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On the defensive side in football, you can’t cross the plane of the ball until the ball is snapped. Reaction time is very important for getting a good jump when the ball is snapped to make a play. Many times however, people will get caught jumping “offsides” before the ball is snapped, warranting a 5-yard penalty. It seems simple, that you just look at the ball and wait until it moves to go, but there’s a lot of information running through your head. First off, you have to know your responsibilities, a defensive end/outside linebacker such as myself has to contain everything inside and turn runners to the inside for other players to tackle. Along with this, if the play is a pass, I have to cover within 5 yards off the ball towards the sideline called the “flats.” I also have to study the formation of the offense for potential clues as to the play they might run. Finally, I am trying to anticipate when the ball will be snapped, so I can get a good start on my responsibilities. A method that offenses often use to get an advantage over the defense is to use a different snap count. This means that rather than snapping the ball on “go,” they could snap the ball on a second “go.” The defense may react to this stimulus, so that when the second “go” is said, their reaction time is slower because they have to finish their reaction to the first “go.” In this picture you can see me standing up on the right side of the defensive line looking at the ball, waiting for it to move.

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Baseball is another sport that I was active in from youth through high school. One important aspect of baseball is base running, and being able to so is a great way to put a runner in scoring position so they can get to home plate quicker if a ball is hit. Stealing a base is more than just taking off and running towards the next base, it involves great timing, and attention to the pitcher’s movements. On a right-handed pitcher, the steal can start as soon as they pick up their left foot for the pitching motion. Good anticipation and reaction time are essential to successfully stealing a base, otherwise the catcher will throw you out. Along with this however, there is a chance that the pitcher will perform a pickoff throw, where they will step off the bag and throw the ball to the base you’re at. If this happens you must get back as quick as possible to avoid being out. So, to steal a base you must have great anticipation and reaction time for when the pitcher picks up their left foot, but you also have to pay attention to the pitcher’s right foot to avoid getting picked off. If the pitcher is left-handed, this becomes more complicated. In this case, you can’t start your steal until the pitcher either starts their motion forward, or their right leg crosses their left when they do their motion. Lefties have an additional pickoff move, where they can pick their leg straight up and then step towards first base to pick you off, so you have to be extra cautious. The chances of successfully stealing a base generally are better when the pitcher is right handed.

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I started participating in wrestling when I was in kindergarten and I kept doing it all the way through senior year of high school. Demonstrating moves is a huge part of wrestling practice and learning how to do new moves. Every wrestling move I have ever learned was demonstrated in front of me first, and then we are given time to practice what we just learned. Sometimes the move was demonstrated by coaches who wouldn’t make mistakes during the movement, and sometimes it was demonstrated by two experienced wrestlers with the guidance of the coaches, who would point out any incorrect aspects of the move if there were any demonstrated. Another huge aspect of wrestling is knowledge of performance augmented feedback. In high school, it was common for the coaches to focus more on giving feedback to the more inexperienced wrestlers, and the experienced wrestlers would commonly call the coaches over to ask for feedback. One move that has stuck with me is called the “sprawl,” where if somebody shot in to get my legs, I would throw my legs back, and get my weight on top of them to defend and possibly score. I have practiced and performed the sprawl so much, that to this day my legs will flinch when I’m watching a match and someone takes a shot, without even thinking about it. This could be an example of the autonomic stage of learning. In the picture below, the blue guy shot in on me and I sprawled and am working to get a takedown off of it.

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Some of my favorite games as a child were the Guitar Hero and Rockband games. In both games, you get a fake guitar and then you play the notes to songs as they appear on screen. In Rockband you could also play as the drummer and/or the singer. On the fake guitar was a strummer, and 5 buttons that were used for the notes, green, yellow, red, blue, and orange. The easy difficulty is slower with less notes, and only involves the green, yellow and red buttons. The medium difficulty is a little faster with some more notes, and included the blue button as well. Things start to get really challenging when you go to hard and expert, which are faster with even more notes, and include all 5 buttons. It’s so challenging because now you have to play 5 notes, with only 4 fingers, so you have to move and position your fingers accordingly. I was always the guitar guy in my house. I have no idea how to play an actual guitar, but I can play most songs on the expert difficulty. This task involves many aspects of motor learning, such as coordination, reaction time, attention and information procession to be good at. You need to be able to coordinate both hands for the strumming with the pressing of notes. You need to be able to react quickly from one note to the next. You need to be able to commit full attention for the duration of the song and you have to process the information coming at you very quickly and accurately, telling you what notes to play at the right time. Here’s a picture of my dad playing.

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The sport of golf has been an activity that I’ve constantly enjoyed in life ever since I was a 3-year-old who loved to grab a turkey baster and try to whack a ball around. Now 21 years old, I enjoy playing because it’s a fun activity to do outdoors and it’s a fun way to spend time with my grandpa and uncles. I like to refer to myself as a decent golfer, nothing outstanding, but decent. Golf is not a sport than anybody could just pick up and be good at right away, it requires a lot of practice, and has taken me at least 10 years of actual golfing to get to the “decent” level I consider myself to be at. I think that Fitts and Posner’s 3 stage model is evident in the learning of golf. In the cognitive stage, I was getting the motions down testing out different strategies, for example, testing what to aim at or what clubs go certain distances. I found myself going through the cognitive stage every year after winter, due to club distances changing for me, a new set of problems that need to be fixed, and inconsistency. Then begins the associative stage, where I would be able to determine the things I needed to do to be more successful and correct problems I started out with, and I would start to become more consistent. I wouldn’t say that I ever reach the autonomous stage in golf, because if I did I would be a lot better, and more consistent at it. I am able, for example, to hit a draw by adjusting my stance so my left foot is in front of my right foot, but I don’t always get consistent results where I can control my ball all the time. No matter the result, I just enjoy getting out and playing. Here’s me lining up to hit a drive on a par 4 that ended up beautifully 30 yards out from the green in the fairway... and I still found a way to bogey it.