Much attention is being given to key movements in specific sports. Key movements typically refer to those moments that are responsible for making the movement successful. Most often the key movements are related to some aspect of skill execution.
To fully understand the significance and importance of key movements it is necessary to look at which sports are involved, the purpose of the movements and the age of the athletes. One or more of these factors are looked at in relation to the key movements.
For example, in some sports (or sports skills) the athlete has plenty of time to execute the skill. This includes baseball pitching, shotput, discus, tennis serve and other individual sports. In essence, it includes all the skills in which the athlete has no time restraints.
In other sports the athlete must execute the movements (skill) in a very short period of time. Examples of this include the tennis volley, baseball batting, soccer or football kick when under pressure by opponents and cutting actions to elude opponents. In general, it includes all skills that must be executed very quickly in order to be executed.
The purpose of the key movements is especially important. It is in this area that the greatest value of key movements is found. For example, is the purpose of the key movements to generate more force or accuracy or both? Is the purpose of the skill execution to generate more speed, distance or both? Is the purpose of the key movements to facilitate greater learning? All of these play very important roles in the development of an athlete.
Age of the athlete is very important in determining what the key movements for achieving success are in mastering a skill or other type of exercise. The key movements for a young athlete most often relate to learning movements, especially as they relate to sports skills. As they gain proficiency in the key movements for learning they incorporate other key movements to develop greater strength or other physical qualities together with the original movement.
The key movement can also relate to execution of a movement that is used in different sports that involves the same or very similar actions (movements). An example of this would be movements of the hip which are responsible for weight shift, force production and creating conditions for more forceful execution of sequential movements in the throwing, hitting and kicking sports.
In sports that require the production of force key movements usually refer to those actions that are responsible for creating most of the force. This would apply to sports such as baseball (batting), tennis (ground strokes), MMA and boxing (punch), golf (drive) and pitching in baseball and softball. In this case, rather than using the terms key movements, force producing actions could be more apropos.
The concept of key movements is not new. However, the application of key movements in the theory and practice of sports science is still relatively new. Some coaches practice elements of key movements while others remain unaware of their existence. Thus, it is a practical idea that still needs great exploration and application.