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FOREEEE! Something I was used to yelling when hitting the links back in high school. Living in Wisconsin comes with some unfortunate baggage and one main thing that is part of that baggage is that Winter is 6-7 months long. Due to this awful circumstance there is only a solid 4-5 months to play golf. I know that math doesn't exactly add up but you have to account for the 2-3 weeks that it takes for the course to lose the snow and dry up plus the additional week or two after that when the second winter comes and drops another load of snow on us. With such a short time to play such a fun sport, one can't really waste any opportunity, even if it's during baseball season.

Now again, you might be wondering "what does baseball season have to do with playing golf?" Well, just go ask any baseball coach if they want their players consistently playing a quick 9 during the season. They will tell you in a less kinesiological way something that might go along the lines of "because it ruins their swings and all they will do is hit pop flies." Mind you baseball coaches are not usually the most well-mannered and they tend to be short-tempered so I censored what they might realistically say.

The reason golf ruins a baseball swing and vice versa for that matter, is because when someone consistently plays golf they naturally develop a swing that, although similar to a baseball swing, is also very different. The swing one uses when playing golf is led by the pulling of the left hand/arm for a right handed player while the right hand/arm helps stabilize, guide, and assist with some of the power needed to drive under and through the ball. Baseball is similar in the sense that the player still uses the left hand/arm to pull through the swing while the right hand/arm again helps stabilize, guide, and assist with some of the power needed to drive through the ball. The part of the motion that gets players in trouble for playing too much of the other sport during the season is that in a golf swing you want to pull down and sweep the ball but in a baseball swing you want a fairly level swing to drive the ball out and avoid popping it up for an easy out. It goes the same for the golf game when players join rec softball teams, they tend to start having swings that don't come straight down and through the ball, but rather a little bit angled outward which causes the ball to slice and usually end up in the woods. This is called a Negative Bilateral Transfer. Luckily, this follows the trend of most negative transfers and is temporary. By that I mean regardless of if it's the middle of the baseball game or you're approaching hole 5, this flawed technique usually fixes itself as you see the results of the improper form.

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The title of this post is a phrase that I heard an obscene amount while at Boot Camp and although it got unbelievably tiring to hear, it was true and made sense. Drill Sergeants make the environment extremely intense and as stressful as they can to train you to perform under pressure. They do this by getting in your face and screaming while you are trying to perform the task that has been assigned to you and if you make a mistake then you get "smoked" which is simply corrective training (or so they like to call it to sound professional). This consists of doing an abundance of physical exercises until you either puke/pass out or the Drill Sergeants decide you have had enough. While one Drill Sergeant would be yelling at you, another one would be talking you through the task at hand.

The task that I am going to use as an example is qualifying on pop up targets with a M4 Carbine. At first everyone would try to hurry up and zero in their rifle and go through the practice iteration as fast as they could to avoid getting yelled at. Upon completion of that first practice iteration, close to 2/3 of the company had missed too many targets and did not shoot a qualifying score. So the Drill Sergeants sat everyone down and crammed that phrase through our heads over and over again. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. They swore by it then and I swear by it now. After they explained how not rushing your shot and taking the extra second or two in order to get your breathing down and ensure that you had the right sight picture and trajectory for the distance you were shooting is much quicker than having to shoot a second time.

This phrase and situation coincides with Fitts' Law: The Logarithmic Speed-Accuracy Trade-off. This law explains how by increasing the speed in which you perform a task, you decrease the accuracy of the action you are performing. So although each target that we had to shoot at only stayed popped up for 3 - 7 seconds depending on the distance of which ranged from 50 - 300 meters, they encouraged you to take your time (within reason) and make a good shot. By giving up the rapid aiming and firing (and probably missing), you will hit more targets and qualify on the first try with a better score than if you choose to aim and fire as fast as you can.

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

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Old Habits Die Hard But Old Chores Die Easy

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Old Habits Die Hard But Old Chores Die Easy

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What was worse than having to stay in and do chores rather than going outside to play in the summer as a kid or rather than going to cheer on the girls sports team in high school, or rather than just not doing chores at all at any age? Nothing, nothing was worse than coming home to a list of chores to do. Regardless of the age, there was always a list that Ma wrote of things around the house to get done and if they didn't get done, well then you were answering to the ol' man and that never turned out in my favor.

Just when I thought I approaching the end of an era with the chores list to complete every day, I enlisted in the Army. So I graduate and go off to Boot Camp. Well what do you know, MORE CHORES. But this time there wasn't a list left out to remind you and if you didn't complete everything that needed to get done, you answered to Drill Sergeants, not dads. Well, after 5 months of training in Ft. Leonard Wood, MO I am finally on my way back to Wisconsin, but more importantly on my way to college at UW - Madison and guess what? The time had finally come where there were no more chores to get done.

After a few short days of welcome week, the dorm was in less than pristine condition. There were clothes everywhere, cans and bottles everywhere, and just everything, EVERYWHERE. It quickly occurred to me that I need to go back to making lists of chores to do for myself in order to prevent a wild animal from nesting in this disaster my roommate and I called home. I quickly got back into the habit of doing chores and being the one to make the list that I always would dread to come home to. Unfortunately, my roommate wouldn't lend a hand in turning the dorm back into a livable environment so I had the list of chores all to myself to complete. This was the first time that I did not have siblings to split the chores up with so that we all only had one or two things to do. I made the list, looked it over, and decided to just start from the top. Well as I was working on the first task which was picking up laundry off of the floor, futon, chairs, beds, etc. I couldn't stop noticing how many cans and bottles were on the ground so I started picking those up. With so many things needing to be picked up and so many different chores on the list I found myself accidentally throwing away dishes instead of the bottles in my hand and putting clean clothes with the dirty clothes. An hour goes by and I stop to see the progress I made. I looked up with what was a sense of accomplishment and pride that I was making myself do chores and was immediately disappointed because it all still looked the same! I had just worked for an hour straight to clean that place up but didn't even make a dent on it.

This tragic series of failed tasks goes hand in hand with the Theories of Attention. I kept noticing different things that needed to get done and rather than finishing the task at hand, I would switch to the new task that caught my eye. There were too many tasks to complete and I had reached my limited fixed attention capacity. It was then that I realized I could only handle one task at a time and that I needed to pick a playlist to listen to while cleaning that I liked so I didn't get sidetracked by skipping a song only to then check facebook quick and then maybe see what's on instagram quick or send a snapchat leading to a 20 minute distraction.

I can't even imagine what my Ma would have said if she witnessed the dorm room that week.. oh wait, yes I can.

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The Teacher's Interests Are The Class's Interests... When it Comes to Getting Out of Work

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The Teacher's Interests Are The Class's Interests... When it Comes to Getting Out of Work

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Just like any other kid in fifth grade, I did everything within my power to distract the teacher from accomplishing what we were supposed to and assigning homework. Now most times the teacher allowed himself to go off on a tangent and it wasn't because of how clever I was but that's not the point. I was the type of kid that liked my football, basketball, and baseball and didn't really have the slightest bit of interest in any other sport but one day I came back in from recess and saw my teacher juggling in the front of the classroom. Now normally I probably would've thought that is was nerdy or lame because I was 11 and it wasn't what I loved so clearly it just wasn't cool. However! When said individual performing the task that doesn't really appeal to you is a teacher, you pick it up and run with it.

The second I stepped in that room and saw Mr. Perkins juggling tennis balls I immediately began hyping him up and watching in awe as if it was the most impressive talent I had ever seen. Soon the rest of the kids began to filter into the classroom and join me watching in pure amazement. This led to Mr. Perkins then teaching the class how to juggle for the second half of the day. At the time I just looked at it as a battle that was won that day as we escaped school without any homework.

Now, 13 years later, I am still able to juggle from being taught simply to get out of homework. This task requires a lot of bimanual coordination and depending on how you're juggling, it can either be symmetric or asymmetric. When someone thinks of juggling they usually think of juggling three balls with one hand catching a ball while the other throws one in the air just in time to catch the ball falling towards that hand which is using asymmetric bimanual coordination. On the other hand (pun intended) a person can juggle with two balls in each hand and simultaneously throw one in the air just before the other one comes down which is using symmetric bimanual coordination due to the fact that both hands are working in the same motion at the same time.

Below is what I imagine I looked like trying to learn how to juggle just to get out of learning about science or math or really whatever that day had in store for us.

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Everyone playing sports growing up always dreams of being the best and making it to the big leagues. Hearing the crowd of thousands of people cheer as you play the game that you love, seeing people on the streets wearing your jersey, and really just getting paid to live your passion. Well my brother did that.

Growing up I always worked as hard as I could in every sport that I was in and sure I dreamed of what it would be like to be a professional athlete but as I got older I realized that just wasn't in the cards for me. My brother, Ethan, decided that even though the chances were slim he was going to live his dream some day. Well after years of traveling hours on hours to games all over the state and country, waking up 2 hours before school so that he could go for a run and work on his foot work, and dedicating every free second he had to soccer, he got a call from Creighton where he played for four years before getting drafted and sponsored by Nike.

This sport uses skills that we talked about at the very beginning of the semester. More specifically, this sport requires the player to use serial skills constantly. When Ethan receives a pass and starts dribbling down the side of the field before striking the ball into the goal he is using serial skills. Not only does it relate to the fact that we discussed serial skills in class but also that it is in an open skill dimension as the opponents are constantly changing places, causing him to dribble around them.

Below is a picture of my brother Ethan in action as he now plays for Minnesota United FC.