Basic and specialized sports

Basic sports are the underlying support for all sports performance, while specialized sports are directional strengthening directed at specific goals. The two are never an either-or opposition, but a progressive relationship of layered complementation - a special event without a foundation is a castle in the air, and it is difficult to realize specific sports results without the foundation of a special event.

I'm not talking nonsense. I met a high school student in the gym a while ago. He was obsessed with dunking. He didn't go to class and went to the court every day to touch heights. He also learned the methods of jumping steps with weights through short videos. After practicing for two months, he couldn't touch the basket. He had a problem with his knee first and it hurt even when walking on flat roads. He went to the hospital to check for patellar tendonitis. After asking around, the doctor found out that he couldn't even do the most basic bodyweight squats properly. His knees buckled inward halfway through the squat, and his core shook like a sieve. He was also subjected to heavy weight jumping training. It was strange that he didn't get hurt.

Speaking of this, I have to mention the two factions that are quarreling in the sports circle right now. One faction is the competitive faction that believes in "specificity first". They think that basic sports are a waste of time, and they can just practice whatever they want. For example, many coaches at youth training institutions ask children to swing the racket and run. They don't even do basic joint stability training, and they euphemistically call it "starting from actual combat and getting results quickly." The other school is the "basic all-purpose" fitness school. They don't need to touch any special events. They first practice basic movements such as pull-ups, push-ups, and squats to full marks, and they can master all kinds of exercises.

In fact, what both groups say is reasonable, but they are applicable to different groups of people. If you have reached the stage of a professional athlete, your basic athletic abilities have already been maxed out. Of course, you have to focus most of your time on special events. For example, a sprinter on the national team cannot spend time doing standard push-ups every day, right? My core and lower body strength have already reached the standard. Of course, I have to work on special aspects such as starting posture and running techniques during the journey. But if you are just an ordinary enthusiast, or even a novice who has just come into contact with sports, and you rush into special events when you first come up, you will most likely end up in a trap.

I had a meal with the rehabilitation specialist of the provincial team before. He said that he had recruited a 14-year-old badminton player last year. He had been training with the coach for three years since he was a child. He swung the racket thousands of times a day and ran for two hours. He had never practiced basic scapula stability and core strength. As a result, he suddenly suffered shoulder pain at the end of last year and couldn't lift it. He was diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff and had to undergo surgery. His career was almost ruined. Later, when he was recovering, he could do five of the most basic wall-leaning angel movements and he grinned in pain. Do you think this was a loss?

Of course, it does not mean that the basics can cover everything. I know an old man who is a horse racer. He squatted in the gym for three years. He can squat 1.5 times his body weight in squats. His core is stable. He ran the marathon for the first time in 3 hours and 30 minutes, which is faster than those who have been running in the playground every day for two years. But when he wanted to break 3 last year, squatting alone was useless. He still had to practice interval running, pace training, and marathon-specific endurance, otherwise he wouldn't be able to improve his results at all. This is also in line with the public training framework of the National Strength and Conditioning Association of the United States: for young athletes under 14 years old, the proportion of basic sports ability training should not be less than 60%. From 16 to 18 years old, the proportion of special sports will gradually increase to 50%. It will not be until the professional stage that the proportion of special sports will be raised to 70%. However, even top professional athletes must spend 1 to 2 days a week for basic ability maintenance training, otherwise injuries will easily occur.

I also had this feeling when I led my friends to do street fitness. Last year, one of my brothers was so focused on training that he would press on the ground every day. His wrists hurt for two months and he couldn't even touch the edge of the split-legged push-up. I asked him to stop the special program first and practice the basics honestly for two months: 10 sets of scapula forward and retraction every day, core plank rotations, weighted push-ups, and even wrist flexibility for 10 minutes every day. Two months later, he tried it for the first time and set it for 3 seconds. The boy was so excited that he treated me to a hot pot meal that day.

To put it bluntly, basic sports are like the pinyin, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division you learned when you were in school, and special sports are like classical Chinese and advanced mathematics. You can't say that pinyin is useless, and you can't say that you can get into college by just learning pinyin, right? People always ask me before when they first start exercising, whether they should practice the basics or specialize first. I usually ask them about their goals first: if they just want to move and sweat, then whatever you do, the most important thing is to be happy; if you want to do a certain sport well but don’t want to get injured, then you can definitely go further by practicing the basics for half a year than if you just rush to specialize.

Really, when it comes to exercising, slow is fast. Don’t always take shortcuts.