Specialized sports skills include several types of sports

If we want to give the most universal answer to this question, the current common classification standards in the two major fields of domestic physical education and competitive training are three categories, namely confrontation, performance, and physical dominance. However, there have always been different opinions on four and five categories within the academic community and the industry. The differences are mainly concentrated on the classification of emerging sports.

When I helped my friends at the sports school sort out the youth sports grading materials, I found that many parents did not understand these categories and applied for their children based on popular sports. As a result, their children were in pain and could not get results. Let’s talk about the least controversial confrontational sports first, which are divided into two types: confrontation on the same field and confrontation across the net. Basketball, football, and Frisbee belong to the former, while badminton, volleyball, and table tennis belong to the latter. The core skill logic is to control one’s own movements, but also to predict the opponent’s movements and coordinate with the rhythm of teammates. To put it bluntly, what is practiced is “gaming ability.” Last time I went to the Municipal Youth Badminton Championships, there was a kid who was very good in singles. He could accurately hit the line with lobs in front of the net. As a result, he frequently bumped into his teammates when he got to mixed doubles. To put it bluntly, he had mastered the skills of confrontation across the net, but the logic of cooperation on the same court was not yet understood. It is no wonder that many people ridiculed that badminton singles and doubles are almost two different sports.

If the core of the confrontation category is "keeping an eye on the opponent", then the core of the performance category is "looking at oneself". This type of event is what we often call the difficult and beautiful category. Rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, martial arts routines, and competitive dance all fall into this category. The scoring criteria look at the difficulty of the movement, the accuracy of completion, and the enjoyment. Points will be deducted for half a point of error. I've been to the provincial rhythmic gymnastics team's public training before. The girls practiced a baton-throwing and catching action and could repeat it hundreds of times in an afternoon. Just to ensure that the angle, height, and catching posture of the hand fully met the referee's scoring standards, even the expression on the face had to be pinched in front of the mirror. It was completely different from the logic of confrontational training.

The rest are the physical fitness-oriented specialties that everyone is most exposed to. Running, swimming, weightlifting, and triathlon all belong to this category. The core skill is to stretch the body's output capacity to the limit. There is no need to compete with others, and there is no need to consider whether the movements are good or not. Just be fast enough, long enough, and powerful enough. Last year, I signed up for a special training camp to run the North Marathon. The coach didn't teach any hard work at all. He just worked on running postures, practiced interval running, and built up long-distance endurance. In the end, I did a PB for 15 minutes. To put it bluntly, the whole process was to compete with the limits of my body, and there was no room for trickery.

However, not everyone agrees with this three-part rule. I went to a domestic outdoor sports industry forum a while ago, and several extreme sports operation bosses slapped the table and said that classifying rock climbing, parkour, and wingsuit flying into physical fitness or performance categories is purely blind. The core skills of these projects are risk prediction and emergency response. No matter how good the physical fitness is and how standard the movements are, an accident may occur if a misjudgment is made. It is completely different from ordinary physical fitness projects and should be separately classified as "adventure-type special events." There are also scholars who study intellectual competitions who are more pragmatic, saying that now that Go and e-sports have been included in the official events of the Asian Games, we can’t put these brain-based games into the above three categories, right? The entire "intelligence-led special event" alone is in line with the current development trend of competitions.

To be honest, for us ordinary sports enthusiasts, there is no need to worry about who is right and who is wrong in these classifications. If you want to have fun with your friends, choose basketball and frisbee games. ； If you want to practice your body and temperament, choose performance dance and rhythmic gymnastics ； If you want to lose fat and improve your performance, choose running or triathlon for physical fitness. To put it bluntly, these classifications are for professional rating and competition organization. We ordinary people can exercise happily and build a good body, which is better than anything else.