The word physical refers to the body, and indicates bodily characteristics such as strength, speed, endurance, flexibility, health coordination and performance. It seemingly contrasts the body with mind. The term education when used in conjunction with physical refers to a process of ‘education’ that develops the human body especially, and the movement skills. Therefore, it transcends all misconceptions and misgivings about physical education as a field of teaching and an ingredient of general education.
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Human being is an integration of the body and mind. Both components through their combinations make him more successful. The mental process and the physical expression are beautifully interwoven in the mechanism of the whole man and his wholeness in no case should be made to suffer by separating mental and physical aspects (Kamlesh 1988).
Man’s life is a continuous flow of activity. Every moment he is doing something and his every activity is the result of the joint efforts of the body and mind; more integrated efforts yield more success to the individual. Things in this world, outside ourselves, come via the body (some organs) into our mind and things in our mind reach the world outside through the body (Sushil Chandra Gupta 1983).
The concept of performance related fitness is an elusive term that has been studied extensively over the past several years, and it has been classified by some experts as an aspect of physical fitness. Balance, coordination, agility, speed of movement, and power are among the most frequently cited components of performance- related fitness (Ali 2005).
Coordination motor abilities are particularly important at the initial stages of the sports development of a competitor (Zimmermann, Nicklisch,1981, Raczek, 1989, Ljach,1995, Raczek et al., 2002). A high level of coordination improvement since the earliest years makes it possible to make use of technical and tactical skills during a sports competion effectively (Szczepanik,1993, Ljach,1995, Sadovski, 2003, Starosta, 2003, Gierczuk, 2004). A well-formed basis of Coordination motor abilities in young sportsmen is maintained at a later age and is an important reason for faster and more accurate teaching of other, more difficult movement tasks (Raczek et al., 2002)
Especially in sports, in addition to mobility, the coordinative abilities strength, endurance, speed abilities and constitutional conditions are the prerequisites for developing high athletic performance. Starting from a high level of coordinative abilities, athletes can learn and improve athletic motor abilities and techniques that are required for the specific sport more quickly and with a higher degree of quality. (Hartmann et al., 2002)
“Training of proprioception means primarily the training of balance ability. It aims specifically at the improvement of depth perception and the resulting reflex muscle activity and concerns partial aspects of the overall coordinative abilities.” (Hafelinger and Schuba 2004)
If human beings have to find their balance on an unstable surface, an intra- and intercoordinative reaction of the muscles occurs, which is necessary for maintaining balance. As with proprioception, balancing ability plays a very important role in overall coordination, because the control of movements would be seriously affected without it. This means that balancing ability is also improved and extended through training of proprioception, by being able to learn new movements (Hafelinger and Schuba 2004).
Co-ordination means working of all the muscle groups of the body in union. It is of utmost importance in executing any movement with a predetermined objective. Between the muscles groups, co-ordination are divided into inter muscular co-ordination and intra muscular co-ordination. It means coordination between different muscle groups as well as between muscle fibres of the same muscle. Co-ordination is necessary to execute movements requiring speed and strength and more efficiently, therefore, with less expenditure of energy, showing a better performance over a longer time. A person starts losing coordination once he gets tired and vice-versa, a tired person cannot learn movements needing a high degree of co-ordination.
Coordination is the ability to integrate separate motor systems with varying sensory modalities into efficient movements. The harmonious working together of the synchrony, rhythm, and sequencing aspect of one’s movements is crucial to coordinated movement. Various parts of the body may be involved, such as eyefoot coordination, as in kicking a ball or walking upstairs. Eye- hand coordination is evident in fine motor activities such as bead stringing, tracing and clay modeling or in gross motor activities such as catching, striking or volleying a ball (Ali 2005).
Hand-eye coordination is the ability of the vision system to coordinate the information received through the eyes to control, guide, and direct the hands in the accomplishment of a given task, such as punching or defending in combat sports. Hand-eye coordination uses the eyes to direct attention and the hands to execute a task. Fine motor skills are involved in the control of small muscle movements, such as when an infant starts to use fingers with a purpose in coordination with the eyes.
Co-ordinative ability should not be equated with motor skills. Though both are inter related and inter dependent upon each other, they are determined by the motor co-ordination process. In a motor skill movement process of body parts are largely automatised for the execution of the particular movement.
The co-ordinative abilities play a vital role to increase the efficiency. To acquire efficiency, we require skilled and efficient potentials, for skilled and efficient potential coordinative abilities are very important and a pre-requisite for performance. It will be useful to children for various sports techniques and for their continuous refinement and modification during the long term training process.
Coordinative abilities are pre-requisites of athletics performance; these are mainly coordinated by motor control process. Athletes’ coordinative abilities help them in learning and perfecting technical skill in the training period; the coordinative abilities determine the speed of quality of learning, stabilizing and applying the techniques of sports in coordinative abilities which differ from technical skills that are prerequisite for several motor abilities (Harre, 1989).
The optimal age for motor learning is difficult to define. The conditions seem the best up to early adulthood; however lifelong sensitivity allows motor learning process to continue throughout one’s life, in the presence of frequent repetitions and appropriate motivation, depending on the difficulty of the learning task. The periods before puberty are nevertheless to be used particularly intensively for appropriate stimuli (especially with regard to co-ordination and speed), because it makes sense to influence the maturing functions. It has been also proved that co-ordination abilities can be trained particularly well at this age. However this does not mean that no effects can be achieved at more advanced ages. Broad co-ordination seems to be favourable for later success in motor learning (Hirtz & Starosta 2002).
In coordination ability, the control regulation processes are required to function in a particular manner, which is further automatised to a great extent during skill performance.
Coordinative abilities have also important and strong links with the motor skills as motor coordination forms the basis of the both. Coordination abilities are understood as relatively stabilized and generalised patterns of motor control and regulation processes. These enable the sportsman to do a group of movements with better quality and effect.
In fact coordinative abilities are understood as stabilized and generalized patterns of motor control and regulation processes. These enable the sportsman to do a group of movements with better utilization and effects. The development of coordinative abilities is important for all sports, but in particular for the technical sports, competitive games and for the combative sports.
Seemingly, co-ordinative abilities have no essential significance in sports with standard structures of the movements and relatively constant permanent competitive conditioning. However, purposeful development of coordinative abilities in the given case is one of the determining aspects of sports functioning, on which above all depends the level of the sports technical and tactical mastery. If account is not taken of this, constant specialization in standard form of movement will lead to stagnant motor skills and will narrow the very possibility of their restructuring and renewal (L. Metveyev, 1981).
Seven Coordination motor abilities were assessed on the basis of 14 indices. It was done with the use of sports-motor tests elaborated by various authors (Mynarski, 2000, Raczek et al., 2002).
There are seven co-ordinative abilities identified. These are : (1)Orientation Ability (2) Differentiation Ability (3) Coupling Ability (4) Adaptation Ability (5) Rhythm Ability, (6) Balance ability and (7) Reaction Ability. All the co-ordinative abilities are important for learning of sports techniques and for their continuous refinement and modifications during long term training process. The motor learning ability depends to a large extent on the level of co-ordinative abilities (Hardayal Singh, 1982).
Co-ordinative abilities are primarily dependent on the motor control and regulation process of central nervous system. For each co-ordinative abilities the motor control and regulation process function in a definite pattern when a particular aspect of these functions is improved then the sportsperson is in a better position to do a certain group of movements which for their execution depends on the CNS functioning pattern (Hardayal Singh, 1991).
The theories of motor coordination, therefore, are the best for understanding the nature of coordinative abilities. For each coordination ability, the central regulation process functions in a definite manner. When a particular aspect of this function is improved, the sportsman is in a better position to do a certain group of movements which for the execution depends upon the type of the central nervous system function pattern (Hardayal Singh, 1991).
Efficiency requires good coordination between the body and mind. Lack of coordination results in unskilled or poor movements which is dominated by cortical control that supersedes reflex and integrated mechanism (David W. et al., 1976).
In technical sports beautiful and graceful movements are a product of well developed technical skills and co-ordnative abilities which to a great extent determine the maximum limits to which sport performance can be improved in several sports especially the sports which depend largely on technical and tactical factors (Hardayal Singh, 1991).
When executing ,”coordination assignments” are determined first of all by the fact that they demand utmost concentration of attention, subtle differentiations and regulations considerable with, alertness, creation of new forms of movements, coordination and what is more restructuring of the firmly-formed coordination links present a rather difficult task for the nervous system. Naturally it is the best of all to tackle it at the beginning of the main part of the training session (Metveyev, 1981).
The coordinate function of the central nervous system and the one of its properties which Ivan Pavlov called plasticity are given a leading role in physical treatment of the essence of coordinative abilities. The ability qualitatively to coordinate movements undoubtedly depends on the perfection of the function of the analyzers (Matveyev, 1981).
Such training means can also be used as ancillary means of fostering the improvement of analyzers’ function while at the same time the athlete can stay relatively passive. The analyzers: as part of the whole neuromuscular system should be seen as a part of the “Physisiological Sub- stratum” of coordination. Their function co-determines the level of the coordinative abilities. This should be taken into consideration and these means only applied as an additional means to develop these functions ( Dietrich Harre, 1982).
Insufficient training of coordinative abilities limits the performance ability specially at the higher level. On the contrary, better development coordination abilities provide essential base for faster and effective learning, stabilization and valuation in technique and their successful execution in game situation. The quality of performance of all fundamental mechanical skills, the rhythm, flow accuracy, amplitude etc. are improved by coordinative ability; it helps in developing very fine extra credible skills (Singh, 1991).
Coordination is important for the development of combat sports; the coordinative abilities play a vital role during practice and competition situation. In Judo, Boxing and Wrestling, as we know, the performance is significantly based on coordinative abilities, like reaction time, balance, rhythm, orientation etc., in Judo during uchikomi (repetition practice) the rhythmic ability and coupling ability plays a major role as the technique to be perfected by repeating the movement a number of times. Kuzushi (off-balancing the opponent) is one of the pre- requisites for applying a successful throw which needs the attacker to be in good balance and posture. A learned judokas uses his reaction to get advantage of the opponent’s slow and improper attacks in applying counter throws. In the game of Judo, after each bout, a judoka fights against a new opponent of different height. Posture measurement add to some extent different weight (specially in open weight category) that enable him to adjust and transform his grips, techniques, postures and movement depending on the opponent, hence to meet such situation, he requires a top class differentiation ability. During the osaewaza (ground work) there are numerous situations when a judoka tries to hold the opponent, and the opponent lying below is unable to see the movements and positions adopted by the inclination of weight and body parts of the opponent touching him; it is where he uses his orientation abilities to defend himself from holding, locking and chocking technique (Sisodia, 2000).
Wrestling belongs to the group of sports disciplines with complex movement activities in which an essential role is played by coordination motor abilities. A high level of coordination improvement, since the earliest years, positively influences the process of learning new movements as well as enables to make a more effective use of technical and tactical skills during a sports fight. Therefore, the formation of coordination abilities, since the earliest years, is the condition of training young wrestlers effectively.
The continuously changing life process creates different needs and emphasis for different individuals, as they grow older. There is an optimum level of fitness for different age groups, and for better understanding of physical fitness the components of physical fitness must be known. The components of physical fitness as listed by Lason and Yocomare: Resistance to diseases, muscular strength, muscular power, muscular endurance, endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, speed, agility, co-ordination, balance and accuracy.
An individual with a high level of motor ability, possessing the basic motor qualities necessary for achieving excellence in a number of activities, may still be unable to perform well in a particular sport unless he has developed specific skills for that sport through long hours of practices.
In technical and combat sports, beautiful and graceful movements are a product of well developed technical skills and coordinative activities. The coordinative abilities, to a great extent, determine the maximum limits to which sport performance can be improved in several sports, especially the sports which depend largely on technical and tactical factors.
Experts in training recently have been using the term ‘technique, and coordinative abilities together as one performance factor (technique coordination or technique /coordination), since both are interrelated and interdependent. They have in common the process of the taking in and processing information for the regulation of action which enable the sportsman to direct and control his movement according to changing situation. Both these qualities postulate coordination of the nervous and muscular systems. The learning of motor movement has positive effect on coordination abilities necessary for the perfection of sports technique. Still these two qualities differ in the degree of their general training, methodic and the level of development. In case of motor skill, processes are largely automatised for the effective execution of a wide number of movements similar to each other.
Coordinative abilities play an important role in quick changing of body position during game. In some sports, like combative sports, coordinative abilities are very essential for better and effective movement for any execution of movement. In sports, coordinative ability or the combination of various coordination abilities play a vital role for the execution of any skill or movement. The combination of various coordinative abilities is helpful for the execution of any movement or skill.
The coordinative ability plays a significant role in learning consolidation and mastery of skills. Punch and defense occur frequently in boxing and it is assumed that these skills may have strong relationship with coordinative abilities. In other combat games like judo, wrestling etc, the player gets very limited time to perform, and enhanced reaction ability plays a vital role. Besides reaction ability, the other abilities, namely Balance, Rhythm, Coupling, Adaptation. Orientation ability, Balance ability play a vital role in the performance of skill in the combative sports.
Motor coordination is a part and parcel of action regulation and is closely linked with the process of cognitive, psychic and movement execution aspect of an action. Coordination abilities have also important and strong link with motor skills as motor coordination forms the basis of both. Coordination has been one of the key factors in terms of performance skill in efficient manner. It is generally seen that top level players possess abundance of coordination for developing skill in a variety of ways.
Combat sport
Combat sport is a competitive contact sport where two combatants fight against each other using certain rules of engagement, typically with the aim of simulating parts of real hand of combat. Judo, wrestling, boxing, mixed martial arts and fencing are examples of combat sports. The techniques used can be categorized into three domains: grappling, striking and weapon usage. Some rule- sets specialize in one area, while others allow overlap. Sports related to combat skills have been a part of human culture for thousands of years. The ancient Olympic Games were largely composed of sports that tested skills related to combat, such as armoured foot race, wrestling, boxing, pankration, chariot racing amongst others. This tradition of combat sports was taken even further by the Romans with gladiators who would fight with weapons, often to the death. Through the middle Ages and Renaissance the Tournament became popular, with the joust as a mine event. While the tournament was popular amongst Aristocrats, combative sports where practiced by the all levels of society.
Combat sports occupy a significant place among sports and games. It is a game of anticipation and masterful skill, deception and concentration. It requires mental and physical attributes to be in the top gear to tackle all eventualities in a bout. A bout is won by the perfect amalgam of physical condition, skills, experience and most importantly, the coordination.
Boxing
Boxing is a combat sports between two combatants who use their fists to achieve supremacy over their opponent. Like wrestling, boxing has ancient roots, as it was well known to the cultures of Mediterranean Sea and Egypt before it was first included in the Greek Olympics in 688 BC. Boxing was later known as pugilism, a derivative of the Latin term for a fighter, from which comes the slang term “pug.”
Boxing was first introduced in 1904 St. Louis, in the modern Olympic Games. It has remained a sport where the competition is organized along weight classification lines, as it is presumed in boxing, like other combat sports judo, and wrestling that the heavier competitor is generally the stronger competitor. With some variations as to categories, all professional boxing, as well as amateur competition, is determined by weight class. And in the year of 1951 New Delhi, it was first introduced into the Asian games in India.
Boxing is mainly divided into amateur and professional two categories, and Amateur Boxing Association (A.B.A.) is the highest governing body of boxing. It was formed in the year 1885 in London. It controls the tournament in the Olympic Games, amateur Boxing, including Asian Games etc. In India; on May 13, 1948 the I.A.B.F. was formed at a meeting of provincial representatives who were in Calcutta for the Olympic trials.
The only significant difference between Olympic and professional boxing is the length of the rounds in each bout and the use of protective gear. In Olympic competition, all fighters must wear protective headgear and each round is two minutes in duration, with one-minute intervals, and four rounds in total. Professional bouts can last from eight to 15 rounds, depending on the weight classification, and scoring in the sport of boxing is similarly varied between amateur, Olympic, and professional bodies, but the general principles are consistent across the sport.
Boxing matches are scored by the referee who is in the ring to maintain order and to enforce the rules of the sport, as well as by three judges stationed outside the ring who assess the fight based on a scoring system. Each punch that, in the opinion of the referee, lands on the opponent’s head or body will score a point. Penalties may be imposed in the scoring system for such items as a low blow, which is a punch delivered below the belt line of the opponent; a head butt; or any other type of contact that is not permitted by the rules. When the fight is not concluded with either a knockout or a technical knockout at the end of the last round, the fighter with the highest number of points will be deemed the winner. If the points total is equal, the fight is declared a draw.
The fighting stance is similar to the traditional athletic stance common to the execution of many sports, with the knees bent and the hips flexed to permit agility and the establishment of a stable position. In the fighting stance, the boxer’s hands are maintained in a defensive position in front of the head, to protect against punches aimed there.
A counterpunch is a blow delivered in an immediate response to one received from an opponent. A combination is a series of two or more different punches thrown consecutively. The boxer’s footwork is of critical importance to the delivery of a strong punch from a balanced position. Footwork that permits the boxer to maintain balance as the blows are delivered and absorbed is the base on which an effective punch can be delivered; an ability to move gracefully and with agility will often permit a boxer to escape dangerous encounters with the opponent.
The tactics employed in a boxing match are a combination of a particular boxer’s strengths, the opponent’s perceived weaknesses, and the status of the fight at a given time
Boxing training is a very physically demanding process. Boxing is a sport that is anaerobic, in terms of the intervals of high intensity activity contained within each round; it is also aerobic in its requirements that the boxer builds a powerful physical recovery mechanism, to assist the body in returning to its natural balance between each round. Effective boxing programmes will make ample provision for the development of both energy systems. Boxers have traditionally employed skipping and running (road-work) to enhance their cardiovascular proficiency.
Agility, lateral quickness, and hand-eye coordination are fundamental to boxing success. The mechanics of the delivery of a punch require the instant coordination of footwork with arm action.
The physical risks of boxing are many; lacerations to the face, fractured noses, damage to the ear cartilage and similar injuries caused by punches to these areas are common to boxers. The most serious boxing injuries are those caused by a blow or a series of blows to the head, most commonly concussion and subdural hematoma. Concussion is a brain injury in which the brain is violently moved within the fluid that supports it within the skull (http://www.faqs.org)
Judo
Judo is an art and sports, founded by Jigaro Kano of Japan in 1882. He took the best of Jujitsu self-defence techniques and cut out those that were harmful. He modified others so that they could be practised safely. Judo uses skill and flexibility for attack and defence. Judo is known as “Gentle Way”. Strength is of course applied but it is even more important to know how to use it. In emergencies, Judo can be a form of self-defence (Goldman, 1986).
“Judo may be described as a science for the study of potential power of the body and mind and the way of applying them most efficiently in competitive activities. Hence, it is involved with the study of the laws of gravity, dynamics and mechanics as related to the function of human body. Efficiency in Judo is certainly a valuable assets, but the real value applied to life in the effects which the training produces on the state of the body and mind (G.Koizumi, 1960).
Judo was first introduced into Olympic competition in 1964, and it has subsequently become accepted as a high level combat sport for both men and women. Judo has significant world wide appeal, both as a recreational club activity, with participants who seek a measure of improved physical fitness of an individual, and personal pleasure, as well as status as an elite level sport.
Judo in ‘wide sense’, can be physical culture, in the ‘narrow sense’, a sport; as physical culture, it can be an entrance into a special form of physical experience of an intrinsic need, an increase of awareness of what the body is capable of doing. As a sport, the individual can participate in violent competition, experience the conflict of one skill opposed to another. As a man-made skill it can develop the bad and the good in any personality (Geof, 1988).
Worldwide judo competitions are sanctioned through the International Judo Federation (IJF), an organization with national governing body members in most nations of the world. Judo is organized as a weight category competition, as larger athletes would possess a natural competitive advantage against smaller athletes, given the nature of judo and its physical requirements.
Judo has a standardized ranking system for its participants, which may range from children under 10 years of age to persons in their 70s and beyond. Athletes are judged on their ability to execute various standard throws and holds; the athlete is awarded his judo “belt” with the colour of the belt signifying their level of proficiency. Black belts are reserved for the masters of the sport, known as dans – a tenth level black belt is the highest level ever awarded in judo. The award of a belt is not necessarily related to Olympic or international competitive achievement.
Judo is one of the combat sport of coordination, where strength, balance, flexibility, reaction and timing are employed to create tactical advantages. All judo participants wear an identical uniform, the judogi. The competitors wear no other clothing or footwear during the course of bout in competition.
The objective of competitive judo is to defeat the opponent in one of the three ways to successfully throw the opponent onto his back; to hold the opponent on his back for a period of 25 seconds; to disable the opponent by way of a choke hold or an arm lock that prevents his further movement. Judo is the only Olympic sport where choking or the potential fractures of an opponent’s arm are legal techniques.
Throughout the course of the contest, the judoka are scored in their movements by three judges, one of whom who is on the mat, the remaining judges are positioned on the edges of the competitive surface. The judges assess not only the raw numerical value of the score, but the quality or any impressive aspect of a single manoeuvre. Points are also scored through the award through penalty; points are not deducted from the offender’s score, but added to the opponent’s tally.
As a general rule, a judoka may attempt to knock over the competitor by attacking their legs, by sweeping the feet of the opponent from under them, or by performing one of the many permitted throws. Much of judo success is built upon the ability of a competitor to execute the desired throw while establishing a low centre of gravity through which to move dynamically across the mat. Many judo moves are also executed in mid-air, and the understanding by the judoka of the importance of maintaining a low centre of gravity is essential in landing in a stable position.
The brute strength that athletes often develop through weight training may assist in judo, but will never likely be determinative to competitive success. Training exercises that emphasize balance and coordination movement within which the athlete is able to move explosively are the foundation of judo success. As the body of a judoka may be twisted and contorted by the application of opponent force during an event, stretching to achieve maximum flexibility and range of joint motion are essential to prevent fluid movement and to assist in the prevention of injury(http://www.faqs.org).
Wrestling
Wrestling is hand combat between two competitors subject to certain rules, during which each competitor tries to control the movement of the other through the complex technical- tactical moves and by using all their physical and psychological potential (Petrov, 1987).
Wrestling is one of the world’s oldest forms of athletic competition. Many cultures had forms of wrestling as a component of their military preparation. The ancient Olympics included wrestling, with the competition first recorded as taking place in the Games of 708 BC.
The recognized sport of wrestling is an athletic event, sanctioned by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA), and it is included as both an international and Olympic competition.
More than 4000 years ago at the dawn of civilization, we find that wrestling was highly developed in Asia and Egypt, then introduced in Greece; wrestling was introduced in Rome in the last quarter of the second century B.C. Wrestling developed in England in an early era. China was the first in which wrestling was introduced among the Asian countries, in India history of wrestling can be traced as far back as 4000 years B.C. (Dubey, 1964).
Wrestling is a sport involving two athletes engaged in a physical competition that is limited to a specified area defined on a mat. The general object of all types of wrestling is one wrestler attempts to force the shoulders of the opponent to the floor in a prescribed manner. The contest, a bout, is generally two rounds, each three minutes in duration. A wrestler wins a bout by either scoring a fall against the opponent, or by accumulating points through the s
