Skip to main content

Basic Motor Learning... The Basics of Movement!!!

Well I’ve never written a blog post before but I guess there’s a first time for everything.

Before I start I should probably introduce myself. My name is Joe Rinaldi and I’ve recently become part of the Flo Fitness staff. I am currently a senior at Rutgers University studying exercise science and applied kinesiology. My aspirations are to become a physical therapist and I am currently in the process of applying to graduate schools. Now that you know a little bit about me lets start.

This post will be a first of its kind here on the Flo Blog… Over the course of the next few months (and who knows, maybe even longer) I will be posting about a topic that I am currently learning about in school. Today’s blog will focus on motor skills and motor abilities.

A motor skill is defined as: a skill that requires voluntary body and/or limb movement to achieve its goal. An example of a motor skill would be running, jumping, climbing, etc.

Using a one-dimension classification system, motor skills can be defined according to three categories:

1.     The size of the muscle group involved

-           Gross motor skills: involve large muscles in the body and require little precision
o   An example would be walking

-           Fine motor skills: involve small muscles and require a high degree of precision
o   An example would be writing your name

2.     Where the movement begins and ends

-           Discrete motor skills: have a definitive beginning and end
o   An example would be flipping on a light switch

-           Sequential/Serial motor skills: are a series of discrete motor skills strung together
o   An example would be the track and field event, the triple jump

-           Continuous motor skills: have no definitive beginning or end
o   An example would be swimming

3.     The environmental context
-           Open motor skills: occur in an environment that is variable and unpredictable. Because the environment is changing, skills need to be continuously adapted and therefore these skills are said to be “externally paced.”
o   An example would be running the ball in a football game

-           Closed motor skills: occur in an environment that is stable and predictable. Because the environment is not changing and skills do not need to be adapted, these skills are said to be “internally paced.”
o   An example would be taking a free throw in a completely empty gym by yourself


A motor ability is defined as: a general trait or capacity of an individual that is determinant of a person’s achievement potential for the performance of a specific motor skill.

There are two different schools of thought as to how different motor abilities related to one another within an individual.

            The first theory is called the General Motor Ability Hypothesis, which states that the many different motor abilities that exist in an individual are highly related. This theory, while it may sound appealing, is supported by very little evidence and is generally disregarded today.

            The second theory is called the Specific Motor Ability Hypothesis, which states that an individual’s many different motor abilities are relatively independent of each other. This theory is supported by a good amount of research and is generally accepted in the motor learning community.

This means that just because someone has great balance, does NOT necessarily mean that they have great coordination. This means that just because someone has a lot of speed, does NOT automatically mean that they have impressive strength. This means… well you get the point.

BUT WAIT! Joe, I don’t think you’re right… I have a friend who is great at everything, he/she can play basketball like Michael Jordan and hit a baseball like Barry Bonds and catch a football like O’dell Beckham Jr and hit a tennis ball like Serena Williams and swim like…

            Let me stop you there. I don’t doubt that your friend is a great athlete, we all know that kid who seems to be good at everything, but his/her existence doesn’t disprove the Specific Motor Ability Hypothesis. There are a few possible explanations as to why your friend is “good at everything”:
1.     Maybe your friend has put in a ridiculous amount of time, energy, and practice into developing the specific motor abilities involved in those sports.
2.     Maybe your friend is good at all of those sports because the motor skills involved in those sports all required the same set of motor abilities (e.g. speed, coordination, balance, etc.).
3.     Least likely (but possible) maybe your friend really is a freak athlete and is very gifted in most, if not all, of his/her motor abilities…. It happens, but the Specific Motor Ability Hypothesis is just a theory and it applies to the large majority (99.999%) of people… there are exceptions to every rule.


I hope that this blog helped you gain a better understanding of how motor skills can be classified and how motor abilities are thought to exist within an individual.

If you made it this far, thanks for bearing with me. I hope you learned something and maybe you had a laugh or two along the way.

Until next time,


- Joe Rinaldi

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rotational Athletes and why you MUST know about the Serape Effect

The Rotational Athlete  In today’s blog we will be discussing a pattern in the overhead/rotational athlete, called the “Serape Effect”. Gene A. Logan and Wayne C. McKinney introduced the Serape Effect to us in their book, “Kinesiology” a couple centuries ago.  The Serape Effect gets its name from a Mexican garment that is draped loosely over the shoulders and is crossed in front of the body.  The muscles involved in the serape effects are the rhomboids, serratus anterior, external obliques and internal obliques. “The Serape Effect incorporates several major concepts which are vital to the understanding of movement. In ballistic actions such as throwing and kicking, the serape muscles add to the summation of internal forces. They also transfer internal force from a large body segment, the trunk, to relatively smaller body parts, the limbs. For example, the serape effect functions in throwing by summating, adding to, and transferring the internal forces generated ...
2 comments
Read more

Are you brave enough for a COLD SHOWER?

Why I Take Cold Showers And You Should Too For the past three years I’ve taken a cold shower almost every single day. You might think I’m crazy and at first; trust me, at first I thought I was too. But hold your judgment, hear me out, give it a try and then you can thank me. What are the benefits of cold showers? 1.     Improve Mood A 2007 study looked at how cold showers affected people with depression. Here is what the authors of the study hypothesized: “Exposure to cold is known to activate the sympathetic nervous system and increase the blood level of beta-endorphin and noradrenaline and to increase synaptic release of noradrenaline in the brain as well. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a cold shower is expected to send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, which could result in an anti-depressive effect.” The study ended up finding that cold showers of 2-3...
3 comments
Read more

A Few Tips on Public Speaking

A Few Tips on Public Speaking    Recently I took a course on public speaking by a group called "own the room".  I felt it was a very helpful course and I wanted to share some of my major takeaways with you all.     As many people may guess, public speaking is one of the greatest fears of most people. It is also the best way to get your message across to large groups of people at the same time. In the fitness business, it is necessary to constantly get your face exposed in the community you work in.  This will help you gain exposure and more exposure equals more business. The following tips may help you get more comfortable with public speaking.  Start off with a BANG! Don't stand there and talk bout yourself for 20minutes. If people are coming to see you talk they already assume you are qualified to speak. Start off with a story, quote, poem, riddle,joke,  etc. Something that will grab their attention. The audience  decides ...
2 comments
Read more