The mentoring system as a motivation tool for sports activities of primary school children

Motivation for sports activities is a key element of an athlete's psychological development, his focus on the competitive training process. The peculiarities of motivation for sports activities of primary school children arouse scientific interest and provide a wide field for research with subsequent application of empirical results in pedagogical practice. The subject of scientific research is the influence of the applied mentoring system on the motivation of primary school children for sports activities. The scientific novelty of empirical research lies in the conditions of the experiment used, the classical model of mentoring involves the transfer of experience and knowledge from the older generation to the younger, in our case the age gap between mentor and mentee is insignificant, which determines the innovativeness of the research.The object of the study was a group of children of the children's karate section aged from 6 to 11 years. The mentors were children from the same section, regardless of experience and age, based solely on individual characteristics. Methods of non–scientific research are psychological observation and psychological experiment. The results of the study were recorded by the trainer in a sample protocol to reflect the key phenomena of interest to the researcher. Psychological observation fully confirmed the hypothesis put forward at the beginning of the study about the positive effect of the mentoring system on the motivation of primary school children for sports activities. In addition, the empirical method revealed the correlation between the availability of mentoring and the speed of adaptation of children in a sports team, as well as the significant influence of the mentor's role on the child and his participation in the training process. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of applying the results of the study in the development of training programs aimed at increasing the motivation of primary school children for sports activities.