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Skiing since I was young, my first time on snow was spent walking like a duck on flat ground. Eventually, I graduated to the tow-rope and got to ski down the bunny run. After working up the courage to take the chairlift, I did not harness the skills needed to navigate the ski run. This lead to me skiing straight into the parking lot. Fast forward many years I became a high school alpine ski team state qualifier. The art of skiing was secondhand nature to me. Post high school I wanted to continue my time on the snow. Now, during winter break, I spend many early morning and late nights teaching kids ten and under how to navigate a race course. Safety on the hill is of upmost importance. Teaching up to twelve kids at a time I need to be able to advocate for all of them. This means skiing along side or behind them.  Since the kids are so young, they are still learning many of the fundamental skills. Often I ski behind the kids so I can keep them in my field of sight. It is important the kids do not build bad habits. Therefore, I try and communicate skills with them while they are performing them. These skills come to me naturally, it has been years since I have had to consciously think through aspects of skiing. For example, the movements it takes to make a proper turn on the hill. Harnessing the power of declarative knowledge, I have learned to verbalize actions. Often times when teaching a young individual a new or uncomfortable skill I have to go back and break down each component of that movement. I have found that using imagery is a powerful tool when trying to access my declarative knowledge. For example, if I need to communicate to my student to keep their skis parallel I tell them to make train tracks. This is a scenario where I would be able to easier use my hands or feet to demonstrate. Once we make it to the bottom of the slopes I can stop the kids and give them a proper explanation as to why "train tracks" are good. When I ski I do not think "train track" my skis naturally track in straight parallel lines. In a sport being able to communicate is very important. Since declarative knowledge is about talking through a motor skill, communicating how to ski with an active skier is the most prevalent example of declarative knowledge in my life.

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Sand surfing in Chile & wake surfing behind my boat

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My family has always been very active. For every season of the year we try to find a social sport to part take in. We are very blessed to live in an area in close proximity to many bodies of water. My grandpa used to drive boats for a well known ski show team in Minocqua. This passion for boats and water sports was passed onto my dad and eventually my sisters and I. Getting rid of our Supra ski boat and buying a Malibu wake setter, countless summers were spent learning to surf. Surfing takes an extensive amount of balance and core strength to perform effectively. To control the board, the rider must shift weight from their front and back foot. Having a wave pushing you from behind and the risk of the tip of the board going under, it takes lots of practice to find the sweet spot. It is safe to say I have become a proficient surfer. This leads me into the summer going into my senior year of high school. I had the opportunity to travel to Chile with my dad. While we were over in Chile we went to the sand dunes. While we were there we saw many locals sand boarding, we just had to try. To my surprise I was very good at it. My success at sand boarding can be attributed to positive transfer. In specific, the identical elements theory. The identical elements theory states that there is similarity in skill and context. Both wake surfing and sand boarding require the skill of balance. With feet sideways and upper body square forward, finding center of balance can be tricky. Context of force control patterns can be seen between the two skills. Putting more weight on the front foot speeds up the motion of the board and vice versa for the back foot. Having mastered wake surfing allowed me to take those skills and be competent at sand boarding.

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A picture of me at State in a Giant Slalom race course

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One question we tackled in class was how we use visual information for action. An experiment presented by Held (1965) and Hein (1974) consisted of two cats, one active and one passive. The results of the experiment was that the passive cat had no adaptive movements to visual information. However, the cat performing movement while taking in visual cues had adaptive reactions. When tested, the cat would avoid approaching questions. This is evidence that there is a strong relationship between our movement and visual information. One aspect in my life that visual information for action can be seen is when I am in a race course. I use visual cues to avoid obstacles and ski the best line in the race course. Recognition of where the gate is, snow condition, how fast I am approaching are all visual cues I am receiving. Visual information allows me to make movements around obstacles, gates, in the environment. Each gate is set different so no two turns are the same. Other factors like snow conditions and the speed I am traveling mean I have to continually adapt to the environment. Without visual information for action I would go crashing into gates.

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Grilling pineapple with cinnamon honey glaze 

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I have always loved to cook. When I was younger I would only bake but as it began time for me to leave for college I began to teach myself to make many kinds of meals. Cooking may seem like a simple task however, often I find myself trying to complete many tasks at once. For example, if I am making chicken fehttuchini Alfredo I am grilling the chicken, boiling the noodles and whipping together the ingredients for the white sauce. Resource theory states that we have a limited attention resource to do all the activities at one time. With cooking I am responsible for making sure none of the food burns, my water doesn't boil over, the sauce doesn't have too much cheese. Through trial and error in the kitchen I have learned how much I can do successfully at one time in the kitchen. I have learned having people in the kitchen take up my attention and result in bad meals. Being responsible for more than three tasks at once breaks my attention capacity. To increase my attention capacity I rely on timers to keep track of how long something has been cooking or tell me when something should be flipped or added.

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Something that should be known about me was that I was a competitive soccer player. Playing from the age of 3 I joined a traveling team. Freshman year of high school I suffered a season ending injury. A change in the coaching staff and a decline in program participation from team mates lead to me dropping the sport all together. By Junior year my english teacher, head coach for track, was begging me to join the team. A former midfielder, I performed best on the long distance sprints. However, because of my height I was thrown into high jump. Never doing anything like it before, I practiced very hard. There were only two other girls on the high jumping team, this meant I was automatically on varsity. My first few meets I could hardly jump 4 feet. However, by my first outdoor meet I broke my PR and jumped 5'6. Every jump increased by 2 inches. For each new jump I got three attempts. By the time sectionals came, opening height was 5'6. I had a set ritual for each jump, same prep, number of steps and the foot I take off from. As sectionals approached this was not something I thought about. My body naturally twisted and flew over the bar. It was not until I reach a new height that I to question my skill. In sectionals I passed opening jump with ease. The next jump was 5'8 and took me two tries. By the time I got to 5'10 my nerves were through the roof. My nerves were so hight that on my first round I stepped off with the wrong foot. Messing up a simple first step like this can be attributed to choking. Under pressure of performing well and achieving a task I had mastery on I took what used to be an unconscious ritual and put thought into it. I choked and could not remember my ritual. Choking a retrieval problem and not because I forgot how to perform the task.