Specialists Vs Generalists
Should you specialise or generalise to optimise your performance?
In this time of rapidly expanding consciousness humans are deleting many boundaries and limits that once caged us. We have global instant communication through The Field, we can get to the moon, we’ve even create bionic organs and limbs.
But what about you? Are you in this? Are you living this expansion?
Physical development is not immune to this global shift. We have ultra-endurance races that last for days, not for survival, but to express life. More and more people scale Everest each year, we dive from ever higher cliffs and on and on. Wim Hof is one of the greatest examples of this demonstrating that the focused human mind and the pain of his wife’s suicide can fuel human performance. This expanding concept of human accomplishment is unmatched by Newtonian physics driven mortals.
In the performance world that I love, expanding awareness has taken us towards 1 arm handstands, 1 arm chin-ups, splits, acrobatics and evermore weights on barbells.
SPECIALISTS Vs GENERALISTS
Specialisation is trying to inch further forwards although weightlifting has become stagnant at the top end if you bring back the deleted records, powerlifting lives under an ever growing hormone cloud and science suggests running records improve mostly because of track technology. But in GENERALISATION huge leaps forward have been made.
The elite of CrossFit athletes are breaking all known boundaries crushing the rules of old science about fibre types and power contradicting endurance. I’ve seen this first hand with Australia’s best CrossFit athletes training out of RealMOVEMENT base in 2015.
Ido Portal has brought another wave to the world on which there are now many surfers. “Movement” is the brand of this “unbranded” approach. This movement generalisation goes way, way beyond what Greg Glassman’s (CrossFit Owner) Russian linear view of performance could see.
WHAT IS THE NEW MOVEMENT?
It’s hand balancing, dance, physical theatre, athletics, acrobatics, gymnastics, martial arts and uniquely also incorporates the work of the world’s most influential Strength Coach, Charles Poliquin. Is MOVEMENT also for combat? While many jump on or off the “Movement” bandwagon depending on the results of Conor Mcgregor’s fights, the foundation remains.
In Nature The Best Mover’s Win!
We have glimpses of this from the ancient cultures of Greece, Rome, Egypt, China, Celtics and many more. Feats of strength, endurance and skill have been part of human culture for millennia because with them we survive.
Theodosius Dobzhanski said, “nothing in Biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” Human’s have more options than any creature on the planet, that’s why we get to drive the cars and play the computer games. We won. Maybe too convincingly, but we won. We have out moved every species on the planet to dominate this beautiful place we call Earth.
And so now we must move. But how much should we specialise?
Elite athletes in complex sports must UNspecialise (generalise) to reach their full potential. The best in the performance industry are seeing this. Acrobatics are being used for NBA and AFL players (Suki Hobson / Bill Knowles), even Football, renowned for staying 40 years behind the rest of the world in Strength and Conditioning, is catching on with Ajax showing the world a broader movement foundation.
The wider the base the higher the peak.
In the world of Strength that I love we've seen decades of increasing specialisation - Body Building, Powerlifting, Weightlifting, StrongMan training, Athletics, Gymnastics are all separate endeavours never to come together. The consequence is a huge loss of human potential for small wins in specificity. People bench pressing a house that can't throw a ball or run around the block, muscles so big that even walking becomes ridiculous. 100 years ago someone who loved strength did some hand balancing, barbell work and whatever other challenged presented themselves. In Ancient Greek times men were known to throw down the challenge of discus, boxing, wrestling or running to any would be competitor.
Since many kids today don’t get much movement at all, and specialisation comes early for the minority of kids who are physically active, GENERALISATION is now a must for our elite athletes.
In PART 2 you'll see how generalist training can be included and the results of the Generalised Athlete.