While football/soccer is the most influential sport in the world, it is surprising that developmental sequences of forceful kicking have not been adequately described and validated in the literature. The purpose of this study was to explore potential developmental sequences for forceful kicking using a prelongitudinal screening method. Data were…

Object control (OC) skills are a part of fundamental motor skills and basic functional skills, which work as a prerequisite to becoming a skilled performer in many sports. Of various OC skills, striking is one of the most difficult to master due to a variety of interrelated movement components. A form of vertical or underarm striking is a more…

In today's physical education classroom, many teachers feel starved for fresh, innovative activities to teach. This article presents team handball (TH) as one such activity. Although TH is not a new activity (it was first played toward the end of the 19th century in countries such as Denmark, Germany and Sweden), for many students in the United…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an 8-week gymnastics curriculum on children's movement competence and their physical self-concept. There were 113 children (46% girls, 49% intervention) with a mean age of 9.4 years (SD = 1.8) that participated. Intervention children underwent 8 weeks of gymnastics and the comparison group continued with…

Early research on visual imagery led investigators to suggest that mental visual images are just weak versions of visual percepts. Later research helped investigators understand that mental visual images differ in deeper and more subtle ways from visual percepts. Research on motor imagery has yet to reach this mature state, however. Many authors…

When addressing issues related to sport specialization, it is important to consider how skills are developed and learned. Changes in physical development and maturation throughout the growing years affect the motor performance abilities of individuals who are not yet mature. Such variability in skill development is important to understand when…

Considering the wide use of Serious Games in application fields like cognitive learning, health education and rehabilitation and the recent developments of sensor and interface technology it is surprising that applications to motor learning in sport are rare. The aim of this study is to examine whether a specific learning effect can be elicited by…

The results of this study indicate that order of practice does have a significant effect on skill acquisition with sequential ordering (practice of a successive nature) being the most efficient method for improving bilateral skill acquisition. (MB)

The article offers guidelines for involving children and adults with severe disabilities in motor activities and sports. Stressed are participation as fun, age appropriateness, functionality of new skills, and the value of partial participation. (DB)

Theoretical and practical issues related to the neuromotor control of a golf swing are presented in this paper. The typical strategy for golf training consists of high volume repetition with an emphasis on a large variety of isolated swing characteristics. The student is frequently instructed to maintain consistent performance in each swing with…

Both physical education and youth sport are essential for the motor development of children. Sport-specific skills should be built on a sound movement foundation. Children need to be allowed to mature and to develop to higher levels of proficiency before being thrust into a competitive environment. (JN)

This article discusses the combination of skills into sequences. Combining skills into usable, challenging, and meaningful sequences is often neglected or under-used in many school and community game programs. Reasons for this under-use are discussed. Combinations of skills build on proficiency in performing separate skills and serve as…

The smaller size and lower strength level of children may indicate that adaptations of sport-type games, such as basketball, are necessary to maximize skill performance. Children between the ages of 9.0 and 12.7 years were given two subtests of the Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Skills Test, the Speed Pass and Front Shot.…

This analysis involved the ten events of the men's decathlon in all performances which scored 8,000 points or higher, based on the 1962 Scoring Tables of the International Amateur Athletic Federation. It attempted to (1) determine the interrelationships among the events and the final scores, (2) look for areas of difference compared to sub-8,000…