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1. https://www.star-telegram.com/living/keller-magazine/article62194152.html
2. https://deadhomersociety.com/tag/barts-comet/
3. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/131167407870974360/
4. https://www.wikihow.com/Wrap-an-Ankle
5. https://medium.com/@dariusforoux/multitasking-kills-your-productivity-heres-how-to-quit-dcf8c44d23a3
6. https://www.videoblocks.com/video/animation-of-light-bulbs-appearing-over-a-womans-head-227241_vjeqr
7. http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Muffet+McGraw/Kathryn+Westbeld/NCAA+Women+Final+Four+Semifinals/92edWXzGN4N
8. Picture 1: http://madcitysportszone.com/2018/03/15/wisconsin-on-the-field-for-practice-no-2-of-spring/
Picture 2: https://badgerherald.com/sports/2015/10/28/football-t-j-watt-makes-impact-any-way-he-can-for-badgers/

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Practicing on many ankles is a key part to mastering the skill of taping. In class, we discussed how blocked practice is not beneficial for retention and transfer. However, I believe this may be the opposite for ankle taping. When practicing, it might be hard to gather people who have different sized ankles and just tape each of them right after the other. It is much easier to just continuously tape one person. This may be better in the long run because you are focused on your movements and not so much the ankle. This allows you to create your own set of rules and movements that allow you to tape different sized ankles. Having your own set of movements/rules is what allows you to perform a quality tape job on anyone. This can also be described as Schema Theory (Lecture notes, 2018). When working with the football athletic trainers, they all say that you need to find a way that works for you. Blocked practice allows you to continuously work on these schemas, so that you can perform novice tape jobs later. I have also noticed this in football practice. The players repeat the same drill repeatedly to work on perfecting their movements, so that they can be ready for anything when it comes to competition time.

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7. Augmented feedback enhances performance

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7. Augmented feedback enhances performance

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Augmented feedback is information provided either by yourself or an external source about performance (Lecture notes, 2018). It is something that may or may not be helpful in skill learning, but most times when it is done correctly it increases performance level (Lecture notes, 2018). For example, the certified athletic trainers gave my classmates and I constructive criticism about our taping techniques when we first started taping. The form of feedback they give us is verbal KP (knowledge of performance), which is usually information about how to do better next time. They only give us feedback after we have completed the task or during if we ask for it. This has been proven to give the best results as you do not want to overwhelm the performer (Lecture notes, 2018). The athletic trainers I work with also use the sandwich theory, which is when they compliment my tape job, give my advice on how to do better, then give more praise. This is useful because it makes me think about the things I did right and then also how to incorporate the things I need to work on. My performance also improves faster than it would without the feedback because then I would just be guessing and relying on my own intrinsic feedback and a non-expert (person I am taping) to tell me how I did (Lecture notes, 2018).  Augmented feedback is common in all environments, such as, sports, businesses/work settings, etc.

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6. Transferring the skill to other tape jobs

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6. Transferring the skill to other tape jobs

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Positive transfer occurs when performing a similar task to ankle taping. For example, taping an ankle and taping a wrist have many similarities, which is what causes the positive transfer. The similarities between them are the amount of force we put in and the movements we use to complete both tasks. They both require the same force to keep the tape tight and easy to rip, secure and efficient. The movements are similar but the wrist and ankle are very different, so the tape needs to be placed differently. However, both tape jobs require the same patterns in which you lay the tape, but the size of each strip is different. I noticed that once I got better at taping the ankle, taping the wrist and other joints got easier. This positive transfer allows me to perform tasks I have not completed before because of the commonalities in strategies and movement they share.

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The best way to describe how taping is learned is by using Fitts and Posner’s three-stage process. The first stage is the cognitive stage, which is where many strategies are performed when trying to figure out the best one (Lecture notes, 2018). During this stage I felt that I was making quick progress, but my performance varied a lot due to the many strategies I was testing. The next stage, is the associative stage, which is where you perfect the strategy you found in the first stage (Lecture notes, 2018). Movements are more precise and consistent, and I can detect some errors (Lecture notes, 2018). The final stage is the autonomous stage, which is where the skill becomes automatic and your attention capacity for this task lowers, resulting in less interference from other activities (Lecture notes, 2018). I am in the associative stage of learning because the skill is not automatic, and I am still trying to perfect my strategy. Since I will be taping every day for the next few months, I feel as though I could reach the autonomous stage, but I still don’t feel that I will have completely mastered the skill to the point that I barely have to think about it. The certified athletic trainers always say that it takes a lot of time and practice to get your taping technique down. They have had years of practice with this and when I watch them tape it is clear the skill is automatic to them because they can direct most of their attention to many conversations at once without their performance suffering.

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Coordination is incredibly important in ankle taping because it is how our body acts with our environment and the objects in the environment (Lecture notes, 2018). One type of coordination I find myself using a lot is the vestibulo ocular reflex (VOR), which is when our eyes rotate in the opposite direction of our head to maintain focus on object (Lecture notes, 2018). I do this when I reach for a different kind of tape, or when someone calls my name. Bimanual coordination is also crucial because I am using both hands simultaneously, but they are performing different tasks (asymmetric). For example, one hand is holding and pulling the tape while the other is laying it flat against the ankle. This would also be known as an anti-phase relationship (Lecture notes, 2018). Without these types of coordination, performing this skill would be very challenging because you are asked to see and do many things at once, so if your limbs are not perfectly coordinated with one another your performance will suffer.

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Ankle taping requires great attention because there are many distractions that can occur. For example, while you are trying to tape someone’s ankles you may be holding a conversation with them to make the interaction more personal. This would be known as structural interference because your eyes need to focus on the ankle, but it is natural to look at someone while you are having a conversation. The central-resource theory would come in handy during this time. As long as taping the ankle and the conversation do not exceed attention capacity, the quality of the tape job will not suffer. This interference would also cause intentional or involuntary attentional switching. Intentional would be when we consciously focus on something other than the task at hand (Lecture notes, 2018). Involuntary would be when we unconsciously focus on something that occurs in the environment, such as, someone calling your name or a loud noise (Lecture notes, 2018). I find that keeping my attention on the ankle is easier when I am in a less distracting environment, and my tape job does not suffer. However, when I am in a loud setting with lots of people and chaos my tape job suffers quite a bit. This is most likely due to my attention capacity exceeding its limit therefore, the task I am performing suffers. To avoid this I try to use a narrow and internal attentional focus, so that I am focusing on what tape sequence I need to perform next.

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Proprioception is an important part to ankle taping because the back of the ankle is not visible during performance. Therefore, you must heavily rely on your proprioceptors to position your hands relative to each other and in space when you cannot see the tape you are laying down. The proprioceptors that are most important to this movement are the muscle spindles, these aware you of your limb position and help with fine motor skills (Lecture notes, 2018). One thing that is talked about by the football athletic trainers is that taping is all about the angles, and not letting the tape control you, which is why taping is so difficult to master. The tape wants to go a certain way and you need these proprioceptors to control it. Without the knowledge your proprioceptors are sending to you, it would be difficult to get a wrinkle-free, proper tape job.

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1. Classifying the skill of ankle taping

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1. Classifying the skill of ankle taping

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Being in the Athletic Training Program, taping ankles is something we do very often, but is also very hard to master. Taping ankles is a fine, serial and closed motor skill because the small muscles of the hands and arms are doing most of the work, many discrete skills are linked together and the order of which taping sequence you lay is important, and the ankle (environment) you are taping is waiting to be acted upon. Using Gentile’s two-dimensional classification system, taping would be classified as 1B. The environment is stable, there is no intertrial variability because you perform the same way every time, the performers body is not moving, and you do have manipulate the tape and the person’s ankle. It is important to classify this skill so that there is a common language between professionals and students, and there are certain guidelines/rules that are easy for a learner to follow. When I was first learning how to tape, my teacher used common language and generalizations to teach us the correct way to tape. Now being around the football athletic trainers, they can give us further tips and tricks because we have this shared knowledge about ankle taping.