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As a young girl, I played soccer with a group of my great friends in our local SPAYSA league. I vividly remember being on the yellow team, because I was with one of my great friends, and her dad was our coach. At that age, I thought it was great that I had a personal relationship with our coach. The team was a co-ed team, and there were only a couple of girls.

During soccer games at that younger age, there was no such thing as a formation, and the only person who truly stayed in their assigned position was the goalie. Everyone one else, the defenders, midfielders and forwards were running to all parts of the field to chase the ball. The games were all on Saturday mornings, so sometimes it was hard to keep motivation to go after the ball that early in the morning. But, I was so happy that I got to play soccer because I love the sport, and my parents were so supportive in giving me many opportunities as well as helping me improve my skills.

Along with going to practice and getting feedback from my coach, my parents and I would practice at home in our front yard. I enjoyed learning how to improve, and I always respected what my coach and parents were telling me.

Sometimes during the games when I got distracted by the many dandelions on the soccer field, I would be running for the ball and then lose interest. I would get side tracked and go for the dandelions. Another major distraction was when my coach was giving me feedback during the game. This is what would be called augmented feedback. Augmented feedback is defined as information provided about the task that is supplemental to, or augments inherent feedback. My coach giving me feedback about my play was helpful, but when I was on the sideline. When I was on the field and received feedback from him, I would often times stop running after the ball or want to go over to the sideline and talk to him.

By receiving the augmented feedback during my soccer game, it falls under the category of "augmented feedback can hinder skill learning" due to the effects on my performance. As stated above, I would sometimes walk towards my coach rather than continuing to play. This hindered my dribbling skills, because if I was dribbling the ball up the field and he gave me feedback, stopping to process what he is saying and then walking away from the skill is not enhancing my practice.

The picture provided below is one of my great friends and I, when we played on the same soccer team in SPAYSA league.

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As I got older and moved on from the SPAYSA league, I moved onto the MAYSA league which was broken down into different age groups. The age group that you were in would determine the size ball that was used and the size field. As you got older, the ball and the field both increased in size.

Additionally, the drills that we did in practice became more intense, required better skills, and required more coordination.  Coordination is defined as the patterning of the head, body and or limb motions relative to the patterning of environmental objects and events. To be an effective soccer player, an individual needs to be able to keep their head up, while keeping control of the ball at their feet. Soccer is a physical game at the competing levels, and it is key to have balance and coordination to be able to perform good footwork along with dealing with the physicality of the opposing team.

Towards the end of middle school and into high school, I began to play in a game that is called Futsol. Futsol is just like soccer, but the ball is very different. The ball is about half of the size of a regular soccer ball, it is a bit harder in feel than a normal soccer ball and it is weighted.

Playing Futsol helped improve the footwork skills in soccer because of the differences in the ball. The intrinsic properties of the object, in this case the soccer ball, are defined as properties of the object itself. The examples listed above, the weight, the hardness and the smaller size of the ball are all examples of intrinsic properties of the object which impact the coordination of the player. The player changes the way they play, based upon the object's properties to make sure that they are still performing the skill effectively.

From personally playing futsol, I would modify my coordination pattern so that I would have a lower base in order to control my movements since the strike I would place on the ball would need to be a very precise surface. If I were to place the same coordination patterns on the futsol ball that I did on the regular soccer ball, I would be doing pull backs without the ball, because my foot would be adjusted to the normal ball height I would typically use to do a pullback. The same goes for if I used the same coordination pattern with a Futsol ball, I would have to have my foot lower to the ground to do a pullback with the Futsol ball, and if I tried that with a regular ball, I would end up kicking the ball in the middle and the ball would go one direction and my foot would do a pullback motion without the ball.

Below is a video that demonstrates a soccer player placing their foot too high for the ball while they are trying to finish their pullback. This is an example of using a different coordination pattern based on the intrinsic properties of the object, soccer ball.

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Towards the end of my middle school years, in the MAYSA Classic league, I played on a co-ed boys team. The decision to go from playing in an all girls league to playing in a boys league was difficult, but in the end it did benefit me as a player.

I remember being very nervous going from MAYSA to MAYSA Classic, because it was a more competitive league, and I did not know what to expect.

On the first day of practice, our coach had us doing some ice breakers to get to know each other, and shortly into the season everyone on the team got along very well. We all realized in order to win games and become better soccer players, we needed to trust each other and get along. Many of the drills that we did in practice were hard, and we were moving from one drill to another and even between drills very quickly.

One of my favorite drills that we did was what the coaches called soccer nasty. This drill required everyone to be divided into two teams, one team would take colored vest-pinnies so we knew who was on which team. The drill took place inside the 18 yard box in front of the goal, and everyone was in the box. The coaches would stand on the outside of the box and throw, kick, or roll balls into the box, the person who would get to the ball would be the one to score it, and they would only have one touch to score the ball. The balls rarely came from the same direction, the same speed nor the same location. This was a drill that worked on contextual interference. Contextual interference is when the memory and performance disruptions that results from practicing multiple skills or variations of a skill within the context of practice.

This drill was great for contextual interference because we had all practiced shooting the ball from the ground, heading the ball in or striking the ball out of the air to score the goal, but in this game, there was no way of knowing which method of scoring we would need to use.

Soccer nasty, was a beneficial game because it exhibits the elaboration hypothesis of contextual interference. There were times that we would be in practice only practicing shooting from a stationary spot, or there would be other times we would only practice doing headers, which is blocked practice. On the other hand, there were times when we would be able to work on many different shooting skills in no particular order, which would be defined as random practice. Soccer nasty is an example of the elaboration hypothesis because we still had the different skills in our memory, because between trials we were able to quickly adapt to where the ball was coming from and score. When there is greater contextual interference, it is better for the individual because they are comparing the different movement programs between trials which in turn is creating a richer memory restoration. A richer memory restoration will lead to a greater ability to be an effective striker in a game situation, because it is impossible to predict before a game the exact way the goals are going to be scored.

Below is a video of many different soccer goals being scored by the same player. This displays the different angles, speed, body movements and approaches that are taken into consideration when scoring in a soccer game.

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Julie Ertz: All 15 International Goals For The USA (2015-2018)

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As I got into my high school years of playing soccer, I was on the varsity team all four years. At that level, we had the ability to play in many playoff games. In the play off games, the game can not end in a draw, there has to be a determined winner. After the regulation time is up, if the score is tied, the game goes into overtime and then eventually penalty kicks. When penalty kicks happen at the end of the game, there are only 5 people per team who can take the kick.

At the end of some of our practices, we would all go through and practice penalty kicks. Our coaches would evaluate us, so that if the playoff game went into PK's, they would know who they wanted to take them. As a captain of the team, I knew that I would be taking a PK if if came down to it in a game.

As a right leg dominant soccer player, I initially only practiced penalty kicks with my right food because I wanted to be confident in an emotionally high time during the game if I had to take a penalty kick. Around the time my junior year season was coming to an end, I decided I would try to take a penalty kick with my left foot. Taking the PK with  my left foot also would mean changing the side that I approached the ball.

As I did my typical set up for the PK, I took three steps straight back from the ball and then two steps to the right of the ball, I was ready to approach the ball and strike it. I approached the ball and my strike was a solid, skillful strike. I had not practiced a penalty kick on my left foot before, but since I was skilled with using my right foot, I exhibited bilateral transfer. Bilateral transfer is defined as the transfer of learning of the same task, but you are just using the contralateral limb. This example specifically is an example of positive bilateral transfer because having skill with my left PK, was a benefit from being skilled with my right PK.

Below is a GIF that shows a penalty kick with great execution, taken with the right foot of the striker.

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After graduating high school in 2015, the days of being a captain on the varsity soccer team, and all my years playing soccer were over. Since I had played soccer competitively for years, it was a good time to retire the soccer cleats.

Well it wasn't for too long that they were retired. The following spring the Sauk Prairie High School Girls Soccer team hosted an alumni game. This is an event that occurs each year on a Saturday morning where alumni of all ages get together again and play soccer. For some, knocking the rust off is no problem, but for others it takes a bit longer.

I was hesitant to go back and play in the alumni game because both of my younger sisters were on the soccer team. Not only were they on the team, but we are all very competitive people. Although we were competitive, it was the sibling drive voice in my head "oh I will not let Kelsey do way better than me or win balls against me in the game" and I am sure she had some of the similar voices going on in her heads towards me.

While going off to college was an adjustment, I would use exercise as a stress reliever, a way to stay healthy and to keep something that was normal in my life before college, exercising, normal while at college. These were not the only reasons I stayed exercising, but I did not stay playing soccer.

Between playing my last game as a varsity captain and warming up for the alumni game that Saturday morning in May, I had touched a soccer ball maybe only 2 times. But I still wanted to play in the game to have fun and to play against my sisters. I went into the game and played the same position that I did in high school, left outside midfielder. It all felt so natural to me being back out on the field- staying close to the white side line, running up and down the field, playing defense but also getting a good amount of shots off. Even though I had not practiced these skills, I was able to do them all. This is because of my long term memory. Long term memory is defined as the relatively permanent memory system that we have, forgetting can occur but that is typically due to retrieval problems. The long term memory capacity is essentially unlimited, but once the information is in there, it is relatively permanent.

I felt so good being able to compete at that level again with my sisters. They were impressed with how well I was able to play, of course while giving me some "sisterly teasing" along the way. My dad after the game said, "You did so good. I mean you did many things well, I was impressed with your play" which was great to hear from him. But, I think he was a little surprised that I still had the skills I did. However, he should not have been that surprised because the information of performing the dribbling, running, defending, shooting skills, were all in my long term memory.

Below is a picture of me playing in the alumni soccer game against my sister. I am wearing the black shirt with the number 6 on my back, and the girl in the white who is wearing number 10 is my youngest sister Kelsey. My sister Claire was also playing, but she is not in the picture.