – bodybuilding workouts – within a three-month period of time. The results obtained from the tests were compared to the results shown by the 13 men in the control group (CG) for the same period of time without consuming the beverage. On the basis of the profiles of the respondents from both groups (EG and CG), we analyzed the changes in body composition and motor activity at the beginning and at the end of the three-month period. The results obtained from the comparative analysis revealed that both groups manifested positive changes concerning the level of motor activity as a result of the training program. These positive changes turned out to be more significant in the EG with respect to maximum oxygen intake and plank endurance. We also analyzed the modifications in the cor-relational dependencies as regards EG parameters, as a result of which we established more significant dependencies at the end of the test period.The results of the present study show that the consumption of the lucuma-based carbohydrate beverage by the experimental group has a positive effect on the analyzed parameters.

Background: communication between trainer and athlete has been studied in terms of feed-back, but not in terms of codifying information for instruction; here implications for cognition and cognitive skills are also discussed.Purpose: to present a new tool, motowords, a tool for verbal codification between athlete and trainer that also provides a number of incidental benefits: it helps adjust the Degrees of Freedom & Contextual Interference of a drill, it employs cognitive functions, fosters active participation of the athlete, and bridges the gap between serial and random practice. Moreover, we intend to theorize how the positive effects of motowords are multiplied when combined with drill-synthesis and drill-structure, in addition to differentiated (self)training, concepts that aim at increasing the ecological validity of training sessions. Method: the theoretical background supporting the effectiveness of these tools is dis-cussed.Leads: to a broader vision about the important role of cognitive and emotional skills within a holistic context, aiming at developing “literate” individuals rather than just motor experts, both of which are at the very core of the Distal Method for expertise attainment.