Wednesday, September 7, 2016

What is "coordination"?

"Coordination": what is it?

Its more multifold that we usually talk about. There are many types of coordination.
-Fine motor skill (coordination of small muscles)
-Gross motor skill (coordination of larger muscles
-Hand-eye coordination
-Body-eye coordination
-Foot-eye coordination
-Gross-fine motor coordination i.e. working together (need a name for this)


Hand-eye
Hand-eye is about getting your hands to the right place at the right time based on what you see/sense. When I think of hand-eye coordination, I think of a Michael Chang volleying at the net in tennis, boxing hand speed drills, painters, flower arrangers, Jackie Chan, Tiger Woods, Steph Curry's pregame dribble-juggling drills, ping-pong, steering a car, certain kinds of gardening, etc.

I was always good at throwing, catching, and hitting which are usually considered hand-eye. But then again I'm not really that fond of juggling... and that's part of what puzzles me... although I can often throw stuff up in the air and catch without looking. Maybe something to do with eye movement speed making it different to track multiple balls while juggling? I have slower eye movement, I'm a slow reader etc. in terms of eye speed (not comprehension)...

Body-eye

This one interests me a lot, in part because we don't hear about it as much as hand-eye. If hand-eye is about getting your hands into the right position at the right time in coordination with what you see, body-eye is doing the same except its your body you are getting into position. Understanding what position and place to be in relation to what's out there. These are not just sets of moves done in isolation, they are movements in relation to what you see in front of you.

Eye-body examples include:
-parkour
-obstacle courses
-a running back juking defenders, cutting through gaps, sliding laterally, hurdling over a player on the ground, turning his body to prepare for getting hit he sees coming. All based on what he sees. Basically a human obstacle course.
-"weaving through traffic" ex. in basketball or soccer, etc.
-navigating through the woods/jungle where there is no path, have to move around/under/over all kinds of obstacles ex. trees, logs, branches, etc.
-swimming through a dense coral reef
-dancing where there is a lot of body position change i.e. not just moving in place or footwork/steps
-wrestling or tackling--getting whole body into precise position is key for both

Foot-eye
This one is interesting as well--obviously soccer comes to mind, ex. Messi. Anything that involves "fancy footwork."

It would be *really* interesting to see if people with great foot-eye coordination also automatically have great body-eye or hand-eye? Or if any of these types are related or are distinctly separate?
-soccer
-post play in basketball ex. Hakeem Olajuwon's "dream shake"--they always mentioned he played soccer growing up in Africa
-dancing ex. salsa, ballroom

Gross-fine motor coordination
I'm looking for the official name for this one, it means the combined coordination of both fine and gross motor togther in sync. There are lots of examples:
-swinging a baseball bat or throwing a ball, which require both a fine motor grip and a gross motor movement.
-tennis: changing grips (fine motor) along with the swing and movement around the court (gross motor).
-most activities that involve swining things like a bat or a racket or weights
-rowing and other pulling and/or pushing activities while holding onto a handle
-sculpting anything large
-crafts/building/repairs on anything large
-gymnastics (gripping bar or pommel horse etc. while moving body)
-playing drums
-playing big instruments ex. standup bass





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