"... but can you move?" (what every coach should know about the "fundamental-movement" skills)

It's pretty awesome watching young people perform all kinds of sport-specific skills. On a clear day, you can see small armies of third and fourth graders dribbling a soccer ball, shooting a basketball, or hitting a baseball with a fair amount of success.

Yet when it comes to performing fundament-movement (basic) skills, these boys and girls - like so many adult athletes - leave much to be desired.

The problem lies with our sports culture. In our rush to turn kids into super athletes, we often encourage them to specialize in a sport; and it doesn't always work.

Little Michael and Chrissie may learn to hit a perfect backhand or produce a solid batting swing, but will trip over their feet when they move laterally to field a hard-hit grounder or to get into position to volley at the net.

Perhaps the best example of fundament-movement skills is Michael Jordan. He is the world's greatest basketball player, though many others come close in passing, shooting, and dribbling.

The key to Michael's greatness lies in the way he can move his 6-ft. 6-in., 225-lb. body at tremendous speeds, propel himself vertically and horizontally, and change direction in the twinkling of an eye - while maintaining perfect body control.

Vern Gambetta, the former conditioning coach of the Chicago White Sox, explains it simply: "Many athletes miss greatness because they are lacking in one very critical area - fundamental-movement skills."

It's what happens when kids are pushed into specializing in one sport at an early age. They never learn or they fall behind in their fundamental development - they never master the little basic things that help athletes do the "big things."

The bottom line is that athletes with poor movement skills are going to encounter problems on the field. They won't be able to move efficiently, will waste energy, and will increase their chances of injuring an ankle, shoulder, or knee.

Like all fundamental sports skills, the movement skills can be improved, or perfected, by practice. Participation in several sports will expose young athletes to a variety of movement patterns that will enable them to develop complementary skills.

As parents, we can incorporate game-type situations into our children's everyday activities.

As coaches, we can include various movement skills in our team warm-ups and conditioning drills (whether we coach six-year-olds or NBA players).

As athletes, we can develop our ability by working on it daily.

FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENTS

Before we can become better at anything, we must understand just what it is that we want to improve. Following are the five key areas in fundamental-movement skills:

Locomotor skills move the body from point A to point B horizontally, diagonally, and vertically (walking, running, leaping, swaying, jumping).

Nonlocomotor skills are essential for balance and body stability; they include balancing, swaying, turning, twisting, and swinging.

Manipulative skills are used to control objects with the hand and feet. They include striking, throwing, kicking, propulsion, catching, trapping, and receiving.

Movement awareness is the ability to conceptualize and then respond to a stimulus (as in moving laterally to set up for a return of serve in tennis).

Body awareness - one's knowledge of his/her body and its parts, as well as movement capabilities. It starts right at birth and is fine-tuned throughout life.

Examples: An awareness of the body in space (spacial awareness), ability to discriminate, associate, and interpret sound (auditory awareness), ability to move in a rhythmic, patterned manner (rhythmic awareness), and ability to discriminate sizes of objects and move in various directions (directional awareness).

DRILLS FOR THE COACH

Watching the N.Y. Knicks warm up and train is like watching a fine-tuned race car travel through the track. You see power, precision, and grace.

Coaches and players credit Strength & Conditioning Coach Greg Brittenham for much of the team's success in the 1990's. His program places a lot of emphasis on the development and fine-tuning of the fundamental-movement skills.

In his warm-ups, he tries to incorporate drills that mimic the movements performed in a game, such as sprinting. He will break it down into skipping, heel-to-butt kicks, and exaggerated striding.

Combination movements are also effective - a side shuffle for five yards, then a pivot into a 20-yard run, or a five-yard back-pedal, then a pivot into a 20-yard run or a five-yard shuffle to the right, then a five-yard shuffle back to the left, then a pivot into a run or skip or jump.

Brittenham's Complete Conditioning for Basketball (Human Kinetics) presents a large assortment of drills that are excellent for warming up and the development of movement skills for just about any sport.

GUIDELINES FOR ATHLETES

Athletes should know that a strong body is much easier to control than a weak one, that strength comes with age, and that strength can extend their careers. Prepubescent athletes may choose to increase their strength via fun activities such as climbing and jumping.

Of course, once the athlete starts competing on the high school level, he or she will almost always be certain of being turned on to an organized strength program.

In the final analysis, the success of every kind of sports and developmental program will be predicated on the four cardinal principles of sports education:

1. Commitment - a commitment to improve. The greater the commitment, the greater the return.

2. Consistency - training every day.

3. Concentration - focusing on implementing each task to the best of one's ability.

4. Competition - setting goals, competing against yourself, attempting to improve your personal best scores and efforts.