Fundamental Movement Skills and Game Performance in Invasion

Game Activities

Ricky Wibowo, Eka Nugraha and Kuston Sultoni

Faculty of Sport and Health Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jln Dr. Setiabudhi No 229, Bandung, Indonesia

ricky_wibowo@upi.edu

Keywords: Fundamental Movement Skills, Game Performance, Invansion Games.

Abstract: Many studies showed that fundamental movement skills (FMS) proficiency have positive effect on regular

physical activities. As a consequence, researchers compete on creating games activities to improve FMS.

However, relationship between FMS and games performance at games activities are still unexplored. The

purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between fundamental movement skills and games

performance of elementary students in the modified invasion game activities. Correlational approach was

used to analyze the results of this study. Third grade elementary school students (n=40) were enrolled in this

study. FMS was measured by Gross Motor Development-Second Edition (TGMD-2) Test consisting of

locomotor and control object skills. Student’s games performance were evaluated through a modified invasion

game, where the technical and rules were minimized and adjusted to the developmental characteristics of the

participants. Game performance consisted of games involvement (GI) and games performance (GP), and it

was measured using the observation format of Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI). This was

achieved by selecting three components that were adjusted to the research needs of decision making

component, skill execution and support on invasion game activities in the form of modified handball and

soccer games. The results indicated that all correlation between FMS toward GI and GP in both games were

statistically significant. Student who have better FMS will perform better. When viewed from the type of

invasion game, the dominant game of the leg (soccer games) tend to be more difficult to be performed by

students. Therefore simple invasion games are more suitable for students of this age especially for girl’s

student.

1 INTRODUCTION

Fundamental movement skills (FMS) could be

divided into three aspects, namely object control

skills, such as throwing and catching; locomotor

skills such as running and leaping; and stability skills

like bending and twisting (Gallahue, Ozmun, and

Goodway 2012). One of the strategies to develop

FMS learning is through playing, which can facilitate

children’s motoric learning ability because it is a core

part of a child’s world. Children's play is the primary

means by which they learn about their bodies and

movement (Gallahue (2006:29). Games approaches

are developed as a result of dissatisfaction with the

emphasis on technique-based approaches especially

for children (1). Many studies have investigated the

role of games or gaming console activity to increase

children’s FMS (Barnett 2015a; Papastergiou 2015;

Akbari et al. 2009; Johnson et al. 2016; Barnett

2015b) and motor skill or physical activity

programme (Brian et al. 2016) (Bryant and Duncan

2016). In order to increase a child’s interest and

physical activity behavior, intervention programs

such as manipulative skills are developed in physical

education (Mazzardo et al. 2008). Game-focused

teaching strategies appear to promote a mastery

oriented motivational climate and, therefore, have the

potential to increase pupils’ motivation in PE (Gray

et al. 2009) and possibility to increase school

performance (Ericsson and Karlsson 2012).

Proficiency in FMS and early motor skills

positively contribute to enrolment in regular physical

activities (Iivonen et al. 2013; Barela 2013) and body

mass index (De Meester et al. 2016; Okely 2012). It

is also beneficial in sport activities during

adolescence and may have implications for talent

identification purposes as well as potential health-

390

Wibowo, R., Nugraha, E. and Sultoni, K.

Fundamental Movement Skills and Game Performance in Invasion Game Activities.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education (ICSSHPE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 390-395

ISBN: 978-989-758-317-9

related benefits (Vandorpe et al. 2012). However,

getting used to and involved in physical activities is a

long process (Barela 2013). Therefore interesting

activities are possibly required to make children want

to remain in physical activities; for example by

humor-presented activities when playing the games

(Aggerholm and Ronglan 2012). Better motor skills

development is correlated with higher physical

activity in children (Cliff, Okely, Smith, and

McKeen, 2009). Moreover FMS proficiency can also

improve physical self-confidence (Mcgrane et al.

2016). To get the children involved and stay active in

longer periods, the teacher needs to set physical

activities to games-like situation. Teachers must be

aware that children require free play to develop their

motor skills. Through games activites, FMS are

mastered by the children as they play along.

Additionally, objects and manipulative skills which

also have big impact to physical activity can be

achieved (Carl 2015). Therefore, physical educators

at primary school should reinforce learning of object

manipulation skills in the PE curriculum (Barnett et

al. 2016).

In opposite to the opinion above, some studies

suggested that FMS could be acquired by specific

activities, and hence this could improve physical

activity (Bryant and Duncan 2016; Ericsson and

Karlsson 2012; Anon 2013; Lander et al. 2017). To

achieve competence in sport, FMS must be mastered

prior to doing sport activities, and there is evidence

that FMS is related to physical activity level (Barnett,

Ridgers and Salmon 2015). In other words, children

who have better FMS tend to be more active and

involved in physical activity. There have been many

reasons for little attention being paid for FMS,

including that, again, children acquire these FMS

without specific requirement activity. This study aims

to investigate the contribution of FMS (locomotor and

object control) to invasion games activities and

explore how FMS contribute to games performance

and games involvement in modified invasion games

(football and handball) among elementary school

children, ranging from 9-11 years old.

2 METHOD

2.1 Participants

Forty 3

grade students from a state elementary

school in Bandung who were studying physical

education (21 female; 19 male) participated in this

correlational study. Student’s physical characteristics

(mean ± standard deviation) were: age = 9,1±0.54

years; height = 1,25±0,3; and weight = 27,4±0,3).

2.2 Procedure

The first test to be conducted was The Test of Gross

Motor Development (TGMD-2), which measures

Fundamental movement skills (FMS) of children

from 3 - 10 years (Mazzardo et al. 2008; Bardid,

Huyben, et al. 2016). Among the primary goals of the

TGMD-2 is to serve as a measurement tool in

research involving gross motor development.

Locomotors (Loc) skills were defined as running,

galloping, hopping on one foot, jumping with both

legs, and jumping side-wise. Object control skills

(OC) were defined as hitting, bouncing, catching,

kicking, throwing and rolling ball. According to

Ulrich and Wouter, (De Meester et al. 2016; Barnett,

Ridgers, Zask, et al. 2015) each child was given two

trials for each skill assessment, where scores of both

trials were then summed up to obtain a raw score. The

raw scores of the locomotor and object-control skills

were added to provide an overall score which was

then converted to a percentile score, standardized for

age and sex. The construct validity of the TGMD-2

test for locomotors component is r = .68 - 78 and for

manipulative component r = .66 - .87. The overall

value of Cronbach Alpha test TGMD-2 for each test

item range between .82 to .83. The TGMD‐2 was

conducted one week prior to the game performance

assessment.

One week later, games performance was assessed

in invasion games activities. The design of the

modified invasion game for novices was adapted

from those used in similar research in educational

contexts (20). Subjects were evaluated through small-

side games 4 vs 4 invasion games without goal keeper

(del Campo et al. 2011; Gutiérrez et al. 2014). Before

games, student followed a standard 10-minutes

warming-up consisting of juggling, passing and

passing-intercepting. All students participated in the

invasion games for 8 minutes, which was divided into

two rounds, each round lasts for 4 minutes. Fields and

rules were modified in order to adapt with the

students’ games skills and hence, high-skilled and

less-skilled children could be differentiated. This

small-sided game can improve students’ involvement

in the game, either they control the ball or not

(Mitchell et al., 2003). The objective of the game was

to score goals by throwing the ball into the modified

goal post. In this game, each team has 2 goal posts,

where goalkeeper were not present. Moving with the

ball was possible just by bouncing; and stealing from

an opponent and physical contact were not permitted.

Fundamental Movement Skills and Game Performance in Invasion Game Activities

391

In case of foul play, the game will be restarted from

the place where the infraction took place. In order to

evaluate the overall performance, the games were

recorded with a video (Gray and Sproule 2011)

camera located behind and above the court. (García‐

López et al., 2013) (Gutiérrez et al. 2014).

To characterize game play performance in

invasion games, it is necessary to identify nonspecific

observable components of game performance

(Memmert, 2004, 2005; Mitchell et al., 2006)

(Memmert and Harvey 2008) Mitchell et al. (2006).

The tally scoring method was applied in this modified

invasion game and were assessed from components

from videotapes, which consisted of decision-

making, skill execution, and support that were

adjusted with students’ abilities (Memmert and

Harvey 2008). Tally systems can also be used in peer

assessment procedures (Memmert and Harvey 2008).

Among “decision-making” and “skill-execution”

components, one or several elements were selected to

evaluate the performance of individuals, reflecting

their ability. The “support” component could be

assessed when children tried to acquire the ball from

their opponents, both during attack or defence. All of

the 3 components could be adapted to various sports

and game activities, and they did not only depend on

on-the-ball skills, but also off-the-ball skills (both

offensive and defensive; Mitchell et al., 2006) (Gray

et al. 2017; Memmert and Harvey 2008). More detail

about decision making, skill execution and support

see table 1.

Table 1: Decision-making and skill execution categories.

Decision

Point

No point

On-the ball

- Pass the ball

when team

mates is open.

- Attempt to shoot

on goal

appropriate

- Pass the ball when

team mate covered.

- Blocked

while trying

to shoot

Off-the-ball

- Moving into a

position to

receive a pass

(appropriate

distance).

- No movement

when needed

Skill Execution

Point

No point

Passing

Team mate receive

ball easily

Team mates hard to

get passed

Shoot

On the target

No target

Support

Attack

Go forward and open space to receive ball

or shoot

Deffence

Try to cover opposite team

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Testing results for the subject (n=40) r was used to

examine the correlation between FMS (TGMD-2)

and games performance (GPAI ) which are reported

in mean ± SD and shown in table 1. The correlation

between variables were determined using Pearson’s

correlation coefficients (for parametric data), and

Spearman’s correlation coefficients (for non-

parametric data). SPSS software (version 22.0, IBM)

was used in all the above calculations. To determine

data normality, Kolmogorov-Smirnov on each

correlational calculation was used.

Table 2: Mean values (± SD) for all tests in modified

handball games.

Variable

Mean ± SD

FMS

14.22 ± 13.2

GI HB

15.25 ± 18.1

GP HB

0.64 ± 0.014

GI S

15.07 ± 25.8

GP S

0.633 ± 0.005

Loc

7.7 ± 2.87

6.5 ± 7.17

3.1 Correlation between FMS toward

GP and GI in Modified Handball

(HB) and Soccer (S) Games

Table 3: Correlation between FMS, GP and GI.

FMS

HB GI

HB GP

S GI

S GP

Correlation

Coefficient

.434

.337

.674

.316

Sig. (2-tailed)

.005

.033

.000

.047

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 3 showed Spearman’s Rho correlations,

calculated to investigate relationship between

fundamental movement skills (FMS) towards game

performance (GP) and games involvement (GI). All

correlations were statistically significant between

FMS and GI (P < .01; r = .434) and between FMS and

GP (P < .05; r = .337). In modified soccer games,

showed Spearman’s Rho correlations, that was

calculated to investigate relationship between

fundamental movement skills (FMS), game

performance (GP) and games involvement (GI). All

correlations were statistically significant between

ICSSHPE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education

392

FMS and GI (P < .01; r = .674) and GP (P < .05; r =

.316).

3.2 Correlation between Subdominant

FMS (Locomotor and Object

Control) towards GP and GI in

Modified Handball and Soccer

Games

Table 4: Correlation between locomotor and object control

toward games performance and games involment.

Correlations

S GP

S GI

Spearman's

rho

LOC

Correlation

Coefficient

.320

.219

.397

.494

Sig. (2-

tailed)

.044

.174

.011

.001

Correlation

Coefficient

.356

.495

.231

.660

Sig. (2-

tailed)

.024

.001

.152

.000

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 4 showed Spearman’s Rho correlations,

calculated to investigate relationship between

Locomotor (Loc) and Object control (OC) skills

towards game performance (GP) and games

involvement (GI) in modified handball games.

Correlations between Loc and GP were statistically

significant (P < .05; r = .320). The difference between

Loc and GI was that the Correlations were

statistically not significant (P < .05; r = .219).

Furthermore, all correlations were statistically

significant between OC and GP (P < .01; r = .356) and

between OC and GI (P < .05; r = .495). In modified

soccer games showed Spearman’s Rho correlations,

calculated to investigated relationship between

Locomotor (Loc) and Object control (OC) skills

towards game performance (GP) and games

involvement (GI) in modified soccer games. All

correlations were statistically significant between

Loc and GP (P < .05; r = .397) and between Loc and

GI (P < .01; r = .494). Furthermore correlations

between OC and GP were statistically not significant

(P < .01; r = .231) and contrast between OC and GI

had significant correlation (P < .01; r = .660).

3.3 Correlation between FMS towards

GI and GP based on Gender

Table 5: Correlation FMS toward GP and GI based on

gender.

Correlations

HB GP

HB GI

S GP

S GI

Boys

Pearson Correlation

.642

.659

.160

.530

Sig. (2-tailed)

.002

.001

.489

.013

Girl

Pearson Correlation

.200

.066

.161

.541

Sig. (2-tailed)

.412

.788

.509

.017

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 5 showed Pearson Correlation, calculated to

investigate relationship between fundamental

movement skills toward game performance (GP) and

games involvement (GI) in both games based on

gender. In boys sample, the correlations between

FMS and GP were statistically significant (P < .01; r

= .642), for modified handball contrast with modified

soccer games that is not significantly correlational

with GP (P < .05; r = .160). Otherwise, all correlations

were statistically significant between FMS and GI in

handball and soccer games (P < .01; r = .659) and (P

< .01; r = .530). While in the girls, showed

relationship between FMS and GP were statistically

insignificant (P < .05; r = .200) for modified handball

and soccer games (P < .05; r = .161). Similarly

between FMS and GI, correlations were no

statistically significant in handball and soccer games

(P < .05; r = .066) but significant in modified soccer

games (P < .01; r = .541).

4 CONCLUSIONS

All correlation between FMS toward GI and GP in

both games were statistically significant. Student who

have better FMS will perform better. When viewed

from the type of invasion game, the dominant game

of the leg (soccer games) tend to be more difficult to

be performed by students. So that the GP of play was

better shown when playing dominant hand (handball

games). However, in soccer games children are more

likely to be more involved in the game than handball

games. The better students’ object control ability, the

better their games performance is, but overall 9-year-

old elementary school students have not been able to

perform well at the leg dominant game (soccer).

Therefore simple invasion games are more suitable

for students of this age especially for female students.

Fundamental Movement Skills and Game Performance in Invasion Game Activities

393

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