Co-Ordination

Coordination is the quality which enables the individual to integrate all the powers and capacities of his whole organism into an effective doing of on act.

The outstanding characteristic of the expert athlete is his ease of movement, even during maximal effort. The novice is characterized by his tenseness, wasted, motion and excess effort. That rare person, the "natural athlete," seems to be endowed with the ability to undertake any sport activity, whether he is experienced in it or not, with ease. The ease is his ability to perform with minimal antagonistic tension. It is more present in some athletes than others, but can be improved by all.

The fighter whose movements seem awkward, who never seems to find the proper distance, is always being timed, never "out-guesses" his opponent, and always gives warning of his intentions before they become serious, is suffering chiefly from lack or coordination. The well-coordinated fighter does everything smoothly and gracefully. He seems to glide in and out of distance with a minimum of effort and a maximum of deception. His timing is usually good because of his own movements are so rhythmical they tend to establish complimentary rhythm on the part of his opponent, a rhythm can break to his own advantage because of his perfect control of his own muscles. He seems to out-guess his opponent because he usually takes his initiative and, to a large extent, forces the reactions of his opponent. Above all, he has confidence in himself.

Learning coordination is a matter of training the nervous system and not a question of training muscles. The transition from totally uncoordinated muscular effort to skill of the highest perfection is a process of developing the connections in the nervous system. Psychologist and biologist tell us that the billions of elements in the nervous system are not in direct connection with each cells in such close in such close proximity that impulse can pass from one to others by a process of induction. This point at which the impulse passes from one nerve cell to another is called the "synapse." The synapse theory explains why the baby who displayed totally uncoordinated responses at the sight of a ball eventually becomes the big league ball-player.

Training for skill (coordination) is purely a matter of forming proper connections in the nervous system through practice (precision practice). Each performance of an act strengthens the connections involved and makes the next performance easier, more certain, and more readily done. Likewise, disuse tends to weaken any pathways that have been formed and makes doing of the act more difficult and uncertain (constant exercises). Thus, we can attain skill only by actually doing the thing we are trying to learn. We learn solely by doing or reacting. When learning to form pathways, we sure the actions are the most economical as well as the most efficient use of energy and motion.

To become a champion requires a condition of readiness that causes the individual to approach with pleasure even the most tedious practice session. The more "ready" the person is to respond to a stimulus, the more satisfaction he finds in the response, and the more "unready" he is, the more annoying he finds it to be forced to act.