On the possibility of using the method of collective decision-making in sports research

The article explores the demand for using mathematical methods for reasonable decision-making and the possibility of using such methods by specialists in the field of physical education for the improvement of existing methods and the development of new techniques for athletic training. The authors mark the broad usage of the treatment of quantitative attributes by experts when conducting sport research and emphasize the necessity for the ability to analyze the results which are based on qualitative attributes. The paper proves the feasibility of using the method of expert evaluations or the method of collective decision-making which is currently becoming one of the main methods in psychological and pedagogical research. This method allows giving a priori information of specialists (experts) in numerical quantity for reasonable decision-making. The stages of decision making with this method are also described. The authors place special emphasis on criteria of experts selection and their optimal quantity. The algorithm of the method of collective decision-making is provided in the paper. The interpretation of the method is demonstrated on the example of the sports coachs work in the case of need for eliciting the factors influencing the effectiveness of the training process and consequently sports result (the case of the result in long jump).