Types of movement at the joints
Physical Education · GCSE · The School
Flexion and extension: the angle, not the direction
FLEXION decreases the angle at a joint. EXTENSION increases it. Bending the elbow to bring the hand toward the shoulder is flexion; straightening it back out is extension. The direction the limb happens to travel does not matter — only whether the angle at the joint is closing or opening.
Abduction and adduction: away from the middle, and back
ABDUCTION moves a limb AWAY from the midline of the body — raising an arm out to the side, as in a star jump. ADDUCTION brings it back TOWARDS the midline — lowering that arm to the side again. The same pair of words describes the same pair of movements at the hip: swinging a leg out sideways is abduction, bringing it back in is adduction.
Rotation and circumduction
ROTATION turns a limb or the trunk around its own long axis, without the joint angle changing — twisting the shoulders in a golf backswing, or turning the head to look sideways. CIRCUMDUCTION combines flexion, extension, abduction and adduction in one continuous circular path — a bowler's arm swinging through a full windmill, or an arm drawing a large circle at the shoulder.
The ankle has its own pair of names
PLANTARFLEXION points the toes downward, away from the shin — pushing off the ground at the start of a sprint. DORSIFLEXION pulls the toes upward, toward the shin — the heel strike at the start of a running stride. These two terms belong to the ankle specifically; flexion and extension are not used there.
One kick, four movement types named
A footballer strikes a ball. Backswing: the HIP EXTENDS, swinging the leg backward, and the KNEE FLEXES, bringing the heel toward the body. Forward swing: the HIP FLEXES rapidly, driving the thigh forward, and the KNEE EXTENDS, snapping the lower leg out. Contact: the ANKLE PLANTARFLEXES, pointing the toes to strike through the ball. Four joints, four named movements, one continuous action — and a full-mark answer names the joint and the movement together, not just one or the other.
What the exam actually asks for
A question naming a sporting action wants the movement type AND the joint together — "hip extension" scores, "the leg goes back" does not. The commonest lost mark is confusing abduction with flexion when a limb moves sideways and upward at once, such as a star jump: check whether the limb moves away from the midline (abduction) or the joint angle changes (flexion), because a diagonal movement is often both, at different joints.