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I was 8 years old and entering third grade... that was the first time I put on football pads and a helmet. I started playing tackle football at a very young age and was always a huge fan of the sport; from watching it on TV, to playing it at recess, or playing catch with my dad. Growing up, a football was always in my hands. The game completely changed when I got to high school.

When got to high school, it was no longer being able to rely on verbal cues or pure talent. You had to learn to read the offense and the players. One concept we learned was the Stages of Learning which are: the cognitive stage, the associative stage and the autonomous stage. The cognitive stage is described as a time when performance relies heavily on cognitive and verbal processes and where you retain good strategies and are figuring out what to do. The associative stage is described as a time when motor patterns are established and you determine what the best strategy is and start improving on it. The autonomous stage is described as a time when the attention demands of the skill are significantly reduced and you can process information from other aspects of the task. In the cognitive stage, I learned important cues of how to play our defense known as cover 3. I learned where to line up for a down and distance during different points in the game. I also was learning how to cover my zone in the middle of the field playing free safety.  After I became used to those, I entered the associative stage where I learned that the way a receiver lines up and where they are on the field could help in determining what route they will run, or reading the guards to know where the play will be going. These all helped in my strategy as a free safety and are used to give me an advantage. After I played my first year of varsity football my freshman year, I entered the autonomous stage. I no longer had to think about the strategies or how to cover my 1/3 of the zone. The defensive scheme became automatic to me and I could correct errors I would make while covering my zone. This lead me to be able to run the entire secondary and could call audible's to better adjust to the offense for a given play. I did not have to pay so much attention to the specifics of playing safety and was able to play more freely.

The picture below shows how to play the base defense of cover 3, with 3 over and 4 under. This is what I had to learn to play safety at a high level.

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Once I became comfortable at my position, I noticed many improvements of my game. I had worked my way up to the Varsity Team by the time the season had started. I did not play for the first two games because a senior was ahead of me. I could not stand not being out there so I knew I had to do something about it.

I began to watch film of my games to analyze what I was doing right and wrong, as well as watch hours of film on the other teams to pick up on tendencies the offenses had. I would also meet with my coach after practice so he could give me advice on what I did well and not so well in practice. This was the concept of Knowledge of Performance which if a form of Augmented Feedback that was being presented. I was receiving feedback about my patterns of action. The feedback came from my coaches giving me pointers on everything from my technique of my footwork. Things like transitioning from back peddling to opening your hips to run with the receiver or planting your foot and coming up to stop the run were all being analyzed. I also received feedback on things to pick up on that the offense is doing and what I could do to fix the problems. I also got feedback from the film I watched. A crucial part was watching myself make errors and learning how to fix those errors, like in my footwork or the way I reacted to a receiver breaking on his route, to my tackling form or the way I read a play. With all this feedback, I worked my way into a starting position on the defense as a freshman. I knew that being a freshman there will still mistakes I was making so I made surer to continue to get this feedback after. It resulted in me making big impacts on the field like recording three interceptions that year.

This is a gif of a Defensive Back for the University of Florida making an interception by reading the receivers break on the route. When the receiver broke to the inside, he opened his hips and ran with him then jumped in front to intercept the ball. He was trusting his feedback he received from film or coaching pointers, which is like the feedback I received. He needed the feedback from the film to notice that the receiver would run this route in this formation or on a certain down. He used the coaching pointers to execute the fundamentals perfectly.

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When I first started football in High School, I had to not only learn how to play at the speed of varsity football, but how the defense worked and how to make plays on the field. On top of that, I needed to start learning the offense because I was playing running back as well. It wasn't as simple as just lining up 11 guys on offense vs. 11 guys on defense anymore. In order to be a successful player, I knew I had to perfect my craft.

My sophomore year I began playing running back and would get a few carries a game. I knew that the following year I was in line to be the main running back on offense. I studied our offensive playbook all summer so coming into camp I knew I would be prepared. This is showing the Characteristics of Motor Learning concept which includes four variables: improvement, consistency/ stability, persistence, and adaptability. Each one of these was seen my junior year of football. For improvement, I trained every day with a trainer, I would go to all captain’s practices, and would study the playbook every day for at least an hour. For consistency and stability, my performance as a running back improved because of the practice and experience I had in getting those repetitions from the previous year and all the work I had put in. I was the starting running back now and rushed for over 800 yards my junior year. For persistence, it was seen over the course of the off season and in each week of practice by then being able to retain those skills in the game. I wanted to be the best I could be so I was always working on details like cutting, juke moves, and reading my blocks. Lastly, for adaptability, this was not seen until my senior year. We made some big changes to our offensive playbook, and I had to transfer and adjust my skills I had previously learned to be able to be effective in the new offense. I had a break out senior year and ran for over 1,650 yards and scored 18 touchdowns. This meant I was able to adapt my skills to the offense and be even more successful in it.

Below is a picture of my running the ball in the first game of the season in the new offense, using my skill of stiff arm to break a tackle. I ran for 230 yards this game with 3 touchdowns and was the leading rusher in the state after this game!

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protective equipment in gridiron football

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People's favorite football players are the ones that make the "coolest", hardest, and most spectacular plays on the field. I am someone who likes attention and wants to be the best in everything I do. I knew I wanted to be the fans favorite player or the "Star Player" everyone followed.

Coordination plays a crucial role in being successful in the sport you play, so I knew that if worked on coordination of activities I could become that star player. The concept of coordination we learned in this course is described as the patterning of head, body, and or/limb motions relative to the patterning of environmental objects and events. It can be within a body segment or between body segments. I used Coordination all the time when playing football. One part of coordination that I used frequently was the Reach/Grasp (Prehension) actions. This is essential when catching a pass. There are three distinct components that can be identified during prehensile movements. First, the transport component which brings the arm from its starting position to the location of the target. One of the first things I learned when catching a football was to bring your arms up and make a diamond with your hands and see the ball into your hands. This covers the first component. Second is the grasp concept, which is when the fingers enclose on the object. When the diamond is made with your hands, you feel the ball hit your fingers and you grip down on it to make sure you do not drop the ball. Lastly is the object manipulation component, during which objects are transported, rotated, and used to achieve the functional goal of the task. Once you catch the ball, my coach would always tell me to "tuck it and run". This is crucial in football so you do not drop the pass and so you don’t fumble the ball. Once you complete these you are on your way to scoring a touchdown and becoming the star player!

Below is a picture of me catching a pass right along the side line. You can see in this picture that I am in the process transitioning from the transport component to the grasp component. The feeling of having a sweet catch to bring the crowd to life is like no other.

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"They can measure height, they can measure weight, they can measure a lot of things, but they can't measure heart." This quote was very true to me in high school. I was overlooked as being undersized but even though it may have been true, they did not affect the way I played.

I played with the mentality that I could compete against anyone, no matter how big, fast, or strong they were. I made up what I lacked in certain variables with multiple abilities that I excelled at and worked to achieve perfection of skills. The concept of Individual Differences and Motor abilities is very relatable to this. We describe abilities as a general trait or capacity of the individual that is a determinant of a person’s achievement potential for the performance of specific skills. Multiple skills make up an ability and can be modified by practice. We also discussed physical proficiency abilities and there are multiple of them that I used to succeed in football. An example of one is gross body coordination, which I used to stay up after getting hit when running the ball, or make a last second cut to avoid a defender. Another example is stamina, which I used to stay in the game and wear the defenses down. I played both sides of the ball so stamina was crucial for me throughout a game. We also discussed Perceptual Motor Abilities, which I also used to help me perform at a high level. One example is control precision, which I used to be able to read my blocks and shift to a different direction to try and avoid the defense or would be tacklers. Another example is response orientation, which I used a lot on defense when playing safety in having to either pick a receiver up running across my zone or to break toward the line and come up and fill to make the tackle on a run.

This picture below is a good visual representation of me using multiple of the abilities. One that really stands out is the control precision, because I saw my teammate going to block a defender so I planted my foot and cut the opposite direction of him for me to get free. I still remember this play because after I reacted to that block it was a clear path to the End Zone. There are many more that could be pointed out or used during the context of a game that I did not even realize I used.