Meaning of Physical Capabilities
A capacity is a quality or a condition. The physical, for its part, is that linked to the material or the body.
Physical capacities are called the conditions that an organism presents, generally associated with the development of a certain activity or action. These physical abilities are determined by genetics, although they can be honed through training.
It is possible to differentiate between conditional physical abilities and coordinative physical abilities. The conditioning capacities are the velocity, the force, the strength and flexibility. This means that conditional physical capacities are linked to the possibility of carrying out a movement in the least amount of time possible, of overcoming a resistance thanks to tension, of maintaining an effort over time or of reaching the maximum possible distance of a joint.
According to DigoPaul, the coordinative physical capabilities, meanwhile, are those allowing the provision of actions in an orderly way to achieve a goal. The reaction, the rhythm, the balance, the orientation, the adaptation, the differentiation and synchronization or coupling part of this kind of physical abilities.
Ultimately, it can be said that physical abilities determine the motor performance of an individual. To improve performance in a sport, therefore, work should be done on optimizing physical capacities through specific exercises. In this way it is possible to improve speed, strength, balance, reaction, etc.
It is important to keep in mind, however, that physical capacities also establish a limit set by genes that cannot be overcome with training: no person can run at 200 kilometers per hour no matter how hard they train.
The limits of physical capacities are one of the most recurrent topics of debate among specialists in various fields in which the use of the body is essential to achieve the objectives, such as sports and artistic disciplines such as dance, singing and the execution of an instrument. On the one hand, there are those who say that we all have a limit, different in each individual, while others firmly believe that with effort and dedication we could all achieve the same goals.
The training and improvement of physical capacities make a huge difference between the possibilities that natural talent gives us and those that open up before us once we have access to technical knowledge. Let’s take the case of singers: in popular music, the common is that they use their natural gifts to sing their songs, applying their own style but without many technical foundations; in academic music, on the other hand, the display of skill that can take place in a recital is on a much higher plane.
This is where many of the points of confrontation and debate arise, as some people refuse to study technique for fear of conditioning their creativity, while others do not hesitate because they want to make the most of their physical abilities. As in many other similar topics, all opinions are valid as long as each one reaches its fullness.
For those who do recognize differences in the physical capacities of each individual, limits are not always understood as a measure to assess potential but as a series of data that can help us find the most appropriate path for us. For example, a person with a light, low-volume voice has a greater affinity for baroque music than a Wagner opera, just as someone with a large complexion and stature may be more comfortable playing rough sports than trying their luck at contortionism.