Motor Learning- Summary Paper

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School

Kansas Wesleyan University *

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101

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Mechanical Engineering

Date

Dec 6, 2023

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docx

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Uploaded by heythere456773

Davenport 1 Summary Paper For the majority of my life, football has been my favorite and most focused on sport out of all of the sports I have participated in. I knew from a young age that I wanted to play football to the highest level of my abilities and consequently, play football at the collegiate level. To make my dream possible, I have spent countless hours practicing, going to camps, training with a quarterback coach, watching film, and committing myself to the sport. Throughout my preparation and in-game experiences, I have faced numerous obstacles and challenges that I have had to overcome to be where I am today. However, as I have discovered through our class, much of my success has resulted from the subconscious application of various motor learning concepts. Before taking this class, I had no formal name for these concepts, and I was unaware of the research behind these concepts. I simply applied these concepts to my athletics out of instinct and experimentation. Now, with the knowledge I have gained from class, I realize that I have applied the Habit Loop Concept, the Fitts and Posner Model of Skill Acquisition, and the Acquisition and Mastery Concept to all my athletics, but specifically to my football career. Looking first into the Habit Loop Concept, this notion can be described as the neurological loop that governs any habit. In this loop, the three components are the cue, the routine, and the reward. The cue signals the brain into action telling it what habit to use. The routine is the physical, mental, or emotional response triggered by the cue. The reward is the prize that tells your brain whether the habit is worth keeping or abandoning. I have recently applied the Habit Loop Concept to my game in the form of learning a new pass drop footwork. I have not only installed a new habit loop for better footwork, but I have had to break a habit loop as well. The new habit loop that I have installed deals with starting my left foot forward and dropping back first with that same foot. In this scenario, my cue was my coach telling me to start

Davenport 2 with my left foot forward instead of my right. This signaled to my brain that I was in a left-foot forward routine instead of a right-foot forward routine. When I completed the left-foot forward drop back correctly, my reward was praise from my coach. However, as I continued to successfully complete this new habit loop, my reward became more intrinsic as I realized that the new drop was improving my timing, accuracy, and release speed. The next concept that I have applied to the sport of football is the Fitts and Posner Model of Skill Acquisition. This model helps to explain how skills are acquired and the different stages involved in acquiring a new skill. In the first stage, the cognitive stage, beginners try to establish their goals for participating in a certain skill and learn the basics of that skill. Essentially, the proper form and execution are taught in this stage. The focus is more on taking mental repetitions instead of physical ones. The second stage, the associative stage, is often called the “refining” stage as cues are associated with certain movements to execute a skill. Muscle memory is initially formed in this stage along with some confidence. In the third stage, the autonomous stage, muscle memory is completely developed, and skills are executed with little to no effort. Skills can even be paired successfully with other skills in this third and final stage. A great example of this model applied to my career in football is when I first learned how to throw a football with the proper form and grip. I remember learning this skill at a young age and I struggled with it for some time as I could not correctly throw a spiral. When I first began learning this skill and was in the cognitive stage, my goals for practicing were to have fun and be able to play catch with my uncle. As time went on and I began to understand the basics of throwing a football, I transitioned into the associative stage. In this stage, I combined the little steps involved in throwing a football and began to build muscle memory on how all those steps fit together. I could throw the football every time, but it was not accurate and did not always

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