https://padlet.com/jradke2/enerb8nz3ln2 Below illustrates concepts I've learned this semester and how they apply to gymnastics. I hope you enjoy! en-us 2017-12-09 21:11:49 UTC 2026-04-15 21:05:49 UTC hello@padlet.com jradke2 https://padlet.com/jradke2/enerb8nz3ln2/wish/214832004 If you do not know anything about the sport of gymnastics, just know that it is a big deal when someone gets their kip on bars. A kip is one of the most fundamental skills on women's uneven bars. It is a skill that is used as both a mount and a connecting element. The best way to describe a kip for those that don't know is that first a gymnast swings in a piked position below the bar. Once extended a person brings their toes to the bar and simultaneously pulls up to a front support.  For some it may take a few practices but for most it takes weeks. I can remember vividly when I did my first kip on bars. During previous practices, I had been close but never close enough to successfully completing my kip. I would always get my chest to the bar but never high enough to where I could pull myself up. When I was learning, before each turn I would talk myself through the process and what I needed to do. I also would think about previous critiques my coaches had given me. Then one turn I focused hard and finally did my first successful kip. I remember being super confused when I landed above the bar in a front support, hearing my teammates cheers in the background. After a few seconds it finally dawned on me that I had finally done a kip. During turns after, I would almost always complete my kip but there were turns where I didn't. During this time I was in the cognitive stage because I was relying heavily on cognitive and verbal processes. I was also still pretty inconsistent in my performance of kips which is another characteristic of the cognitive stage of learning. As months and years progressed, I seamlessly transitioned from the cognitive, to the associative stage, and finally to the autonomous stage. Now kips are second nature to me. I do not have to think about how to do a kip and it does not take much of my attention to do one. Below is a video demonstrating a kip to give you an understanding about what it is and how to do one. You can skip to the 40 second mark to see her do a kip. ]]> 2017-12-10 18:16:53 UTC https://padlet.com/jradke2/enerb8nz3ln2/wish/214832004 jradke2 https://padlet.com/jradke2/enerb8nz3ln2/wish/214835220 Throughout my many years in gymnastics, I've learned that the way we practice is very important for our performance in competitions. In club gymnastics when I was in elementary and middle school, before our competition season began we always had a mock meet which simulated the environment of a real competition. The purpose of this was to get the gymnast's ready and to know what to expect during a meet. Our coaches tried to expose us to situations that may occur during an actual meet so we were not surprised or nervous when it happened. For example, during a meet they may be in between floor routines when you have to perform your beam routine. This means that there is no background music, making it unusually quiet. Performing our routines on beam in competition is already nerve-racking as it is, but more so when it is silent without the floor music in the background. This was probably the biggest thing that us gymnasts had to get used to. Additionally, as the years progressed and I moved to high school gymnastics we did the same thing during practice. At least once a week we would do what my coach called "pressure routines". Here we performed our vaults, beam, bar, and floor routines in front of everyone. The music was off, and except for everyones cheers it was silent.These pressure routines were especially important for beam. Doing pressure routines weekly helped us get used to the pressure of performing in front of a crowd and a possibly silent room. If my coach would not have made us do pressure routines we would not have been prepared for competitions. If our coach only had us work on our skills and do our routines without a crowd, our team would not have been as successful because our practice would not have mimicked competition settings. This illustrates the importance of practice variability. During practice because we were experiencing different conditions, we were able to more successfully transfer those skills to performance during competitions. During the mock meets and pressure routines we may not have performed the best because of our nerves. Although we did not always perform as well in practice, the mock meets and pressure routines benefitted us in the end because we were prepared to preform in competitions. Below is a picture of me performing my beam routine in high school. During meets I always got nervous, especially right before beam, but the pressure routines helped me immensely during competitions. I remember during many of my beam routines it would be silent besides the cheers from my teammates. Of course with any amount of practice and exposure it still isn't going to be enjoyable or ideal to perform beam routines without any background music but my previous practice experience helped me successfully get through it. ]]> 2017-12-10 18:40:16 UTC https://padlet.com/jradke2/enerb8nz3ln2/wish/214835220 jradke2 https://padlet.com/jradke2/enerb8nz3ln2/wish/214838797 In gymnastics, feedback is an incredibly important aspect needed in order to learn and master new skills. Augmented feedback can be provided in multiple ways, such as from a judge or from a score received during competition. However, in my opinion the most important kind of feedback in gymnastics is received from our coaches. When I was first learning how to do a roundoff back handspring back tuck on floor I listened carefully when my coach was giving me feedback. Feedback was especially important during this time because of my lack of experience doing this particular series of skills. At this point I had not learned enough to be able to correct my own mistakes or to know what I did wrong. Some practices I would land too low to the ground and other practices I would have too much momentum and fall backwards. Each time my coach gave me different areas to improve. I remember my biggest struggle while learning this skill was that I consistently landed low and had no idea why. My coach gave me several explanations on why I was landing so low. He told me that I was not setting my arms before flipping and that sometimes I wasn't running fast enough. Because I wasn't running fast enough, I did not have enough momentum and power to flip. I suppose I could have learned to do a roundoff back handspring back tuck on my own; however, augmented feedback from my coach enhanced my learning and helped me perfect the skills faster. Below is a picture from one of my first years in competitive gymnastics. Here, my teammates and I were listening closely to our coach as he talked to us before our first mock meet. It is hard to see me but I am the fourth one from the right. ]]> 2017-12-10 19:07:02 UTC https://padlet.com/jradke2/enerb8nz3ln2/wish/214838797 jradke2 https://padlet.com/jradke2/enerb8nz3ln2/wish/214844176 As discussed previously, augmented feedback is such an important aspect of gymnastics. Knowledge of performance is a subset of augmented feedback that is actively used in gymnastics during both practice and competitions. If a gymnast receives input about their performance on a skill they just did, they are able to learn from their mistakes to further improve on that skill. For the most part, learning any skill in gymnastics takes a lot of patience, effort and focus. During practice, I am frequently getting verbal input on my performance from my coaches and teammates. When I was first starting out in gymnastics I relied on prescriptive KP that told me how to fix my mistakes. For example, when I was first learning how to do a kip on bars, I needed a lot of direction on what I was doing wrong and how to fix it. I needed prescriptive KP because I did not have enough experience and knowledge to know how to fix the problem myself. As time progressed and I became better at doing a kip I relied less on prescriptive KP and more on descriptive KP. Now if I am told what I did wrong during my kip, I have enough knowledge and experience to fix the error myself. Below illustrates a picture of me when I was first learning how to do a giant on bars. Basically, a giant is when you swing around the bar in an extended position. It took a lot practice, frustration and corrections from my coach to finally get the skill down. This picture is a screenshot of a video my coach took for me. The video helped me see what I was doing wrong. Periodically my coach paused the video to comment on my form and how to fix it. Seeing this video helped me immensely when I was learning a giant because it helped me see my mistakes. Video KP is another form of augmented feedback that is widely used in gymnastics as well. ]]> 2017-12-10 19:46:20 UTC https://padlet.com/jradke2/enerb8nz3ln2/wish/214844176 jradke2 https://padlet.com/jradke2/enerb8nz3ln2/wish/215210209 During my years in gymnastics, my friends and family frequently asked me how to do a certain skill. Almost always my answer was "I don't know I just do". As annoying and unhelpful as this answer may seem, I really am not good at explaining gymnastics skills to others. It is hard for me to explain how to do a specific skill I have learned. More often than not I am better able to show how to do a specific skill rather than explain it. This is because the information on specific gymnastics skills is not stored in my declarative memory but my procedural memory. The difference between declarative and procedural memory is that procedural memory is non conscious and automatic. Other the other hand, when using declarative memory a person is better able to explain what to do because the information is conscious. For example, a giant on the uneven bars is one of the hardest skills for me to explain. When ever anyone asks me what a giant is or how to do it, I try to use actions and hand gestures to explain it. I have a difficult time verbally explaining what a giant is. For instance, when writing my post about knowledge of performance I mentioned giants and had to explain what it was. I had to Google how to best explain what a giant in gymnastics is. I had a lot of trouble writing a cohesive statement about giants that made sense to someone who did not know what it was.This further demonstrates the fact the the skill of a giant in gymnastics is stored in my procedural memory because the best way for me to explain it is through actions. Below is a picture of me in the middle of my giant on bars. ]]> 2017-12-11 20:19:56 UTC https://padlet.com/jradke2/enerb8nz3ln2/wish/215210209