A slogan coined by Phillip Maffetone (triathlon coach), "Everybody is an athlete", has been blown right out of proportion by the media.
The same with the word, "contest". Netball is not a contest but a game. Wrestling is a contest. Arm wrestling is a contest, not a game or race event.
Athleticism is the ability to execute athletic movements at optimum speed with precision, style and grace in the context of the sport or activity.
It is easy to see when someone has it.
For example when a cricket player dives for the ball in a horizontal position and catches it with an outstretch arm, rolls like a gymnast, springs back to his feet and throws the ball to the keeper in one easy motion - this is athleticism. At the same time he may be quite an average runner.
By comparison running in a straight line does not make someone athletic. This is not to say the person running the straight line is not a great athlete or extremely athletic - it just measures their linear speed.
Cyclists can obtain high performance levels of aerobic capacity, endurance and stamina but not be athletic at all.
Most cyclists are stiff in the upper body from being anchored to three points of the bike - handle bars, seat and pedals. Cycling does not build core strength and has to be gained from some other activity.
Just because someone can run farther or endure more - are they necessarily a better athlete or even an athlete at all?
It is a stretch to call a pure runner or cyclist an athlete compared to a gymnast, ballet dancer or acrobat. And I am sure a ballet dancer or floor gymnast doesn’t want to be referred to as an athlete!
Even racing car drivers are called athletes these days by the media.
A driver can certainly be aerobically fit to prevent fatigue at the wheel but when glued to the seat and steering wheel to be called an athlete is a stretch of the imagination.
Athleticism only becomes glaringly apparent when you force a person to move in space as it relates to another competitor, task or obstacle. As the speed of an athlete and the competition increases, their ability and proficiency to move in space and among those multiple planes of motion becomes very evident.
Many court games, basketball, netball, volleyball and squash for example; these players display athleticism that is pretty to watch.
But surely a basketball player is not an athlete but a basketballer. A cricket player is a cricketer.
Beware of training dangers:
When everyone, in every sport, at any level is lobbed into being an athlete, your sport no longer requires specific training. The inference is everyone trains the same.
If you are a pure runner stick with that and learn to run like the wind, through a relaxed style and proper technique. It’s a two dimensional linear sport.
Equally you cannot get a sport anymore linear in nature than rowing. Rowing is like running on a treadmill, all the power can only go in one direction, no sideways flex at all. This is a power sport not an athletic sport.
The training difference between endurance racing and athletic endeavours are poles apart and mixing the two will be in vain, like mixing water and oil.
If you are an endurance runner then think like one. Sure you will train differently for a 5k and a marathon race but what you do is all linear based. You are training for pure speed going from point A to point B, the finish line.
Runners unlike netball players align their thoughts to speed only, like a race horse, building their muscles and mindset to going fast in one direction.
Netball is anything but this. Netball players are not endurance runners but speed burst specialists being stamina based from omnidirectional court movement.
A Shaolin monk has incredible speed but this speed is omnidirectional and the monk is extraordinarily athletic more so than a gymnast. But would a monk wish to be known as an athlete or as a fighting monk?
Netball players are netballers. But the game of netball requires great athleticism. It is a 360 degree omnidirectional movement game.
It is redundant exercise to train like a runner or body builder, which so many players do even at national level. Train the way the game is played to prepare for the pressure of game competition. No drills, no weights or other time wasting exercises.
How? The four 360 degree training ebooks, will show you a better training method than static drills, that is more aligned with the uniqueness of how netball is played.
