Characteristics of special sports

High degree of goal specificity, solidity of neuro-muscular control patterns of technical movements, and non-universal nature of ability boundaries.

I practiced the 100-meter dash for three years when I was in school, and my best time was 11.2 seconds. I consider myself to be a pretty good athlete. Last time I was dragged to an amateur badminton match by a friend. I ran three steps to catch a high ball from the backcourt and fell flat on my butt. The inertia of running in a straight line after practicing sprinting for several years turned out to be a burden on the badminton court where emergency stops and changes of direction were required. My feet had already rushed out, and my core had to retract before it could react. In fact, this is the most intuitive manifestation of the specificity of special goals: the training logic, action design, and ability requirements of all special events are all built around "completing the specific goals of the special event." The goal of 100 meters is to complete linear displacement in the shortest time, so the training is all-round. It’s stride length, step frequency, back-pedal explosive power, and even the arm swing angle must be stuck between 30 degrees and 45 degrees. A little more or less must be corrected. These training logics are naturally completely inapplicable in ball sports that require changes in direction and power rhythm at any time.

What's interesting is that this kind of highly directional training will eventually form deep and instinctive solidification of movements. I had dinner with a table tennis player who retired from the provincial team. The waiter brought hot soup and spilled a bit because he failed to hold it properly. His first reaction was not to hide back, but to directly raise his right hand to his chest and abdomen, and buckle his wrist in, as if he was in a ready position to receive the serve with a forehand. When he reacted, he laughed. Put in a professional context, this is actually the solidification of the neuro-muscle control model: hundreds of thousands of repeated trainings over the years have engraved the force sequence and muscle mobilization ratio of specific movements into neural reflexes, allowing you to respond directly without thinking about it. In response to this solidification phenomenon, there have been two different training ideas in the industry: Traditional special-purpose coaches believe that the degree of solidification of muscle memory directly determines the upper limit of an athlete's specialization. The more top athletes, the higher the repetition of movements, even to the point of "you can do it right without thinking." In daily training, even non-specialty movements should be done less to avoid disrupting the already formed force pattern. ； The functional training school that has been popular in recent years does not agree with this statement. They believe that excessive movement solidification will lead to compensatory damage to the body. For example, many swimmers who train all year round have chronic rotator cuff problems. The essence is long-term repetitive strokes, resulting in an imbalance in the strength of the muscles around the shoulder. Even if you are doing daily actions such as raising your hands to reach something high, you will subconsciously use muscle groups that are accustomed to exerting force, which will cause extra burden on weak parts. Each of the two ideas has empirical support, and there is no absolute right or wrong at present. It is just that the applicable training stages are different.

Many people have a misunderstanding, thinking that the top athletes in a certain event must have strong all-round athletic ability. In fact, this is not the case. This is the non-universal nature of specific abilities. I know an amateur runner who can run a marathon for 3 hours and 20 minutes. His endurance is definitely top-notch among ordinary people. The last time he climbed Mount Tai for a company team building, he collapsed when he reached the Zhongtian Gate. He could not walk while sitting on the steps. To put it bluntly, marathon endurance is a constant-tempo, low-intensity, long-term aerobic exercise, while Taishan climbing is an intermittent weight-bearing stretch. The force generation mode, mobilized muscle groups, and energy supply logic are completely different. His special endurance cannot be transferred at all. The same is true in reverse. If you ask a weightlifting champion to run 5 kilometers, there is a high probability that he will not be able to outrun an ordinary runner who has been exercising all year round. It is not because he has poor ability, but because his ability is not focused in this direction at all.

When I lead a youth training team myself, I usually let children under the age of 12 "play blindly" first. They go through basketball, football, track and field, and gymnastics. There are no standard movement requirements. They first lay down their basic sports abilities. When they are fourteen or fifteen years old, their physical development has basically taken shape and their interests are clear, then they can focus on special projects. I have seen too many parents rushing to let their children practice table tennis or swimming at the age of seven or eight. In the end, they either suffer from chronic strain injuries, or accidentally discover that their children are actually more talented in other sports, but they are delayed.

To put it bluntly, specialized sports are actually no different from learning a unique craft. If you ask a master who has sharpened scissors all his life to carve seals, no matter how steady your hands are, you have to learn it from scratch. Those sports talents that outsiders seem to know "everything" are only solid basic abilities. When it comes to specialized fields, they still have to be honed every minute.