What are the main skill requirements for specialized sports

Technical standards that are fully adapted to the rules and action logic of the event, special physical fitness that is deeply bound to the energy supply/action mode of the event, instant decision-making ability honed in actual combat on the field, and special sensory perception that has been trained into muscle memory.

Don’t equate specialized technology with “being able to do movements.” The technical requirements of each project are the optimal solutions honed by generations of hard work, and the effects vary greatly. Take the 100 meters as an example. There was a kid in the team who could squat 140 kilograms, which was 10 kilograms more than the provincial championship champion of the same age group. However, his running technique was wrong. Every time he landed, there was a slight backward braking force. The stride ratio did not match his 1.85 meter leg length. No matter how strong his strength was, he could not convert it into forward momentum. His result was 0.8 seconds slower than the champion. There are too many similar examples. If the timing of a three-step layup in basketball is off by 0.1 seconds, you may be blocked. If the angle of the table tennis loop ball is 2 degrees off, the ball may go out of bounds directly. These details that are drilled down to the bone are the hard threshold for special skills.

There has been a quarrel in the circle for a while before about whether general physical fitness or specific physical fitness is more important when practicing special events. Now there is basically a consensus - general physical fitness is the foundation, but if you really want to achieve results, specific physical fitness is the foundation. Do you think the endurance of top marathon runners is strong enough? But if they are asked to run 400 meters, they may not even be able to reach the threshold of second-level athletes. The essence is that the energy supply logic of the two events is completely different. The marathon relies on aerobic energy supply, while the 400 meters relies on the ability to tolerate lactic acid under the energy supply of glycolysis. They are not the same thing at all. When we practiced hurdles in the past, we specifically trained on the small strength of the ankle joint, which is the supporting rigidity for a few tenths of a second after landing. No matter how thick your thighs are, they will not be able to support you at that moment, and the rhythm between the hurdles will be completely disrupted. This is the characteristic of special physical fitness. It is extremely targeted and leaves no room for opportunism.

The first two are hard conditions that can be supplemented by training. When it comes to the competition, whether you can win depends on your special decision-making ability. Normal training involves fixed scenes and fixed actions. No matter how high your hit rate is, it doesn't matter. Your opponent is alive in real life, and all choices have to be made instantly. I used to lead youth badminton exchange games, and there was a child who could hit 90% of his backcourt lobs during training. But he was confused as soon as he came on the court. Either he lobbed hard and was killed by his opponent regardless of the timing, or hesitated and hit a soft ball when it was time to hit the ball. He lost all three games. He just didn't practice on-court decision-making and didn't know when to hit the ball. This thing cannot be made up by hard training of skills. It has to be polished every game.

There is also a special sense that sounds a bit mysterious, which is the "ball sense", "water sense" and "rhythm sense" that veteran players often talk about. Many coaches used to think that this thing is innate and cannot be practiced. Now they have slowly changed their minds. You see, divers don’t need to open their eyes in the air to know how many turns they have to make before entering the water. Gymnasts don’t need to count beats. They know the right time to flip as soon as their feet touch the equipment. In fact, it is the muscle memory honed through thousands of repeated trainings. Now many teams will also add targeted small training, such as multi-ball continuous hitting drills in table tennis, and closed air training in swimming, to gradually develop this sense.

To be honest, don't think that special skills are as simple as "learning a certain movement". If you really want to touch the professional threshold, you can't go far without any of these dimensions. The few children I brought up last year who won the provincial competition may not have particularly outstanding talents in a certain area, but they all have no obvious shortcomings in these aspects, and those who are partial to the subject have long been screened out.