Movement Intelligence: A
Vast Store of Motor Skills
Chapter 16
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Outline
Movement Intelligence
 Motor Skills
 Characteristics of Skills

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Movement Intelligence
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An aggregate or vast repertoire of
movement experiences developed since
birth

Allows us to produce endless variety of skills
 Skills we posses are NOT static elements
 The ability to learn allows us to continually
improve skills
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Movement Intelligence:
Unlocking Your Potential

In order to gain benefits of any PA, some degree of MI
(movement intelligence) is necessary to unlock your potential
Movement Intelligence

Waking, running, and cycling may not be an attractive means
of maintaining health and longevity. MI is necessary for the
development of diverse skills.
Movement Intelligence
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Movement Intelligence and
Motor Programs
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Motor Programs (MPs)

Motor programs = movement plans
– Developed when learning new skills
– Stored in memory

Acquired as a result of learning and repetitive
practice
– Through a formation of specialized nerve circuits
in the central nervous system that work together
when developing a movement plan for a new skill

When developed and stored in memory,
motor programs are a set of pre-structured
muscle commands that allow the performer to
carry out the skill automatically
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Hypothetical example of coded motor programs
assembled in an individual's motor memory or MI.
MP
001234
MP
009230
MP
017284
MP
000270
MP
101339
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Generalized Motor Programs(GMPs)

Still consists of a stored pattern of movements

Parameters: specify such things as the order of events,
the overall duration of the event, the overall force needed to
accomplish the movement,and temporal patterning,
a) stable: eg. relative time and relative force applied in
each stroke during table tennis
b) unstable: eg. speeding up the sequence of
the
movements and increasing overall force applied during
forehand stroke

Well-established GMPs form
the basis for autonomic and
spontaneous movements in
sports and require a little
or no attention and mental effort
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Motor Programs and MI

MI can be simply viewed as a vast store of
motor programs
 Motor programs cannot be observed directly
BUT can be inferred by observing the skills
and movement patterns
 The larger the repertoire of motor programs
the larger the MI store and the more proficient
we are in playing sports, because of the
larger selection
 MI is an active process; through practice we
develop new motor plans and skills
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CD = movement intelligence
Larger MI (~CD) store =
larger selection of motor
programs (~Tracks) =
more skills (~songs) and
greater sport proficiency
Non-observable
blueprint for skills
Tracks = motor programs

Observable side of the coin;
the patterns we exhibit based
on the motor programs
present
Songs = skills or movement patterns
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Movement Intelligence and
Movement Abilities
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Factors Affecting Movement
Intelligence
Inherited
Abilities
Stimulation
at early age
Etc.
MOVEMENT
INTELLIGENCE
Expert
Instruction
Practice
Feedback
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Movement Intelligence and
Movement Abilities

Movement abilities: inherited, relatively
enduring and stable traits which serve as the
foundation stones for the development of
motor programs
 The quality and effectiveness of motor
programs depends upon the presence of
underlying motor abilities
 Analogy:
Movement Ability
Skill
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Hypothetical model of links indicating abilities
underlying performance in two skills, rowing and
hockey
Movement Abilities
Reaction
Time
Movement
Rate
Balance
Sculler
Motor
Timing
Multi-limb
Coordination
Explosive
Strength
Hockey
Player
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Questions and Answers About
Human Abilities
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How Many Abilities
Are There?
Movement Abilities
Perceptual-motor
Abilities
•Controlled precision
•Multi-limb coordination
•Response orientation
•Reaction time
•Speed of arm movement
•Rate control
•Manual dexterity
•Finger dexterity
•Arm-hand steadiness
•Wrist-finger speed
•Aiming
Physical Proficiency
Abilities
•Explosive strength
•Static strength
•Dynamic strength
•Trunk strength
•Extent flexibility
•Dynamic flexibility
•Gross body equilibrium
•Balance with visual cues
•Speed of limb movement
•Gross body coordination
•Stamina
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26 identified by
laboratory research
+ those yet to be
identified
General
Coordination
Abilities
•Movement rate
•Motor timing
•Perceptual timing
•Force control
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How Many Abilities Do You
Have?

All individuals posses all of the abilities listed,
albeit to varying degrees

For this reason, abilities (or lack of thereof)
impose limits on individual skill performance

No two persons have the same pattern of
abilities
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Why Do People Excel at Some
Activities but Are Mediocre at
Others?

It all depends on the pattern of strengths and
weaknesses of one’s inherited motor abilities

Having a low skill level at one activity does
not mean having a low skill level in another
activity
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Who are the All-Around
Athletes?

Many fundamental abilities are likely common
across a variety of sports

All-around athletes posses strong abilities
that underlie the many sports in which they
excel

They have more high end abilities than
normal individuals and therefore excel in
more sports
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Can Practice Improve Motor
Abilities?

Human abilities are genetically determined
 However, intensive ability-specific practice
may potentially improve motor abilities
 Example: research at the University of
Toronto indicates that practice on Dynavision
improves a variety of psychomotor abilities
and performance
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Lead-up Activities and Drills
1.
Transfer to another target sporting activity
–
2.
e.g., passing, shooting, dribbling, and faking
drills for soccer
Improvement of basic abilities
–
–
Quickening, balancing, perceptual exercises,
etc.
e.g., perceptual motor training
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Motor Skills
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
What are skills?

How are skills
characterized?

What types of
classifications of
skills are there?
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Skill as a Task
Skill: “an action or task that requires
voluntary body and/or limb movement to
achieve a goal”

In this context, a skill must be learned, have a
purpose, and be performed voluntarily
 Example: catching a baseball
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Skill as Quality of Performance
Skill: “the ability to bring about some end
result with maximum certainty and
minimum outlay of energy, or of time
and energy”
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Maximum Certainty

Being skilled involves attaining the
performance with maximum certainty

Obtaining performance outcome on some
occasions and not on others is not a skilled
action, because the element of luck may have
been involved

Generating the skill reliably over time
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Minimization of Energy

Being able to minimize energy used to carry
out an action constitutes a skilled
performance

Energy conserved:
– Can be used at times most needed
– Can be directed towards other aspects of activity
(e.g., strategy, creativity)
– Allows pacing oneself for longer periods of time
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Minimum Time

Being able to perform a skill in minimum
time
– e.g., 100-metre race, slap shot

However, minimizing time is not a strict
goal of all movements
– e.g.,  speed of action   accuracy
– e.g.,  speed of action  affects energy
costs by using muscles differently
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Characteristics of Skills
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Hierarchical Organization
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A skilled act may be thought of as
following a hierarchical organization
pattern, whereas an unskilled act lacks
such organization
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A theoretical skill hierarchy
Executive Program
Subroutine I
Subroutine II
Sub-subroutine
I
Sub-subsubroutine I
Subroutine III
Sub-subroutine
II
Sub-subsubroutine II
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Sub-subsubroutine III
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Rowing stroke skill hierarchy.
Rowing Stroke
Catch
Sub-subroutine
Arm Actions
I
Drive
Hand and Finger
Actions
Finish
Body
Movements
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Recovery
Leg Actions
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Executive Program

The overall purpose of the act
1) acts as a goal
2) gives direction to skilled acts
3) orders the execution of certain subroutines
4) makes flexible decisions and adaptations

Dependent upon the sequential execution of
subroutines
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Subroutines

Isolated units of the total executive program
 Fixed and will run off automatically once the
sequence is established
 Capable of being repeated over and over
again unless changed by the executive
program
 Must follow particular sequence for the
executive program to be effectively carried
out
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Temporal Patterning
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Temporal patterning: the ability of the performer
to integrate the sequential organization of a
movement pattern

Includes the ability to smoothly connect
successive subroutines so that the skill may
be executed in a flowing, coordinated fashion
– Inexperienced performer: jerky movement pattern
because the timing between subroutines not
established
– Experienced performer: transition between each
subroutine is shorter and smoother
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Classification of Skills
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
Possible classification systems: team vs. dual
vs. individual; summer vs. winter
 A more comprehensive classification of motor
skills:
– According to the effects of environment on
learning and executing skills
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Closed Skills

performed under constant, relatively
unchanging conditions

the movement form itself is often the goal of
the skill

e.g., gymnastics routines
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Teaching Strategies for Closed
Skills

Goal: stereotyped movements that
consistently produce the desired response
 Strategy: learning environment structured so
that the desired response will occur
 Repeating the selected movement pattern
consistently without allowing external
influences to affect the performance
– e.g., noise

Use of kinesthetic and proprioceptive
feedback especially effective
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Open Skills

Environments are continually changing and
require performers to adjust and respond to
the environment around them

Responses cannot be made effectively far in
advance

Demand the capacity to adapt, anticipate,
and be flexible in responses
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Teaching Strategies for Open
Skills

The learning environment should closely
approximate the environment in which the
skill will take place

Learners should exercise variability and
adaptability and different scenarios that
approximate real environment

Learners may be wise to identify patterns in
the environment that provide information
about the movement of objects and players
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Open-Closed Continuum
Open skills
Closed skills
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Learning Progression For Open
Skills Along the Open-Closed
Continuum

Start learning with making the skill more
closed (e.g., one pitch speed)

Once a certain level of proficiency has been
achieved, make the skill more open (e.g., live
pitch)

i.e., remove a component of uncertainty of the
skill in order to simplify its overall execution
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Enhancing Your Learning
Potential

Clear understanding of:
– Anatomical structures in limiting human
movements
– How the body moves most efficiently
– How the body develops over time
– Where our energy comes from
– How to maintain healthy, injury-free body
– Etc.
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