Background. The paper presents an innovative quantitative method for assessing neuropsychic fatigue based on the entropy approach. The relevance of the work is connected with the need to determine the neuropsychic state and resistance to stress in different conditions of human activity. This approach is consistent with the trends of modern psychology research on self-organization in the aspect of identifying the processes that underly the stress response during overcoming physical and central fatigue. The proposed method includes the formula of conditional deterministic entropy, tools of nonequilibrium thermodynamics in its information interpretation (I. Prigogine’s theorem on the minimum of entropy production).

Objective. The approbation results of the criterion estimates of neuropsychic stability for the prediction of motor-motor capabilities, behaviour and state of the individual are shown.

Background. The study of students and athletes (71 boys and 72 girls, average age -20- + 3 years) was conducted based on the data provided by the Biological Faculty of Moscow Lomonosow State University. The approbation of the method carried out on the basis of the data of psycho-physiological indicators (tapping test) allowed to assess the stability of the neuropsychic state of athletes. Results. The data confirmed the validity of the method and made it possible to identify stable and unstable states associated with the growth of neuropsychic stress that may result in central fatigue.

Conclusion. The regularities revealed in the experimental samples do not only correspond to the data of the tapping test technique, but also show more accurate and qualitatively meaningful assessments of the neuropsychic stress and the state of the system as a whole. The approach makes it possible to create a device for monitoring neuropsychic stress, i.e. «Halter tapping», and also allows to make similar assessments of sports teams in the process of training, for example, for game sports.

The issue of attention is one of the leading in sports psychology. Quite often, athletes’ failures in competitions are ultimately connected with the attention processes, i.e. distraction, switching or loss of concentration. Simultaneously, each particular kind of sport is distinguished by a specific competitive situation and accordingly presents a number of requirements to athletes, including attention features. Archery is no exception. Thus, in shooting sports, concentration and stability of attention are often deemed as the most significant features of attention.

The paper is devoted to the study of the attention dynamic properties in archers. Attention features of athletes were assessed depending on the sports major, gender, age, experience and level of competence. 65 archers from different regions of Russia took part in the study, including 34 males and 31 females, the average age being 16.29 ± 1.74. Experience ranges from 1 year to 8 years, average experience is 4.46 ± 1.93.

The research results showed that archers are characterized by high indicators of stability of attention, and also high efficiency of solving attention problems. The professional success of archery was associated with the ability to distribute attention when necessary. At the same time, there were no significant differences in the features of attention for recurved and compound archers, which indicates the uniformity of tasks related to attention in the sporting practice of archers. Summing up, it is necessary to include skills in the distribution of attention in the program of psychological training of archers.

The research describes the possibility of applying eye tracking in football. A total of 23 male professional football players from Russia participated in research (Mean age = 21,56; SD=1,5 y.o.). Experiment was conducted in natural settings on football field. All athletes had an appropriate warm-up before testing. All participants had normal vision. Participants’ eye movement data during dribbling task were recorded via mobile eye tracker – “Eye Tracking Glasses» (SensoMotoric Instuments).

We identify the most effective components of visual strategies during different stages of dribbling task: in pre-start routine, during dribbling, after kicking the ball into the goal. Focus of visual attention in pre-start routine: effective gaze patterns connected to the short preview of direction of future movements, gaze fixation to the particular zone of the goal. Effective gaze behavior in dribbling linked with anticipation in gaze focus (a combination of anticipatory and regressive saccades).

fixation duration during dribbling positively correlates to the shooting accuracy and efficacy of dribbling technique. These findings indicates that applying eye tracking technologies in sport practice could enhance performance of football players such as dribbling technique and shooting accuracy. Especially, via eye tracking tools scientists can investigate important issues like development of technique, sport attention, reaction time and anticipation.

Psychological foundation is determined as systematizing factor of scientific support of sport. The functioning of psychic is defined as the main determinant of functional and psychological traumatizing in exercising and competing sport activities. The objectives of psychological support of athletes training are formulated as the individualizing of sport activity management techniques; the psychological surveillance of the resistance to exercise activities and readiness to compete; the rehabilitation of psychological freshness and functional capacity to work; the individual and group counseling; the optimization of interpersonal climate in sport teams.

Modernization of equipment as well as extension of competition schedules and programs that have taken place over the past few decades have dramatically influenced professional activities of cross-country skiers. In particular, acuteness of competitive struggle has extremely increased and as a result psychological preparation of an athlete has become a very important and sometimes crucial factor.

Today, cross-country skiing is one of the most demanding sports associated with critical aerobic loading and cyclic explosive contractions involving all main muscle groups. Characteristic motor activity is highly uniform and automatic that potentially leads to negative psychological states decreasing motor efficiency. Athlete’s high motivation is the main tool to withstand this phenomenon. Muscles arbitrary relaxation rate (ARR) is considered to be the most important parameter of contractive activity. ARR is determined by the function of CNS inhibitory systems and decreased during emotional stress, which can be managed using respective psychological skills training (PST) features. Such interrelationship allows to reveal complex systemic links between various types of training and introduces the problem of the appropriate integration of PST into the entire training system. Available research data suggest that self-talk and mental imagery are quite useful as PST tools without regard to a skier’s level of expertise. Based on an individual interpretation for summarized data the author posed the following hypothesis: conversion from automatically executed to consciously controlled components of activity is involved to functionality of mental imagery; the conversion efficiency can be enhanced by means of attitude of intentional search for such components during visualization.

The paper is devoted to the capabilities of eye movement recording technologies (eye-tracking) in the psychological preparation of athletes. The advantages of using eye-tracking in sport psychology are as follows: the ability to «see through the eyes of an athlete» ongoing training and / or the competitive challenge, the possibility of combining eye movement recording with other instrumental methods (methods of EEG measuring, GSR biofeedback technology, virtual reality, etc.), high ecological validity of experiments using eye tracking mobile systems, the ability to use eye tracking systems not only for diagnostic purposes, but also for training athletes. In chronological order, there are examples of practical implementation of eye-tracking systems in foreign and domestic sport psychology: the results of the eye-tracking in games and precise sports, martial arts and other sports are described.

The results of an experimental application of eye movement recording systems in climbing are considered. In particular, the paper discusses the possibility of using the eyetracking technology in teaching athletes effective strategies for visual search when previewing the climbing route. The results of express survey among rock climbers and mountaineers (N = 120 ) on the importance of the preview and analysis of climbing routes before their actual performance. The experiment using eye-tracking technology was conducted at the artificial relief. 23 climbers participated in the experiment. In this paper we use «Eye-tracking glasses SMI» mobile eye tracking system. As a result, visual strategies that are c

The subject and tasks of sport psychology as an integrated practical area of psychological science are outlined. Features of specialists' training in this field at the St.Petersburg State University are shown.