What are sport-specific skills?

Specialized sports skills are essentially the sum of movement abilities and coping experience for a specific sports event, which can only be mastered through targeted systematic training, and fully comply with the rules of the event, competitive logic and sports laws. It is completely different from the scattered movements of daily casual participation in sports.

For example, if you ask your friends to shoot random baskets and run into the open space after get off work, you can only be considered to be good at playing basketball. If you really want to touch the threshold of basketball-specific skills, you must at least understand the running logic of zone defense, be able to control the core force when making an emergency stop jump shot, and even adjust the shooting posture to ensure a hit rate when facing physical confrontation. You may not be able to understand these things if you play wild basketball for ten years, but you can learn it with a professional coach for half a year.

However, the industry has always had different views on the boundaries of specialized sports skills. Many old coaches who do traditional competitive training believe that for specialized skills, you have to focus purely on the movements of the event itself. For example, if you are training for the 100-meter sprint, there is no need to exercise too much weight on the lower limbs, so as not to stiffen the muscles and affect the cadence. All training must be centered around running movements. ； But now the new generation of coaches who do physical training prefer that special skills must also include the basic abilities of the adapted sports. For example, if your core strength and dynamic vision cannot keep up in tennis, no matter how standard your backhand slice is, you will not be able to stabilize it in real confrontation. In essence, your special abilities are still not in place. Each of these two statements has its own practical support, and there is no absolute right or wrong. It depends more on the stage and goals of the training object.

When I was leading a high school basketball team two years ago, I met a kid who was well-known in the local field for playing field basketball. When he first joined the team, he was very disobedient and felt that his movements were all right. However, in the first city game, the opponent was pressed by the full court. He frequently made mistakes even dribbling through half court. His wild ball movements were done casually, without any consideration for stability under high-intensity confrontation. This is a typical example of not polishing scattered movements into specialized skills.

To put it bluntly, specialized sports skills are like the skills of a culinary chef in a restaurant. It is one thing to be able to cook two dishes at home. To be a chef specializing in Cantonese cuisine, the heat of the soup, the soaking time of the boiled chicken, and even the thickness of the thickener must be measured to the smallest detail. Only these abilities that are specially polished and adapted to specific standards can be called "specialized". Nowadays, the integration of sports and education that we often talk about requires students to master 1-2 specialized sports skills. In fact, the standards are broader and do not need to reach the level of professional competition. As long as you understand the rules of the event, can skillfully complete standard movements, and can fully participate in regular event competitions. If you can persist in exercising with this event, you will be considered to have met the standard.