For some people, physical inactivity may not be due to simple laziness.

David Stodden, an assistant professor in the Motor Learning and Control division of kinesiology, and Stephen Langendorfer, an associate professor in kinesiology, human movement, sport and leisure studies, are studying a possible connection between motor skills and physical activity.

The study is looking at whether people who developed good motor skills at a young age tend to be more physically active as adults.

“We’re interested in the development of motor skills,” Langendorfer said, “and how well people perform skills such as throwing, kicking and jumping.”

This type of study is the first of its kind.

“We were sort of surprised at first that nobody had asked this question,” Lagendorfer said.

Lagendorfer said he first thought about the subject 20 years ago. He didn’t really pursue it then, but “the question has been kind of incubating for a long time,” he said.

Three or four years ago, he brought it up with Stodden, and they discovered nobody had looked at the possible relationship between good motor skills and physical fitness.

Over the last four years their study has become more popular as more people have been looking into the question.

“Skill has not been looked at in being important,” said Shakira Adams, a developmental kinesiology graduate student. “Only the physical fitness side has been looked at.”

Adams is working with Stodden and Langendorfer in recruiting people of different ages for motor skills testing and result analysis. So far, the study has looked at motor skills in elementary, junior high and college-age students.

“The results seem to be that our initial hunches are correct,” Langendorfer said. “People who have more rudimentary skillfulness tend to be less active.”

And vice versa.

The students were tested in skills such as throwing, jumping, endurance, grip strength and skipping, Adams said. A large correlation was found between the elementary students and college-age students.

Good motor skills gain strength over time, Stodden said. They can predict about 79 percent of a young adult’s physical fitness by looking at motor skills.

Now the study is looking at motor skills in middle-age adults.

“We want to be able to look at this relationship and see how it evolves over time,” Stodden said.

Though the study still has more tests to do, researchers are already looking at what the results might mean for the community.

Stodden said this study could help answer questions concerning why people in a society are becoming more obese.

“We have a stonger interest in public schools in math, reading and writing,” he said.

Physical education is not a priority in most places, Stodden added.

“If we can educate society on how important skill is, then maybe people will be more active and involved,” Adams said.