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I have never been a great basketball player. In fact, I've never been an average basketball player. But I've always enjoyed the sport and there is nothing I love more than trying to make trick shots. This is much easier said than done though. In fact, this class has made me aware that I had been practicing my trick shots wrong my entire life. I had been using a block practice strategy with minimal contextual interference. This consisted of me taking dozens of attempts of a specific trick shot until I made it once, then I would move on to another trick shot. This resulted in little to no retention of the skill or transfer to other trick shots. Ideally, I would have practiced using a random approach with contextual interference. Perhaps I could have taken a trick shot by bouncing it from behind the three-point line, and then attempt to make a half court shot, and then try to make a behind the back shot (see video below for an unsuccessful attempt). I don't know if this would actually make me better at basketball, but it's worth a try!

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I have never been a good golfer either. I am genuinely terrible at golf. But golf is my dad's favorite sport which usually results in me struggling through anywhere between 5 and 18 holes of golf a few times a summer with my dad. Why am I so terrible? I believe that this can blamed somewhat on the fact that I am not familiar enough with a golf swing. The mechanics of a stroke in golf is a relatively novel task to me, as can be seen in the below video of my atrocious swing. But using the motor program theory, I recruit the same invariant features from a motor program I am familiar with: a baseball swing. Unfortunately for me, every golfer will tell you that the two are completely different swings. In fact, a baseball swing negatively influences a golf swing. I learned that the opposite is also true, when I went golfing before a baseball game. The result was a terrible round of golf followed by me striking out in my baseball game because my swing was all messed up. Hooray for retroactive interference! My relatively new "skill" of badly swinging a golf club negatively affected my existing knowledge of comfortably and successfully swinging a baseball bat.

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How many 5'8", 135lb football players have there been in the NFL? None. As a small, undersized athlete in the physical contact sport of football, my size was most certainly a disadvantage. This became the limiting factor in my performance. Because of my diminutive stature, I had to compensate by "controlling the control-ables" as my coach used to say. I became the best at the skills that were not limited by my size. I practiced running perfect routes, catching every pass, and knowing the entire playbook. As I increased these skills, coaches took notice and were impressed that despite my size, I was actually being somewhat successful on the field, as seen below in the picture of me scoring a touchdown. I would get open by running perfect routes and using my understanding of the defense. My teammates who were more physically gifted could get open using their physical abilities and never had to think about the factors I relied on. I always was hoping for a late growth spurt so that my skills and physical abilities would compliment each other and make me the best football player of all time, but I am still waiting for that. Fingers crossed!

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Running has always been a hobby of mine. I enjoy the workout and I love the t-shirts I get from signing up for a 5K or half marathon. I started running in high school on the track team. This gave me a great opportunity to learn the strategies of running from coaches who knew what they were talking about. Using augmented feedback, they would correct me to teach me the proper technique to burst out of the starting blocks, hand off the baton, or round the corners of the track. A specific example of this was my first track meet when I was running the 800m. I had been keeping pace with a competitor for the beginning of the race but I decided to pass him. I got outside of him and passed him as I rounded the second corner. After the race, my coach was upset with my decision. I didn't even know track required thought and strategy! He explained that by passing the other runner on the corner, I had to run further than him because I was not taking the shortest path. I would have had no clue that this was incorrect until he gave me the feedback I needed to learn and improve. Fast forward to freshmen year of college, I no longer had my helpful coaches and teammates to offer support, advice, and feedback. Instead, I had to rely on intrinsic feedback, as well as find other forms of augmented feedback. I began to pay closer attention to my fatigue levels, heart rate, and pace. I even used augmented video feedback and online resources to improve my gait and stride. Collectively, this feedback helped me successfully run my first half marathon, as seen below in the picture of exhausted me at mile 13.

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The one sport that I consider myself halfway decent at is fishing. I have always enjoyed it and have been fishing since I was very young. My uncle taught me on my fourth birthday when he bought me my first fishing rod. The skill of casting, setting the hook, and reeling a fish in became so natural to me over the years that I would have a significantly difficult time verbally teaching my little cousin how to fish. This is because the skills associated with fishing have become engrained as procedural knowledge to me. This means I would have no trouble showing them what to do, but I find it difficult to explain how to do it. To teach someone how to fish, I could show by example or use my hands to guide theirs. This is a productive way to teach my little cousins. I hold their hands and help them cast it, and then I help them reel in the bait. After a few of these practice casts, they quickly understand the motions required.