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This summer I tore my ACL, both menisci, and MPFL and I was non-weight bearing on crutches for seven weeks. If you’ve never been on crutches for an extended period of time, I highly recommend steering clear of putting yourself in that situation, it is no fun at all. So, when I went to the surgeon after those seven weeks and she told me I could begin weight bearing with one crutch I was beyond elated. I was SO excited to be walking again...but was I really walking? After learning about Generalized Motor Programs, I realized crutch walking and real walking are not the same GMP even though they seem similar. The invariant features of each activity are different. In normal walking the order of events is knee bend, heal strike, straighten knee, toe touch, swing through. In crutch walking with a straight locked brace, the order of events is knee stays straight, heal strike, put crutch down with opposite hand, knee still is straight, toe touch, swing through. Additionally, the relative timing and force are different in walking and crutch walking. When one leg is hurt the relative time and the relative force is going to be longer/higher on the leg that is not hurt. So, in my case I was favoring my right leg and so I spent a longer percentage of time on my right leg and put more force through my right leg and the crutch than I did my left leg. I was so excited to start walking again after those seven weeks, but in reality, I wasn’t really “walking”!!

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My high school softball field had a hill in left field...yes, an actual hill. Where the dirt met the grass, it was a flat surface but as you walked out towards the fence the flat surface rose into about a 6-foot hill. When teams who had never been to our field before came, they were always shocked and frequently took pictures of the anomaly. We (to an extent) loved our hill; we named her Mahilda and took advantage of our ability to know how to play on the hill. Other teams however constantly struggled and took as many reps during pregame to learn how to play the hill. The other teams experienced negative transfer when playing on the hill for the first time. The environmental context of playing left field was similar: you’re at a softball game, with your same teammates and coaches, and the ball looks the same coming off the bat at you. However, if you drop step and run to catch a ball using the same movements as you would on a normal field you will not catch the ball. If you use the same amount of force to run up the hill to catch the ball as you would to run on a flat field, you will not get to the ball in time. This is a great example of negative transfer because an old stimulus (the ball coming off the bat) requires a new, but similar response (more force to run up the hill without drifting) to be successful in the task (catching the ball!). Sadly, the district decided to flatten Mahilda in the summer of 2015 and now Lake Zurich softball does not have this unique home field advantage.

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Left Foot, Right Foot, Left Foot, Right Foot...

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Left Foot, Right Foot, Left Foot, Right Foot...

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I do not think that many people would think that high school marching band would be very difficult; I know I didn’t. But when I got into high school and was a part of the marching band I realized I was definitely wrong.  I played trumpet starting in 5th grade, so by the time I got to high school I was fairly proficient in playing my trumpet. But once you throw walking into the equation, man was it a lot harder! They were expecting me to know when to move, where to move, when to stop moving and march in place, and then when to start moving again...all while playing. Let’s just say I did not do a lot of actual playing my freshman year. This is a great example of interference and the Central Resource Theory. I was trying to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, however when I tried to do them all at the same time my performance suffered and thus my capacity limit was exceeded. To compensate for my inability to perform all the tasks at once, I did not play my trumpet so that there were less activities competing for my limited attention. However, by the time I was a senior I could play my trumpet while doing all the movements successfully. Since I was able to perform multiple tasks as well simultaneously as I could individually, at least one of the tasks was now automatic!

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When teaching children how to perform a certain movement, using imagery is a very common method to increase the motion’s meaningfulness and hopefully have them remember the motor skill more accurately. The softball coaches at the high school used this technique to teach us bunting at softball camps I attended from a young age. Learning how to bunt presents a new set of challenges to the game of softball. One may think it’s easy because all you do is put the bat over the plate so the ball can hit it, but in reality, it’s a very complicated action that requires a lot of precise movement and timing to lay down a good bunt. Much of the accuracy and consistency comes from holding the bat correctly. If your grip is not strong enough, the ball will probably go foul because there is not enough force to stop the ball from continuing in the direction that it came from. If your grip is strong enough, but not anatomically in a safe position, you could jam your wrist or get hit by the ball. So, to teach us the best way to hold the bat, the coaches used the saying “You’ve got to rev up your motorcycle”. By using this imagery, they were ensuring that for a right-handed batter the left hand is cocked back as if you’re revving up a motorcycle. This image guaranteed that we had a strong grip on the bat and were holding the bat in a safe manner. The tight grip gave us control of the bat so that we could direct the ball to either the 1st or 3rd base line, and decide how much power to put into the bunt. Additionally, it made sure our hand would not get hit by the ball and we would not jam our wrists. The use of imagery increased the motion’s meaningfulness and helped us remember how to correctly perform the motor skill better. I’m not sure why this was such an effective image to give to a bunch of 10-year-old girls, but man did we think we were part of a mean muggin’ biker gang...that could bunt effectively!

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I grew up with undoubtedly the best neighbors. There were three houses in a row with seven kids all within three years of each other. Beyond my next-door neighbors, there were at least eight other kids within walking distance that were all around the same age as well. During the summer, we were constantly together and one of our favorite things to do was play huge games in our backyards. Whether it was kickball, baseball, knockout, capture the flag, or kick the can. Our favorite games were probably kick the can and capture the flag, and there were always two guys that if they got picked on the same team we all knew that team would win (which always resulted in a lot of arguing...but that’s beside the point!). Henry’s Specificity of Motor Abilities Hypothesis explains why they were so good at these two games. We all have a large number of motor abilities, which are independent of each other. So, kick the can and capture the flag most likely depend on the same motor abilities and the two boys most likely have these motor abilities and are able to combine them, leading to success in both games. For example, both games need the player to be very proficient in multi-limb coordination. In kick the can, a player needs to be able to run, avoid being tagged, while also manipulating their feet to kick the can. In capture the flag, a player needs to find the flag, dodge and outrun opponents trying to tag them, while carrying the flag safely to their side of the yard. Both of these games require the individual to be able to coordinate the movement of multiple limbs simultaneously in order to win.