What are locomotor movements?

Locomotor movements are any movements that take place over some distance. These include walking, running, leaping, jumping, hopping, galloping, crawling, sliding and skipping.

Some elementary schools use locomotor movements with young students in physical education classes as fun warm-up exercises designed to prepare students for more complex athletic skills. Teachers may name the various movements after the ways animals move, such as "crab walk," "flamingo hop" and "deer leap." Locomotor movements may also be combined to form dance steps. Motions in which a person's feet remain in one place are considered nonlocomotor motions. These include bending, twisting, stretching, pushing and pulling.