EMOTIONAL-EXPRESSIVE COORDINATION AS A COMPONENT OF PARTNER COMPATIBILITY IN ACROBATIC GYMNASTICS

Abstract

In contemporary research on paired and techno-aesthetic sports, compatibility is increasingly conceptualized as a processual characteristic of joint activity that develops through partner interaction rather than as a set of individual psychological or technical traits. In acrobatic gymnastics, which is characterized by rigid interdependence of actions, asymmetric partner roles, and a high level of performance risk, emotional and expressive coordination plays a particularly important role; however, this component remains insufficiently operationalized in empirical studies. The aim of this study was to substantiate and examine the informativeness of an emotional-expressive coordination scale as a tool for analyzing partner compatibility in acrobatic gymnastics. The study involved acrobatic pairs and groups competing at the First Sports Category and Candidate for Master of Sport levels, with at least three years of shared training and performance experience. Emotional-expressive coordination was assessed using an expert evaluation method based on a specially developed scale comprising six indicators reflecting the coordination of emotional expression, nonverbal interaction, musicality, and integrity of the artistic image. Evaluations were conducted through analysis of competitive routines as well as standardized creative-technical tasks designed to expand the range of observable emotional-expressive interaction beyond a single completed performance. Given the ordinal nature of the data and sample size characteristics, non-parametric statistical methods were applied. The results revealed statistically significant differences between groups with high and low levels of emotional-expressive coordination across all structural components of the scale. The scale demonstrated adequate internal consistency, high inter-rater reliability, and criterion-related validity in relation to judges’ artistry scores obtained during competitive performances. These findings support the interpretation of emotional-expressive coordination as an independent component of partner compatibility and confirm the applicability of the proposed scale for scientific analysis and practical diagnostics within the training process of acrobatic gymnastics.