Tactical problems in the process of Sports Competition

Ng. Munindro Singh *

A match during 13th Dr Kanti Mukherjee Memorial Invitation Hockey Tournament on December 03 2010

It is difficult to implement any plan and strategy during competition. This is more true in those areas of sports where competitive fight has a spontaneous character. All participants strive to win and each of team has its own plan of tactical actions. It means that each should know intensions of an opponent to implement his own action.

Exactly, there is a need of an intelligence-service to unfold the intentions of an opponent as everyone tries to disguise his tactical plan, Guess of an opponent's projected plan involves many probabilities. But the success in guesswork does not guarantee the realisation of the tactical plan. It faces many difficulties arising from opponent's actions and out of the actions of team mates in the case of team games. While implementing the plan, one must understand the opponents and the team partners. Similarly, he should familiarise himself with the environmental changes and take a note of the physiological changes of the organism. The sportsman acts with this knowledge.

Here, the projected plan is connected with the decisions of the sportsman which he takes in response to the tactical problems. Decision making is an intellectual process. In this direction R.C. Abelskaya and G.M. Gagaiva made some investigations. The thought process has a number of peculiarities at the time of competition. It is directed to the practical activity of the sportsman "while thinking he acts and while in action he thinks"

It may be said that clarity, accuracy and usefulness of tactical actions is the result of clear thinking by the sportsman. The actions of self, the partners and the opponents provide the matter for thought. Therefore, actions is basically the result of thinking. The sportsman operates through various forms of imagination in the process of thought to solve the tactical problems. This enable him to act creativity, change his preliminary plan and look for new and unexpected decisions as an answer to the events then being faced by him.

The perception of a situation and selection of a suitable method of action corresponding to that usually takes a second and sometimes a fraction of second. There is a large number of variations out of which one is to be implemented in an ensuing action of sportsman. In practice, sportsman "feels" his opponent. He tries to have a clear understanding of his (opponent's) weaker and stronger points of physical fitness, techniques and tactics. Moreover, he evaluates his own action critically. The process of his own actions operates on the basis of analysis of an opponent's actions.

A sportsman throughout observes the progress of competition. Tentatively, it may be mentioned that the most useful selection of method of performance is made not only with imagination but with perception also.

Sometimes, one is unable to assess properly his own wrong action. This is true in the case of first category sportsman, i.e. boxers, fencers, volleyball players, hockey players etc. There are the situation which demand the quickest reaction in response to such a situation takes only hundredth and thousandth fraction of a second. At such moments thought expressed verbally lags behind the action itself.

The success of performance in sports, on the basis of situation, is achieved as a direct result of rich experience acquired in the past by the sportsman and his preparation of the preliminary plan of action for the competition. Further, the observation of an opponent enables him to apprehend self-actions. Resolution of tactical actions is communicated words pronounced as self orders. Ideas, now expressed in the form of vocal self-orders have a remarkable significance. This direct the sportsman in his action at particular movements of sports fight. He regularise his operations and provides for that the required motor reactions.

The most important character of thought in arriving at a solution of tactical problem is its working in the environment of intensive physical stress. Intensive physical stress does not upset the thinking process of the competitor as the heavy load of training-work conditions him in the usual process of training. However, the unavoidable fatigue, resulting from competitive stress, tends to create difficulties in the thinking activity of a subject. In such circumstances he should not lose clarity of thought.

Now, we arrive at a conclusion that an act of fulfilment of tactical tasks involves not only intellectual but emotional and volitional qualities too. Let us be emphatic on the point that necessary prerequisite of success in making decisions relating to tactical tasks is found in persistence of concentration of attention in the competitive process.

It is therefore, important to develop in the sportsman the basic properties of attention, particularly its volume and degree of concentration.