Leyte Normal University

Tacloban City

BACHELOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

SUBJECT : PRINCIPLES OF MOTOR CONTROL AND

LEARNING IN SPORTS, DANCE, & EXERCISE

SUBJECT CODE : PED 105

ASSIGNED CHAPTER: CHAPTER 5: PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS

OF COMPLEX SKILLS

OUTPUT : Group Discussion & Lecture Notes

SUBMITTED BY : Dionisio, Dexter A.

Salubon, Jessica T.
Sadia, Juvy Anne S.
Guantero, Khlyde Ceasar S.

SUBMITTED TO : MARICAR C. TEGERO, J.D, Ed.D.

Subject Teacher

ACADEMIC YEAR : 2nd Semester, A.Y. 2024-2025

RATING : _________________
The development and improvement of motor skills require appropriate instruction and
practice. Whether in learning a new sport, improving daily activities, or rehabilitating lost

abilities, understanding how motor skills function is essential. Motor control theories provide
a foundation for creating effective training and intervention strategies.

Understanding Motor Control in Skill Performance

Motor control research helps identify patterns in how people learn and perform skills.
For example, a therapist working with a patient who struggles to reach and grasp a cup must
determine the cause of the difficulty before developing an effective intervention strategy.
Similarly, a beginner in tennis may struggle with coordinating a ball toss and racket
movement during a serve. Research into motor control provides insights that guide teachers,

coaches, and therapists in improving these skills.

Speed-Accuracy Skills
Many motor skills require both speed and accuracy. Some examples include:
• Kicking a penalty shot in soccer.
• Pitching a fastball in baseball.
• Playing a fast-paced song on a piano.
• Speed typing with minimal errors.

Speed-Accuracy Trade-off

A common phenomenon in motor skill performance is the speed-accuracy trade-off.

When a person moves faster, accuracy tends to decrease. Conversely, when a person focuses
on accuracy, movement speed is reduced. This trade-off is evident in everyday tasks. For
instance, threading a needle is easier when the needle’s eye is larger because it allows for more
precision at a faster pace.
Fitts’ Law and the Speed-Accuracy Relationship
Fitts’ Law, developed by Paul Fitts in 1954, describes a mathematical relationship
between movement speed and accuracy. The law predicts the time required to move to a
target, considering both the distance to be covered and the size of the target. The formula is
as follows

MT = a + b log(2D/W)
Where:
MT = Movement time
D = Distance moved
W = Target width (size)
a & b = Constants

• If the target is smaller or farther away, movements tend to be slower to maintain accuracy.
• If the target is larger or closer, movements can be faster.
• The law provides an Index of Difficulty (ID), which measures how challenging a task is
based on movement distance and target size.

Practical Examples

Fitts’ Law applies to various activities, including:

• Moving a cursor on a screen with a mouse or touchpad.
• Throwing darts at a target.
• Reaching for and grasping objects of different sizes.
• A soccer player kicking a ball into goal areas of different sizes—larger targets allow for
faster shots, while smaller targets require more precision and slower execution.
Application in Training and Rehabilitation
Understanding motor control principles such as Fitts’ Law helps in designing training

programs that enhance skill performance. Coaches and therapists can use this knowledge to:
- Improve sports training by balancing speed and accuracy.
- Develop better rehabilitation exercises for patients recovering motor function.
- Enhance everyday activities by optimizing movement efficiency.

Prehension
-The act of reaching for and grasping an object, is a fundamental motor skill we use
constantly. It's more complex than it appears, involving a tightly coordinated interplay of
multiple components.

Prehension consists of three distinct components:

1. Transport
Transport refers to the movement of the arm and hand towards the object,
including the reaching and approaching phases.
2. Grasp
Grasp refers to the formation of the hand shape and finger placement to securely
hold the object, including the closing of the fingers and thumb around the object.
3. Object Manipulation
Object manipulation refers to the functional goal of the prehension action,
including the intended use or action to be performed with the object after it has
been grasped, such as lifting, moving, or using the object.
The Relationship of Prehension Components
From a motor control perspective, involves the arm transporting the hand to an object
as the hand forms the grip characteristics needed to grasp the object. A key question
concerns the relationship between the transport and grasp components. While initially
thought to be independent, more recent evidence shows these components interact
synergistically according to task demands. This means the reach and grasp are not separate
but interdependent.

Compelling evidence comes from movement analyses of the fingers and thumb during
reaching. Jakobson and Goodale (1991) showed object size and distance influence the timing
of maximum finger/thumb distance and the transport component's velocity profile.
Interestingly, they (and others like Chieffi & Gentilucci, 1993) found hand closure occurs at
approximately two-thirds of the total movement time, regardless of object size and distance.

Research also shows the kinematics of both components are modified when the object is
unexpectedly moved during transport (e.g., Gentilucci, Chieffi, Scarpa, & Castiello, 1992) or

when an obstacle must be avoided (e.g., Saling, Alberts, Stelmach, & Bloedel, 1998). These
kinematic changes suggest a strong coupling between reach and grasp. Prehension

exemplifies how muscles and joints in a complex action operate as a coordinative structure
for achieving an action goal in various situations.
Fitts' Law and Prehension
Fitts' law consistently applies to prehension in both lab settings and everyday life.
Research by Bootsma et al. (1994) showed movement distance and object width influence
prehension movement time, consistent with Fitts' law. These object characteristics also affect
movement kinematics, explaining why smaller object widths increase movement time.
Kinematic analysis reveals that smaller objects increase the movement's deceleration phase,
suggesting slower limb speed for increased accuracy.

Implications for practice

From an applied perspective, prehension motor control research has important

implications for developing practice conditions to improve prehension capabilities. Due to
the cooperative relationship between reach, grasp, and object manipulation, prehension
practice or therapy should involve functional activities (e.g., Wu et al., 1998). Because reach
and grasp movement characteristics interact based on object characteristics, practice should

involve reaching, grasping, and manipulating diverse object characteristics and

manipulation goals. Finally, due to the interdependent nature of prehension components,

separating the reach, grasp, and object manipulation goal for individual practice would not
be beneficial.
Bimanual Coordination Skills
- Refers to the ability to perform tasks that require the coordinated movement of both

hands, often with different or opposing actions.

Types of bimanual movements:

• Symmetric bimanual coordination
-where both hands perform the same or similar movements
• Asymmetric bimanual coordination
-each hand performs different tasks (e.g., one hand performing a fine motor skill, the
other performing a gross motor skill).

Bimanual Coordination Preferences

It refers to how people naturally use their hands in tasks requiring both. This
preference helps the performance of symmetric bimanual skills, but can lead to problems
for asymmetric skills.

Motor Control of Bimanual Coordination

Refers to how the brain and nervous system manage the movement of both hands
working together to perform a task.

Implications for Practice

Teachers, coaches, and therapists who are aware of bimanual coordination tendencies
will recognize the need to give special attention to people who are learning skills that
require the arms to perform different spatial-temporal movement patterns. By focusing on
these implications for practice, practitioners can enhance performance and learning in
complex tasks that require bimanual coordination.
 CENTRAL PATTERN GENERATOR (CPG)
• A mechanism in the spinal cord that provides the

basis for stereotypical locomotive patterns (gait)

• A functional network of motor neuron activity in
the spinal cord that generates the rhythm and shapes
the pattern of locomotion
• CPG is an important control mechanism of
locomotion, but does not act alone
-Proprioceptive feedback influences gait movement
patterns

RHYTHMIC STRUCTURE OF LOCOMOTION

• There are distinct rhythmic relationships between limbs during gait, which are related to
walking speed
• The pelvis and thorax also have a rhythmic relationship during walking
• Observation of these rhythms can:
- Help identify coordination problems, like in the case of Parkinson’s disease
- Be used to develop training or rehabilitation strategies
- Assess progress during training or rehabilitation

HEAD STABILITY AND LOCOMOTION

• Maintaining head stability is a goal of the
motor control system during gait.
- Measured by the vertical orientation and
minimal horizontal motion.

• Head stability is important because it

contains sensory and motor components

required to navigate the environment as we

locomote.

- Optimizes vision, especially for actions

where this is important like running to catch a

ball.
 • The least amount of head movement in the vertical
and anterior-posterior directions occurs at preferred

walking speed.

GAIT TRANSITIONS
• Spontaneous change between walking and
running gait based on speed
• Speed at which this occurs varies among
individuals
- Multiple individual factors that underlie
transitions
• Within an individual, walk-to-run usually
occurs at higher speeds than the run-to-walk
transition
• Best hypothesis for why we make
transitions: To minimize metabolic energy
consumption (VO2)