Specialized sports skills

Specialized sports skills have never been the exclusive threshold for professional athletes, but are the core key for ordinary people to play any sport - it is neither a general physical ability about how fast you can run or how much you can lift, nor a standard action pose like a showpiece, but a form specific to a certain sport. A complete ability system from muscle memory to decision-making logic. It can be as small as playing badminton without sprained ankles or running 5 kilometers without knee pain. It can be as big as getting a ranking in amateur competitions, helping children learn to avoid detours, and mastering a specific sports skill. It is definitely the most cost-effective deal for you to invest in sports.

Last week I went to the gym with my friends to play ball and came across a typical example: The girl I was traveling with usually ran half marathons and her physical fitness was much better than that of us working in the office. However, she sprained her foot 20 minutes into the game. She sat on the sidelines rubbing it for half an hour and still couldn't walk properly. It's unfair to say that when she stepped to save the ball, she didn't realize that badminton's special footwork requires the outside of the foot to hit the ground first for cushioning. She relied entirely on her ankles to carry the body's momentum. She hadn't practiced the corresponding movement pattern, and no matter how good her physical fitness was, she couldn't withstand the consequences of incorrect exertion of force.

Speaking of this, there must be someone who wants to argue. I usually exercise regularly, my core is stable and I have enough strength. I can do everything with ease, right? This is actually a controversial point that has been quarreling in the sports circle for many years: one group holds the "basic physical fitness theory" and believes that as long as squats, deadlifts, and core abilities are in place, you can quickly get started with any exercise, and if you have enough muscle strength, you can naturally avoid injuries. ； The other school is the "specialized priority theory", which believes that ordinary people do not need to spend more than half a year to build up basic strength and just soak in special exercises in sports scenes. The required physical fitness will naturally keep up with it, and the efficiency is much higher.

Both statements are actually valid, and it all depends on your own foundation and needs. I used to know a fitness coach who could squat 160 kilograms and had a very stable core. He learned to snowboard for the first time last year. Others fell so hard on their butts on the first day on the snow, but he was stable when he stood up and could skate on intermediate trails in three days. This is the advantage of a general physical base. But if you have no fitness habits at all and just want to have fun playing basketball with friends on weekends, there is really no need to squat 1.5 times your body weight for three months first. Spend 20 minutes before each game to practice special sliding steps and jump landing cushioning. If you practice for two months, the probability of injury will be reduced by 80%, which is more practical than anything else.

I have been practicing rock climbing for 3 years. At the beginning, I also fell into the pitfall of "focusing on general physical fitness and ignoring specialization". I thought rock climbing was about arm strength. I practiced pull-ups at home every day. In two months, the number of pull-ups increased from 5 to 12. I still can't even pass the V2 line when I go to the rock gym. Later, the coach reminded me that there has always been a saying in the rock climbing circle of "three-quarter arm strength and seven-cent footwork". The core special skill is not arm strength at all, but the feeling of force at the foot step, the timing of shifting the center of gravity, and even the prediction of the action route when reading the line. I practiced the footwork for two weeks, and I really touched the V2 line. The two months of pull-ups I practiced blindly before were not useless, but they were not combined with the power of special scenes, so I couldn't use them at all.

Many people still have a misunderstanding about special skills: they think running and walking are things that everyone can do, so how can there be any special skills? Last year, I helped my dad adjust his running posture and I had a profound experience. He had been running blindly for 5 years, and his knees hurt so much that he had to struggle to go up and down stairs. He went for exercise rehabilitation. After scanning the film, the doctor said that every time he landed, he hit the heel strike (heel strike). His stride length was half longer than his height. The load on his knees with each running step was three times his body weight. Running for 5 years was equivalent to carrying two bags of rice and hitting his knees hundreds of thousands of times. Later, the coach changed the landing pattern of the forefoot transition, and the stride length was narrowed to 45% of the height. I practiced ankle pump strength for another half a month, and the knee pain disappeared immediately. Now I can run a half marathon for 2 hours. This is the magic of special skills - it is not just that you can "complete the action", but that you can "correctly use the logic of the corresponding event to complete the action."

Don’t think that you have to spend a lot of money to take private lessons to learn specialized skills. There are a lot of professional tutorials available online. The only thing you need to pay attention to is not to judge yourself harshly by the standards of professional teams. For example, when learning table tennis, some tutorials are written for children who join the team at the age of 7. They require them to practice forehand attacks 10,000 times and have completely standard movements before they can play on the stage. Ordinary people have no need to join in the fun. They just look for the "special improvement for amateurs" content. They first practice serving and receiving, and playing with friends is enough to torture the whole audience. There is a golfer next to me whose forehand movement is so crooked that it can be thrown behind the shoulder, but his serve turns so hard that no one can catch it, and he still wins in the amateur field. The special skills of professional athletes are for performance. The special skills of ordinary people always have two cores: either less injuries, or having fun, and there is no need to follow the "standard answer" of hard movements.

I came across a video a few days ago. There is a 60-year-old aunt who is learning to swim. She was so afraid of water at first that she had to hold on to the edge of the pool before she dared to go into the water. She followed the coach for two months to practice special movements of breathing and paddling. Now she swims 1,000 meters every day, and the lumbar protrusion that has troubled her for several years has been relieved a lot. You see, no matter what your age or foundation, as long as you have a good grasp of the specific discipline, exercise can really become a lifelong pleasure.