Increasing the efficiency of the competitive activity of elite female athletes by taking into account gender characteristics in the training process

Abstract

The method of expert evaluations (n=160) made it possible to determine the main problem of today’s elite women’s sports, namely: the use of male models of special physical training in the training process for female athletes. And a significant gap in knowledge regarding the gender characteristics of athletes` speed-strength training has a particularly critical impact on the effectiveness of their competitive performance. Our studies of psychophysiological indicators of elite athletes for both genders serve as a clear example of the relevance of innovative developments in load planning and methods of performing special exercises to improve speed and strength training. Conclusions. It is shown that gender-specific issues regarding women’s elite sports remain in various countries of the world. We determined that the psychophysiological state in male athletes is formed due to increased attention and speed of the sensorimotor response. In female athletes, in contrast, the psychophysiological state can be expressed by the ratio: speed and productivity of information processing - properties of the main nervous processes - attention. Taking these gender differences into account for planning loads in special physical training is expected to have a positive effect on the athlete’s performance in competitive sports.