Reduced errors in overhand throwing practice of children: analysis of movement components

Abstract

Introduction: Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are important as they form the basis of more complex movements in sports and recreation. Training FMS is therefore likely to be valuable in child development. Previous research has shown that training interventions that reduce errors during practice of a FMS (i.e., overhand throwing), are beneficial for children’s learning. This study aimed to gain a better understanding of error-reduced training by analyzing change in four components of an overhand throwing movement pattern. Methods Children aged 8–10 years (n=108), practiced 120 trials of overhand throwing in an outcome error-reduced (ER) or an outcome error-strewn (ES) practice condition. Task difficulty was manipulated so that children in the ER group had significantly more successful practice trials than children in the ES group. Using a pretest-posttest study design, the overhand throwing movement was examined using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2, which is a validated process-oriented assessment of the following components: (1) hand/arm windup, (2) hip/shoulder rotation, (3) weight shift, and (4) follow through. A performance measure of throwing accuracy was also conducted. Results Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the ER practice condition resulted in greater improvements in throwing accuracy than the ES practice condition (p=.02). ANOVAs of the change in each of the four movement components showed that the ER practice condition resulted in improvements in only the follow through component of throwing (p=.03), whereas the ES practice condition did not result in any significant improvements. Follow-up correlational analysis showed that improved throwing accuracy of children in the ER practice condition was associated with improvements in hand/arm wind-up (r=.44, p=.002) and hip/shoulder rotation (r=.31, p=.04) movement components. No associations were found between improved throwing accuracy of children in the ES practice condition and changes in the four movement components. Discussion The study findings suggest that the beneficial effect of error-reduced training on overhand throwing in children may be localized to the final and more distal component of the throwing pattern, the diagonal follow through. Whether this is associated with force production and/or movement trajectory can be explored in future research using more quantitative methodology (e.g. 3D motion analysis). Furthermore, variability in learning of children in the ER practice condition may be explained by the two most proximal components of the throwing pattern.