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I have a friend who is a professional arm wrestler that competes on a national level. I have participated in the sport and I find that I am not physically well-equipped to handle that type of athletic demand like he is. The sport requires an immense amount of static strength while utilizing effective arm wrestling technique. This activity can also incorporate dynamic flexibility due to constantly being pulled against while attempting to pin the opponent as quickly as possible. Top level arm wrestlers will express that success in the sport is mainly due to proper technique over "brute" strength. However, once a technique is mastered at that level, strength can decide who wins and who loses. Arm-wresting is considered a combat sport and every match is unique. Along with static strength being the most utilized physical component, being able to react quickly to your opponent is necessary to be successful. I attached a video of a tournament that my friend Sam was recently involved in. The video showcases Sam's matches. You will see how the physical abilities I stated above are involved as well as the great amount of stamina it takes to participate in a tournament.

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Armwrestling 2016 | Minnesota State Championships | featuring Sam Tabbert

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NBK Media Productions presents The 2016 Minnesota State Armwrestling Championships Featuring Wisconsin puller Sam Tabbert's SMASHING performance. Sam is an awesome puller and great friend from Eau Claire, WI. Enjoy the video and thanks for watching!!

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I have found throughout my life that there are certain activities I am able to "multi-task" better than others. When addressing the ideas of attention I can understand why I cannot write an essay when listening to music. I've had friends tell me that putting on their favorite record when completing a homework assignment helps them to relax and think better. Personally, I cannot complete a sentence if there is music playing. Learning about how the process of attention works is similar to understanding gravity. You don't have a deep knowledge of gravitational pull to realize that if step off a cliff your most likely going to plummet to your death. I realize that I can't listen to music when writing a paper because I consciously can't separate the music from completing the primary task in the moment. We begin to understand that our attention is a limited resource and we ration it whether we know exactly why in specific situations. I chose this image because I have gotten extremely frustrated in the scenario I explained above.

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I drive a car almost everyday whether it's to get to work or needing to pick up the week's groceries. I always try to stay alert because there is great risk involved when driving a motor vehicle. Unfortunately, there was one incident when I was driving and had to make a fast decision whether I needed to move my position so I didn't get hit by an speeding semi-truck. I had a green light to proceed through a four-way intersection to make a left turn. I needed to wait until oncoming traffic led up for me to pass and make my left turn. During this time I was waiting for my turn in the middle of the intersection when I realized to my right a speeding semi-truck heading directly toward me. The truck was not letting up and I could sense it wasn't going to stop. It was then I needed to react, so I decided to move quickly forward so the semi-truck would miss me. Luckily I was not hit but the car behind me did not see the truck and got slammed on the passenger side. Reflecting on this moment I realized I utilized perceptual motor skills involving reaction time and reaction orientation. I had to make a correct choice among other alternative actions in response to sudden signal. I chose this image because all I saw was the front of the semi heading towards me.

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I wanted to share a guidance device that I greatly benefited from when I was younger compared to most of the training aids I've experienced that I find no value in utilizing. When I was younger, Basketball was the sport I struggled the most in. Proper shooting technique seemed unachievable and it was the day I was going to quit that I discovered a shooting aid. The "Shooting Strap, HoopsKing. The Shooting Strap helps prevents the wrist turning and thumbing the basketball when shooting." The aid corrected my ball stabilizing arm to keep stationary and not impair the direction of the ball leaving my shooting hand. The aid literally forced my arm not too move. After only roughly three half hour sessions of shooting practice I found myself shooting more efficiently. I was 10 years old at the time I used this device. I believe this helped me because I was not as cognitively advanced back then as I am now. I think certain devices can be utilized especially for younger performers. However, when a person is older the learning sequence that Tim Lee proposes should be utilized because a guidance device usually discourages advance movement planning because a correct skill can be conquered by adhering to the movement learning guide. Today I correct my shooting technique by analyzing my mistakes throughout the movement by observation via video. I chose this image of the shooting strap because it best represents the "correcting" mechanism in action.

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I will admit I was never very good at Baseball when I was younger, but my closest friends loved playing in the local youth league so I always ended up joining to embarrass myself each summer on the team. I had my father practice with me, specifically hit me different type of hits (e.g. flyballs, ground balls) in a sequence to reinforce my catching skills. I believe CI theory, elaboration hypothesis, and action plan reconstruction hypothesis can be directly applied to practicing the sport of Baseball. Usually, the hits are sequenced randomly or blocked just like the CI activity that we completed during Lab #8. I can still recall how I was more alert when the sequences were randomized. I had to reset my mind and prepare for whatever was going to happen. This allowed me to reinforce each style of catching rather than only concentrating on one which I can recall led me to day dream and not consciously be present during the physical aspect of the skill. This type of practice scheduling helped me improve my catching skills to later be utilized in a real-life game play. I chose this image because catching "ground balls" were my favorite.

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I play the saxophone. I began practicing the instrument when I 12 years old. I became immediately fascinated with the instrument and the sound it is able to produce. I enjoy playing jazz music and saxophone has been a prominent component of that genre since its birth. The saxophone is a single note instrument, meaning that you can't produce more than one note at a time when playing, in contrast to piano or guitar where you can play multiple notes simultaneously. This means if I wanted to convey a specific chord shape I would have to play each note of that chord shape sequentially to convey that specific sound. This calls for an immense amount of fine motor skills to do. For example, during an improvisational saxophone solo to let the audience know where you are in the chord changes you would outline the chord shapes. Each note on the saxophone has a specific fingering, this calls for efficient finger dexterity because the fingers need to reconfigure their position to change a note every time. I chose this image because it allows one to see how each fingering is paired specifically to a note and also provides alternative fingerings that are used in specific situations when playing the saxophone.

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The first type of saxophone I began to learn was the Alto saxophone. There are multiple saxophones that have been built to represent different voice ranges. The four most common saxophones that are played are the Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Baritone with Baritone being the lowest pitched. All the horns require similar fingerings to play. However, each horn takes different techniques to produce the sound addressing differences in embouchure, voicing, body resonance, reed size, mouthpiece size, and overall weight of the instrument. Learning the necessary skills to play the saxophone in general allows the player to positively transfer these skills over to any type of saxophone. Whenever I have worked with an instructor (when learning a new saxophone), the conversation has been about analyzing what previously learned skills will transfer positively into the new horn being learned. This image below shows the similarities and differences of build between each saxophone.

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There is not a lot of research dealing with mental practice for performance preparation purposes. An example of this would be utilizing mental practice/visualization in a sports setting. This topic is actually quite controversial among athletes. However, with more research from an anecdotal perspective, some athletes are very confident in expressing that visualizing components of a skill such as serving a ball in the game tennis creates a stronger mind to muscle connection which in turn promotes greater efficiency and success when executing a skill. The video attached [The Athletes Mental Performance (BBC)] incorporates aspects of these mental preparation ideas. It also promotes further thinking when dealing with extremely stressful performance situations such as the Olympics. The video discusses how visualizing a performance can help eliminate self-doubt.