Unit 7: Strength & Motor Performance Flashcards
Physical fitness
an adaptive state that varies with an individuals growth and maturity status, and with their physical activity habits and lifestyle
3 basic components of fitness
muscular strength and endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance and motor ability
Muscular strength and endurance as a component of fitness
strength is the ability to express muscular force
Cardiorespiratory endurance as a component of fitness
endurance is the ability to carry out a task over a period of time
Motor ability as a component of fitness
includes several components that permit individuals to preform specific tasks
-eg: power, speed, agility or flexability
Ways to classify motor activities
- Fine vs gross motor activities
- discrete, continuous or serial skills
- open vs closed skills
- fundamental and specialized skills
Fine motor skills
movements that require precision and dexterity - manipulative tasks
Eg: using pencil, buttoning a shirt, opening a lunch box
Gross motor skills
require the entire body or major segments of the body - locomotor activities
Eg: walking, throwing, lifting
The speed-accuracy trade-off
Trade-off implies that higher movement speeds are generally accompanied by a loss in movement accuracy
Fitt’s Law
the time it takes you to move the cursor on the red rectangle depends on the size and distance
Discrete motor skills
Have a clear beginning and end
-tend to be brief, well defined actions
Eg: hitting or throwing a baseball
Serial motor skills
Represent a sequence of continuous and/or discrete motor skills
-more complex in nature
Eg: triple jump
Continuous motor skills
May have no apparent start or end
-the skill is repeated like a cycle
Eg: Running
Closed motor skills
Skill is preformed in a stable or predictable environment
-the movement patterns for the motor skill can be planned in advance
Eg: tennis serve, gymnastics routine
Open motor skills
Preformed in a dynamic and/or changing environment
-influenced by other factors than yourself
Eg: football, basketball, soccer
Fundamental motor skills
A basic motor skill that can be divided into locomotor, non-locomotor and manipulative skills
Locomotor as a fundamental skill
where the body is moved through space
Eg: walking
Non-locomotor as a fundamental skill
where specific body parts are moved
Eg: pushing, bending, twisting
Manipulative as a fundamental skill
Where an object is moved
Eg: throwing, striking, kicking
Specialized motor skills
Motor development involves the acquisition and refinement of basic motor skills
-basic patterns are integrated into more specialized and complex skills
-combines fundamental skills
Performance
how you are doing in the moment
-can vary from moment to moment
-can be affected by situational variables - functional and environmental constraints
Learning
-set of process occurring within the central nervous system
-produces an acquired capability
-changes are relatively permanent
-not directly observable
-changes are inferred from certain performance changes
-results form practice
Practice
refers to deliberate attempt to achieve motor learning although can also result in learning
Things that must be considered when comparing performance and learning
practice is critical for learning, performance curves, learning-performance distinctions, retention and transfer are true ‘tests’ for learning
Performance curves
-plot performance as a function of time
-Negative accelerated curve: rapid initial improvements followed by decreasing gains in improvement from practice
-Positive accelerated curve: little improvement initially, followed by rapid improvement over time
-provide indication of changes that occur during the acquisition of skill
-performance can be masked by ceiling effect or floor effect
Ceiling effect
when performance variable can go no higher - eg: percentage
Floor effect
When performance variable can go no lower - Eg: reaction time
Retention test
provides a better indication of the amount that had been learned during acquisition trials
Sensory and Motor preformance: purpose
to determine whether the learning of a motor task is specific to the feedback conditions available during acquisition
Sensory and Motor preformance: Methods
13 right handed physical education undergraduate students
-task involved displacement of stylus in a specific movement time of 550msec with a mechanical perturbation that participants had learned to compensate for
-target was red light
Sensory and Motor preformance: procedures
group 1 (limb+target), groups 2 (target)
-later all groups return under limb + target condition
Sensory and Motor preformance: Results
both groups improved over practice, limb + target group preformed better
-when both limb + target more errors from target group
Sensory and Motor preformance: conclusions
the importance and dependence of our sensory systems on motor performance is something that is developed over practice.
-use of vision interfered with what had been learned
-the sensory conditions that we learn in are important in our performance
Measures of strength
isometric, explosive, dynamic, muscular endurance
Isometric strength
force against an external resistance without change in muscle length
Explosive strength
release maximal force or torque in the shortest possible time
Dynamic strength
force or torque generated by repetitive contractions of muscles
muscular endurance
the ability to repeat or maintain muscular contractions over time
Isometric strength in research
3 max voluntary contractions - take highest attempt
-if used to sandwich intervention compare two highests
Clair’s grip strength study
-used hand grip dynamometer
-elbow placed on desk to isolate wrist flexors
-hold 60% until failure
-required to recreate wave forms
-If participants learn a motor task under the condition of fatigue, and then take a transfer test will there be a decrement in performance
-change in context was not detrimental
-learned skill was flexible
specificity of learning effect
what was previously learned will have a negative impact on the performance of similar tasks
-body creates a specific sensorimotor representation for what was learned
Performance in Children
-info not as extensive for early childhood as middle or adolescence
-intraindividual and interindividual variability in performance expressed from trial to trail
When are fundamental skills developing in children
preschool years
When does basic motor development occur
by age 6/7
What is mature skill development
turning basic movements into more complex motor skills
Preschool children motor skills gender differences
Balance and flexibility becomes greater in girls than boys
boys better at grip strength, throwing a ball
when does static strength change
between 6-18 years old
-increases linearly until 13-14 in boys when there is an acceleration in strength development
-girls experience no spurt
When does muscular endurance change
improves linearly with age from 5-13/14 in boys followed by a spurt similar to static strength
-no spurt in girls
Balance measured in children
Through balance beam walk- child walks length of a beam without stepping off
-scored by number of steps before stepping off, number of seconds or through point system where points are deducted for stepping off
Flexibility in childern
girls more flexible on average, biggest sex difference observed during adolescent growth spurt
-boys decline in lower back flexibility from ages 5 to 12
Middle childhood/ adolescent motor performance differences summary
6-14 girls more flexible, boys throw better
14-15 strength slower to improve compared to boys
Why are there strength-related gender differences
biological changes in maturation
adipose accumulation
socio-cultural factors
Internal focus of attention
concentrating on the inside of the body while performing a motor task
