Compensatory coordination of release parameters in a throwing task.
The consistency and coordination of release parameters in ball-throwing movements were investigated. The authors used a newly developed index of coordination for release parameters (ICRP) that quantifies the degree of improvement of performance consistency caused by compensatory relationships among parameters (i.e., not caused by consistency of parameters). Eight participants practiced for 150 trials, with the nondominant hand, a ball-throwing task aimed at a stationary target. The magnitude of the ball-release velocity vector, among release parameters, as well as the performance was found to become consistent with practice. The ICRP score suggested that the release parameters were complementarily coordinated with one another, and that the coordination improved with practice. Those results indicate that compensatory relationships among varying release parameters contribute to reducing the variability of performance in a ball-throwing task whose goal is accuracy.
Kudo
K
K
Laboratory of Sports Sciences, Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan 153-8902. kudo@idaten.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Tsutsui
S
S
Ishikura
T
T
Ito
T
T
Yamamoto
Y
Y
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009048:Motor Skills; D009949:Orientation; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011601:Psychophysics