Motor coordination-- Poor gross, very good fine?

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I'd like to know more about this fine motor coordination versus gross motor coordination. Those of us with autism usually have deficits in one or the other or both, right? I know I'm extremely clumsy with my large muscle movements, losing balance easily, tripping, stumbling, etc. but my fine motor coordination borders on ... talented? no idea what the term is, but when I need to make very fine, precise movements with my hands (like in my profession), especially repeatedly, I do it with such ease and no worry at all of spilling something or misplacing an ingredient. It's like a delicate ballet of fine movements.

But there are some days where that is completely off too, although rarely.

Anyone here have an extraordinary fine motor coordination? I would imagine our great autistic artists, musicians, craftspeople, etc. would have special skills in this area. Are you also clumsy with your body moving through space? (poor proprioception) I'm just curious how these two are related, I can move around pretty well and drive a car but I certainly experience difficulties say like backing out of a space while driving my car, bumping into doorways constantly, misplacing my feet when I'm walking so I trip or lose my balance easily, etc.

Additional Info, I'm a chef by trade, I have to move very, very quickly and precisely with my hands for my work and always know what my next move will be to stay coordinated. Working with other people at my station is a challenge because I can never predict their movements until I'm used to working with them.

I had bad gross and fine motor skills when I was a kid, but two big peaks of ability. One was drawing and stacking things, the things that I did all the time. That's fine motor. Other was sliding on ice, which I did as much as my parents let me. That's gross motor. The rest of the time, I dropped eberrything, fell over frequently, bumped into things often, didn't know how to open and close things, horrible hand eye coordination, etc etc etc. I think that doing something a lot lot lot is one reason for the peak in that one area, like my brain got trained to super specialize in one thing, while other things in the same category of fine or gross motor continued to suck. My other motor skills are much bester now than when I was a kid, but I still have the two peaks, plus a third peak of doing science eggsperiments, which also got trained into my brain. In that area, my super specialization is measuring out minute quantities of substances.

I have very poor motor skills, both gross and fine. I'm trying to improve the gross with taiji, which I've heard will really help over the long term. I've been working on fine for many years with only very slight improvement. I've met other aspies with good fine motor skills though. Not sure about gross motor...

It is interesting to note that the things you excelled at were things you greatly enjoyed! Perhaps it is part of our autistic nature of not doing well at things we don't want or like to do. Perhaps I should try to like walking more! (just kidding). I understand about being very precise with measuring, something else that I noticed doing undergraduate science lab work and has carried over into my current profession; I am very fast with prep work because I know by feel how much something weighs and how to get that amount exactly each time.

Something else I just thought of too, maybe you can help me understand this part: most of the time when I'm doing something I'm catch myself narrating my actions (and next moves) to myself... if I'm really concentrating my mind is blank. Thinking that might be related somehow to being "in the flow" (precise without thinking), and having to mechanically go through the steps of other actions.

Do you narrate your motor activities while doing them? I don't narrate anything, so I don't know how that affects doing things. I have read that autistic people have deficits in motor planning. I am sure that I have some of these problems, which is why I am generally clumsy. But it seems like if I focus on something, my motor skills are good. And if I do something a lot, my skills become good, even if general skill in that area is below average. My brain learns well by repetition without me thinking about what I am doing. In sports like soccer, I noticed that I really suck when I think about kicking the ball into the net, but if my mind is blank, then I become good at what I am doing.

Also, I think that this specialization effect is common in people, not just autistic people. I have heard people say that they are clumsy while walking, but put them in pair of skates, and they are good at skating. Maybe the same effect is even more eggstreme in autistic people.

I'm a verbal thinker, so probably narrate a good deal of my activities to myself, also probably to overcome motor planning difficulties.

As for specializing, I understand people in general have something they're good at in one environment over another; I was just thinking that those of who are great, especially autistics, are extremely good at one thing over other things-- we tend to be severe specialists. For instance, I can draw really well, very detailed line drawing pictures; but I stink at pretty much all other forms of art, mediocre at painting and pretty decent at sculpting (which are really extensions of drawing). I guess what I'm saying is that I always understood that a feature of autistic minds was this hyper-specializing.

I had no issues at all with this. Did every sport I could and did them as well as I wanted.

I can be clumsy though because if I feel anxious i withdraw my attention which may include spacial awarenss

I've never thought to make a distinction between the two, but thinking about it now, there is is an imbalance there for me, certainly.

I have good fine motor. Was a professional artist at one time. Can play musical instruments fairly well. Can type quickly with keyboard.

Gross motor is another story entirely. Can't catch. High probability of tripping over my own feet if I attempt to run. et cetera.

I am bad at playing musical instruments. I think that it takes more coordination than my brain can handle. The looking at the sheet music, and the hearing of the music, and the motor skills with two hands, all put together is too much for me. I have never felt comfortable playing an instrument. I feel like I am walking a tightrope playing simple tunes on the piano.

I think gross is most influenced by infancy. Obviously that is the first to develop. Without passive plasticity it is active learning and that is much harder.

Fine motor skill is however almost always actively learnt

Inability to sight read is one difficulty I had to overcome when I first learned to play instruments. I can read music but cannot read and play, commonly called "sight reading", at the same time. My solution to this has been to memorize the entire song. Once committed to memory i can play the song without issue.

Elaborate?

This is the same for me, I would learn a guitar tune by memorizing the finger positions on the frets as someone taught me. Translating that to sheet music and back again was forever difficult. So memorizing the entire tune and knowing the octaves/scales, etc. ensured success in this.

I'm curious if difficulty with language processing and being largely visual and/or kinetic learners influences this... I know that someone can tell me how to do something literally a dozen times and I won't "get it" until I'm actually shown or do it myself. perhaps it influences motor coordination, no one really shows you how to walk they just set you up on your feet and tell you to come to them... something you figure out entirely on your own. Fine motor coordination tasks are almost certainly always taught-- as another poster mentioned.

i have decent gross motor skill (i can do ballroom dancing) and poor fine motor skills (my hand writing, among other things like can't get the tension right fot crocheting, is horrible).

My handwriting awful yet I can do calligraphy my gross motor is rubbish cannot use a racquet, hopeless at most sports although not bad at Archery. with practice seem to accomplish precision assembly tasks hence my fine motor is fine to pretty good.

My motor skills are bad, both fine and gross.