PDFE 3

For my third PDFE assignment, I chose to again observe the Berry College Running team’s first home meet, including warm up, race, stretch and cool down.  This was held at Berry’s Clara Bowl on the morning of September 11, 2010 at 9 am (men) and 10 am (women’s).  There were 269 athletes for the event all of collegiate age or older.  The course is held over 8k (men) and 5k(women) through rolling hills with some flat spots and a mostly grass course. 

            I was able to observe signs of a reaction time between the initial stimulus and a movement.  This RT was shown when the gun to begin was fired and there is a split second (or less) between the sound of the gun and the first stride.  This is caused by the brain’s reaction time of recognizing the stimulus (gun shot) and appropriating which muscles to react to the needed movement.  Athletes who have a better reaction time than others are able to react quicker to the stimulus and thus have a slight advantage. 

            From my observation, cross country athletes may be faced with multiple response choices when they are faced with a large group to run with.  They must decide what pace to run at, and the route to get through the pack.  This may cause a delayed reaction, or slower reaction time as according to Hick’s Law.  Because there are several stimuli (pace to maintain to reach time, other athletes), the athletes will probably take a slightly longer time to make the appropriate decision than if they were only faced with one stimulus.  This is because the brain must go through and process more information and appropriate the correct movement.

            One example from the cross country race that displayed a psychological refractory period would be when the athletes are running in packs and one may cut in front of another and the terrain is changing.  The RT for the second stimulus cannot be processed until the first one is completed.  The athlete will adjust to the other athlete’s movements before it reacts to the terrain because of the order of stimuli. 

            When the athletes can predict what will happen (spatial anticipation) as well as when (temporal) they can improve the response time and become better performers.  For cross country runners, they should be able to accurately predict the pace that they will run and that their competitors will run, thus giving them an advantage in the race.  If they are able to have accurate temporal anticipation for the start gun, they have a split second advantage to the race start.  

PDFE 2

PDFE #2

            I chose to observe the Berry College Running Team practice for my second Professional Development/Field Experience assignment.  I am the student worker for Athletic Training for the running team, which consists of approximately forty freshman through seniors both male and female.  The runners ages range from 18-22, they are all currently enrolled in Berry College.  This practice was held on August 31^st, 2010.  This was the second week of team practice for the year.  The practice was held at the Clara Bowl and surrounding fields where the team competes in home meets.  This terrain is mostly grass with some road and gravel sections.  The course is relatively hilly and runs a 5k for women and 8k for men.  The practice was held at four in the afternoon. 

            The fundamental movements that the athletes showed was a loco-motor movement, a fast paced run around the course for a pre-determined length by coach Paul Deaton.  Locomotor movement is one fundamental movement skill used to travel the body in a direction.  The team splits into groups for the runs, usually by mileage, time, and gender.  The muscle groups used when running are predominately gross muscular groups found in the legs, which includes the calves, quadriceps and gluteals.  Running is a continuous task, the motion of movement has no definite beginning or end and is performed in a continual, fluid movement. 

            There is some decision making involved in running, but not a very high degree.  The biggest decisions runners have to make involve pacing appropriately during a race and practice.  Also, running is a very mental sport, athletes must be able to push themselves past their limits to achieve their times and distances.  Avoiding mental blocks is a large portion of running.  To do so, athletes develop mantras such as “Keep pushing” etc. and run in groups to avoid burnout. 

            The environmental predictability of a cross-country course is relatively open.  The runners know the length of the race, but hills, differing terrain, the actions of other competitors, crowds, etc. come in to play when running.  They must be alert to take into account environmental factors and respond readily to them.