What should I be looking for? Part 5

Welcome to part 5 of our “What should I be looking for?” series. This week is all about praxis, motor planning, and coordination.

Praxis and motor planning are involved in everything we do. As I’m sitting here writing this post, my body and brain are coordinating dozens of small movements:

• My fingers hitting the right keys
• My core holding me upright in my chair
• My eyes tracking the screen

Motor planning is your body and brain’s ability to figure out exactly what muscles to move, in what order, and with how much force.¹

Coordination is when the muscles, joints, and nervous system work together to execute movements with optimal timing, accuracy, and efficiency.

Praxis is another term you may have heard before. Some use motor planning and praxis interchangeably, but they are not exactly the same thing.

Motor planning is a component of praxis.

Praxis requires observing and understanding the task (ideation), planning an action in response to the task (motor plan/organization), and carrying out the task (execution).¹

During this process, our bodies and brains take in and process all available information in our environment (object location, sensory information, etc.) and integrate it into our plan.

Well-integrated praxis is why you don’t smack yourself in the head with your toothbrush every time you brush your teeth. You can assess your toothbrush’s weight and act accordingly.

Here is what that looks like, broken down:

• Ideation (The “What”): I want to brush my teeth.
• Motor plan/Organization (The “How”): I pick up my toothbrush and put it in my left hand. With my right hand, I pick up the toothpaste bottle and squeeze just enough toothpaste onto the bristles to cover the top. Then I put the toothpaste bottle down, bring my toothbrush to my mouth, open my mouth, and brush my teeth. I could go into a TON more detail here, but I will spare you.
• Execution (The “Do”): My brain sends signals to my body to carry out the action I have already organized in my head. My teeth get brushed, and my dentist is happy!

One of the most common conditions that impact an individual’s praxis is dyspraxia (developmental coordination disorder, DCD). Dyspraxia can result from poor sensory integration, visual difficulties, fine motor and gross motor coordination, and many other areas.¹

Three important reminders:

1. Seeing an athlete struggle in any of the areas listed above does not mean they have a diagnosis.
2. Not all athletes with dyspraxia present the same way.
3. We are not diagnosing our athletes; we are simply observing and making adjustments accordingly.

Now, a coach reading this might think, ‘How can an athlete who has trouble coordinating movements play sports?’ The important thing to note is that many individuals with dyspraxia can improve their movement and coordination. They just need the approach that works with the way their brain works.²

For example, Ellis Genge is a professional rugby player for the English national team. He was diagnosed with dyspraxia at age 14 and has opened up about his experience as an elite athlete with dyspraxia. He shares how he was labeled clumsy, felt disorganized, had trouble with spatial awareness (always running into things), and sometimes lost his balance.³ ⁴

At the end of the day, any support you put in place to build praxis skills will benefit all athletes.

Observation > Questions > Adjustments:

1. Your observation: You explain a new drill or play, and the athlete visibly looks lost before anyone has started moving yet.
   1. Questions to ask: Has the athlete given any indication that they weren’t paying attention to the instructions? Does it seem like they’re concentrating really hard but for some reason it just isn’t clicking?
   2. Possible adjustment: Visually demonstrate using athletes. Have them walk through what you’re asking. Go section by section and check for understanding throughout. It may help if the athlete(s) face the same direction as the demonstrators.
   3. Possible adjustment: If the task is something they can do on the sidelines, have them mimic your movements as you describe them so they can feel it in their own bodies before they run it.
2. Your observation: The athlete falls easily, and their movements seem stiff rather than fluid.
   1. Questions to ask: Do they seem to have a difficult time grading their force (passes too hard or too soft, high fives too hard or too soft)? Do they consistently run into cones or trip over lines? Do they tend to run loudly, seemingly stomping their feet and landing heavily on their heels?
   2. Possible adjustment: Wake up the body. The easiest time to do this is the warm-up. Incorporate exercises that provide proprioceptive input (see sensory post for what and why). These could include: push-ups, medicine ball slams, bear crawls, squats, plyometrics, pushing against teammates, etc.
   3. Possible adjustment: Use the warm-up to challenge and build balance and coordination (this especially helps all athletes).
      1. Play warm-up games on different surfaces, or have them stand/move on one foot.
      2. Warm-up games where athletes bring their limbs across the midline of their body. In basketball, this could look like a dribbling warm-up where they dribble the ball around both of their legs with the same hand.
3. Your observation: Athlete has difficulty with ball skills (catching, throwing, kicking).
   1. Questions to ask: Is it catching, throwing, or both? When catching, do they close their eyes, turn their head away, or trap the ball against their body instead of using their hands? Does the athlete watch the ball all the way to their hands or foot, or do their eyes drift away right before contact? Are they arriving too early or too late to the ball, or arriving on time and still not connecting? Is it worse standing still or moving? Better with two hands than one? Do they seem to want to avoid the ball, or do they just miss it?
   2. Possible adjustment: Give a specific visual cue: “watch it hit your hands” or “watch your foot meet the ball.” Redirects the eyes to the point of contact, which can help if they’re having trouble tracking with their eyes.
   3. Possible adjustment: Slow the input. Start with a bigger, slower ball, a beanbag, or a bounce pass so the athlete has more processing time to build the plan before receiving the ball. Progress to a smaller and faster ball.
4. Your observation: The athlete has difficulty with skills that need good balance: stopping quickly, changing direction, landing from a jump, hopping, or staying on their feet when bumped. They may widen their stance or slow way down to stay upright.
   1. Questions to ask: Does it get worse as practice goes on and they get tired? Is the difficulty worse on one side than the other, or symmetric? Do they compensate visibly (widen their stance, throw their arms out, look at their feet)? Are they slower to recover from a stumble, or do they stay tense and over-braced? Does it get worse when the environment gets more complex (louder gym, more people, uneven surfaces)?
   2. Possible adjustment: Waking up the body could help here, too. Add proprioceptive input during warm-up before you ask for balance under load. Push-ups, bear crawls, medicine ball slams, plyos, pushing against a teammate. Same principle as observation 2, applied to balance specifically. (See sensory post for what and why)
   3. Possible adjustment: Build balance and core strength through the warm-up. Skipping, hopping, games on one leg, dancing, games in a plank position, etc.
5. Your observation: The athlete starts a multi-step drill seamlessly but loses the sequence partway through.
   1. Questions to ask: Do they execute the first two steps correctly and drift on the third, or do they stop entirely and look confused? How do they handle a drill with only two steps? Do they break down again at three or more? Does a mid-drill verbal cue from you (”now the pass!”) get them back on track, or do they still lose it?
   2. Possible adjustment: Give them permission to talk themselves through it. Some athletes stay on sequence if they can say the steps out loud as they go.
   3. Possible adjustment: Use physical cues. Cones, floor markers, or a teammate at each position give the athlete an external memory aid so they aren’t holding the whole sequence in their head.
   4. Possible adjustment: Shrink the cognitive load. Give them 1-2 points of emphasis in each drill.

As always, here are your reminders…

I know it’s a lot to take in, so don’t try to use it all at once. Pick one observation that reminded you of an athlete you actually coach, watch for it this week, and try one adjustment.

Remember, it’s a slow process. Plus, your athletes’ brains aren’t fully developed. Expecting them to get it all “right” is setting them, and yourself, up for failure. Your goal is to move them up the development ladder consistently.

It’s a messy process; you’re not trying to catch everything; you’re building the habit of noticing.

For now, remember what we started with: we’re not diagnosing anyone, and these are starting points, not prescriptions.

Let me know which observation sounded most familiar, and what you decided to try.

If you’re struggling with a particular athlete, reach out! I’d love to talk with you about them.

Make sure to download the guide below. It’s a tracker for your observations, questions, and adjustments.

This completes the “What should I be looking for?” series. Thanks for following along all five weeks. Let me know what you think and if there are any other categories you want to hear about.

Resources:

1. Beck, C. (2022, November 6). What is motor planning. The OT Toolbox. theottoolbox.com/what-is-motor-planning-fine-motor
2. McMurtry, C. (n.d.). Understanding dyspraxia: Empowering individuals with dyspraxia. Neurodiverse Sport. neurodiversesport.com/resource-library/2m3f52x4df8djzto6yi2rp5f32ncma
3. Sky Sports News. (2025). England prop Ellis Genge discusses his dyspraxia and the challenges he’s faced becoming an elite athlete [Video]. YouTube. youtube.com/watch?v=Mli6T6N3TIA
4. Smart, G. (2025, August 11). Ellis Genge Gets Brutally Honest About Anger, Class and Proving Everyone Wrong. Men’s Health UK. menshealth.com/uk/mental-strength/a65635303/ellis-genge-interview