Motor Learning and Development
Introduction to Motor Control and Learning
PRE-TEST
The future success in a specific skill can easily be predicted.
The higher the level of arousal, the better the performance.
All sensory messages must go to the brain for integration.
Unless the learner displays some over changes in performance, he/she is no longer learning.
All learners are motivated to learn the skills presented to them.
Experts are always the most effective instructors.
For an observer to learn a movement, the demonstration must be performed correctly.
Practice makes perfect.
Long-term retention of a motor skill is best achieved by practicing the skill repeatedly before moving to either a different version of the task or a different task altogether.
When teaching a youngster how to catch, you should toss the ball with a high arch in order to give them enough time to follow it and get underneath it for a successful catch.
The more frequently a practitioner provides feedback to the learner, the greater the gains in learning.
A practitioner should give the learner feedback immediately following a movement/performance attempt.
ML, Control and Performance
Motor Learning
the study of the processes involved in acquiring and refining motor skills and of variables that promote or inhibit that acquisition.
Motor Control
The neural, physical and behavioral aspects that underlie human movement.
ML, Control & Performance
Learning
A relatively permanent change in a person’s capability to execute a motor skill as a result of practice or experience.
Performance
The act of executing a skill.
The Nature of Motor Skills
Skill
used to depict the quality of a performance.
Motor Skill
Four Criteria
a goal-oriented act or task that requires voluntary body and/or limb movement and must be learned.
Skill Classifications
Taxonomies
A model into which skills are classified.
Knowing the relationships among diverse skills can assist the practitioner (YOU) in planning learning and practice experiences as well as provide a starting point for performance assessment.
Fine vs. Gross Motor Skills
Frequently used in adapted physical education and motor development.
This scheme is based on the precision of movements and the corresponding size of the musculature required for their successful performance.
Fine vs. Gross
Fine Motor Skills
skills involving very precise movements, which are accomplished using smaller musculature.
Tend to be manipulative in nature.
Sewing a button, tying a fly
Gross Motor Skills
Skills involving larger muscles.
Less emphasis on precision and are typically the result of multi-limb movements
Running, hopping, skipping
Fine vs. Gross
Many skills require the combined effort of both.
Children usually achieve gross motor skill before developing control over fine motor skills.
Nature of Movement Organization
Classifies skills into one of three categories based on the nature of their organization.
Discrete
Serial
Continuous
Movement Orientation
Discrete
Beginning and end points are clearly defined
golf Swing, throwing a horseshoe
Serial
composed of a number of discrete skills put together
Figure skating routine
Continuous
beginning and endings are arbitrary or determined by some environmental factor (finish line)
Cycling, running...
Predictability of the Environment
This classification system is based on a continuum, as the degree of predictability can vary between low and high.
Closed Skills
Open Skills
Predictability in the Environment
Closed Skills
skills performed in a stable, predictable environment.
Bowling, chopping wood, taping an ankle
Open Skills
performed in an unpredictable, ever-changing environment.
Mountain biking, walking through a crowd.
Closed & Open Skills
For closed skills, consistency is the objective and the technique refinement should therefore be emphasized.
For closed skills performed in a variety of contexts, exposure to those contexts is also important
Bowling with different pin placement.
Closed and Open Skills
Open skills are performed in complex, unpredictable environments. Successful performance becomes more dependent on the learner’s capability to select the appropriate response in a given situation than on mastering technique.
Practice should emphasize development of the capability to respond.
Closed and Open Skills
The closed/open distinction can also assist in the regulation of task complexity.
For example, throwing a football can be considered a closed or open skill, depending on the context.
Throwing at a stationary target
Throwing at a moving receiver.
Throwing at a moving receiver with defenders.
Multidimensional Classification System (Gentile)
Skills cannot be seen using a single dimension.
Gentile proposes two characteristics
Context in which the skills are performed.
Then, action requirements of the skill are assessed.
Gentile’s Model
Regulatory Conditions
skills are not performed in a vacuum.
To successfully perform a jump header in soccer, the performer must conform their movement to the height, size, speed and trajectory of the ball, as well as the location of the target.
A number of environmental factors therefore exist. These are known as REGULATORY CONDITIONS, and their determination can be used to differentiate skills.
Examining Environmental Context
Are the regulatory conditions stationary (shooting - still or moving target).
Is there inter-trial response variability. Do the regulatory conditions remain fixed or change with each successive performance attempt. (Free throw has low variability; running tailback has high variability)
Action Requirements (Gentile)
Action requirements of a skill - specifically with respect to body movement and object manipulation.
Body Movement - does the performer need to change locations when performing the skill (high jump/running vs pushups/golf putt).
Object Manipulation - Generally involves use of the hands (wrestling, knitting), step aerobics… do not require manipulation.
Multidimensional Classification
Originally developed for physical therapists.
As you move across and/or down it becomes more complex. Allows for progression of therapy.
Individual Differences
relatively stable and enduring characteristics that make each of us unique.
Ability
a genetic trait that is prerequisite to the development of skill proficiency.
Categorizing Motor Abilities
PERCEPTUAL MOTOR ABILITIES
Control Precision
Multi-limb Coordination
Response Orientation
Reaction Time
Speed of Limb Movement
Rate Control
Manual Dexterity
Finger Dexterity
Arm-Hand Steadiness
Wrist-finger Speed
Aiming
Control Precision
Ability to make highly controlled movement adjustments, especially those involving larger muscle groups.
Dribbling a soccer ball.
Multi-limb Coordination
Ability to coordinate numerous limb movements simultaneously.
Spiking a volleyball
Response Orientation
Ability to rapidly select a response from a number of alternatives, as in choice reaction time (RT) situations.
Tailback trying to find an opening.
Reaction Time
Ability to rapidly initiate a response to a stimulus
the start in swimming competition.
Speed of Limb Movement
Ability to make gross rapid limb movement without regard for reaction time.
Executing a slapshot in hockey.
Rate Control
Ability to make continuous speed and direction adjustments with precision when tracking
mountain biking
Manual Dexterity
Ability to control manipulations of large objects using arms and hands
Water Polo
Finger Dexterity
Ability to control manipulations of small objects primarily through the use of fingers.
Dialing a phone number on a cell phone.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
Ability to make precise arm-hand positioning movements where involvement of strength and speed are minimal.
Working as a dentist.
Wrist-Finger Speed
Ability to move the wrist and fingers rapidly.
Dealing a deck of cards.
Aiming
Ability to quickly and accurately direct hand movements at a small object.
Tapping the keyboard of a pocket PC with a stylus to enter text.
Physical Proficiency Abilities
Static Strength
Dynamic Strength
Explosive Strength
Trunk Strength
Extent Flexibility
Dynamic Flexibility
Gross Body Coordination
Gross Body Equilibrium
Stamina
Static Strength
Ability to generate maximum force against weighty external object.
Pushing a car out of a snowbank.
Dynamic Strength
Muscular endurance or ability to exert force repeatedly.
Rock Climbing
Explosive Strength
Muscular power or ability to create maximum effort by combining force and velocity.
Throwing a javelin.
Trunk Strength
Dynamic strength of trunk muscles.
Pole vaulting
Extent Flexibility
Ability to move trunk and back muscles through large ROM.
Performing a circus contortionist act.
Dynamic Flexibility
Ability to make repeated, rapid flexing movements.
Springboard diving or aerial ski jumping
Gross Body Coordination
Ability to coordinate numerous movements simultaneously while the body is in motion.
Slalom skiing or synchronized swimming
Gross Body Equilibrium
Ability to maintain balance without visual cues.
Tightrope walking while blindfolded.
Stamina
Cardiovascular endurance or ability to sustain effort.
Ironman Triathlon
Practical Implications
Even though we may be endowed with some of these abilities, there is no guarantee that we will become skillful. Practice and experience play a role in realizing that potential.
Consequently, children should be provided with as many varied movement experiences as possible.
Those experiences should be developmently appropriate.
Practical Implications
Modify skills according to current level of ability.
Free throws require a certain strength level.
And….
Task Analysis
The breaking down of skill into its component parts and corresponding underlying abilities.