**1. Introduction**

Will in psychology, as an independent mental phenomenon, is considered along with the mind and emotions. The problem of individual characteristics of volitional regulation is of great importance in psychology; it is also important in sports psychology in the selection and training of highly qualified athletes and has long been the focus of attention of sports psychologists [1–4].

However, it should be recognized that the problem of volitional regulation of human behavior still does not have an unambiguous interpretation both in general psychology in general and in sports psychology in particular.

In Russian psychology (in the Soviet period of development), the line of studying the volitional efforts of a person was successfully presented. Its representatives viewed effort as a central and specific sign of will. These studies began such scientists as A.F. Lazursky, M. Ya. Basov, further continued V.N. Myasishchev, V.S. Merlin in Russian psychology 50–80s of the twentieth century. It was also developed in the psychology of sports—A.C. Puni [5], P.A. Rudik [6], etc. trait of will. Despite the importance of these studies for their time, however, they can be considered obsolete due to the emergence of new areas of knowledge, such as neuropsychology [7, 8], as well as the neuropsychology of individual differences [9, 10]. Further studies have shown the possibility and prospects of applying this approach to the problem of arbitrary regulation in sports and sports psychology [3, 11–14]. This review presents the views of the leading representatives of Russian sports psychology on the problem of the will and new work in the field of differential sports psychophysiology regarding the possibility of studying the problem of volitional regulation of athletes taking into account the individual characteristics of hemispheric asymmetry [11].
