- Below are 2 variations of the general sport progression pyramid that I have seen in various books. You can see that in either case, sport-specific skill or technique is high on the pyramid and builds on an athletic base (flexbility, stability, balance, strength, cardio, conditioning). In other words, it's suggesting that practitioners should ideally have a solid foundation in those areas before progressing to technical mastery.
Over time, aging athletes in all sports begin to lose their physical prowess (cardio, strength, reflexes, recovery time, etc.) but can sometimes compensate for the negative effects of aging by continual refinement of their techniques. So as they get further and further from their physical prime, they can offset the impact of aging on their performance to a certain degree by continually perfecting their technique.
I realize that not all martial arts require the same degree of athleticism from practitioners but I would guess that one can still apply the general principle.