oordination is the ability to be able to control the movement of the body in co-operation with the bodies sensory movements. Coordination is essentially a person’s ability to integrate many fitness components in order to achieve successful bodily movements. This fitness component again ties many others into it but coordination is really the link between successful movement and fitness components such as speed and power. Coordination of hands, eyes and feet are the main examples. A persons ability to do something as simple as catch a ball requires coordination between the sensory system and the muscle/skeletal. This is exemplified by catching a ball because the brain and nervous/sensory system reacts to the ball been thrown and then the person must have the coordination to be able to integrate that message with the muscle/skeletal system to then make the appropriate movements to catch the ball. Coordination is the tying together of many components and more importantly is absolutely essential to the modern athlete. Factors affecting coordination centre around training and age. Coordination in terms of age is affected by the persons centre of gravity. The lower the persons centre of gravity, the better the balance and coordination of the lower limbs. This is exemplified but not defined that younger people will have greater coordination than older people because of their ability to have a low centre of gravity giving them greater balance and coordination. Training is the biggest factor in coordination. If a person is in the autonomous stage of learning a particular set of skills, it is more likely that their coordination is leading to the successful execution of the skill. Coordination is not a completely trained component but it can exemplified through training leading to a skill been executed properly because the body and mind are working together. Fatigue is also a factor in coordination. If a person is fatigued in a game of tennis, say the fifth set, the persons ability to integrate movements to get around the court and hit the ball will be hampered. This is because the muscles are reacting slower with the sensory/nervous system and movements will not be as fluent as they would have been at the start of the game, meaning less coordination. Below is a video exemplifying balance and coordination skills of young kids, balancing on one foot and throwing and catching a ball against a wall. Integrating many movements in order to improve coordination and balance.
TESTING COORDINATION
Coordination is not usually a tested fitness component. It is so heavily reliant on other fitness components that things like balance and strength are taken into account when looking at an athlete's coordination. Some made up unofficial tests can be done like as seen in the video above, setting a marker 2 meters away from the wall, balancing on one foot and throwing and catching the ball. You can set up time limits and have as many catches in 2 minutes and set up a scale to measure the person's coordination.