# data[].attributes.body
I am going to give you two sets of stats. 1)  3 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. 2) 7 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. What do these two stat lines represent you ask? Well, they refer to my senior season of high school football of course. The first set of stats represents the first seven games of the season, while the second set represents the last seven. How did I go from struggling mightily to performing at a high level? I have no doubt visual search played a role in this transformation. At the beginning of the season, I wasn’t directing my visual attention to the right places. I was putting too much visual attention on extraneous things like the referees, my offensive lineman, and defensive pass run. This led to slower action selection to throw the ball, and threw off timing between me and the wide receivers. As I moved from a novice quarterback to an expert quarterback, my visual attention narrowed in on only important information. For example, instead of focusing on the pass rush, I locked my eyes on the safety to monitor his movements. In addition, instead of focusing on the referees, I directed my attention to the cornerbacks to help me decipher the coverage the defense was in. Focusing only on this relevant information allowed me to select who I was going to throw to faster, and ensured the timing between me and my wide receivers was precise. My transformation, paired with an excellent team around me, led us to hoisting the state championship trophy at the end of the year.

# data[].attributes.body
On the basketball court, I was a shooter. I worked on my shot constantly to fine-tune my shooting mechanics that included my body position, my follow-through, and the arc on my shot. To perfect my shot arc, I used the Noah Shooting System. The Noah is a device installed to a gym wall. It gave instant, verbal feedback and served as a form of augmented feedback that enhanced the arc on my shot. After every shot, the Noah would verbally state the degrees of arc my shot had. According to research, 45 degrees was the ideal arc to strive for, so that’s what I did. For example, if my previous shot had 41 degrees of arc, I would try to add arc to my next shot. This augmented feedback allowed me to build the muscle memory needed for a consistent shot. To make sure the augmented feedback I was receiving wasn’t becoming an integral part of my learning, I would always go through a shooting drill without the Noah right after using the Noah. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was a great idea. This made sure I wasn’t relying on the augmented feedback. Here is a link to learn more about the Noah if you would like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etqkEFBMsXE

# data[].attributes.body
It was a beautiful summer day up at the cabin. The sun was out, and not a cloud was in the sky. My family, a few of my buddies, and I were spending the weekend up north getting some much-needed relaxation time. My friends and I had been bathing in the sun for what seemed like hours when I got an itch to go water-skiing. My dad said he would pull me, so I asked one of my friends to spot for me. After putting on my skis and lifejacket, I was pulled out of the water and began cruising around the lake. I carved up the lake pretty good, weaving in and out of the wake. I even dropped a ski to do a little slaloming. After a few times around the lake, I tapped my head and my dad took me back to shore. As I began laying back down on the beach, one of my friends exclaimed, “DUDE, how did you do that?!?” I was stumped. I honestly didn’t know how to answer. I had been water skiing for so long, and had so much repetition and practice, that the knowledge I needed was stored in my procedural memory. I didn’t have to consciously think about what I was doing; my movements were unconscious and automatic. This made it very hard for me to try and teach my friends how to ski, because, again, I really didn’t think about my movements while I skied, they just happened. In order to teach my friends, I had to take a minute and really break down the steps and movements I used.

# data[].attributes.body
I started playing baseball around the age of 5. I worked every baseball season (and off-season) to perfect my swing. Around the age of 13, some of my friends became avid golfers. They always talked about how much fun it was, and extended an open invite for me to go out with them. Eventually, I took up this offer and was planning to hit the links with a friend over the weekend. A couple days before, however, my baseball coach overheard me talking about going golfing over the weekend. He was not happy, saying, “Mitch, you’re going to ruin your [baseball] swing you’ve worked so hard on”. To keep my coach happy, I made a deal with him to wait until after the season to go golfing. So, let’s fast forward to the summer, Baseball season was over, and I was going out golfing. I didn’t know what to expect. Was I going to suck? To my surprise, I found golf to be easier to pick up than I had thought. I believe this was due to positive transfer and the identical elements theory. Thinking about it after, I realized baseball swings and golf swings were very similar. For example, hip rotation is very important in both swings. Likewise, pivoting on the back foot is also very important in both skills. Finally, keeping my eye on the ball is crucial for both hitting a baseball and hitting a golf ball. These were all skills that I had been practicing since I was 5 years old, explaining why I was able to pick up golf so quickly.

# data[].attributes.body
For three years at the end of elementary school and the beginning of middle school, I played in a baseball league that used a pitching machine as a pitcher. The first year in the league, I struggled mightily at the plate. Looking back on it, I believe this was due to contextual interference and practice variability factors. During practice, our team would rotate through hitting a bucket of about 25 baseballs. This was a form of blocked practice because the pitching machine “threw” the same pitch every time. Also, contextual interference was low for this form of practice. It was easy to “fall into a groove” and to not take every pitch seriously. I usually was fairly successful in practice, hitting most of the pitches. During games, however, every pitch mattered, and I struggled. A normal at-bat averaged around 4-5 pitches. Each pitch required great focus and attention to detail. Additionally, the location of the pitches was more variable than practice. As I didn’t practice under these conditions, I believe this led to my struggles. To my relief, when I entered high school baseball, the practice type changed. Our team would take turns at having game-like at-bats off a live-arm pitcher. This was a form of random practice because the pitcher could throw an array of different pitches in many different locations. This practice type had a high level of contextual interference. I struggled more in practice than I did in pitching machine, but I found I was more successful in games. I think this shows how important practice conditions are for baseball. Additionally, we learned in class that random practice leads to higher retention performance than blocked practice, even though blocked practice will have higher practice performance. I experienced this first hand. If I ever go into coaching, I will be sure to have contextual interference and practice variability in mind.