Let's Learn about Movement.

Welcome back to the PHED 1001.

It's the first teaching week for this course, hope you all came prepared and ready to learn about Fundamental Movements because that's what we did in today's session.

You may not think much about simple body movements like walking, bending, or kicking a ball; however, fundamental body movements are the building blocks necessary for more complex physical activities. Playing sports, exercising, and dancing all require a command of simple, fundamental body movements.

The session began with a class discussion on what we knew research and knew about Movement concepts. Movement concepts are basic to understanding efficient, effective movement.  They assist students in developing the structure of the content (the classification) and the language (vocabulary) of the field.  The classification used here includes body awareness, space, qualities of movement, and relationships.
There are four main movement concepts which are;

• Body Awareness – what the body can do; the shapes it can make, how it can balance, the transfer of weight, and flight. 
• Space –where the body can move
• Qualities of Movement – how the body moves (Many of the qualities of movement require the application of mechanical principles.)
• Relationships- with whom and/ or to what the body relates.

Afterwards, we learn about the different ways the body can move, locomotor, non - locomotor and manipulative. 

This session we focused mainly on Locomotor skills. Locomotor refers to body movements that move the body from one place to another. They cause the body to travel. There are eight main locomotor movements. They are categorized as either even or uneven movements. Even rhythm movements consist of equal, unvarying actions. These movements include: walking, running, hopping, leaping and jumping. 

Keep in mind that we're referring to the physical education definition of these movements. It was a bit difficult due to the fact of confuse the movements and terminology. A hop is technically defined as a springing from one foot and landing on that same foot. A leap is a springing from one foot but landing on the other foot. Leaping movements are commonly used when people jump over objects, like jumping over a rain puddle.Uneven rhythm movements consist of unequal actions. They also sometimes incorporate alternating actions. These movements include skipping, galloping and sliding. 

Note that a gallop is defined as stepping forward and pushing up with one foot, while the other foot follows. The student lands on the trailing foot. You might think of it as a rudimentary skip that toddlers do. A slide is similar, but the lead foot glides forward or side ward while the other foot follows. The lead foot does not step or push off into the air. 

The session was divided in two components, the first half dedicated to theory and the second half dedicated to practical actives.  What you just learnt was the theory part of the session. The practical session consisted of all students being present in the auditorium. First warm ups were done by just walking around in all different directions. Practical activities then began with students performing different activities that incorporated that locomotor skills. We had fun skipping, galloping, leaping, jumping or even doing the basic walking.  

Even after all the fun we had, class came to an end where we all sat in circle and did stretches in order to cool down and before class was dismissed everyone was asked to share one thing that they learn from the session whether it be theory or practical. 

Hope you had fun learning, until next class... see you soon.