Athletic backgrounds?

[kusojiji]

I played all kinds of sports growing up.

It's been my observation that athletic people seem to have a little more difficulty starting out in martial arts.

A person that isn't athletic seems to be able to pick up things a little easier. For instance when punching,the arm that isn't punching comes to rest by your side. Many athletic people have difficulty getting this move down.

I also found that athletic people seem to have difficulty with getting their feet to move at the beginning.

Now this doesn't mean that ALL athletic people have these issues.

Having an athletic background is great because your body should be conditioned to handle the workouts.

I fail to see any logic in the assumption that athletic people would have more trouble learning something athletic.

It depends on the level of the athlete, and how adaptable they are. If you have someone that spends 15 years learning a specific sport, and then they try to learn a completely different sport, they may have trouble getting their old patterns and muscle memory retrained.

They will nonetheless still have far, far greater athletic ability than someone who has done nothing, right? Doing nothing doesn't make you better at anything.

And I submit to you that someone who has achieved a high level in any one sport is likely to be a naturally gifted athlete. More so than someone who has done a little of this and a little of that. And again, greater athletic ability cannot but be an advantage in an athletic endeavor.

[Aodhan]

It depends on the level of the athlete, and how adaptable they are. If you have someone that spends 15 years learning a specific sport, and then they try to learn a completely different sport, they may have trouble getting their old patterns and muscle memory retrained.

They will nonetheless still have far, far greater athletic ability than someone who has done nothing, right? Doing nothing doesn't make you better at anything.

And I submit to you that someone who has achieved a high level in any one sport is likely to be a naturally gifted athlete. More so than someone who has done a little of this and a little of that. And again, greater athletic ability cannot but be an advantage in an athletic endeavor.

I agree to some extent. However, being highly gifted at one sport may not necessarily translate into being able to do another sport easily. You will have the advantage in that you know how to tell your body what to do, but teaching it to do something different than what you've done all your life may be more difficult that most people think.

Say you have someone that takes fencing from when they are 5 until they are 22, and get to be nationally ranked. Then, they get a wild idea and take up boxing. The footwork is somewhat dissimilar, but not majorly so, but getting used to leading completely different with the hands and arms is going to be a huge ordeal for them, and in reactive/stress situations, they will revert back to their fencing form.

The underlying fitness will be an advantage, but just having proven athletic ability in one sport may not necessarily mean a good translation into martial arts.

Aodhan

[kusojiji]

[

Say you have someone that takes fencing from when they are 5 until they are 22, and get to be nationally ranked. Then, they get a wild idea and take up boxing. The footwork is somewhat dissimilar, but not majorly so, but getting used to leading completely different with the hands and arms is going to be a huge ordeal for them, and in reactive/stress situations, they will revert back to their fencing form.

I disagree. The fencer isn't stupid. And he will pick all of it up faster than the kid who didn't do squat growing up.

[Aodhan]

[

Say you have someone that takes fencing from when they are 5 until they are 22, and get to be nationally ranked. Then, they get a wild idea and take up boxing. The footwork is somewhat dissimilar, but not majorly so, but getting used to leading completely different with the hands and arms is going to be a huge ordeal for them, and in reactive/stress situations, they will revert back to their fencing form.

I disagree. The fencer isn't stupid. And he will pick all of it up faster than the kid who didn't do squat growing up.

Has nothing to do with intelligence. And I agree, he will be better off than the couch potato, however, you are shifting your argument. A kid who is athletic but dabbles in many things has to learn to control his body in many different ways. Whether he achieves excellence in any of his "dabbles", he will still be better able to pick up another sport than someone that has intensively trained in one sport for a long time will be able to break out of his training.

Aodhan

[kusojiji]

[

Say you have someone that takes fencing from when they are 5 until they are 22, and get to be nationally ranked. Then, they get a wild idea and take up boxing. The footwork is somewhat dissimilar, but not majorly so, but getting used to leading completely different with the hands and arms is going to be a huge ordeal for them, and in reactive/stress situations, they will revert back to their fencing form.

I disagree. The fencer isn't stupid. And he will pick all of it up faster than the kid who didn't do squat growing up.

Has nothing to do with intelligence. And I agree, he will be better off than the couch potato, however, you are shifting your argument. A kid who is athletic but dabbles in many things has to learn to control his body in many different ways. Whether he achieves excellence in any of his "dabbles", he will still be better able to pick up another sport than someone that has intensively trained in one sport for a long time will be able to break out of his training.

Aodhan

I continue to disagree. The dabbler will almost invariably be a much less athletic individual and will therefore have a more shallow reserve of talent to draw from.

[Aodhan]

Not necessarily. I had several friends growing up that were immensely gifted athletically, but grew bored with new sports quickly. They never lasted more than a year in any one thing, yet in that year, they were able to become extremely skilled relative to the time spent.

I've seen it time and again in my kinesiology studies, people that spend years perfecting a sport often have a hard time getting that sport's techniques and mannerisms "out" of their system when trying a new sport. Their muscle movements are so ingrained, that as soon as they stop actively concentrating on it, the old patterns creep in and can be seen.

However, to each his own, YMMV.

Aodhan

[Thruhiker]

OK, Seeing how I have ruffled the feathers a little. So let me explain myself a little more.

In my observations I found that, in the beginning of ones Martial Arts training, it was a little difficult for an athlete to get their hands and feet to move in the same direction at the same time. Where the non-athlete seemed to catch on a little quicker.

Lets take a look at a right handed baseball pitcher or a quarterback. They are trained to step out with their left foot and throw with their right hand. In martial arts you are trained to step out with the right foot and throw any technique with the right hand.

The athlete has to retrain their mind and body on somethings that a non-athlete just picks up rather easily.

I'm not saying that an athlete is less likely to out last an athlete in the sparring ring. I do believe that in MOST cases an athlete has the stamina to outlast the average Joe in the ring. I do believe that in MOST cases an athlete can dig a little deeper to out last the average Joe.

[KUNTA KINTE]

4 and 5 yrs old soccer

5-12 Base ball

5th 6th 7th and 8th grade football (full contact)

9th grade Wrestling

I have also been Skatboarding, Wakeboarding, dirt biking, BMX, and sking for awhile.

[Aodhan]

OK, Seeing how I have ruffled the feathers a little. So let me explain myself a little more.

In my observations I found that, in the beginning of ones Martial Arts training, it was a little difficult for an athlete to get their hands and feet to move in the same direction at the same time. Where the non-athlete seemed to catch on a little quicker.

Lets take a look at a right handed baseball pitcher or a quarterback. They are trained to step out with their left foot and throw with their right hand. In martial arts you are trained to step out with the right foot and throw any technique with the right hand.

The athlete has to retrain their mind and body on somethings that a non-athlete just picks up rather easily.

I'm not saying that an athlete is less likely to out last an athlete in the sparring ring. I do believe that in MOST cases an athlete has the stamina to outlast the average Joe in the ring. I do believe that in MOST cases an athlete can dig a little deeper to out last the average Joe.

Ah, I get what you are saying now. And you by no means ruffled feathers. I had a feeling we were talking at the same thing from different directions.

Aodhan

[ninjanurse]

Although this is not martial arts related it does illustrate this position: I teach snow boarding and have found (almost 100% of the time) that accomplished skiers have the most difficulty learning to snowboard. They not only have to retrain their body but their brain too. Students with almost no athletic experience are the easiest to teach.