Bewegungsgefühl

Bewegungsgefühl is a German term that describes the subjective sense of movement and body position in space. In everyday use it refers to how fluid, controlled, and effortless a person perceives their movements to be, for example when dancing, playing sports, or performing manual tasks. In scientific contexts the term is closely related to kinesthesia and proprioception, the sensory modalities that provide feedback about muscle length, force, joint angle, and limb position.

Proprioceptors in muscles (muscle spindles), tendons (Golgi tendon organs), and joints send information to the central nervous system, which integrates it with motor commands to calibrate movement, posture, and timing. The term Bewegungsgefühl therefore encompasses the accuracy and subjective ease of movement, not just raw motor output.

Training and applications: Movement quality improves with practice, feedback, and perceptual-motor training. In sport, dance, physical therapy, and rehabilitation, strengthening kinaesthetic awareness can enhance performance and reduce injury risk. It can be affected by fatigue, aging, or neurological conditions, and therapy may aim to restore or compensate for altered movement sensation. The concept is used across athletic coaching, rehabilitation, and movement sciences to describe how people perceive and refine their own movements.