Definition of sport-specific ability

Specialized sports ability is a comprehensive ability set that integrates physiological qualities, technical proficiency, tactical cognition, psychological stability and project-specific experience that sports participants possess in order to complete the competition, training or daily participation needs of specific sports. It is not a simple superposition of general physical qualities, but a personalized ability system formed by completely anchoring the characteristics of specific projects.

Don't believe it, I met an enthusiast who retired from the provincial weightlifting team in the gym before. He can carry 180 kilograms in squats, and the muscles in his legs are as hard as rocks. It stands to reason that his physical fitness is good enough, right? But when playing badminton, I can’t even hold the lob for 20 minutes during half-time, and my running position is worse than that of an old amateur golfer who can squat less than 100 kilograms and has been playing for 5 years. To put it bluntly, his strength and quality are suitable for weightlifting events, and are completely incompatible with the special abilities of continuous turning and sudden stops and starts required by badminton.

Currently, academic circles and practical circles have always disagreed on the boundaries of this definition, and there is no absolutely unified standard answer. Old-school exercise physiologists prefer to regard "physiological fitness" as the core criterion of special abilities. In their framework, the maximum oxygen uptake and lactate threshold of marathon runners, the proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers in sprinters, and the core anaerobic endurance of wrestlers are hard indicators. Technology and tactics are all additional items attached to the physiological basis. This statement is indeed supported by solid data: the maximum oxygen uptake of top men's marathon runners in the current Olympic Games is basically above 70ml/kg·min. Without this physiological basis, no matter how standard your running posture is and how sophisticated your pace strategy is, you will not be able to reach the threshold of the first echelon.

But the first-line coaches who spend time in the training ground every day don’t completely agree with this. Many veteran coaches who have been teaching for 20 to 30 years believe that the core of special ability is actually "the efficiency of completing the event action pattern." I was chatting with the sprint coach of the city track and field team before, and he said that the team recruited two good prospects last year. During the physical test, the fast-twitch muscle fiber ratio and absolute strength data were almost identical, and the basic values ​​of cadence and stride length were not much different. However, after three months of training, the performance difference was 0.3 seconds - the difference was in the force generation mode. One was a standard hip drive, and the force could be transmitted from the feet to the core when pushing off the ground. The other always used to rely on his calves to scrape the ground, and nearly 30% of his strength was consumed in the movement. In the eyes of these coaches, physiological data is just the ticket. The core of special ability is whether the ability can be accurately transformed into specific movements for the project.

For us ordinary sports enthusiasts, this definition is actually more down-to-earth. Let’s say your goal is to complete the first half marathon in your life. Then your special ability is not just the cardio and lungs developed by running a lot of runs, but also the stability of the ankles in long distances, the coordination of the arm swing and stride, the psychological tolerance when hitting the wall, and even you know how many kilometers to run to replenish the rubber, what socks to wear so as not to wear your feet, and how to adjust the cadence when encountering an uphill slope without straining your legs. These detailed experiences that are only suitable for the half marathon scenario are all part of your special ability. When I was leading a youth basketball training camp, I met a kid who could run 100 meters for 11 and a half seconds, and had a standing long jump of 3.1 meters. His physical fitness was astonishing, but he couldn't even pass half a court in 3v3, and his defense was always blown away. His starting mode was all sprinting and straight-line bursts, but what basketball requires is the ability to continuously change direction, braking, starting and switching, and the awareness to predict the opponent's movements. If you haven't practiced these, it will be useless no matter how fast you run.

In the past two years, there has been an emerging cross-research school, which proposes that "scenario adaptation ability" should be included in the scope of special abilities. This statement also makes the boundaries of special abilities wider and wider. For example, alpine skiers' ability to adapt to plateau low temperatures, outdoor rock climbers' ability to judge real-time risks, and even in e-sports events that have now been included in the Olympics, athletes' ability to resist fatigue from sitting for long periods of time and maintain high concentration for more than 40 minutes are all real special abilities - you can't require e-sports athletes' maximum oxygen uptake to meet the standards of marathon runners, right? The scenarios of each project are different, and the evaluation systems for special abilities are naturally very different.

In fact, to put it bluntly, there is never any universally applicable measurement standard for special abilities. If you play table tennis, you don’t need to compete with others on the number of pull-ups. If you play cross-country running, you don’t need to compete with others on bench press weight. As long as it allows you to have more fun in your favorite events, get less injured, and get closer to your small goals, it is your special ability.