Lesson video

Hi, everybody.

Welcome to today's lesson.

I'm Mrs. Brooks.

And today, we're going to be learning about planes of movement and axes of rotation.

And we're gonna be linking them to examples within physical activity and sport.

This is part of the basic biomechanic section specification.

We're gonna use some really simple strategies to help us understand these concepts, but more importantly, apply them to some sporting examples.

So by the end of the lesson, we will be able to continue to identify the planes of movement and the axes of rotation.

And we're then gonna develop that and applying them to some sporting actions.

Now, our key words for today's lesson are very much based around the axes.

So simply, if you were to hold your pencil or your pen now and you hold it like I'm doing here, what we would be showing there is the transverse axis.

So that is a axis, a line of rotation that runs through the body horizontally from left to right.

Now if we changed our pencil to be this way, what we're showing there is the longitudinal axis.

So this time, that imaginary line runs vertically from head to toe.

And finally, we are then gonna hold the pencil this way, and that's showing the frontal axis.

So if I was to now push this through my belly button, that would be running horizontally from front to back.

So F for frontal is a quick way of remembering that that's the line that goes from the front through to the back of the body.

Now we need to be reminded as what a plane is or how that differs from the axis.

That is also imaginary, but it's a flat surface as opposed to a line.

And that will basically divide the body into halves and that dictates which way movement takes place.

Is that movement forward and backwards? Is that movement side to side or does that movement involve rotation? You may want to make a note of these at this point, but we are gonna go through each of these again to make sure we fully understand these key terms. So our lesson's divided into two parts.

In the first part, we're going to look at those planes and axes in some sporting examples, and then we will build on that and continue to look at examples, but specifically joint movements.

So remember when you've learned about a joint and bones articulating a joint, and there are movements that take place at that joint to allow sporting actions to occur.

So to start, Jacob is asking a question: "Did you create a mnemonic to remember how each plane links with each axis of rotation?" That's a good question for you as well.

Have you got that already memorised or have you written it down somewhere? Which shows those how our planes link with our axes of rotation.

Now Aisha is saying, "Yes, I did." And what she did is she created her own, and hers is sound technique from fitness tones legs.

I like that one.

Do you? And is that similar to yours? And how does this link to planes and axes more importantly? Now, what Aisha is doing there is using that rhyme to remind ourselves about which plane is linked with which axis.

So we can see here that sound technique that she started with is the sagittal plane being linked with that transverse axis.

Remember that's the one that goes horizontally from side to side through the hips.

So for that, we'll have that very much forwards and backwards movement, forwards and backwards rotation.

From fitness is the two frontals.

So the frontal plane is paired with that frontal axis, that line that runs through the body from the front through to the back.

And tones legs is that transverse plane, that one that divides the body into top and bottom, and that is paired with our longitudinal axis, that one that runs vertically from head to toe.

Now what Sofia and Andeep are now doing is they're actually talking about planes of movement when they play netball.

So they're reminding themselves of that sagittal, that frontal, and that transverse plane.

Jun says when he's running towards the ball, he's using that sagittal plane.

Sofia continues to talk about a different plane and mentions the frontal one and links that to moving sideways.

And often that might mean that she's dodging.

And you do that sometimes to transfer your weight and to move from side to side to get away from the defender.

And Andeep is saying, "I use that transverse plane specifically when I jump." And it's really common that, when turning the air, to catch the ball, so then you're facing the way you want to go to be able to throw the ball on.

So what we see there is really good use of sporting examples, but applying it to the right plane of movement.

So let's develop that a bit more and see it actually in action.

So like Jun, this netball athlete here is really simply moving towards the ball.

She's running forwards and then you can see she catches that ball with correct footwork.

So she's showing that movement along the sagittal plane.

Like Sofia, our different athlete here is trying to get free from that defender.

You can see she's doing that dodge to get to the side and that is her using that frontal plane of movement.

And finally, like Andeep, this person here is watching the ball, watching the ball, and then she turns around that transverse plane to catch the ball and then she's facing the way she would like to be to be able to pass that ball onwards.

So using your rhyme or what we've just seen in our netball athletes, which axis of rotation is paired with the frontal plane? So for our netball athlete who was doing that dodge, was it the transverse axis, the longitudinal axis, or the frontal axis that she also used as she moved sideways? Well done.

That is in fact the frontal axis.

And that helps us in a way, because we've got frontal and frontal.

The frontal plane is matched with the frontal axis.

In fact, Aisha remember that was that sound technique from fitness.

So it was that from and fitness, those two F's that were put in that plane and axis together.

So we're now gonna start to look at other sporting examples.

We've given netball and we're now gonna look at those that show the plane and the axis working together, 'cause we know that they are now linked in that way.

So let's look at this slide here.

We've got a variety of sports.

We have our snowboarder.

Looks like it's doing some kind of trick or rotation trick in the air before landing.

We have a gymnast that's doing a back flip as part of a tumble.

And then we also have a diver that you can see that's in that pike position and looks to me like she's rotating backwards before opening her body out to be able to enter the water.

And what we've got there in all of those examples is that kind of forwards and backwards movement.

And you can see there that transverse axis has been added 'cause that's going through the body going from side to side through the hips.

And if we go back to our pencil, hopefully your pencil is nice and sharp like mine, you should be able to simply just push that piece of pencil through a bit of paper, a bit of card.

And what we can see here is I'm showing that transverse axis.

So that pencil is going through the paper from side to side horizontally.

And if I now start to rotate that bit of paper, you can see, in this instance, that is the same that we can see in our snowboard athlete, in our gymnast rotating backwards, and our diver rotating that pike position before entering the water.

So some really good examples of the transverse axis and the sagittal plane.

So like the forward roll here, we can see how that plane of movement has been used, that plane that divides that body into left and right or side to side.

Really keen for you to see lots of different sporting examples to help you apply this topic well.

So if you move on to the transverse axis, a transverse plane, sorry, and the longitudinal axis, so just look at those sporting examples there.

What do they all have in common? We've got our discus thrower that's about to rotate and then release the discus.

We have a figure skater that is doing a jump, which involves rotation before landing.

And we have our dancer there that's doing what looks like a pirouette.

Now if we go to our our pencil again, this is the longitudinal axis.

So we would then have to put it running vertically from head to toe.

So it would look like this.

And we can see now if we start to rotate, just like our three examples there, that whole body is rotating like this and therefore using that longitudinal axis and that transverse plane.

What's quite nice with those images is you can see that vertical line, which is allowing those athletes to turn.

So just like the pirouette, those movements are in that transverse plane.

Lastly, we've got our F and F.

So we've got our frontal plane and our frontal axis.

And we can see here, the cartwheel is a really good example of that.

So if we go to our pencil and our bit of paper, we've done the transverse, we've done the longitudinal, and the only one we haven't done is that frontal axis.

So in this one, what we're doing is that pencil now has been pushed through from front to back.

And if I now rotate, you can see I'm rotating just like the cartwheel would do.

And that's moving along that frontal plane, that plane of movement which divides the body into front and back.

So quick check on what we've just learned there.

Out of these three images, which one shows movement along the transverse plane and rotating about the longitudinal axis? I'll give you five seconds to decide.

Yeah, well done.

B, our discus thrower is the one that's using that axis that runs from head to toe.

So we'll be rotating before releasing that discus and that is also movement along the transverse plane.

And what this shares with us is knowing the pairs just allows us to not have to try and remember six things as such, but learn them as three sets of two and how they're linked together.

So what I'd like you to do for your first practise task is look around you.

Have you got some boxes? Do you have a little bit of paper like I just used? Maybe you might have some sweets.

Could be that you've got a toilet roll, something that would represent a human body or you could show how the axes and the planes work.

And with that, could you, for these three sporting examples, so we have our snowboarder, we have our dancer, and we have our gymnast completing that cartwheel.

Could you show the axis of rotation and the plane of movement for each of those sporting examples? Pause the recording and come back to me when you're ready.

I would love to see your creativity.

But what we can see here is this has been done using some sweets.

And you can see that we've got our snowboarder trick or our snowboarder, and that was showing the sagittal plane, so dividing that body into left and right, and that transverse axis.

So you can see that cocktail stick like our pencil is going through the sweet horizontally from left to right, which is why that snowboarder can then rotate backwards before landing on the snow.

For our dancer, we can see we've got that transverse plane, so dividing that body into top and bottom.

And then with the cocktail stick, it's gone through that sweet and he is now running from head to toe to allow that 360 degrees around that longitudinal axis.

And finally, that frontal plane, you can see on the slide there that sweet has been divided into front and back, and linked to our frontal axis for the cartwheel, which is one where we would do do that sideways rotation.

Really good way of remembering these planes and axes.

So now we've looked at them with whole body sporting movements.

We're gonna just dig a little bit deeper and look at specific joint movements.

Now, let's think netball again.

We know in netball there are some different passes and a good example of that is a chest pass.

And that demonstrates flexion and extension specifically of the elbow joint.

So we can see there in that illustration, we have that athlete that starts with a ball towards the chest, and then pushes it outwards to pass it on to someone else.

So we've got that flexion at the elbow joint there.

You can see that that's flexion because the angle has been decreased.

And as that angle is then increased, that shows extension.

Now from our previous learning, that is a forwards and backwards movement.

So even though the whole body is in movement, the joint is starting backwards and then pushing forwards.

So flexion and extension are associated with that sagittal plane.

And we now know that that sagittal plane is linked with the transverse axis.

So which image here shows flexion? Well done.

That could have felt a little bit tricky 'cause they were all at a hinge joint, the knee or the elbow, they'd been identified though.

So in that first one, we can see that footballer has got that knee bent.

And that bent, that decrease of the angle, is shown flexion.

Whereas for our our image B, they've moved that weight up above the head, so we've got extension.

The elbow is straightened and likewise the footballer there has actually gone through to that execution phase where they're connecting with the ball and the knee is now showing extension.

Okay, good opportunity for you to pause the recording and do some star jumps just to get a little bit of activity in you.

But really what I want you to kind of work out is what movements is that showing? And is that abduction and adduction? So those shoulder and the hip are being taken away from the midline as you jump outwards and then coming inwards towards the midline.

So we've got that abduct, takeaway, and that adduct, bringing back in.

And if you think about our planes, that is that sideways movement.

So it's that frontal plane, and because of our pairings, that's linked with our frontal axis.

So abduction and adduction as joint movements are associated with the frontal plane and the frontal axis.

Finally, I'd like to show you this slam ball exercise.

So what I mean by slam ball, you can see there, that illustration is using quite a heavy-weighted softer ball.

And what this athlete can do is use the strength and power and almost throw it against a wall or into another area which is safe.

And what that's doing is it's using that upper body, the rotation of the upper body to be able to do that.

So look, we can see, it's gone from that position here and then rotated the upper body to be able to release that slam ball.

Now that's that rotation movement that we saw in our discus thrower, in our dancer, and in our figure skater.

So that rotation is moving along the transverse plane and we know that's paired with our longitudinal axis.

Now quick check.

We looked at abduction when we were talking about the frontal and the frontal.

Which of these images shows abduction of the shoulder joint? Is it image A, B, or C? Well done.

It's actually C.

All right, C, we can see quite clearly that those arms have come away from the midline in that star jump exercise.

And we can also see on there that that's shown clearly how that moves along that frontal plane.

Okay, what we have here is our second task, but also a really effective way of linking joints, movements, but to the correct plane and axis.

So we can see in the lefthand part of that table, we've been given three sporting actions.

Someone preparing to kick a football, someone doing a star jump, and then thirdly, a discus thrower in that kind of preparation stage before releasing the discus.

I would like you to fill in the boxes correctly by identifying the joint, if needed, the movement that's taking place at that joint, and then more importantly, thinking about your pairs and linking them correctly as to which plane and which axis is being used.

Notice the discus thrower box for joint is blanked out and that's because that's actually showing whole body movement.

So we don't want you to look specifically at a joint.

When you've done that, we've covered quite a breadth of sporting examples during this lesson, but I'd like you to choose your own sport, and actually you're gonna go for one team and one individual and then provide a description of the planes and axes that are used in that sport and bring that together by talking about two specific movements.

So we don't just want you to talk about football in general, if you're gonna choose football.

It could be two movements within football and how they show those planes of movement and those axes of rotation being used.

Pause the recording and come back to me when you're ready.

Well done.

How did you do? So for our footballer, the knee joint was actually circled.

So you hopefully identify that that was the knee.

And with the flexion showing flexion.

And that would then be the sagittal plane linked with the transverse axis.

Think about Aisha, sound technique: sagittal transverse.

For our shoulder joint, you could see there that that was coming away from the midline of the body.

So that was showing abduction from fitness, F and F, frontal plane, frontal axis.

And finally, the discus thrower that was showing whole body rotation.

So this was the transverse plane with the longitudinal axis.

For your second question, this will really depend on the team and the individual sport you decided to choose.

But an example of what you could have said, I'm gonna go with hockey.

We hadn't looked at hockey as a sport within the lesson.

So it could be that if a player is dribbling forwards, they'll be moving along that sagittal plane, which means their joints, particularly the knee joint, that will be flexing and extending to allow that running motion that's moving around or rotating around the transverse axis.

Alternatively, the goalkeeper in that sport, it's very common that they're gonna reach their arm out to the side to try and save the ball.

And that abduction movement would be along the frontal plane and therefore rotating around the frontal axis.

As an individual sport, I've decided to give an example from athletics.

We'd already looked at the discus, but how about that shot put? Okay, so you know from that, that you are moving along the transverse plane 'cause there's an element of rotating that upper body before you release that shot so it goes as far as possible.

Therefore, that's rotating around the longitudinal axis.

A completely different event though in athletics, it could be that 400 metre runner stays in the lane to sprint that whole track.

They're moving forward.

There'll be lots of flexion and extension of both the knees and the elbows to drive them in that sprint action.

So that's therefore, the sagittal plane and therefore, rotating around that transverse axis.

So in summary, lots and lots of examples there of those planes of movement in use and also those axes of rotation.

So when the body is rotating around the longitudinal axis, it is moving along the transverse plane.

And we gave lots of examples, one there is that pirouette in dance.

When the body is rotating around the transverse axis, that is now moving along the sagittal plane.

Example of that is somersault in diving.

And finally, when the body's rotating around the frontal axis, it's moving along the frontal plane, and really good example of that is that abduction and adduction movement that you need when you do a cartwheel in gymnastics.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

I hope that's been really useful to help us apply those planes and axes.

I look forward to seeing you on the next lesson.