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As I have mentioned, it took me quite some time to really get the hang of the footwork, visual search, and decision making commands that are required to be an effective triple option quarterback. It was pretty rough for a while (to put it nicely). During my freshman year I was the back-up on the freshman team. I didn't have any hard feelings against the coaches. The other guy was simply better than me at all things quarterback. Not wanting to be a back-up all four years, I decided to put nearly all my eggs into the basket of becoming a better linebacker with the hopes of earning a starting role in the future. I say "nearly all" because my Dad made sure that I went to the triple option camp my sophomore summer. I'm glad he did. That camp is where things started to come together for me. And it continued to snowballed after that. To start my sophomore year, I was the starting JV quarterback. By the end of the season, I was making my first start for the varsity team in the WIAA Division III playoffs. There were countless things that changed from freshman year when I had first practiced the triple option footwork to when I walked out on the field to take those varsity snaps. However, before all of that change happened, I was guilty of pigeon-holing myself and originally predicting my peak performance ability based on my poor performance early in the learning process. One of the biggest lessons I learned from this entire experience is the validity of the remoteness effect. The remoteness effect states that as the number of intervening trials increases, the relationship between two trials decreases. Translated into applicable words, the remoteness effect is evidence that performance during early practice is a poor predictor of performance later in practice. This was certainly true of my ability to run the triple option. And is likely true for many individuals who are written off by coaches, parents, and peers as never being capable of accomplishing various skills. Maybe all they need is a little time. Maybe all they need is a chance.

Below is a picture that was taken just before we scored the winning touchdown as time expired in my first varsity start. I remember it like it was yesterday. I guess it is about time to close the high school yearbook.

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With the footwork down, the next task of the triple option is to "read" the unblocked defender and to determine whether or not to give the ball or to keep it (all in a matter of milliseconds). As a novice freshman, I struggled mightily to make the right decision. I would give the ball when I was supposed to keep it. I would keep it when I was supposed to give it. More often than not this would result in a significant loss of yards. For a long time I remember simply guessing and not reacting at all to the defender. I really didn't know what to look at. Do I look at their feet, helmet, shoulder pads, or all the above? Eventually I found some success when I tried looking strictly at the defenders chest. But, with more exposure and trial and error, what I found to be the most indicative of a defender's intentions were their eyes. Wherever their eyes were fixated, that was almost always a dead giveaway as to where they were going to go.  This revelation led to a great improvement in my decision making. As the years went by, I kept getting better and better at making these reads based off the combination of defenders eyes and their body language. Based on the concept presented in Kinesiology 361 that more practice leads to individuals only focusing on the important environmental cues specific to the task, I believe increased efficiency in my visual search allowed my expert self to make correct decisions more quickly and consistently than my novice self,

Below is an accurate representation of my reaction when I realized that the eyes of the defender are especially telling of their intentions.

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It's July of 2011. As I hustle up the grassy knoll to the practice field, shoulder pads and helmet in hand, I had know idea what was about to begin. That very first practice at 14 years old, aspiring to be a quarterback, I was introduced to the triple option.

The triple option is an offensive strategy utilized by football coaches across the nation that seeks to gain a man advantage against the defense by leaving certain defenders unblocked, reading their actions, and then getting the ball into the hands of the ballcarrier who is unaccounted for. This particular offensive relies heavily on the quarterback who is responsible for reading, reacting, and distributing the ball appropriately.

To do all of those effectively, one must begin learning the triple option from the ground up. Quick, correct, automatic footwork is vital for the triple option quarterback because it allows them to focus their attention on the unblocked defender ("the read key"). On that very first day of practice my freshman year, it should come as no surprise that we spent nearly the entire practice working on foot placement for the four main option plays. I can still remember how I used to talk myself through an inside veer play to the left, "Open up. Left foot to 8 o'clock. Bring the right foot around and to the A frame."  Throughout that first week of practice those verbal cues were necessary for me to get my feet in the correct spot for any given play. And honestly, even that wasn't enough most the time. None the less, I made some huge improvements that first week. Over the rest of summer camp, I felt like I was really starting to get the hang of the footwork. Gradually, I did not need to talk myself through the steps any more and began to know when my feet were off without my coach mentioning it. Quickness and consistency were slowly getting better. Eventually, by the time the season officially rolled around, I didn't have to think about my footwork at all. It was practically automatic. My attention was solely on the read key and what decision I should make based off of him.

Looking back, my experience with learning the footwork of various triple option plays exemplifies the Fitts and Posner three stage model of motor learning that claims learning a motor skill involves three stages; cognitive, associative, and autonomous. The cognitive stage is described as a time when performance relies heavily on cognitive/verbal processes. The associative stage is described as a time when motor patterns are established. And the autonomous stage is described as a time when the attention demands of the skill are significantly reduced. My use of verbal cues, my inconsistent performance, and dramatic improvements throughout the early practices follow the characteristics of the cognitive stage. As the practices continued, I no longer needed to talk myself through the motions, knew when I didn't quite do things right, and became much more consistent in my movements; all of which follow criteria related with the associative stage. Lastly, the fact that my footwork was largely automatic in games and allowed me to instead focus my attention on the read key is a textbook example of the autonomous stage.

Below is a clip from a Georgia Tech vs. Clemson collegiate game that breaks down the triple option very well. This quarterback definitely couldn't have been focusing much of his attention on his footwork to make these snap decisions.

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Being a superstitious high schooler, I had a very specific pre-game routine. Before every game I would do a little warm-up stretch and then sit, close my eyes, and run through every single play in the playbook. I would run through every option play at least three different times. Footwork. Read. React. I would change it ever so slightly to make sure I knew what to do based on the various looks the defense might try to thwart us with. Give. Keep. Pitch. Same thing for every passing play. I would imagine it and tweak it slightly until I had thrown to every receiving option available. I did this mainly because y coach encouraged us to always imagine our responsibility on every play. "Know your job. Picture it in your head. That way, when you are in the moment, you don't have to think about what to do. You can just cut it loose and do it," he would say. He didn't provide any scholarly article that had shown that this was effective. He just knew that it had helped him back in the day. I honestly believe that it helped me as well. When it was time to go out and play, I felt more confident. It was almost as if I had done it all before.
As it turns out, based many studies {Hird et al. (1991), Linden et al. (1989), Van Gyn et al. (1990), etc.}, imagining being inside one's own body while performing a skill and experiencing the sensations expected in the actual situation (internal imagery) has been found to improve performance in motor skills and also aid in the performance of well learned skills. So, all of the active cognitive brain rehearsal (mental practice) that was part of my pre-game routine may have been beneficial to my performance in the game. It wasn't just all in my head after all...

Below is how I felt after learning that mental practice has shown to improve learning of new motor skills as well as aid in the performance of well learned skills!

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My youth hockey coach always told me, "Defensemen are the quarterbacks of a hockey team." Lucky for me, I was able to understand this saying since I was a quarterback. This was great coaching on his part in hindsight and he definitely had a point. The job of the quarterback, no matter what offensive scheme, is to distribute the ball appropriately. The job of the defensemen is not as easily summed up given the two-way nature of hockey, none the less, one major responsibility of defensemen is to move the puck up the ice to the open man (distribute the puck appropriately). This is no small task given the opposing players barreling down on you who are attempting to check you into the boards, steal the puck, and/or intercept your passing attempt. Like a triple option quarterback, a defenseman must utilize visual search to find the open man, recognize where the opposing players are heading, and quickly make the correct decision of where to go with the puck before it is too late. I believe that skills that I gained while playing quarterback pertaining to visual search and quick decision making had a significant benefit to my performance as a defenseman on the ice.

According to the transfer-appropriate processing theory, despite the fact that the motor tasks required of quarterbacks and defensemen are seemingly unrelated, the cognitive processes (visual search, information process, decision making, etc.) that are shared by the two tasks can lead to significant positive transfer between the two activities. Positive transfer is defined as the beneficial effect of previous experience on the learning and performance of a skill. This theory supports my beliefs that my performance as a defenseman benefitted from my experience as a quarterback. This example of positive transfer is yet another benefit to playing multiple sports as opposed to the sport specialization that seems to be rising in popularity among young athletes.

Below is a short clip that includes Tampa Bay Lightning Defenseman, Victor Hedman, looking much like a quarterback as he sees an opposing player fall and reacts by making a phenomenal stretch pass to his teammate on the other end of the ice.

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Hedman to Callahan Stretch Pass 60fps #StanleyCup