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When I think of water skiing, I often times think of the saying “it’s just like riding a bike.” No matter how long I go without doing it, I always seem to know how to do it when I try it again. Therefore, I think the important concept that goes along with water skiing is memory. There are two aspects I want to focus on: procedural memory systems and long term memory.

Procedural Memory Systems are those systems that are rather non-conscious and automatic. It implies knowing how to do something, but maybe not being able to describe how to do it in words. I learned how to water ski at a very young age and know how to do it very well; however, if you asked me to explain how to water ski I would have a hard time getting the words to explain the process I go through while water skiing. I feel as though it is something you learn by trying and getting the feel for it rather than hearing step by step instructions, implying water skiing is part of our procedural memory system.

In addition, the fact that I am able to remember how to water ski after long periods, even years, of not means that it must be part of my long term memory. Long term memory is relative permanent and unlimited, meaning you can continue to add new information to it and it is very strongly consolidated in the brain. This explains how I am able to remember how to water ski and all it takes is retrieval of the skill once I am ready to water ski again.

Overall, memory plays a very important role in my ability to water ski, both in the sense of procedural memory systems and long term memory.

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This is a photo of my dad driving our boat up north with some of my family members. I included this picture because I believe it encompasses the concept of information processing and reaction time that we learned about throughout the semester. While driving a boat at fast speeds, you need to be aware of your surroundings and be able to quickly process information, make decisions, and react if you encounter another boat, people swimming, or other obstacles in the water.

As for the information processing, there are many steps to go through once encountering an object while driving a boat. First is the stimulus identification stage, or realizing there is an object such as a boat coming towards you. You recognize the stimulus and identify it as a boat based on variables such as clarity, intensity, and pattern recognition. The next stage is response selection, or the time in which you decide how you want to respond to the boat coming towards you. There are several variables influencing this stage such as S-R alternatives, or the number of ways you can respond to the nearing boat. The more alternatives the more bits of information there are that need to be processed and the longer it will take my dad to react, overall increasing the length of the response selection stage. The last stage of information processing is response programming, or organizing and initiating the action to avoid hitting the boat that is nearing you. This is when you turn the information you have been processing into an actual set of muscular actions that will help you turn the boat and move it out of the way so an accident does not occur. The variables that can influence the length of the response programming are the complexity of the movement to get the boat out of the way or the amount of accuracy that is needed to move the boat.

After all of this processing is done, the movement is made, and my dad prevents us from hitting an object that may also be on the lake while we are boating at fast speeds. This is an example of how boating incorporates the concepts of information processing and reaction time to keep everyone involved safe.

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This is a picture of my sister, my cousin, and me tubing up north at my cabin. I believe the most relatable topic that we have learned throughout the semester for tubing would be the taxonomy of proficiency abilities, which rely heavily on body configuration abilities. When you are being pulled around on a tube there are many movements that need to be made and requirements from the body in order to stay on the tube and not fall off.

Here are some of the physical proficiency abilities that I believe are needed. Extent flexibility is needed to stretch the body to reach handles on various areas of the tube while you are whipping one way or another. Stamina is also needed to exert the ability to hold on tightly for long periods of time and pull the body one way when it wants to go the other. Lastly explosive strength is needed to pull your body back up onto the tube very quickly after you begin to fall off so you do not completely fall off.

These are a few examples of how the physical proficiency abilities are needed while tubing.

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This picture shows my sister, cousin, and me swimming in the lake up north at our cabin. I thought this skill was very applicable to the concepts of classification of motor skills that we learned about earlier in the semester. We learned many terms that can help classify everyday motor skills, and swimming is considered one of these skills. The benefits of classifying skills include being able to have common languages, generalizations, and guidelines across many professions dealing with the movement of the body.

The first classification, size of primary musculature, can either be classified as fine motor skills or gross motor skills. Swimming, in this case, is considered a gross motor skill because we use large muscle groups to carry out this task. Next, we can classify swimming by its distinctness of movements on a scale from discrete to continuous. When swimming across the lake, this is most likely to be considered a continuous skill because you are doing the same movements over and over to propel yourself forward across the lake. In addition, swimming is also continuous because we don’t have a defined beginning and end of the skill when you are swimming in the middle of the lake.  The next classification system that I felt applicable to swimming was the environmental stability, which can range from closed to open. Swimming, in the context of swimming across a quiet lake, would be considered closed because we initiated the movement and the water is not changing around us but is rather stable. The last classification system discussed was Gentile’s Two-Dimensions Taxonomy, which classifies the skill based on function of the action and environmental context. Swimming’s function of the action would be transport/no object manipulation because you end up in a new place than you began and there is not an object in play during the movement. The environmental context for swimming would be stationary regulatory variables and no intertrial variability when there are no other boats or people around like in this picture. This would put swimming as number 3 in the matrix.

Overall, I used swimming to relate to the concept of motor skill classification that we learned about early in the semester.

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The main concept that the picture of me and my dad paddle boarding brought to mind was attention. This is a task that requires many forms of attention and concentration to keep your balance and remain standing regardless of internal and external factors. This attentional focus that is required can be broken up by width and direction.

Width ranges from broad to narrow. Broad attention is when you take in many things at once, and narrow is when you limit your focus to a smaller amount of things. Direction considers both internal and external attentional focus. External attentional focus is when you place your attention on things outside the body, while internal focuses attention to your own thoughts.

Therefore, these two dimensions can be related to the task at hand, paddle boarding. Here are some examples. Broad, external attention could be focusing on the things in the environment occurring around you like the kayaker in the background, the fish in the water, the birds in the sky, and the boats in the distance. Narrow, external would be taking this attention and zooming in on one thing, like focusing specifically on my dad paddle boarding next to me. Broad, internal would be thinking through the entire complex movements that you need to make to propel yourself forward using the paddle. Lastly, narrow, internal would be specifically focusing on one aspect of the movement, like how to keep your balance during one movement.

This explains the various different attentional focuses that you can have while making a complex movement, such as paddle boarding.