PDFE #2

For this assignment I was observing a high school football practice. This practice took place on the field up on the mountain campus late in the afternoon. During this practice the team was running drills with the offense and defense. All players on both sides of the ball were running different plays and schemes to improve both motor and cognitive ability.
First we will take a look at the elements of the one dimension system that were used in this practice. The main locomotor movement was running. The receivers were running their routes, the quarterback was running to avoid defenders, and the defenders were running to the ball. In the practice the object being manipulated was the football. It was being snapped by the center to the quarterback, handed off to runners, and thrown to receivers. Also, one could say the the offensive and defensive lines were objects being manipulated. Both were trying to push the other out of the way to either reach or keep the other from reaching the quarterback. When the defensive and offensive lines were lining up before the snap they were stabilizing themselves with their hands and arms as they put the majority of their weight on them.
Looking at the muscles being enhanced in this practice we have the upper body and legs in the gross muscle use category. The upper body muscles are used to throw and catch the ball. Both groups of muscles were used when talking and blocking. Finally the legs were in use while receivers were running routes and the cornerbacks and linebackers were covering them. The main fine muscles used were in when holding the ball, especially in the act of throwing. the quarter back had to have great fine motor skill in order to get a good enough grip to hold and throw it. Same goes for the receivers catching the ball. They have to use fine motor skills in their fingers when holding the ball.
The type of task that the players preformed include brief, serial, and continuous. The brief was the players throwing the ball. The serial skill was catching the ball. Because during most of the occurrences of this skill the players were running and catching while avoiding defenders, making this a serial skill. The continuous skill was the players running. Unlike in track or other similar sports there was no defined end to this action. The action only stopped when the play was over.
Each of the players on the field was responsible for some cognitive decisions and making motor movements. The quarterback had to go through his progressions and make the movement of throwing the ball. The defense had to analyze what the offense was doing while running and executing their assignments. Finally the running back had to analyze the defensive positioning and how well his line was blocking while receiving the handoff and running the ball. All this was caused by the open environment. Both teams on both sides of the ball had to react to one another. The teams could only guess what the other would do simply by their tendencies.
Four movements that can be classified into Gentile’s 16 categories are; throwing the ball away out of bounds, covering a receiver, running the ball, pushing the sled. The first three involve environment variation and context variation. When throwing the ball the body is stationary and there is object manipulation involved. When covering the receiver there is body transport but no object manipulation. When the players were running the ball there was body movement and object manipulation. The final action is when some of the players were off to the side of the field pushing the tackling sled. There was no environmental or contextual variation. However, there was body transport and object manipulation.
At first glance one would not think that there are so many movements that could be classified so many different ways, taking place in a sport. Football is truly an intricate sport in which so many things are going on at once. It takes a trained eye to fully analyze it.