Improvement of the Structure and Content of an Annual Training Macrocycle for Young Pankration Athletes

The study objective is to improve the structure and content of the annual training macrocycle for athletes aged from 15 to 16 years old in pankration, taking into account the specifics of their competitive performance.  Materials and methods. Theoretical analysis and generalization were used during work with literary sources on the problems of the research. Survey (questionnaire) was used for studying general approaches to the structure and content of young athletes’ training (aged from 15 to 16 years old) in pankration. There were also analyzed official programs for experienced pankration athletes which are used in Ukraine. Pedagogical experiment was held during September 2018 – July 2019. Its total duration was 10 months and 906 hours. Two identical six-month training macrocycles were performed. The control (21 athletes) and experimental (22 athletes) groups were formed.  Results. It was more effective for the development of technical and tactical actions and special physical fitness of young athletes aged from 15 to 16 years old. It was confirmed by significant intra-group increases in indicators of athletes’ preparedness (p≤0.05-0.01). The total number of significant changes in the experimental group (p≤0.05-0.01) during the first and second stages of the experiment was 12 of 13 indicators, and their values were higher than in the control group. In the control group, significant positive changes (p≤0.05-0.01) were found in 6 indicators during the first stage of the experiment and 8 – during the second one. After the second stage of the experiment athletes of the experimental group performed about half of the technical and tactical actions with a higher level of stability, economy, efficiency in various situations during sparring matches.  Conclusions. An experimental program made it possible to achieve an earlier deployment of adaptation processes to the specific physical activity available in training and competitive activities in pankration.