The purpose of the study was to identify the particularities of psychomotor abilities in 8-9 years old sambo athletes in the process of initial sport selection. Material and methods. The research presents an algorithm of the leading factors of the step-by-step selection of 165 8-9-year-old pupils for sambo wrestling. The first stage of selection was a thorough checkup, which determined that more than 50 % of the total number of pupils had disturbance of morphology and functionality of different body systems, there remained 68 examinees. At the third stage of selection the identification of intellectual abilities showed that only 73.53 % of pupils out of 68 (i.e. 50 pupils) had an average level of attention stability. According to the appreciation of psychomotor abilities of pupils we identified a decrease on the examinees number with 20 % out of 50 pupils. At the special stage of selection 17.5 % of 8-9 years old pupils, in 70 % of cases (i.e. for the majority of tests) failed to execute the requirements for motor abilities and coordination capacity. The basic experiment was elaborated and realized on the basis of an yearlong pedagogical experiment for which we organized two experimental study groups of sambo wrestlers in their first year of sport training: control group, that included 15 pupils that did not undergo any special selection, and the experimental group, consisting of 15 8-9 years old pupils that were specially selected. We created identical conditions for the learning and training process throughout a year for both groups. However, only in the experimental group we included the experimental methodology of sport diagnostics that contained a complex of scientifically based criteria and conditions. Results and discussion. During the experiment we identified the indices of “timely” reaction of the sambo wrestlers in the control group which improved only by 6 %, compared to the experimental group (57% more compared to the indices at the beginning of the experiment). It presented the dynamics of the tapping test of the sambo wrestlers in the control and experimental groups, from the first to the fourth period. The dynamics showed the local tiredness of the nervous and muscular system of the body, caused by the depression of their brain motor centers, which increased in both groups, but had a visible tendency of aggravation to the fourth period in the control group (from the first to the fourth period – within the limits of 62.80 %) compared to the experimental group, where the speed of elementary movements of children in the tapping test decreased inconclusively in every time period. Thus, at the end of the second period the results of the experimental group decreased by 11.25 %, to the end of the third period they lowered by 36.62 %, to the end of the fourth period they decreased by 15.55 % of the data of the previous period, which in conclusion comprised the decrease from the first to the fourth period up to 63.42 %. Conclusion. Thus, the veridically relevant situation of psychomotor development in the experimental group of sambo wrestlers, in our opinion, became possible due to their preliminary readiness (selection results) and the active experimental training action on them