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What Is Motor Fitness?

By Alex Terris
Updated: Jun 04, 2024
Views: 50,528
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Motor fitness is a term that describes an athlete’s ability to perform effectively during sports or other physical activity. An athlete’s motor fitness is a combination of five different components, each of which is essential for high levels of performance. Improving fitness involves a training regimen in all five.

There are many different manifestations of fitness. Some examples include strength, stamina, speed, and flexibility. Certain types of fitness, such as an athlete’s cardiac fitness level, are more important than others. An athlete needs to be aware of the various types of fitness to develop an effective training program that focuses on weak or important areas.

Motor fitness, or motor physical fitness, refers to how an athlete can perform at his or her sport, and involves a mixture of agility, coordination, balance, power, and reaction time. Improving this form of fitness is an indirect result of training in any of these attributes. All five components of fitness are essential for competing at high levels, which is why the concept is seen as an essential part of any athlete’s training regime.

Agility refers to the body’s ability to perform quick movements in different directions. It is sometimes described as how fast an athlete is able to change direction while competing on the field or on the court. Improving agility often involves sprinting between cones that are placed at a variety of angles.

Coordination is more difficult to describe than agility because it cannot be observed directly. An athlete with a high level of coordination is able to combine all forms of fitness — not just those that are part of motor fitness — in an effective and controlled way. The more coordinated an athlete is, the more efficient he or she will be during competitive activities.

Power refers to the athlete’s ability to contract his or her muscles forcefully in an explosive movement. Most people have an intuitive sense of what power is, and why it’s important for sports. Powerful athletes are not merely strong; they are able to use that strength quickly and efficiently.

Balance and reaction time are two other important parts of motor fitness. Balance is an athlete’s ability to control his or her body’s movements, while reaction time is how quickly the athlete can respond to a changing situation. Improving all five components of motor fitness is important for any athlete who wants to achieve his or her best.

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Discussion Comments
By Bertie68 — On Jul 02, 2011

I don't know how they teach the game of tennis now. When I was trying to learn, we started out with racket and ball and the swings and serves.

I learned to hit the ball and play the game. But later, I realized I didn't have the motor fitness skills to do well at the game. I wish that I had done foot and whole body drills to help me switch direction quickly. Any number of times, I would trip over my own feet when changing direction.

I could have done more strength and flexibility exercises so I would have more control of my body - with a controlled bodily thrust.

Being able to balance my body and react with quickness on a return shot would have been great.

Oh well, I guess it's never too late to change my ways.

By Misscoco — On Jul 01, 2011

I strongly believe in young children's participation in all kinds of sports. It helps develop self-esteem and skill's development. Winning and competition are not as important as learning skills, like the motor fitness abilities. Teach the kids to have fun - laugh.

My granddaughter's physical education teacher uses so many fun ways to teach coordination, ability to change direction, balance and reaction time. Not so much power training! That comes later.

There's a lot of motor fitness activities that kids can have fun with. Even the somewhat awkward kids can do these and feel good about it.

These can be done alongside learning to play soccer, tennis, baseball, and basketball.

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