Locomotor, Non-locomotor, Manipulative Movements - Week 2

The second lesson included categories of Locomotor, Non-locomotor and Manipulative movements also known as Fundamental Motor Skills (FMS) are movements with specific observable patterns and Concepts of Movements: Space Awareness, Body Awareness, Relationship, Effort and Quality.

The main concept of this class was to recognise that there is no movement without space, identifying spatial awareness and using effort fuelled by the digestive system.

The definitions these categories of movements will be highlighted.

• Locomotor movements involve a person moving from on point to another. e.g. running, hopping, leaping.
• Non-locomotor movements are done whilst a person is in a stationary position which requires the person to move in planes, axles, or the waistline or from the joints. e.g. twisting, bending.
• Manipulative skills are gross or fine motor skills which involve using the hands, feet or another body parts to manipulate or control an object. e.g. throwing, catching.

The concepts of movements add variety to the activities, control parts of the body specific to the movement, positioning of the body or movement, distance and time relative to effort of movement and refinement of movement. For e.g.zig-zag, circular or straight line.

Basic movement patterns should be learnt as the building blocks to more complex patterns and where the skills can be transferred to different sporting activities.

In PE the students must learn:

1. Body Awareness - controlling body parts for the skill
2. Relationship between objects and other participants - eg. on, next to, under, near, on top, over
3. Effort requirements and relationship with distance and time.
4. Quality of movement - refining a movement eg. flow or bounded, exercising control.

The practical session expanded on the concept of e.g. Jumping. 

Three stages constituted a jump: take off, jump and landing. To teach a jump it would have to be in smaller sections of each stage e.g. The take off will include bending the knees and then releasing body upwards. Landing will require landing safely and softly on the base of two feet to absorb the shock through the joints (hips, knees and ankles). Some people will naturally follow the body in a jump and will not need to train themselves to land. Many others however, will have to learn and train their bodies step-by-step in the art of jumping.