https://padlet.com/sepic/motorscrapbook Kinesiology 361 en-us 2019-05-03 17:10:13 UTC 2019-05-10 18:45:31 UTC hello@padlet.com sepic https://padlet.com/sepic/motorscrapbook/wish/356692219 One of my jobs for the past year has been as a bouncer for a local bar. As you can probably imagine, it involves lots of multitasking and sometimes serious physical abilities.

Most of the job though, is just checking ID's at the front door in order to make sure all of our patrons are of age. While checking ID's it is very important to keep an eye on the rest of the bar in order to make sure nothing bad happens inside of the bar, like a fight, or stopping somebody who is too intoxicated.

As most of you know, bars can be quite rowdy and packed places, with several hundred customers a night, and while checking these ID's there is no possible way that I could remember ever birthday of every person in the bar, though the birth dates are kept in my short-term (working) memory for about 20-30 seconds, since I only need to temporarily store this information while I am determining if it is a real ID, and if the ID says that they are 21.

]]> 2019-05-03 17:14:07 UTC https://padlet.com/sepic/motorscrapbook/wish/356692219 sepic https://padlet.com/sepic/motorscrapbook/wish/356698113 Another, less glamorous part of being a bouncer at the bar I work at, is the addition of having to bar-back, which involves restocking supplies, but mostly, rapidly washing dishes.

We have three sinks set up behind the middle of the bar, one with soapy water and brushes, the next with water for rinsing, and the next with sanitizer, to make sure that the glasses will be safe for consuming drinks later in the night.

This whole set-up has turned moving and cleaning large amounts of glass into a very efficient, repeatable cycle that can be done quickly and with ease.

When first learning this new skill, I had to think a lot about what I was doing, though I quickly got better. I relied a lot on visual feedback, I was slow and made many mistakes, but after washing glasses for a few times, I kept making gradual progress and made fewer errors. Now I'm a pro and can wash glasses without looking as the task has become largely automatic, and I now rely mostly on proprioceptive internal feedback.

It has become so autonomous that I no longer need to divide much cognitive attention to it, and can frequently switch my attention back and forth between customers and the glasses with ease, as I have more total attention available, according to the central resources theory.]]> 2019-05-03 17:27:34 UTC https://padlet.com/sepic/motorscrapbook/wish/356698113 sepic https://padlet.com/sepic/motorscrapbook/wish/358705068 Unfortunately sometimes people have a little too much fun, which might be a danger to themselves or others.

So one of my responsibilities is to ask people to leave, and what a surprise, pretty often they don't want to leave, which brings my coworkers and I to having nudge them out of the bar.... 

I have developed several strategies for doing this, but I have found that generally getting behind somebody and putting my arms under theirs and around the back of their neck is the most effective way to manipulate a body and remove a rowdy patron from the bar. 

To do this specific act I have developed a generalized motor program, that has parameters which vary, based on their size and how wide my arms have to stretch and how much force I have to apply. 

Practicing this with random variables (usually it isn't the same person more than once, and the conditions in the bar are always changing. From practicing this open skill, in multiple different random scenarios, I have been able to develop a fairly good schema as to how to hand each individual, with enough force to do my job well, but not so much that I end up harming anybody.]]> 2019-05-10 00:01:38 UTC https://padlet.com/sepic/motorscrapbook/wish/358705068 sepic https://padlet.com/sepic/motorscrapbook/wish/358713297 The dirtiest part of the job is definitely cleaning up the bar after close, with all sort of nasty finds to be found.

One of the main tasks of cleaning the bar is sweeping up all of the delicious popcorn that we are notorious for, which has been spilled by customers who are intoxicated from our notoriously strong drinks.

I've been sweeping since I was a kid and wanted to help my parents out with the cleaning, (just to feel included, not to be sweet, don't give me too much credit). When I first learned the task, my parents broke it up into a few parts for me and demonstrated how to hold the broom, and then eventually I got to put it all together and do whole-part practice.

Sweeping is a relatively simple skill for most adults, but as a small child, it was very complex to me, as my cognitive abilities were not fully developed, so it was actually a very good way of breaking things up for me.

Since learning it, I've been in the autonomous stage for quite some time, and become so skilled at it, that I even enjoy it, so now while I'm cleaning up the bar, I offer myself to sweep, a skilled which was segmented and demonstrated to me a very long time ago.]]> 2019-05-10 00:49:49 UTC https://padlet.com/sepic/motorscrapbook/wish/358713297 sepic https://padlet.com/sepic/motorscrapbook/wish/358721840 Believe it or not, bars do have a finite amount of that amazing, cold beer, that every customer enjoys so much, and when we hit the bottom of the keg somebody has to go and change it, sometimes that person is me.

There's a few steps to releasing the tap and then reattaching it to a new keg.

This serial motor skill involves fine and gross motor movements. First I have to lift the new keg into place (gross), and then manipulate the handle on the tap so that I pull it out, lift it up, and then twist it counter clockwise while holding it up. Then I transfer the tap and tube to the next keg, twist the tap clockwise after having placed it directly above the hole in the keg, then I pull out the handle and now push it down to finish tapping the keg.

Repeating this relatively simple skill, allows everybody to stay hydrated with spotted cow (or your incorrect beer of choice) all year long.]]> 2019-05-10 01:29:29 UTC https://padlet.com/sepic/motorscrapbook/wish/358721840