Physical ability

Physical ability is broadly understood as the ability of the organism which is conditioned by appropriate structural and functional levels of its systems. Physical ability involves:

• Morphological ability – determines the appropriate composition of the body as regards health and physical activity. The level of this ability is commonly described by various types of active to nonactive tissue proportion indicators. BMI (Body Mass Index) is one of the most popular among them but as regards sport is not very accurate as it does not take into consideration somatic built type of an athlete and muscular hypertrophy specific to a given sport. Therefore various anthropometric measurements are applied including those which determine the percentage of muscle tissue on the basis of tissue resistance. The results of such measurements are fully applicable as indicators of morphological ability in a given discipline and serve as input data when planning training macrocycles. Each discipline is characterized by specific – optimal level of this ability which determines high learning efficiency and application of the whole range of acquired motor acts (sport technique). Therefore as regards sport morphological ability it is determined by: optimal body composition (which includes proportions of muscles, somatic built type and active to nonactive tissue) and it is a prerequisite to the achievement of the best performance in a given sport.
• Muscular and skeletal ability – determines an adequate level of muscular strength and an appropriately developed skeleton. An important component of this ability is suppleness which determines the relative range of motion of all joints of an individual and it is influenced by the flexibility of muscles, ligaments and joint capsules.
• Cardiovascular and respiratory ability – determines an appropriate level of development of systems responsible for oxygen distribution, utilization and distribution of nutrients as well as redistribution of metabolic products which provide an appropriate level of organism’s adaptability to effort (including acid metabolites in blood), efficiency of thermoregulatory processes and other physiological and metabolic factors. An adequate level of this ability as regards a given discipline determines the appropriate exercise efficiency indispensable for learning a given technique and performing complex motor tasks such as e.g. taking part in competitions.
• Metabolic ability – is represented by an appropriate functioning of hormones, carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism within tissues which determines the appropriate level of anabolic to catabolic processes providing an appropriate regeneration of the organism

Motor ability – determines motor abilities, the abilities of learning new motor acts and the ability to combine different types of movements. Motor ability combines the afore described abilities into global ability realised as broadly understood motor abilities of a given person. It involves certain components which are connected to various extent with a given ability and which influence the general level of motor ability. These components are also referred to as motor predispositions and are divided into:

• Structural – somatic parameters connected with morphological ability, muscular skeletal which determine the whole set of structural conditions to the performance of great motor abilities characteristic to a given sport.

• Energetic – parameters connected with cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic ability which are realised as the whole set of endurance factors which influence motor abilities characteristic to a given sport to which the aerobic, mixed and anaerobic parameters are included.
• Coordination – set of parameters influencing the ability to combine and perform different types of movements, motor acts characteristic to a given discipline to which we can include visual and motor coordination, special orientation, balance (involving kinaesthetic balance) movement differentiation and adjustment, speed of reaction, movement combination, rhythmisation etc.
• Mental abilities – set of parameters determining predispositions of psychical nature such as temper, stamina and motivation etc.

The motor ability is a complex approach in reference to human movement, it converges all abilities whose high level determines high level of motor ability.The complexity of the notion of motor ability in reference to human movement entails distinguishing so called motoric skills which closely illustrate the area of influence on human motor sphere and the level of the very motor ability.