Developmental characteristics for grading gripping and jumping motor control abilities

Abstract

This study aimed to elucidate the developmental characteristics of motor control ability of gripping and jumping from childhood to adulthood. The participants were instructed to perform two movements, i.e., gripping and standing long jump, first with maximal effort (maximum task) and subsequently with 50% subjective effort (half task). Participants' force (gripping) and actual distances (jumping) were recorded and analyzed. The relative values of the half task were calculated based on the maximum task. Furthermore, the constant and absolute errors from the target value (50%) were evaluated. We compared the age (5, 11, 17, 19-20, and 30-49 years of age), movement (gripping and jumping) and sex (male and female).

Consequently, absolute errors in half task were greater in 5-year-old age group than in other age groups in both sexes and movements. As regards the movements, gripping in both sexes had greater absolute error than jumping. Moreover, there were no relationships between the errors of gripping and jumping in each age group and sex. In conclusion, this study indicated that the developmental process in the motor control ability significantly improves from children to school age for both male and females, regardless of movements. A common characteristic of all ages was that jumping were more accurately controlled than gripping.