Polikanova, I.S.

Background. An adaptive attitude toward uncertainty may facilitate goals achievement, however, there is a lack of scientific research on this issue among extreme sport athletes. Sports tourism (ST) is a promising area for investigation of the psychological mechanisms underlying adaptation to extreme stressful environments.

Objective. The goal is to establish the connection between tolerance for uncertainty, route experience, autonomy skills, and experience of autonomy during expeditions among sports tourism athletes.

Study Participants. The study involved 202 sports tourism athletes participating in the Route discipline. Participants were divided into subgroups according to route experience (up to 7 years vs. more than 8 years), autonomy skills (beginner vs. advanced), and experience of autonomy during expeditions (up to 6 days vs. more than 7 days).

Methods. The Tolerance for Uncertainty Scale from Furnham’s New Questionnaire was used. Data were analyzed using the Mann — Whitney U test, Pearson’s χ² test, and a General Linear Model (GLM).

Results. Lower levels of tolerance for uncertainty were observed among athletes with more than 8 years of route experience compared to those with less than 7 years of experience. Similarly, athletes whose expeditions typically lasted more than 7 days demonstrated lower tolerance for uncertainty than participants whose average expedition duration did not exceed 6 days. In the multivariate model, route experience and experience of autonomy during expeditions made statistically significant contributions to the variance in tolerance for uncertainty; however, effect sizes were small.

Conclusions. The hypothesis that athletes with greater experience and higher levels of autonomy skills would demonstrate higher tolerance for uncertainty was not supported. The findings indicate that tolerance for uncertainty is associated with route experience and experience of autonomy during expeditions, whereas autonomy skills were not related to the level of tolerance for uncertainty.

Relevance: in the last decade, virtual reality (VR) technologies have been actively introduced into the training process in various types of sprints. At the same time, there are studies showing the inconsistency of VR for the formation of sports skills and their transfer to real conditions. But despite this, the use of VR can be useful for practicing specific motor skills and cognitive functions, for example, anticipation.

Objective: to develop VR-PACE technology (VR Technology for training Puck hitting And HOSKE skill Effectiveness) using virtual reality aimed at diagnosing and analyzing the skill level of a hockey player, as well as their training.

Methods: within the framework of the study, a simulation virtual environment was developed that simulates a hockey field (ice arena in Sochi) and sets four difficulty levels (four blocks) depending on the speed of the puck and the distance to it. The study involved 22 people, 13 of whom were professional hockey players (Mage=20±2.5), and seven were beginners in hockey (Mage=20±1.4).

Results: it was found that professional hockey players have a significantly smaller amplitude of head vibrations during the reflection of pucks, that is, they understand the position of their body well enough during certain actions, and they do not need to observe the full trajectory of the puck. There were also significant differences in the speed of response to the presented washers in the block with the fastest speed of presentation of 2 washers. The results obtained may indicate a better formation of technical and tactical, temporal and spatial factors in professional hockey players.

Conclusions: the adequacy of the developed tools for the analysis of professional skills of hockey players was demonstrated. It was also shown that the skill level of a hockey player is determined by the formation of a set of parameters, including spatial, temporal, technical and tactical abilities. This is manifested in the automation of a number of skills, as well as the optimization of motor responses: 1) higher and more stable amplitude of movements over the entire observation interval and minimization of unnecessary movements; 2) higher reaction speed to more complex pucks (close to real game situations); 3) concentration of attention on significant signals, anticipation.