We learned that within patterns of continuous bimanual coordination anti-phase refers to the timing of landmarks being 180° out of synchrony while in-phase refers to the timing in which landmarks on each hand are the same, 0° out of synchrony (Lecture Notes, Coordination, 2021). Arms moving anti-phase in butterfly becomes prevalent when individuals become tired. The anti-phase movement becomes the attractor (the pattern of behavior the individual falls into) rather than the in-phase movement. The change from in-phase to anti-phase are order parameters that make up the non-linear behavior present. Non-linear behavior is a component of Dynamic Pattern Theory that ultimately describes an abrupt change in behavior. Personally, the butterfly stroke is the most taxing. As a kid, I dreaded swimming it. The longer the race, the more I thought to myself that it would probably be easier to drown than to get my arms out of the water at the same time. It was easier and more natural to move my arms anti-phase rather than in-phase. In this case fatigue is driving the order parameters and my body naturally rejecting the idea of moving my arms in-phase. Based on the Dynamic Pattern Theory we can examine how my stroke changes from one stable state to another due to the influence on a particular variable (Lecture Notes, Coordination, 2021).

It is always rough to watch little kids swim butterfly not only because it looks and feels painful but you know that that little boy/girl is trying so hard to do their very best only to get disqualified in the end because their arms are not moving at the same time and entering the water at the same time. 

Ultimately, I have never been more grateful to be experiencing positive transfer. As funny as it may sound, if it were not for swimming, there would be no way I could run a 10k. Without the positive transfer in pacing that smile across the finish line would have most definitely been tears 

According to the different theories of attention, we can conclude that we have a fixed attention capacity and there are limited attention resources to do all the activities that we may attempt at one time. In the end, it is possible for me to perform several tasks simultaneously as long as the resource capacity limits are not exceeded (Lecture Notes, Attention, 2021). There would be times where I would be 6 feet from the wall helping a kid learn to float while trying to look back at the kids and repeating “the wall is glue, the wall is glue" to them while trying to also talk to the child I am working with simultaneously looking at the stands at the parents that are trying to get my attention for something that is not urgent. That run on sentence is not poor grammar, but rather my anxiety coming back remembering the days where I was ambitious and believed I could do everything and anything all at once. I would urge myself to multitask, I found myself being afraid that if I lose vision and attention on just one thing, it may end badly; such as a kid losing their grip on the wall and going underwater, or a parent complaining that I am not listening to them. I found myself not providing as much feedback and attention to the child that I am working with and not being the best swim instructor that I can be.

This experience made me realize that I am not a superhero and I need to filter information that is not deemed necessary at this very moment, for example, the parents' comments at me that most certainly did not need to be happening. Filtering what is important to pay attention to and what to let through into my attention is similar to the Bottleneck theory that was discussed with the theories of attention. While the parents may think it is rude that I am ignoring them during the 45-minute lesson, for the safety of the kids on the wall, and to give my very best instruction and work to the child I am handling, I need to filter out the conversations parents are trying to hand with me during lessons. This will allow me to be the very best swim teacher that I could be for my swimmers. But, if there is a way for me to get extra eyes, ears, and arms that might work too.  

The Shea & Kohl (1990, 1991) study on the variability of practice and its effects on retention highlighted that individuals in the group that has variability within their practice proved to have the lowest absolute constant error a day later in their retention test. The study was conducted looking at individuals and training them to accuracy generate a force of 150 N by squeezing a hand grip. Of the three groups established one group did only 100 trials of just trying to grip 150 N; another group did a total of 200 trials but still only tried to grip exactly 150 N; and finally, the group that showed the most success in retention tests conducted 200 trials but did 100 trials of trying to squeeze exactly 150 N and the latter 100 trials squeezing different forces of 100 N, 125 N, 175 N, and 200 N proving variability in their practice (Lecture Notes, Practice Variability, 2021). Ultimately this study confirmed that in order to succeed in tasks, training, and performance, variability needs to be present.

This study can be related to my training program. While I am predominantly a 200 distance swimmer. My practice never consisted of doing just the 200s. I was doing distances significantly over 200 yards, and distances that were pure sprints of 50 yards or even 25-yard distances. Essentially, if my practice is 8,000 yards there is no way I spent it doing just 200-yard distances. My variability within practice allows me to train for my race in a different way. Specifically the 3rd out of the 4 50s within the 200. Known as the hardest 50 within the race, the 3rd 50 is usually the one that decides the person that will come out victorious. It requires endurance and strength that does not normally come from doing 200s at practice, but rather 800s or 400s that were dome.  My variability in swimming can also be related to the contextual interference theory in the idea that random practice and variability  leads to more interference which ultimately better retention results for myself. While in practice I might hate it and believe that what I am doing is excessive and unnecessary, it is evident that without variability, I would not be able to succeed in what I am best at.