Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) are the individual movements used in the various physical activities that people do throughout their lives in sports, labor, and daily living. These are the 'building blocks', like running, throwing, and catching, that we put together to perform more complex activities like playing baseball.
Educators can provide children with intentional opportunities to practice FMS in order to develop both their competence and confidence with those skills and, thus, with the more complex activities that make use of FMS.
FMS skills begin with play and exploration. Enjoyable experiences make it more likely that children will engage in physical activity throughout their lives. This is a key component of physical literacy, which is “the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life.” Source: International Physical Literacy Association
Fundamental movement skills include:
• Locomotor skills that enable moving through space, such as walking, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, swimming, skating, and climbing
• Non-locomotor skills, such as balancing and stretching
• Skills that enable manipulation of objects, such as throwing, catching, hitting, kicking, and dribbling
Sources: NSW Government - Health, Active For Life.