Characteristics of athletes’ personality development at the preliminary and initial training stages in judo

The purpose of the study is to study the characteristics of an athlete's personality development at the stages of preliminary and initial training in judo, which corresponds to the age of 7-10 years. Research methods: analysis and synthesis of scientific literature, an experiment involving judokas at the stages of preliminary and initial training, methods of mathematical processing of the obtained data. Research results and conclusions. The obtained data allow us to assert that at the stages of preliminary and initial training in judo, there is no change in the main motives for engaging in sports. At these stages, the choice of motives by athletes is identical. The study of the intellectual-cognitive sphere allows us to speak of an increase in the level of development of abilities to understand the learning task, plan one's actions, and analyze the conditions of the assigned task from stage to stage. The established facts of personality development in sports activities are consistent with the main provisions of the periodization of mental development by D. B. Elkonin, according to which, in early school age, the predominant development of the intellectual-cognitive sphere of personality occurs, which contributes to the assimilation of socially established ways of interacting with objects. The training of beginning athletes should be structured taking into account the identified facts of development in sports activities.