Is this ‘functional’ maths or is this something that is part of sport, and not only that but part of being ‘skilled’ at a sport?
Yet for anyone to play this sport there are a lot of ‘rules’ to pay attention to. Is this sport easier for young kids to do? Why? I can see trunk rotation, lots of twisting at the knees in hitting the ball; huge levels of precise balance in getting ready to pitch; healthy knees in being able to maintain that squatted position as catcher. I also see a huge amount of timing in being able to slide efficiently. So is this the adults version or a skilled version of baseball? When does a sport become something that has to have exact precise precision in exactly how you move at every joint for you to be able to play, enjoy and learn from it?
What happens if I now tell you to get a ruler out? This is now measurement, one of the subjects within maths. What is the height of each person relative to the ground? What happens if I can’t move my ruler properly? Can I ‘see’ the difference and have the ability to rank them from highest to lowest to the ground? Is that important in the first place? Is this something that I am interested in? These are static pictures, as maths turns into other subjects we get moving objects. How do you measure movement and height at the same time? For example when a person is walking away from the base? Or does that get confusing dependent on the pictures on the page, because do I think then that the distance is the measurement from the base to the person? Nope. The graphics that I am looking at are in 3D, because we are looking at perspective? Sorry I thought we were just using a ruler? This isn’t about us as individuals. The task itself is quite easy. its just knowing where to put the ruler. Its just that the pattern is hard to see. If we fix the pattern of how we present the information does it make it easier to understand? That whole concept of walking away.
Can you measure the distance between the foot and the ball? Oops, which foot did I mean? Can you turn the ruler at that angle?
Can you measure the distance that these two players needed to run over to get to the ball first? This is a mocked up picture to help kids learn to draw body parts in different positions, so that when they are drawing people playing soccer they don’t just have someone standing still and everyone looks the same. These two toys were purchased to make it look like a team sport, so that the uniforms stood out, so that as a visual prompt it forced those learning to draw to remember to include the uniform in their drawings rather than needing a list or instructions from someone watching them do it. These small characters are ideal for use at the desk, rather than bigger toys getting in the way AND more importantly they have possible legs and arms.
When do you progress to one of these for your understanding of positioning? As a typical artists toy, knowing in advance where the limbs are directed can help speed up your drawing. The height difference of where the head gets positioned in comparison to the trunk, in comparison to the thighs in comparison to the feet is something that at certain times isn’t important. Its just like with Mr Potato Head, you just want to get the right pieces in the right order as you can see them.
When I am learning to draw or put on clothing, knowledge of positioning is extremely important because otherwise it doesn’t look right.
