The difference between physical fitness and special sports

The core difference between physical fitness and specialized sports is essentially the difference between "universal underlying athletic ability" and "vertical field-specific skills" - the former is the basis that can be used in all sports (even daily activities), while the latter only serves the performance of a specific event.

I have been training youth sports for almost 8 years, and the most common question I encounter from parents is: “Should my child practice physical fitness for two years first, or should he directly enroll in a basketball/badminton class? ”To be honest, many people take detours because they do not understand the boundary between the two. A mother came to me with her 7-year-old son before and said that the child had been practicing basketball for half a year and could not even shoot the ball 20 times in a row. The coach said that he had "poor coordination and no talent." , as a result, I asked the child to stand on one foot, and he was unable to stand steadily for 10 seconds. His core strength was so weak that he could not hold a plank for 15 seconds. This does not mean that he has no talent. He did not lay a general foundation at all. He just came up to learn specific skills, but he did not get half the result with twice the effort.

There is actually quite a fierce debate in the industry over the priority of the two. One group is "physical fitness is useless", saying that just practice special sports. Your running and jumping ability will naturally improve in the process of practicing skills. There is no need to spend money on separate classes.； The other school is the "physical fitness is omnipotent theory", which says that special sports should never be done before the age of 12. Only by practicing full physical fitness can there be no injury or limit the development path. Both statements are valid, and there are counterexamples: I have seen children who started playing in the table tennis hall every day to practice swinging at the age of 6. They did not do any shoulder and back strength training, and got juvenile tenosynovitis after playing for a year. I have also seen children who only took physical fitness classes since childhood and only touched a badminton racket for the first time at the age of 10. Their coordination and core strength are very good, but the ball feel is much worse than that of teammates who started to touch the racket at the age of 7. It is basically late to take the professional route.

If we break it down, the goal logic of the two is completely different. What physical fitness seeks is "no shortcomings", cardiopulmonary, strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, reaction, everything must be involved. Don't strive for any one item to be particularly outstanding, but seek overall balance. If you go to an ordinary fitness center and watch a class, you will know that you will practice running back and forth, box jumping, somersaults, and static core practice. You can use these trainings for playing football, rock climbing, and even for climbing mountains or carrying 20 kilograms of rice upstairs. To use an inappropriate metaphor, physical fitness is like the operating system of a mobile phone. The smoother and more stable it is, the more apps you install will not be stuck.

Specialized sports are completely the opposite. What they seek is "the longboard is long enough", and even partial shortcomings are acceptable for the sake of the longboard. For example, weightlifters don't need particularly good flexibility, as long as they have absolute strength. ； Table tennis players do not need the explosive power of their lower limbs at the sprint level, but their wrist control and reaction speed of 0.1 seconds must be top-notch. The small muscle groups and technical movements required in many special events cannot be used in other scenarios except to serve this project. You can't use the twisting and pulling movements of table tennis to play badminton, right? This thing is a special APP you installed. No matter how powerful the function is, it can only do that one thing.

I had run into a pit when I was training for a half marathon before. I just kept running every day at the beginning. After running for three months, my best time was only 2 hours and 10 minutes. I used to think that running had to rely on mileage. In fact, the general ability at the bottom was stuck, and the specific level could not be improved at all.

Of course, the two are not completely separated. There is still debate in the academic circles: a group of scholars who study sports training believe that if children under 10 years old are not pursuing a professional route, it is best for general physical fitness to account for 70% and specialized training to account for up to 30%. This can not only reduce sports injuries, but also leave room for subsequent changes in sports. After all, children’s interests change quickly. If they love football today, they may be obsessed with rock climbing the next. With a good foundation in physical fitness, they can switch to any project half a beat faster than others. However, there are also scholars from another school of thought who believe that if a child really has a strong interest and talent in a certain event, it is absolutely fine to be exposed to special basic training around the age of 6. As long as they don’t engage in high-intensity competitive training too early and don’t pile on the amount in order to achieve results, they can build up their awareness of the event earlier, and they are more likely to go professional in the future.

In fact, there is really no need to antagonize the two. It is much more important to understand your own needs than to worry about who is good and who is bad. If you just want to move around, get sick less often, climb Mount Huangshan without getting out of breath, or move around without getting tired, then practicing more general physical fitness is extremely cost-effective. ； If you have a clear goal, such as winning the company badminton championship this year, or your child wants to be a second-level sports athlete, then the focus must be on specialization, and it should be matched with corresponding physical fitness training to make up for the shortcomings. Whatever suits you best.