Lesson 1: MOVEMENT COMPETENCY

Introduction
Physical education is about movement. Movement is fundamental and essential to life,
work, and play. Movement competency facilitates participation and allows individuals to
derive pleasure and satisfaction from physical activities. An individual who can move
proficiently has the skills and knowledge related to movement and values purposeful moving
for life.

Therefore, is responsible for helping students take on the responsibility of learning by

providing them with the capacity to make reasoned and wise choices through a lifelong
process of change. Furthermore, it provides students with skills to be responsible adults and
contributing members of the society, the nation, and the world.

An understanding of fundamental skills and concepts is essential both to an individual’s

development of effective motor skills and to the application of these skills in a wide variety of
physical activities. The focus of the learning in this strand is on transferable skills, with the
goal of having children & youth understand how skills, concepts, and strategies learned in one
activity can apply to other activities.

Learning Objectives
At the end of the week, the students are expected to:
1. Discuss the basic concepts of movement competencies;
2. Design and perform personal movement training;
3. Conduct the class movement competencies routine; and
4. Evaluate movement competencies and improvement

Topic 1:
What Is Movement Competencies?

Movement competence typically refers to how someone is moving—when we

demonstrate movement competence, we move in a safe or effective manner, or both,
in order to achieve the objective of the activity that we are
performing.

Movement competency is described as the ability to

move free of dysfunction or pain. An athlete's
movement competency is influenced by several
variables. The responsibility of the strength and
conditioning professional is to ensure that the training
prescribed enhances performance and does not
contribute to injury.

Why movement competencies?

Regardless of who we are or what activities we are involved in, how we move
matters. It matters when we are participating in an activity or a sport, going about our
daily routines, or performing a job-related task. Moving competently matters to
everyone, everywhere, because we all want to perform well in whatever we do while
remaining safe and free of injury.
 Ultimately, when we reflect on why movement competence is so important, it
comes down to one thing: being able to do all the things we need or love to do so that
we can enjoy life today and well into the future.

The knowledge on Movement Competence helps children & youth develop the
movement competence needed to participate in physical activities through the
development of movement skills and the related application of movement concepts
and movement strategies. The development of fundamental movement skills in
association with the application of movement concepts and principles provides the
basic foundation for physical literacy.

What Influences How We Move?

How we move while performing any physical activity, whether that activity is
something we need or want to do, is influenced by many factors—for example, our
motivation, our abilities, and the environment. Movement is influenced by our
characteristics as individuals and by everything around us. In other words, how we
move depends on the context in which we are performing an activity. The factors that
influence our movement patterns can be broadly categorized into three types:

1. Personal factors
Think about how and why you move as an individual while throwing a baseball.
How you throw the ball will be influenced by many unique personal characteristics,
including your physical attributes, fitness level, coordination, confidence, attitude,
emotions, motivation, and awareness of both your body and your surroundings. For
instance, factors such as limited shoulder range of motion, feeling exhausted after a
late night, or playing baseball every summer for the past six years could all influence
how you throw a ball.

2. Environmental factors
How you throw a baseball is also influenced by the environment you are in. For
instance, the surface on which you are standing (e.g., grass versus pavement), the
temperature (e.g., hot versus cold), weather conditions (e.g., rainy versus sunny),
background sounds or music, verbal instructions from a coach, and the presence of social
groups such as friends or peers could all influence how you throw the ball.

3. The task or activity

Lastly, features of the specific task or activity that you are performing will influence
your movement. When you throw a baseball, task-related factors such as the size and
weight of the ball or the type of pitch being thrown will influence how you move. Suppose
you were throwing a boomerang instead of a baseball. This difference could clearly
influence your throwing action.

How Movement Competencies?

Movement competencies are essential to participation in physical
activity. If movement competencies are not developed and nurtured from
a young age, this can lead to inactivity and the health and social
problems linked to inactivity. The following graphic provides examples of
how movement competencies set a foundation for participation in different physical
activities.
We divide movement competencies into more specific skills including: sending,
receiving, transporting, and body control.
1. Sending includes how a child moves or sends an object away from them. This can
include throwing, kicking, head butting, or other creative methods. For example, if
the goal of a game is to hit a target (e.g. a plastic cone/pylon), the child has a
number of different options. For example, s/he could throw the ball underhand or
overhand (sending upper body) or kick (sending lower body), aiming for the target.
2. Receiving skills include how a child catches or receives an object. This can include
catching, using a foot to stop a ball, trapping an object with their body, or other
creative methods.
3. Transporting skills include different ways to move aro und the environment such
as walking, running, hopping, skipping and jumping (upright transporting), but also
rolling and tumbling (vertical or prone transporting).
4. Body control skills involve balance and skills that require us to move one part of our
body while keeping the others still. It can include body control skills while stationary
(e.g. standing while putting on shoes or reaching up to get an object from a high shelf)
or while moving (e.g. walking while balancing on the curb of a sidewalk)
5. Coordinated movements are how a child combines the different types of movement
skills together in everyday activities and play. This can include catching a ball while
running or navigating an outdoor playground.

Topic 2: Balancing Demands and Capacity of Movement

How we move is central to balancing our capacity and demands. This perspective is
known as the demands capacity framework. To perform at our best and maintain good
health both today and in the future, we must have the capacity (e.g., awareness,

Your Demands Your Capacity

Demands are the activities you need Capacity is your ability, awareness,
and want to perform safely and motivation, etc. to perform those
effectively activities safely and effectively
motivation, and ability) to handle the demands of our lives—the activities we need or
want to perform on a daily basis.

Your Demands Your Capacity

Higher Risk
Lower Benefits
When your demands are greater than your capacity, the risk of musculoskeletal
injury, cardiac distress, and respiratory distress increases, while your performance
and your quality of life decrease
Lower Risk
Higher Benefit
When your capacity is greater than your demands, however, the risk of
musculoskeletal injury, cardiac distress, and respiratory distress decreases, while
your performance and your quality of life increase.
Topic 3: Movement Features and Patterns
Regardless of your age, developmental stage, interests, or daily routine, you probably want to
improve your physical performance in some areas for one reason or another. Your everyday
physical activities might vary from hiking to playing sports, to regular chores such as washing
dishes or doing laundry. Many of us want to progress from simple to more complex activities
for a variety of reasons, and as the demands of daily life increase, we strive to increase our
capacity to meet those demands. Building our capacity to move competently begins with
awareness. Have you ever thought about how you jump, run, walk up the stairs, get up off a
chair, or perform other everyday activities? For instance, do you always bend at your back or
your hips when you pick something up off the floor? Developing the awareness to assess your
own movement can be sharpened by understanding a few key attributes or “movement
features”.
As a first step in improving your movement competence, it is important to know which
features of a movement pattern matter. When performing activities such as jumping for a
rebound, lifting a backpack, or sitting in a chair while studying, which aspects of your
movement will influence your performance, your susceptibility to injury,
Your Capacity Your Demands
Lower Risk Higher Benefit
When your capacity is greater than your demands, however, the risk of musculoskeletal
injury, cardiac distress, and respiratory distress decreases, while your performance and your
quality of life increase or your long-term health? Paying attention to the seven key movement
features, which are shown and described in detail on the following page, can help you build
your capacity and enhance your overall quality of life. Simply becoming aware of these key
movement features could change your movement behaviors, alter your daily movement
habits, and improve your enjoyment of life.
The seven key movement features are:
1 Knees in line with the feet and hips
2 Body weight centred over mid-foot
3 Normal low back curvature (avoid rounding and arching)
4 Normal low back curvature (avoid bending sideways—the shoulders and hips remain
parallel)
5 Shoulders and hips rotate together
6 Shoulders down and away from the ears
7 Shoulders back (elbow and shoulder move in the same direction)

Topic 4: Fundamental Movement Patterns

Have you ever wondered why some elite or professional athletes have
enjoyed such long careers and have managed to avoid career-ending injuries, while others
have not? Similarly, have you ever wondered why some of your adult role models have
managed to stay fit, healthy, and injury-free, while others have experienced poor health or
been hurt? The answers to these questions are complex. However, one potential reason for
many of the success stories you hear about is that these individuals are often very competent
movers. The good news is that we can all learn to move better, regardless of our life’s pursuits
and current abilities. We can learn to move more competently at school, at home, at work,
and at play. In order to become better movers, however, we need a way to categorize or
describe the various recreational, sport-related, or work-related activities that we perform.
All human movement, no matter how complex, involves variations of general or fundamental
movement patterns.
These patterns are commonly listed as:
• push
• pull
• Squat
• lunge
• Hinge
These patterns can be used to describe and help us better understand activities that we
perform daily, such as tying our shoes, lifting objects, and playing our favourite games and
activities. We push or pull to open doors, and we squat or lunge to pick up objects from the
floor. We hinge every time we bend at the waist.
You will learn how these fundamental movement patterns give us a framework for describing,
observing, and evaluating how we perform the complex skills involved in our sport-, work-, or
life-related activities. Whether you wish to be an elite athlete or to perform everyday tasks
safely and efficiently, learning how to perform these patterns properly—in particular, by
maintaining the seven key features—will help you attain your goal.

Push

A push movement pattern often involves moving an external object away from your body or
pushing your body away from an object or surface, as in a push-up. Most descriptions of
pushing as a fundamental movement pattern refer to the upper body only.
In performing a push pattern, however, actual movement is not always necessary. A front
plank is a push pattern, for example, as is holding a picture up against a wall before hanging
it. The push-up is an effective exercise for improving core stability and upper-body pushing
strength. Push-ups can strengthen the chest, shoulders, triceps, and abdominal muscles.

Pull

A pull movement pattern is the opposite of a push movement pattern: generally, you pull an
object toward your body, or pull your body toward an object. Like pushing, pulling is typically
used to describe the upper body only. As for pushing, movement is not necessary to use a pull
movement pattern. Pulling is the act of contracting against a load or resistance. Hanging from
monkey bars, performing an isometric biceps curl, and carrying groceries in both hands are all
examples of a pull pattern.

Squat

Frequently, a squat movement pattern requires lowering your body weight by bending your
ankles and knees. A squat movement pattern is unique to the lower body compared to
pushing and pulling. Doing a squat exercise like the one shown here builds overall leg
strength, especially in the muscles that affect the hips, knees, and ankles. To perform a squat
exercise properly, start by using your own body weight as resistance. You can then increase
the level of difficulty by adding further resistance using dowelling, dumbbells, barbells, or
kettlebells.

Lunge

The lunge movement pattern generally involves one leg extended or bent in front of the
body while the other leg is extended or bent behind the body. This pattern includes any form
of gait: walking, running, skipping, and so on. Like the squat pattern, the lunge pattern is
specific to the lower body. You can do a lunge exercise in any direction—forward, backward,
and sideways. The forward lunge exercise, shown here, is an excellent way to build strength in
the muscles that affect the hips, knees, and ankles, depending on how it is performed.
Safe and effective performance of a lunge exercise involves integrating and
maintaining control of key feature number 1: keeping your knees in line with your hips and
your feet. Activities such as gardening, tying your shoelaces, and picking something up off the
ground all involve the lunge pattern. Key feature number 1 is relevant here: whether you are
running after a ball or cross-country skiing, your knees should always be in line with your hips
and your feet. Pitching in baseball, hitting a ball in cricket, and performing a dig in volleyball
all require players to
use a lunge pattern.

Hinge
 The hinge movement pattern (also known as the “hip hinge pattern”) describes any
movement that involves flexion and extension of the hips. Ideally, the spine will be kept in a
neutral position to prevent injury, maximize performance, or improve quality of life. For
example, a basic understanding and use of this pattern can help prevent lower back injuries
when you are picking objects off the ground, going from a sitting position to a standing
position, moving furniture, or even brushing your teeth. Think back to key features number 3
(no arching or rounding), number 4 (no lateral bend), and number 5 (no twisting).
The hip hinge is important for performance as well. It is the basis of the athletic-ready
stance, it is critical to the vertical jump, and it is the dominant pattern in sports such as
rowing. Track athletes also begin their race by adopting a hinge pattern to position
themselves in the blocks. Baseball players hinge when accelerating forward to chase down a
ground ball. Basketball players hinge when dribbling the ball to avoid defenders.
Four Pillars of Human Movement
When you think of human movement it can be broken down into 4 basic categories.
Locomotion, Level Changes, Push/Pull and Rotation. These represent the 4 pillars of human
movement as described by JC Santana in his book Functional Training; Breaking the Bonds of
Traditionalism. The four pillars are composed of major movements the body naturally
recognizes, and are the basis of functional training.
LOCOMOTION: This is the foundation for ground based force production. It is the linear
displacement of our bodies’ center of mass. It is a trip lane event in which all the muscles and
joints are moving simultaneously in all three planes.
While at first glance it appears the body (while walking) is moving primarily in the
sagittal plane(SP) (forward) close look would reveal that it is the transverse plane(TP) and
frontal plane(FP) movement that drives us in the sagittal plane. The TP and FP movement
become more apparent when running. This also requires the ability to efficiently load into the
ground (deceleration) followed by the unloading or propulsive phase (acceleration).
Locomotion based exercises might include resisted sled walks, lunge walks, various run /sprint
drills.
LEVEL CHANGES: This represents non-locomotors tasks such as getting up off floor,
picking up the baby, taking someone to the ground or a squat / lunge movement. Examples of
exercises may include goblet or front squats, forward or reverse lunges, burpies and get ups.
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PUSHIN/PULLING: We use various push and pull movements for many everyday
activities. Opening and closing doors, pushing the stroller, taking a hanger off the rack and
punching. Pushing and pulling usually done unilaterally in a reciprocal manner is cross wired
neurologically. As one punch is thrown the opp. arm is retracted to eccentrically load in order
to prepare for the next punch. The same is true for arm swing in walking. Example exercises
might include push up, rows, alternating chest press, dips, pull ups and alternating band pulls.
ROTATION: Responsible for changes in direction and rotational torque production.
Dancing, throwing, and running are examples of activity with a significant amount of rotation.
The transverse plane is probably the most important and the only plane not loaded by gravity.
The example use to demonstrate the point is that a bicycle only moves forward because the
wheels are rotating. Approx. 90% of all the muscles are oriented in the diagonal to enhance
rotational deceleration and acceleration. Example exercises include Medicine ball rotations,
band rotations, swinging a bat or weighted implement.
Combining all of these pillars into a workout will make for great functional training.
They will ease the stress put on your body from everyday activities.
Movement Concepts. Students will learn to apply the following movement concepts
as they develop movement skills:
a. Body awareness – What body parts move and in what way?
• body parts (e.g., arms, legs, elbows, knees, head, shoulders, back)
• body shape (e.g., round, wide, narrow, curled, stretched, twisted, symmetrical,
asymmetrical)
• body actions (e.g., support, lead, receive weight, flex, extend, rotate, swing, push,
pull)
b. Spatial awareness – Where does the body move?
• location (e.g., personal, general space, restricted space)
• direction (e.g., forward, backwards, sideways, diagonal, up, down, left, right)
• level (e.g., high, medium, low)
• pathway (e.g., zigzag, straight, curved, wavy)
• plane (e.g., frontal, horizontal, vertical, sagittal)
• extensions (e.g., near, far)
c. Effort awareness – How does the body move?
• time (e.g., fast, medium, slow, sustained, sudden)
• force (e.g., strong, light)
• flow (e.g., bound, free, continuous, interrupted)
d. Relationship – With whom or with what does the body move?
• people (e.g., meet, match, contrast, follow, lead, mirror, shadow, move in unison,
move towards or away from others, echo with a partner or group)
• objects (e.g., over, under, beside, in front, on, off, near, far, through, above, below)
• elements in an environment (e.g., music, wind, temperature, terrain)
FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENT SKILLS
Fundamental movement skills are a specific set of skills that involve different body
parts such as feet, legs, trunk, head, arms and hands. These skills are the “building blocks”
for more complex and specialized skills that we need throughout our lives to competently
participate in different games, sports and recreational activities. These are the various gross
motor skills such as running, balancing, kicking etc. These skills are the basis for all physical
activity that we do in sports, dance, gymnastics and other physical recreational activities.
The fundamental movement skills relate to stability, locomotion, and manipulation:
1. Stability skills include stability with static balance, in which the body maintains a desired
shape in a stationary position, and stability with dynamic balance, in which students use core
strength to maintain balance and control of the body while moving through space (e.g.,
bending, stretching, twisting, turning, rolling, balancing, transferring weight, curling, landing
from a jump).
2. Locomotion or travelling skills are those used to move the body from one point to
another in various ways (e.g., walking, wheeling, running, chasing, dodging, sliding, rolling,
jumping, leaping).
3. Manipulation skills involve giving force to objects or receiving force from objects as one
sends, receives, or retains objects (e.g., sending: throwing, kicking, punting, striking,
volleying; receiving: catching, trapping, collecting; retaining: carrying, dribbling, cradling).

ACTIVITY 4: FM Skills Video Analysis

Directions:
1. Look for a 3-minute video/video clip of any concept showing various fundamental
movements.
2. Analyze the video by identifying at least 5 loco-motor, 5 stability and 5 manipulative FM
skills. Make sure that your chosen video is not the same with your classmate.
3. Write it in a ½ crosswise paper.
4. Deadline of submission will be on Wednesday.