The phenomenon that I had experienced is one of the common transitions that individuals go through as they progress through the stages of learning. While there are two models for stages of learning, both Fitts and Posner’s 3 stage model, and Gentile’s 2 stage model, a few commonalities can be found in the changes in performance as a learner progresses. The change that I demonstrated in this experience involved limb-segment coordination. As a beginner, people tend to freeze up their limb segments in order to decrease the degrees of freedom that they must control. When considering the arm alone, it can be argued that there are 7 degrees of freedom. When considering the body as a whole, those degrees of freedom increase a significant amount. That is a lot to monitor for someone with little to no experience in a given motor skill. However, as an individual gains confidence and more experience in a task, they begin to unfreeze those degrees of freedom in order to act in a more fluid manner to perform the skill. For myself, this shift in limb-segment coordination was evident in my gradual shift from remaining stiff and to myself towards loosening up and participating in the skill in a more natural flow. 

In Kines 361, visual search was defined as the process of directing visual attention to locate relevant environmental cues. When comparing an expert to a novice and their performance of a certain skill, it is important to note that experts perform more efficient visual search. For example, in the early stages of learning how to drive, a novice may spend a significant amount of time looking at the center line along the road. On the other hand, an expert may be more focused on projecting their visual search further down the road in order to plan ahead and execute a smooth driving pattern. This visual search pattern often can only be trained through experience. For myself, my initial visual tracking patterns were not as efficient as one that an expert may use. I was in a more novice stage of being a libero on a competitive volleyball team. However, with experience, I naturally was able to shift my visual tracking to conduct it in a more efficient manner. This shift in visual attention is an additional indication of progression through the stages of learning. 

In this scenario, my learning was heavily influenced by intrinsic feedback. This form of feedback is naturally available when performing a skill. For example, through my proprioception and visual senses, I was fully capable of identifying an error such as missing a pass or a serve. With trial and error, I could use this sensory information to gather a plan for future encounters with similar motor tasks in the game of volleyball. However, the role of my coach was to enhance my learning with augmented feedback. Augmented feedback is defined as information provided about a task that is supplemental to , or augments intrinsic feedback. In the early stages of learning, this form of feedback was incredibly helpful to allow myself to get more comfortable with the task at hand. Some of my greatest coaches made sure to offer correct and constructive feedback. I also found that it was more useful for my coaches to provide me with feedback following a performance, rather than during my performance. As discussed in this course, augmented feedback may not be essential to learning a skill, but it can enhance the process when provided correctly. Through ensuring that the feedback was constructive and not overwhelming, my coaches allowed me to depend on my own intrinsic feedback while also getting supported by feedback that may not have been independently gathered. As a result, I was a quick learner! 

My experiences at practice emphasize the importance of practice variability. As discussed in Kines 361, randomizing practice has benefits in the process of learning a skill. For the drill that was just serve receive, that can be considered blocked practice. One skill is practiced for a period of time. Randomized practice involves various skills being practiced at varying times. This form of practice is on the high end of contextual interference. As a result, each time a new skill is presented, the individual must reconstruct a plan of action to complete it. This requires lots of cognitive activity, which in the long run allows for an individual to more easily remember how to perform the skill. This makes the skill more easily transferable into game situations. As a result, even the drills that had a serial like format that involved serve receive followed by defense in a rally had a greater learning capacity than blocked drills. Quite literally, any form of randomization was better than blocked practice. Not only do those forms of drills do a better job of keeping participants' attention, they also have been proven to be more effective in performance improvement!