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One question I always get when I tell people I do the decathlon is how are you good at all those different events. I used to just say, well because I am a good all-around athlete. If you're athletic enough you can do everything. This support the General Motor Ability Hypothesis. The other day when some asked me why the 1500 (the mile) is most peoples worst event? I responded saying, "Because it is not related to the rest of them." Hurdles, High Jump, Long Jump, Pole Vault, Hurdles, and sprinting and the throwing events all require explosive strength, gross body coordination, trunk strength. The 1500 really only involves one of Fleishman's physical proficiency abilities and that is stamina. We spend the least amount of time training for high distance stamina which is why it seems to be most athletes "worst" event. The Specificity of Motor Abilities Hypothesis better explains why we are successful at the many different things. These common abilities have allowed me not only to compete in the decathlon but also the multiple sports I played in high school successfully. The considered all-around athletes are called this because all of the major or popular sports include these common abilities.

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When I was at home last year over spring break I went to one of my high school track practices and they asked me to work with the high jumpers. I was watching them and could see flaws and then went to explain the major issue I saw in all of them. Before I even started to explain I had to walk out what they were supposed to do so I could explain it. Being the school record holder at 6' 9" I thought this would be easy. The major flaw was that they were drifting out of there turn because they were losing foot pressure. I tried to explain that you have to keep your knee ups and make contact with the whole foot through the turn. Because I have been high jumping for almost 10 years these things are a procedural memory for me. This simple task is something I just do unconsciously without thinking and when I do not do it I can just feel it. The only way I could effectively teach them was to demonstrate what I was trying to say. I learned that just because you are good at something, does not mean you can explain it thoroughly.

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No event has caused me more pain than the hurdles. When learning how to hurdle, you are bound to fall multiple time. In my first year hurdling in high school, I had a nasty fall that sent me to the hospital for some stitches. When I was going over the hurdle I, I hit it with my trail leg, first with my knee first and then my foot which got caught on the hurdle and began to fall. Good thing I learning visual-motor coordination otherwise it could have ended even worst. I essentially fell head first, but I put my hand out to catch my self which I did semi-successfully. I slow myself down, but my chin still hit the floor and I had to get stitches. Without visuomotor coordination, I would have, hit head first and probably would have been knocked out with a bad concussion and an even worst cut on my chin. My eyes were able to determine the time to contact so I could get my hands out in time to catch myself to save my head.  My visuomotor coordination saved me, but it also allows me to just hurdle over each barrier successfully most of the time. This is because I have to gauge how far each hurdle is before so I know when to hurdle. Without it, I could not hurdle.

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When learning to throw the discus I struggled to learn the movements and the individual drills were not helping me. My coach kept telling me to create separation between the upper and lower body. By this, he means you have to get your hips turned and through before you even try throwing the discus. At the time no matter how hard I trying I could not do this.  For most of my freshman year, I could not throw the discus and it was very frustrating. No matter how many different strategies I tried, I could not get the disc to fly far. Now I look back and realize I was stuck in the cognitive stage because I could not find the correct strategies. Then one day my coach was not there so I practiced with one of the upperclassmen. After a few throws, he says "swing your leg like your kicking a ball." Without realizing this, it I created some separation without even realizing it. My teammate put the task in more simple terms and made it more meaningful. He used imagery to put the focus on this part. This advanced me along in my training and gave me a better understanding of the event. This gave me a chance to compete with the rest of my teammates and athletes from other schools.

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When deciding to try the decathlon in college, the big thing I had to learn was how to pole vault. I did not do this in high school, but luckily pole vault shares many things with the long jump. In high school long jump was one of my best events as I was a state champion. I wanted to continue to do track in college, but my distances were not far enough to compete at the D1 level. My coach told me to start looking at the decathlon. I finally decided to try this in college and my current college coach for me not to try pole vault in high school because he thought I should be able to pick it up fast. The smooth transfer from long jump to pole vault was due to positive transfer. These two events share crucial component parts that allow for successful positive transfer. This is explained by Thorndyke's Elements Theory which says that when two tasks like long jump and pole vault share common characteristics, some transfer is highly expected. The only real difference between the two is that you are carrying a pole and that the end result is different. The approach and how you jump is nearly identical. Good thing these skills transferred successfully because pole vault is now one of my favorite events and hopefully one of my best events in the near future.