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One of my favorite pastimes is powerlifting. Powerlifting is a strength sport that consist of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. I was introduced to this sport by my strength and conditioning coach during my freshman year of high school and ever since then I have not looked back. I really enjoyed the competitions that I would participate in. I had the same routine that I would follow when attempting a maximum lift for each lift. For example when bench pressing, I walk up and shake the hands of everyone, proceed to sit down, raise and my chest to the bar 3 times, take 2 deep breaths before i start then attempt the lift. Even before I attempt the lift, I am already rehearsing my form, routine and myself successfully completing the lift. This is an example of mental practice which is that active cognitive rehearsal of a physical skill in the absence of overt physical movements. I practice internal imagery multiple times before attempting the lift in order to get my mind in the right mindset.

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One of my biggest wishes is that I could become a better basketball player. I am a decent enough shooter but one of the positives that I bring to the court is my athleticism. But I still even have a tough time turning my athleticism into points when playing basketball. A consistent and persistent problem that I have when playing basketball is when I am racing down the court at full speed, I can't never seem to make a layup. I always had a difficult time understanding why I am missing shots when I am so close to the rim. I then realize that one possible reason that I might be missing the layup after running down the court might be Fitts' Law. Fitts' Law is the systematic analysis of relationship between speed and accuracy. Fitts' Law implies an inverse relationship between the difficulty of a movement and the speed with which it can be performed so we usually trade-off speed to maintain accuracy. I realized that I can make a layup when running at a reasonable pace but when I am running full speed I often have difficulty making the layup. For me to increase the probability of making a layup when running at full speed, I would have to practice more and possibly decrease my speed when coming nearer to the basket so I can be more accurate with my shot.

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I needed a sport to keep me in shape during the winter after football season was over and lifting did not fully accomplish what i wanted. I decided to join the wrestling team. My first couple of practices, the coaches worked me hard to improve my conditioning and wanted me to practice my takedowns a.k.a my shot. During the first couple of practices, I would practice taking shots against a dummy and rehearse the movement in my mind until I got it down. This is an example of the elaboration hypothesis. The elaboration hypothesis is when a random practice engages one in more strategies. The performer retains in working memory all the skill variations. The performer develops a memory representation of the skill. I did not get the chance to practice my shot against a live opponent before my first match. In my first match, i did not successfully complete any of my attempted takedowns which resulted in a loss by pin in the third round. After my first match, I started to practice my takedowns against my teammates. It was a lot harder to practice takedowns with a teammate than a dummy which caused me to miss a lot of my takedowns. This is an example of the action plan reconstruction hypothesis. The action plan reconstruction hypothesis is when random practice requires performers to reconstruct an action plan for each practice trial. I began to engage in more problem solving and attempted takedowns in multiple variations. After I started practicing my takedowns with my teammates, I was still losing most of my matches but then after some while i began to win a lot of my matches and eventually kept winning enough to make it to the state tournament.

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Growing up, I had a passion for chess. One of my uncles was a competitive chess player and was ranked top 100 in the world at one point. I loved the strategic and mental aspect of the game which forces you to think of the different scenarios in which to go and the ability to bait and predict where your opponent would go. I would participate in chess competitions growing up, often winning a good amount of them. Fast-forward to my freshman year of college. In my dorm, there was a group of guys that loved playing League of Legends. League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. I would always stare in awe when these group of guys started playing League of Legends. It did not take long for me to download the game and start playing. After two years of playing League of Legends, my mechanical skills were decent but it was mental skills and critical thinking that allowed me to rise to the top 9% of all league players in North America. Looking back on my time, I now know that this easy transition from chess to League of Legends was due to positive transfer that i experienced between these two sports. The transfer appropriate processing theory proposes that the degree of similarity between the cognitive processes required by the two skills or two performance situations will influence the degree of transfer. When considering the cognitive processes that are required, task characteristics such as strategies, rules, guidelines, or concepts become the defining factors for positive transfer. In my scenario, the ability to be a critical thinker and think of multiple strategies to win and to predict the opponent movement was required to be a good chess player as well as a good League of Legends player. Because I had previously learned cognitive processes from chess that were similar to League of Legends, positive transfer of these conceptual elements can occur. I am thanking for this positive transfer as playing League of Legends is one of the many ways in which I can destress from school and life.

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I remember the first time that I decided to try out dancing. It was during my sophomore year of high school that I decided that I should try out dancing in order to increase my flexibility for football. My first day of practice, I was so nervous. I did not know what to expect. People looked at me weird when they saw this buff guy trying to dance. My first practice was rough. I tumbled over my feet multiple times and was not able to replicate the routine that was being taught. During my first year of dancing, my dance instructors would continually tell me to be loose. They would also tell me to loosen up and have fun and not to worry too much about the routine but to have fun while learning about it. It took me some time but I eventually got the 'having fun' part down. I still had major difficulty being 'loose' and getting the routine down. I had no idea why i wasn't being 'loose', i tried so hard to be 'loose' and to mimic my fellow peers but the movement did not look similar. This is because i had minimized my degrees of freedom in my body when it came to dancing. Degrees of freedom is the number of independent elements or components in a control system and the number of ways each component can act. Eventually with time and practice, I am loosening up but i still have a long way to go. I am unlocking so much more degrees of freedom in my body which enables me to dance fluently and in coordination. Another benefit of having so many degrees of freedom is motor equivalence which is the capability of the motor control system that enables a person to achieve an action goal in a variety of situations and conditions. In my case, it allowed me to improve my dancing and be more 'loose' in my dancing.