Motor skills
•Locomotor skills
•Nonlocomotor skills
Locomotor skills
• Locomotor skills enable you to move your
body from place to place.
• Everyone develops locomotor skills as he or
she develop strength and coordination.
• Locomotor skills are fundamental to success
in all sports, games and dance activities.
There are eight locomotor
skills!
• Walking • Leaping
• Running • Slide stepping
• Jumping • Galloping
• Hopping • Skipping
Walking
• Walking is learned
instinctively.
• In walking you place
one foot on the ground
before lifting the other
foot at a fairly slow
pace.
• Walking is the
simplest and most
common locomotor
skill.
Running
• In running a person
moves slowly or
quickly with both feet
off the ground at the
same time.
• Running is efficient.
• Technique: land on the
heel of the foot, roll
your foot forward and
bend the knee slightly,
lean forward
Jumping
• Jumping occurs when you launch
yourself into the air using one
foot and land on both feet.
• Jumping is used in competitive
sports and allows you to touch,
block, catch, throw and hit objects
beyond your height.
• Technique: To jump for height
plant one or both feet, bend the
knees, thrust the arms upward.
To jump for distance, develop as
much speed as possible before
jumping.
Hopping
• When you hop, you take off and
land on the same foot and you are
momentarily airborne.
• Hopping is used to adjust steps,
maintain balance and regain
rhythm, in dances and sports.
• Technique: when hopping stay
close to the ground to maintain
balance when you change
directions. This may not apply in
the triple jump or some dances.
Leaping
• Leaping requires you to takeoff
from one foot and land on the
other foot.
• It is like taking a long step or
stride in the air.
• Leaping is graceful and used in
dance, cross country, hurdles,
football, soccer or leaping over
mud puddles.
• Leaping uses techniques similar
to jumping but it is more
dangerous.
Slide Stepping
• To slide step you step sideways
with one foot, then pull the
other foot beside the first.
• The slide step is used as a
defensive movement in
basketball, football, hockey and
soccer, as a way to get into the
correct position in baseball,
softball and racquet sports and
in dance.
• Technique: keep your feet as
close to the ground as possible
and take short steps.
Galloping
• Galloping is forward
slide stepping.
• Step forward and
bring the back foot to
the front foot.
• Technique: same as
slide stepping, with
both keep knees bent
and feet apart to
remain stable
Skipping
• A skip is a combination of a
walking step and a hop.
• The skip is the most complex
skill used for transportation of
the body.
• Skipping is often combined
with jumping or leaping in
games and sports.
• Skipping is fun!
• Technique: keep your feet close
to the ground, combine one
walking step and a hop with the
opposite foot
Nonlocomotor skills
• Nonlocomotor skills are stationary movement skills
• A person using a nonlocomotor skill does not travel while
using the skill.
• Bending, stretching, twisting are examples of
nonlocomotor skills.
When locomotor and nonlocomotor skills are
combined correctly in games or sports,
transitional motor skills are improved.
• Transitional motor skills include punting, serving and
vaulting.
• You must improve locomotor and nonlocomotor skills to
be successful using transitional motor skills.
Please get out your journal paper!
• Respond to the open response question on
the next slide.
• Place the completed journal entry (answer
to the open response question) in your
journal or notebook.
Lynn’s dance teacher spends a portion of each
dance class working on locomotor skills. She
told Lynn that improving her basic locomotor
skills would also improve her sports skills.
A. Define the term locomotor skill.
B. Choose three locomotor skills used in
either basketball, soccer or softball.
C. Describe the proper technique for each
skill as it is used in that specific sport.