Motor Ability

1
Chapter 3

• Motor Ability
• Concept A variety of abilities underlie motor
  skill learning and performance success

2
The Terms Ability and Motor Ability

• Ability
• A general trait or capacity of a person
• Relatively enduring characteristic
• Serves as a determinant of a persons achievement
  potential for the performance of specific skills
• Motor Ability
• An ability that is specifically related to the
  performance of a motor skill
• Each person has a variety of motor abilities

3
Abilities as Individual Difference Variables

• Motor abilities establish achievement potentials
  for specific motor skills
• Each motor skill requires specific motor
  abilities to successfully perform it
• If 2 people have the same
• Amount of practice
• Level and amount of instruction
• Motivation to perform the skill
• Then - Motor abilities will influence the level
  of performance success each person can/will
  achieve

4
Abilities as Individual Difference Variables,
contd

• Two hypotheses
• General Motor Ability Hypothesis many different
  motor abilities that exist are highly related
  within a person and can be grouped as a singular,
  global motor ability (Brace, 1927 McCloy, 1934)
• Specificity of Motor Ability Hypothesis many
  motor abilities are relatively independent in an
  individual (Henry, 1961)

5
Controversy About Relationship Among Motor
Abilities

• General Motor Ability Hypothesis
• All motor abilities are highly related to each
  other
• A person can be described as having an overall
  amount of general motor ability

• Specificity of Motor Abilities Hypothesis
• All motor abilities are relatively independent
• Each person varies in the amount of each ability
• A persons motor ability can be described only by
  a profile of amounts of each of several specific
  motor abilities

6
Research Evidence Supports Specificity Hypothesis

• Research technique to test the question of which
  hypothesis valid
• Correlate any two motor abilities
• Each hypothesis predicts different correlation
  result What are these different results?
• Initial research compared RT and MT
• Henry and colleagues (1960s) showed low
  correlations
• See example in A Closer Look p. 40

7
Generality of Specific Abilities

• Recent research has investigated whether
  variations of a motor ability commonly seen as
  specific actually represents one ability.
• Two Examples
• 1. Balance as a motor ability
• 2. Timing as a motor ability

8
1. Balance as a Motor Ability

• Static vs. Dynamic Balance
• Static Maintaining equilibrium while stationary
• Dynamic Maintaining equilibrium while in motion
• Two Research Examples
• Rose et al. (2002) Children with CP showed
  balance problems while walking but not while
  standing
• Drowatzky Zuccato (1967) Correlations among
  various tests of static and dynamic balance
  typically ranged from .03 to .26 See Table 3.1
• Conclusion - Research evidence indicates static
  and dynamic balance are distinct, independent
  abilities

9
2. Timing as a Motor Ability

• External vs. Internal Timing
• External - Movement timing based on external
  source (externally-paced timing)
• Internal - Timing of movement based on persons
  internal representation of time (self-paced
  timing)
• Conclusion Research evidence indicates distinct
  timing abilities are skill specific rather than
  related to a general timing ability
• See experiments by Zelaznik and colleagues
  described in textbook

10
Identifying Motor Abilities

• One example of an attempt to identify motor
  abilities
• Fleishmans Taxonomy of Motor Abilities
• Described 11 perceptual-motor abilities
• See Table 3.2 for complete list and definitions
• Identified 9 physical proficiency abilities

11
Perceptual Motor Abilities

• Multilimb coordination ability to coordinate
  movements of a number of limbs simultaneously
• Control precision ability to make rapid and
  precise movement adjustments of control devices
  involving single are-hand or leg movements
  adjestments are made to visual stimuli
• Response orientation ability to make a rapid
  selection of controls to be moved or the
  direction to move them in
• Reaction time ability to respond rapidly to a
  signal when it appears
• Speed of arm movement ability to rapidly make a
  gross, descrete arm movement where accuracy is
  minimized

12
Perceptual Motor Abilities (cont)

• Rate control ability to time continuous
  anticipatory movement adjustments in response to
  speed and/or direction changes of a continuously
  moving target or object
• Manual dexterity ability to make skillful
  arm-hand movements to manipulate fairly large
  objects under speeded conditions
• Finger dexterity abiity to make skillful,
  controlled manipulations of tiny objects
  involving primarily the fingers
• Arm-hand steadiness ability to make precise
  arm-hand positioning movements where strength and
  speed are minimized includes maintaining
  arm-hand steadiness during arm movement or in a
  static arm position
• Wrist, finger speed ability to make rapid and
  repetitive movements with the hand and fingers,
  and/or rotary wrist movements when accuracy is
  not critical
• Aiming ability to rapidly and accurately move
  the hand to a small target

13
Physical Proficiency Abilities

• Static strength maximum force that a person can
  exert against external objects
• Dynamic strength muscular endurance used in
  exerting force repeatedly
• Explosive strength ability to mobilize energy
  effectively for burst of muscular effort
• Trunk strength strength of the trunk muscles
• Extent flexibility ability to flex or stretch
  the trunk and back muscles

14
Physical Proficiency Abilities (cont)

• Dynamic flexibility ability to make repeated,
  rapid trunk-flexing movements
• Gross body coordination ability to coordinate
  the action of several parts of the body while
  body is in motion
• Gross body equilibrium ability to maintain
  balance without visual cues
• Stamina capacity to sustain maximum effort
  requiring cardiovascular effort

15
Additional Motor Abilities

• Static balance ability to maintain postural
  stability on a stable surface or when not
  engaging in locomotor acitviites
• Dynamic balance ability to maintain postural
  stability on a moving surface or when engaging in
  locomotor activities
• Visual acuity ability to see clearly and
  precisely
• Visual tracking ability to visually follow a
  moving object
• Eye-hand or eye-foot coordination ability to
  perform skills requiring vision and the precise
  use of the hands or feet

16
Important Assumptions of Taxonomy of Motor
Abilities

• All individuals possess these motor abilities
• Iit is possible to measure them
• It is possible to quantified the level of each
  ability in a person

low
high
average
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9
10
17
Relating Motor Abilities to Motor Skill
Performance

• Task Analysis
• The motor skill
• The components of the skill
• The motor abilities underlying the performance of
  the skills components

18
Tennis Serve
Grip Stance Ball Backswing
Forward Ball Follow
toss
swing contact
through
Abilities Multilimb coordination Control
precision Speed of arm movement ate control
Aiming Static strength Etc.