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Augmented feedback and the absence of it

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Augmented feedback and the absence of it

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Augmented feedback is information supplemental to inherent feedback (added sensory information or information from an external source). In volleyball, augmented feedback has the potential to enhance skill. For example, I could still perform the skills necessary to play volleyball after one of my coaches told me she had no more information to offer me. However, I did not learn anything or enhance my performance very much after that moment for the rest of my season with that coach. I could still play volleyball in a competitive form during this season as augmented feedback was not necessary in performing. I was missing the enhancement of the skill I already had for the remainder of that particular volleyball season.

Knowledge of performance is a component of augmented feedback that informs the individual about the patterning of actions. For example, one of my coaches gave me feedback instructing me to use my abs to turn in the air while hitting a line shot. This comment improved my execution of that particular hit. I did not realize I could use my abdomen to turn at the young age I was. Receiving feedback from an external source allowed me to enhance the skill I already had. without the feedback I could still hit line but with less speed, strength, and accuracy.

Knowledge of results is an additional component of augmented feedback. This is feedback concerning the movement outcome. For example, in high school we received our passing averages (passes are ranked up to 3). Our scores indicated our total passing performance after the game was over. This information allowed each person to compare their performances, find an average passing performance, examine particular game performances, and discover if their training was paying off with better performances.

This video show success as a result of years of augmented feedback.

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Fitts' Law: trapped between accuracy and speed

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Fitts' Law: trapped between accuracy and speed

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Fitts' Law describes the accuracy-speed trade off as a result of favoring one over the other in a task. This Law describes an inverse relationship between movement difficultly and the speed it may be performed at. Different types of shooting display an in-depth example of this trade off. Trap shooting and bird hunting display the Fitts' Law in real world situations.

While shooting clay pigeons as seen in the video below, there is a method of shooting called report pairs. In this case, there are two clays launched at different times. The second clay is not launched until you have fired your gun at the first pigeon. This method allows for a higher accuracy with less speed required. This method usually results in better performances as accuracy is the most important factor in shooting the clay pigeons as score is recorded as hit or miss.

The second method seen with sporting clays is called true pairs, where both clays are launched simultaneously. Here you may have to sacrifice accuracy with the increased demand for speed as you have less time to shoot both pigeons. In this scenario, you are still trying to remain as accurate as possible; however, there is a heavier speed component involved with shooting true pairs.

In bird hunting, you have to make decisions of trade-offs based on the circumstance and environment. Sometimes you must shoot very quickly because you can tell you will only have a clear shot in short amount of time based on the environmental factors. This would be trading off accuracy in response to the necessity to be quicker. However, in other cases, you may have ample time to shoot and can therefore focus on accuracy. For example you may have a very large line of site with a slower moving bird. The trade offs of speed and accuracy in bird hunting are unpredictable but extremely notable.

Here is a video of me choosing accuracy over speed in trap shooting. (expand if necessary :)

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Different classifications of motor skills can be found throughout one volleyball practice. Here I will describe practice necessities and drills I have experienced that pertain to a specific classification of motor skills. Primary size is a determinant which runs along a scale of gross to fine. A fine skill (involving small musculature) would be tying your shoes before practice starts. A gross motor (involving large musculature) skill would be using your arm to swing and hit a ball.

The next scale distinguishes distinctness of movement from discrete to continuous. A discrete skill (containing a defining beginning and ending point) would be jumping up for a block. A serial skill (involving a series of discrete skills with an important order) would be the approach, jump, swing, and landing of a hit involved in successfully hitting a ball that is set to you. A continuous skill (repetitive with arbitrary beginning and ending points) would be running suicides.

A third classification is environmental stability from closed to open. A closed skill involves a stable environmental context during performance. A practice example would be doing block jumps up against a wall. An open skill involves the participant acting according to the characteristics or actions involved around them. Scrimmaging would be an example of an open skill.

The fourth classification is Gentile's Taxonomy shown below. The taxonomy involves consideration of the presence or absence of action functions in addition to the presence of absence of environmental context. Body stability/transport, object manipulation/no manipulation are in the horizontal section. In the environmental category, there is stationary regulatory conditions/motion conditions as well as intertrial variability/no intertrial variability. Displayed are several examples that would fit the taxonomy given the labeling of the image below:
1A practicing swing in place without ball
1B hitting ball to make your hand form to the shape while standing in place
1D setting a ball while walking to the net and back
2C Running in designated patterns around obstacles; after each trial, the obstacle location changes
3B passing a ball from a machine
4B catching a ball being thrown at you by a coach without using your feet to move

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Valid reasons to fall and get hit in the face

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Valid reasons to fall and get hit in the face

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Although volleyball skills have become rather automatic for me, interference occasionally plays a roll in disrupting the skill. There are two different types of interference: structural and capacity. Structure interference happens when two physical structures are the source of the impairment. Capacity results when attention limitations have been exceeded.

In the busy tournaments of club volleyball, some teams are playing while others are warming up. On a particular occasion, my team was playing as the teams around us were warming up. I was approaching a ball that was set toward me and suddenly felt my feet miss the ground as they were propelled backward. I heard the whistle and saw the two thumbs of the referee pointed upward (as I was lying on the ground) indicating a replay--there was an interference. The ball underneath my feet cause a physical interference that forced my skill to be ill-performed in that particular instance.

The second type of interference is attained when the central capacity limitations have been exceeded. The filter theory states the stages of a skill must be performed in serial order. Some stages can only process one piece of information at a time. An example of this occurs in the two ball volleyball drill. In this skill, two balls are in play during practice at the same time. Imagine in one occasion, both balls come toward you at once. The balls were coming from different locations at differing rates. However, I could only take in the stimulus and select a response for one of the balls. The other ball dropped; I could not select a response for both volleyballs when both stimuli came toward, advancing at different rate and from different origins. This is an example of only being able to select one response with multiple stimuli as a result of bottleneck theory seen in the filter theory.

Another theory that supports a central capacity limitation is the resource theory which indicates that we have limited attention resources to attempt all desired activities at once. In the off-season of volleyball, we would participate in the performance enhancing program (PEP). One drill we did was standing one legged on a halved med ball while peppering with a partner. While participating in this exercise, a trainer started asking me a question about a past injury I had. After thinking of a response and trying to communicate that response, I fell off the med ball. I had reach my reserve capacity for my attention. I was within my capacity with the act of balancing and peppering with the volleyball; however, added a cognitively demanded verbal task to recall a former injury overloaded the resources that were available to me.

This video was chosen because while playing two ball volleyball, the second stimulus I did not have a response for hit me in a similar fashion.

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Discover & share this Face GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

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The time I thought I skipped two stages of learning

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The time I thought I skipped two stages of learning

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The very first day I went to shoot a bow I missed the bullseye just once in the hour we shot. The second day I went to shoot a bow I missed the target completely on my first shot of the day and hit the back wall past my given target. It appeared I did not learn much after all; how completely inconsistent. Over the next few weeks, my dad helped me learn to shoot a bow while I gained my own cognitive processing. After the first HUGE miss my second time shooting a bow, I decided to put as much effort in a possible, and I saw dramatic gains over the next few weeks. I played around with strategies until I found ones that worked. I thought to myself constantly during this time as well as continuously needing my dad's feedback on what happened.

My transition into the associative stage occurred after some time. I didn't need to think to myself as much anymore. I could detect my errors without my dad's help; although, I still needed his assistance in fixing these errors. I received a bow for Christmas in 2012 and slipped back into the cognitive phase for a brief period of time. My new bow was a different type of bow than the ones I was renting from the archery range. The old bows were long curved bows called recurve bows, and my new bow was a more complex compound bow. However, it took me a short amount of time to jump back into the associative stage.

I don't know when exactly I transitioned into the autonomous stage, but I do remember they day in which I discovered the characteristics of the stage in my performances. One day when my dad took me to the archery range, he took out a half cylindrical log and placed
it on the ground. He instructed me to balance and shoot, and I could shoot just as well as if I were normally standing. Next he brought out a halved med ball and placed it on the ground and again told me to shoot while standing on it. I achieve the same results as normal. I additional became able to fix my errors on my own; I begun to have the ability to not think when shooting and still perform just as well. At this time I was also discovered I could sit and shoot as well which was imperative as I shot my first deer while sitting. I was able to shoot perfectly fine in different environments and locations as well with the transition into the autonomous stage. I could shoot in video ranges, various archery ranges, targets placed outdoors, and even, eventually, a deer (pictured below).