Name of Experiment: How do Motor Skills affect Athletes performances?
Research:
The skills needed for a favorite sport, basketball, are simple. You need coordination, depth perception, the ability to run and jump at high speeds for long durations of time, and overall physical strength. One skill needed is shooting the basketball toward the target, the rim. This uses the fulcrum point in your elbow, shoulder, and knees. Muscular strength and coordination are needed to perform the art of shooting accurately and consistently. Jumping is needed for a few assortments of things. To jump to steal a pass, block a shot, or grab a rebound. The twitch muscles in the knee help give a sudden boost in your step to perform a high jump. The more this is exercised, the more efficient and stronger it becomes. Quick arm movements are needed to dribble the basketball and swipe at someone else dribbling to perform a steal. The joints in your elbow and wrist and exercised excessively, strengthening the muscles around them.
What is the difference between open motor skills and closed motor skills? An open motor skill is a skill that is performed when the performer is in an unstable environment and the start point is determined by the environment. The performer executing the skill is not the one who chooses when the skill and movement actions need to be performed. It is decided by other people or the environment. In sports that involve a team, it is most commonly determined by the movements and actions of both the members of both teams. A closed motor skill is a skill which is performed in a stationary environment, where the person executing the skill chooses when to start the skill. It is typically performed in a non-team based event. The performer is able to dictate when they want to perform the skill and execute the actions needed.
Some sports require a combination of skills. This includes kicking and passing in soccer, throwing and catching in baseball, diving and turning in swimming, tackling and passing in rugby and football, and passing and shooting in basketball. All of these combinations of skills all boil down to the same fundamentals. They all require good coordination, muscular strength, and the ability to flex and twist your joints properly. No matter the sport, the one skill needed in every sport is speed and endurance. Many competitions come down to the quality of execution of skills in the last 5% of game-time. Being able to perform these skills while being tired, dehydrated, and suffering from fatigue is what makes athletes win.
In basketball, each position requires different skills. The point guard position needs someone who can execute their fine motor skills in tandem with their gross motor skills, that is the fingers, hands, and arms. They need to be able to pass the ball quickly and accurately. As well as be swift on their feet. The shooting guard needs the same motor skills as the point guard but use them in a different way. They must be able to shoot the ball accurately at the hoop and consistently. Small forwards and power forwards are a combination of a shooting guard and center. The center position requires fast coordination and reaction timing. They need to be able to jump high to grab rebounds and block shots.
Analysis:
Gross motor skills are involved in movement and coordination of the arms, legs, and other large body parts. They involve actions such as running, crawling and swimming. Fine motor skills are involved in smaller movements that occur in the wrists, hands, fingers, feet, and toes. They involve smaller actions such as picking up objects between the thumb and finger, writing carefully, and even blinking. These two motor skills work together to provide coordination.
Conclusion:
Motor skills develop in different parts of a body along with the three principles:
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Cephalocaudal: development from head to foot. The head develops earlier than the hand. Similarly, hand coordination develops before the coordination of the legs and feet. For example, an infant is able to follow something with their eyes before they can touch or grab it
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Proximodistal: movement of limbs that are closer to the body develop before the parts that are further away, such as a baby learns to control the upper arm before the hands or fingers. Fine movements of the fingers are the last to develop in the body
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Gross to specific: a pattern in which larger muscle movements develop before finer movements. For example, a child only being able to pick up large objects, to then picking up an object that is small between the thumb and fingers. The earlier movements involve larger groups of muscles, but as the child grows finer movements become possible and specific things can be achieved.
Works Cited:
CCahill. “Closed Motor Skills vs. Open Motor Skills.” Owlcation, Owlcation, 30 Mar. 2018, owlcation.com/stem/Closed-Motor-Skills-vs-Open-Motor-Skills. Accessed 29 Apr. 2019.
“Fine Motor Skill.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Apr. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine_motor_skill.
“Motor Skill.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Apr. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_skill.
“Sports Skills: The 7 Sports Skills Steps You Must Master in Every Sport.” WG COACHING, 10 May 2018, wgcoaching.com/sports-skills/.
“Sports.” Ducksters Educational Site, www.ducksters.com/sports/basketballpositions.php.