Specialized sports skills include several types of sports

The first is the official division into six categories specified in the 2022 edition of the Ministry of Education's "Compulsory Education Physical Education and Health Curriculum Standards", and the second is the four major scenario-based divisions commonly used in folk sports and fitness industries. The applicable scenarios are different, and the classification logic is also obviously different.

Let’s first talk about the six official classifications that most people are most exposed to. After all, from school physical education course selection to athlete level recognition, most of them use this set of standards.

The first is ball sports. Don’t think that only the traditional three major sports such as basketball, football, and volleyball are considered. Competitions over the net such as badminton, table tennis, and tennis, and even Frisbee and pickleball, which were popular in the past two years, are now included in the category of emerging ball games. A while ago, I helped a friend sort out the special preparation materials for sports for the high school entrance examination. There are 11 optional subdivisions for ball games alone. The range of options varies in different regions, which shows the popularity of this type of project.

Next is track and field, which is also the basis of all sports. The core is the four major action modes of walking, running, jumping, and throwing. In addition to the familiar middle and long-distance running, long jump, and shot put, outdoor sports such as orienteering that combine navigation skills are now also classified as expansion specialties of track and field. Several old friends from the running group around me took the national first-level track and field referee certificate and spent half a month learning the penalty rules of orienteering. They said that there are very many people applying for this event in primary and secondary track and field competitions.

Next is gymnastics. Many people’s impression of this type of special event is still the competitive gymnastics and uneven bars in the Olympic Games. In fact, the mat tumbling and balance beam training that everyone comes into contact with every day, as well as the cheerleading, trampoline, and even the freestyle movement training on skateboards that children love to learn, are essentially in the category of gymnastics. The core training is body control and coordination.

There are also water sports. In addition to the most popular swimming styles, rowing and kayaking, there are also wake surfing, which has become very popular in Sanya and Xiamen in recent years, and paddle boards, which can be seen everywhere in city parks. They are all water sports. Don’t think that you have to master special skills only if you can swim several thousand meters. If you can skillfully stand on a paddle board, circle the mark, and complete simple rescue actions, you have mastered the basic abilities of this type of project.

Then there is the ice and snow category. After the 2022 Winter Olympics, the popularity of such events has increased several times. In addition to the common figure skating, short track speed skating, alpine skiing, curling, ice hockey, and even indoor dry snow and simulated ice skating that have become popular in southern shopping malls in recent years, they are also included in the ice and snow category. I went skiing in Chongli last winter and met several junior high school students who had already passed the national second-level snowboard athlete certificate. Their special level assessment was through the ice and snow track.

The last official category is martial arts and traditional national sports. In addition to the familiar martial arts routines, Sanda, dragon and lion dances, and traditional archery, there are also many local intangible cultural heritage sports, such as Quanzhou’s Wuzuquan and Inner Mongolia’s Boke. They are now included in the category of such special sports, and many schools have also opened corresponding school-based courses.

However, this division method has always been controversial in the circles of fitness practitioners and professional athletes. Many people feel that the classification according to project attributes is too rigid and is not a strong reference during cross-sport training. Therefore, the more commonly used among the people is the 4-category logic divided according to the core competency requirements of the project.

Confrontation sports are the most recognized among them, and all events involving direct or indirect confrontation fall into this category. Whether it is on-field confrontations such as basketball and football, or confrontations across the net such as badminton and tennis, or even fighting sports such as boxing and Sanda, the core training is reaction speed, confrontation strategy and instantaneous explosive power. Many players in amateur leagues practice boxing across events to improve their reactions, because the underlying abilities are universal.

The second category is difficult to perform, such as gymnastics, figure skating, artistic gymnastics, and hip-hop dance that has entered the Asian Games and art exams in recent years. They all fall into this category. The core of the assessment are movement difficulty, completion accuracy and artistic expression. I know a coach who teaches figure skating. He was trained in competitive gymnastics before. It took almost no effort when switching sports. Many flexibility and strength training methods are universal.

The third category is physical endurance. Long-distance running, cycling, open water swimming, and triathlon all fall into this category. The core focus is on cardiopulmonary ability and muscle endurance. Many marathon runners switch to triathlon and only need to practice the technical movements of swimming and cycling. The endurance basics can be used directly, and it is very fast to get started.

The fourth category is the leisure expansion category. Projects that focus on low threshold and social attributes, such as Frisbee, orienteering, paddle boarding, and camping and hiking, are all classified here. Many people think that such projects are not considered "serious" special projects? In fact, Frisbee now has national-level professional competitions. The skill assessment standards for professional athletes are no less stringent than those for traditional sports. However, these sports have stronger entertainment properties. Ordinary enthusiasts can still have fun without having to practice to a professional level.

Of course, there are also many projects that span two categories. For example, orienteering belongs to both the track and field category in the official classification and the leisure expansion category in the private classification. Triathlon also covers both official categories of water and track and field, so there is no need to be obsessed with the classification boundaries. Just use flexible reference.

In fact, there is no right or wrong between the two classification methods, let alone which one is more professional. If you are a student choosing sports specialties or taking the athlete grade certificate test, it will definitely be clearer to use the official 6-category classification. The corresponding rules and assessment standards are all ready-made. ； If you are an ordinary enthusiast who wants to find more efficient training methods, or want to play new projects across disciplines, then it is more practical to use the folk 4-category classification, which can help you quickly find the general underlying ability training logic.

To be honest, I have been playing amateur basketball for almost 10 years. I have struggled with whether I should consider it a ball game or a confrontation game. Later I discovered that there is no point in being confused about classification - being able to figure out the rules of the event you play, develop the corresponding athletic ability, avoid getting injured, and have fun is better than anything else. After all, the ultimate goal of us ordinary people exercising is to keep fit and have some fun.