Core Concepts of Kinesiology

A re you interested in skillful movement? Do you, as a teacher, coach, or spectator, observe and evaluate movement in terms of its effortlessness or effectiveness? Do you try to elicit more skillful movement from yourself or others? If so, you probably have developed some tried and true methods of assessment and adjustment. And you probably have encountered frustration when the mover or the movement is outside vour domain of confidence. Chances are that when you are successful, you are applying the core concepts of kinesiology. Likewise, when you are frustrated, you might want to give the core concepts a try. What are core concepts? According to Kline (1988), they are the underlying structure of our knowledge about a subject. In most cases, they are not clear to the person who has them because they are part of the background of experience. And even though we do not see them when we use them, they are the means by which we organize our thoughts and actions on a topic. Thus, the quality of our responses depends in part on the breadth and depth of our core concepts. Many of us are less aware of the core concepts of movement than we are of the core concepts of music. For that reason, I will begin with an overview of how we use core concepts in music: When we play or listen to music we often are concerned with volume, pitch, pace, and rhythm. In other words, we may pay attention to whether the volume is too loud or too soft, or if the pitch is too flat or too sharp, or if the pace is too fast or too slow, or if the rhythm is sporadic or smooth. From the background or foreground of our experiences, we recognize that volume, pitch, pace, and rhythm matter in music. And we realize that these characteristics can be measured and manipulated in many situations to improve the quality of the music. For example, not only can we assess the volume but usually we can adjust it as well. In effect, all music has a “volume knob.” Do we have the equivalent of a volume knob in movement? Yes, about ten of them. Similar to music, gross human movement seems to be organized around several core concepts. The most obvious and important concepts appear to be range and speed of motion, number and nature of segments, balance, and coordination. Unless a movement is slow or simple, compactness is a relevant concept. Finally, when an object is to be projected, extension at release (or at contact), path of projection, and spin are applicable concepts (see table 1). Moreover, each of these core concepts of kinesiology can be conceived of as operating like a volume knob. For instance, if we assess volume as too soft, we try to turn the knob to make it louder. Likewise, if we assess range of motion as too small, we try to “turn the knob” to make it larger. Thus, movement knobs can be turned up or down in varying degrees to improve the quality of movement. Just as with music, these core concepts of kinesiology are part of our background or common-knowledge understanding of movement (Bird & Hudson, 1990). Each of us, as movers and observers of movement, has used the core concepts. At some level we recognize that these characteristics matter in movement. And we realize that these characteristics can be measured and manipulated in many situations for the improvement of movement. The purpose of this article is to bring these concepts from the background to the foreground so we can use them more effectively. As we gain familiarity with the core concepts, we can apply them to a variety of movements from dance to sport and from familiar to unfamiliar. Some of these concepts are more important than others in certain situations, and a few of these concepts are important in limited situations. Depending on our circumstances, our use of these concepts can be either qualitative or quantitative, as well as obvious or obscured. In addition, these core concepts apply to a wide variety of movers from lowly skilled to highly skilled. Perhaps best of all, these concepts are the basis of communication