I'm not sure what you are trying to say, but...
Well, in your problem, i think it's all about keyframing and the stuff that's called a breakdown.
You know, Maya calcuates other keys between your two main keyframes.
Look:
you have translate X keyfrmaed
at frame 1 --> translateX = 5
at frame 5 --> translateX = 25
if you playback you will see object moving from point A which is 5 on x axis to point B which is 25 on x axis. this is the result of that in-betweens! you only have 2 main keyframes but maya "creates" even more of them to create that animation".
If you stop animation at frame 3 you will see that your object is located on 15th point on x-axis.
But let's try this...
go on the frame 3 and set translate x of an object to 20!
you will see that object goes a bit faster until it reaches frame 3 abd then goes very slowly till it reaches frame 5.
I hope you understand why is that happening.
using this knowlege you can speed up and slow down certian parts of animation.
To animate something, I think you have to understand how keyframes, breakdowns and in-betweens work.
If that's what you are asking for, then I'm happy that I helped you somehow, if not, I'm sure someone will find this helpful.
cheers