Learning to Move

by Vern Gambetta
Are we putting the cart before the horse? Two generations of athletes have grown up specializing
early, acquiring specific sport skills and fitness with little regard for the prerequisite movement
skills. It is difficult to assess the impact of this approach. This does not seem to pose a problem
as long as everything stays within the narrow range of the specific sport skill movements. It does
become a problem when the athlete is asked to go outside that narrow performance spectrum
and extend to an unusual position or make an unfamiliar move. At the very least they are unable
to execute the required play or movement, but more often than not injuries occur. It comes down
to the question: Are we asking the athletes to play games they are not prepared to play? They are
prepared in skill specific movements but often come up short in the prerequisite lead up
fundamental movement skills. An example of this is the number of ACL injuries in female
basketball players, they are not physically prepared to play the game they are being asked to
play. This lack of preparation is not in basketball skill but in general conditioning and fundamental
movement skills which ultimately determine success or failure, health or injury. Another example
is the number of elbow and shoulder injuries in young baseball players. Watching the recently
completed Little League World Series on TV showed a group of youngsters who were proficient
at baseball skill but deficient in movement skills. Their running skill and the throwing mechanics
left a lot to be desired. They were good players for their age, but how much better will they get
without developing better movement skills? Will they be able to stay injury free?
Some of this is due to the mistaken notion that early specialization is the key to success in the
athletes respective sport. There has arisen the myth that if the athlete has not specialized in a
particular sport by the time they are adolescents they will not be a success latter on in their
careers. Nothing could be further from the truth, success is built on fundamentals. The most
fundamental of fundamentals is movement skill.
Early specialization has occurred at the expense of sound fundamental motor skills. In the past,
movement skills were learned through free play and reinforced with physical education classes. In
our society free play has almost disappeared. When was the last time you saw a group of
children playing tag in a field? Today's children are more sedentary preferring to watch TV or play
Nintendo. When they do play it is in an organized game or practice session for their sport.
Children are driven in cars where they used to walk or ride bicycles. It is not surprising to watch
the Olympics and see African distance runners dominate or Brazil or Nigeria excel in soccer,
movement it is part of their lifestyle.
How can this problem be addressed? The ideal would be to reinstitute mandatory physical
education from K-12 in every state. This is probably not realistic given the climate in education
today. A long term solution would be a national run, jump and throw program that would teach
and reward the mastery of basic skills. In the short term the sports coaches must incorporate
fundamental movement skills as a routine portion of the workout. This should occur not only at
the youth levels, but at every level to reinforce fundamental movement skills as a basis for sports
skills and as a means of injury prevention and performance enhancement.
What are fundamental movement skills? They consist of four broad categories locomotor skills,
non-locomotor skills, manipulative skills, and movement awareness. These fundamental
movement skills are the basis for more complex movements. Complex sport specific movements
are composed of a series of linked fundamental movement skills. If the athletes have a rich
repertoire of motor skills to draw from it is easier to acquire sport skill and the athlete is less prone
to injury because their body is prepared for all eventualities.
Locomotor Skills are skills that move the body from one place to another. It consists of
walking, running, leaping, hopping, and jumping
Non-locomotor Skills are movements that involve little or no movement of the base of
support. Non-locomotor skills are also sometimes called stability skills. They consist of
movements like swaying, turning, twisting, swinging, and balancing.
Manipulative Skills are movements that focus on control of objects primarily using the
hands and the feet. They are both propulsive and receptive. Propulsive skills include
striking, throwing and kicking. Receptive skills include catching and trapping.
Movement Awareness includes the abilities needed to conceptualize and form an
effective response to sensory information that is needed to perform a specific motor task.
Body Awareness is the knowledge of one's own body parts and their movement capabilities. The
components of body awareness are:
Spatial Awareness is the ability to orient to other people and objects in space as well as
how much space the body occupies.
Rhythmic Awareness is the ability to make movements that are repetitive and patterned
resulting in balanced harmonious movement.
Directional Awareness is the ability to discriminate the size of objects and their relation to
each other. Directional awareness consists of laterality -- awareness of right and left and
directionality -- awareness of forward back and up and down and various combinations.
Vestibular Awareness provides information about the bodies relationship to gravity.
Essentially it is the basis for balance and body position.
Visual Awareness is the ability to receive and process visual stimuli.
Temporal Awareness is the timing mechanism in the body.
Auditory Awareness is the ability to discriminate, associate and interpret sound.
Tactile Awareness is the ability to discriminate through touch and feel.
How should movement skills be developed? The best way to develop the range of movement
abilities is through play and self discovery as the child grows and develops. In a more formal
sense the best way to include these movement skills is in a structured warm-up that places
demands on the various fundamental movements as a lead up to sport specific movements to
follow. The optimum order of development is first learn the movement without any regard to
speed. Then increase the speed of the movement while paying particular attention to maintaining
the precision of the movement. The third step is to change the movements or do them under
slightly different conditions. The fourth step is to follow with fundamental sports skills based on
the movement skill.
When should they be developed? Fundamental movement skills developed at younger ages
become automated and part of a reservoir of motor skills that can be called upon when learning
specific sport skills. According to Drabik (p.69) there are so called sensitive periods for
development of elements of fundamental movements. For example balance is best developed at
ages 10 to 11 for boys and ages 9 to 12 for girls. To effectively design a training program for the
young athletes we must be acutely of these sensitive periods for the various physical qualities.
When should specific sport skills be introduced? It really depends on the sport. Some sport skills
need to be introduced earlier than others. Speed must be incorporated first. It is a motor quality
that demands a high degree of coordination that can be developed in a play environment using
tag games and relays. Everything should be short and quick so that fatigue is not a factor. Look at
the sport skill and analyze it in the context of what prerequisite movement skills are the lead up to
the sport skill. Then design a progression so that there is a smooth transition from one into the
other. The point is that to insure long term success it is necessary to acquire fundamental
movement skills before specific sport skills. Does this mean that early specialization is bad. Not
necessarily, in fact there are certain sports, due to international trends that demand early
specialization. Early Specialization Sports girls gymnastics, figure skating, swimming and diving.
Although there is some thought to reconsider.
At the beginning of my career I saw an approach that was different from the common approach
taken today. In retrospect it was an approach that produced astounding results. I began my
teaching and coaching career at the junior high school level in 1969-70. Everyone had mandatory
PE for one hour a day. There was a full after school sports program with no season lasting more
than six weeks. The shorter seasons allowed the youngsters to play several sports because none
overlapped. In addition they were encouraged to play several sports by the coaches. If the
measure of success of a program is the development of elite athletes then the program was very
successful. The program produced NFL players, NBA players, Major League Baseball players,
college scholarship athletes and Olympians out of proportion to the number of participants. It was
also successful because there was a large number of participants. I do not think this was a
chance occurrence. None of these athletes specialized early. They all participated in several
sports and specialized latter, some as late as college. I experienced it first hand and it works. At
the time I was too close to the situation to, realize how well it did work! The answer is to place
fundamental movement skills before specific sport skills.
References
1. Drabik, Jo'zef Ph.D., Children & Sports Training, Stadion Publishing Company, Inc. Island
Pond, Vermont. 1996
2. Gabbard, Carl., Leblanc, Elizabeth., and Lowy, Susan. Physical Education for Children-
Building the Foundation. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. 1987