Coordinative Abilities

[Guest guest]

I'll do my best to explain my understanding of the European perspective.

According to Harre et al. [Principles Of Sports Training. Berlin: Sportverlag,

1982; pp. 150-158], an athlete's " coordinative abilities " collectively comprise

his/her agility. To paraphrase his definitions and recommendations:

• Balance … static and dynamic equilibrium

• Differentiation … accurate, economical adjustment of body movements and

mechanics

• Orientation … spatial and temporal control of body movements

• Reactiveness … quick, well-directed response to stimuli

• Rhythm … observation and implementation of dynamic motion pattern, timing and

variation

• Adaptive ability … modification of action sequence upon observing or

anticipating novel/changing conditions and situations

• Combinatory ability … coordination of body movements into a given action

These interact to varying degrees when performing different motor tasks; and

while they cannot be isolated, training activities can be selected according to

their dominant requirements.

These abilities are the elements of specific technical skills, which in turn are

simply solutions to particular motor tasks. They can obviously limit

performance as well, and therefore should be considered prerequisites for

achieving one's athletic potential. While difficult to quantify, the

trainability of individual coordinative abilities is thought to be limited; and

performance improvements resulting from practice may be associated with their

organization as a complex when executing certain motor patterns.

Drabik talks about this concept in chapter 6 Children & Sports Training (pp.

67-91). Tittel discusses this briefly in his chapter on coordination and

balance in The Olympic Book Of Sports Medicine published by Blackwell Scientific

in 1991 (pp. 194-211). Each one identifies five fundamental " coordinative

capabilities " , citing a German publication by an author named P. Hirtz as their

source.

Hopefully some of this makes sense. I'm not sure I understand it!

Plisk

Director of Sports Conditioning

Yale University

> ***If you could refer to the specifics of these concepts, I will be better

able to reply to your question. What do you want me to examine under the

heading of " coordinative abilities " training, especially in the light of what

is termed " motor learning " ? The concepts that you have touched upon may all be

discussed at great length in different contexts, so we need to narrow down our

focus to the issues that really concern you.