Poetry Part 2

Here are the rest.

The Ant
A grass jungle
Obstacles and danger
Now don't be humble
You are the bush ranger
Follow that chemical scent
Traverse the concrete desert
You’re hell-bent
To find that crumb of life.

Woman on Top
Movement
Like a feline
Improvement
My fingers up and down your spine
Shiver, ecstatic
Spermatic
Watching every move on your face.

Flexible
Yank! All of my might
My tug 'o war with life
Its rope is thick
Very hard on my grip
Tossed to and fro'
I've lost my mojo
If I stand firm, danger, I'll break
Better to bend, like a willow in the wind.

Bourbon & Coke
Bourbon Cokes
Nectar of the Gods

It’s a thirst quenching master stroke
Now don’t be tightwads

Rocks of ice
Submerged or float

Paradise
Soon melt down the throat

Let’s all drink to our health
And celebrate a sunny day

There's no wealth
But that's ok, let's play!

Ginseng Tea
Digging the rare ginseng root out of the ground
Remarkable resemblance to man
You know it takes six years for that root to mature
Better not rush the drying process
And destroy its life giving properties
Inhaling the wonderful pungent aroma
Drinking and tasting its distinctive flavour
You'll live to be 100.

Poetry Part 1

I wrote these poems back in 2005. I would catch the bus everday and head to work and over the course of a year, I was inspired to write on my observations of everyday activity and what was going on in my head. But once that year was over, I simply didn't write anymore...

Just realised that blogger has a word limit.  When you post in excess and preview the post, it comes up blank - hence why I need to post as Poetry Part 2.

Journey
Kelvin once said to me
How long does it take to crawl a mile?
It’s a long slow distance, hurts
Especially on all fours
You would be tired,
The 4 minute barrier is unthinkable
You are better off running
And what is this imperial distance anyway?

Who would name their baby Kelvin?
As a first name, seems to me its all about absolute zero
Nothing moves at that temperature
Not even time or thought, past, present, future
The 4 minute barrier has become eternity
Still, motionless
Exhausting
Waiting
To crawl a mile.

Anchor
Such a powerful motivator is
The designer Anchor
A simple crossing of your fingers
When a performance went well
Now the stomach is knotted with butterflies
Re-live that scene
And activate that Anchor
To perform once more at your best.

Coffee Call
Instant at home - black no sugar
Plunger in town
Percolated at work
Short black never lasts long enough
Long black.....
Vanilla flavoured makes me sick
Liqueur only after dinner
Tried eating coffee beans
As an antidote to a hangover
Cappuccino, flat white, latte or decaffeinated don’t make the grade
Milk shake disgusting, iced not much better But a 4 litre tub of ice cream - alright!
Will always go back to a mug size or two of Turkish.

Girl
Every afternoon
My heart skips a beat
Sitting on the bus
Is a beautiful girl
With a flower in her hair.

Naked Neck
That curve
Smooth and soft
To kiss her naked neck.

Wobbly Courage
Suddenly woke
Anxious, reached for next to nothing
Cold

I cried out, really a croak
Daunting
This cruel blindfold

Get up, slowly
Pain in spirit
Body follows

Wobbly
Courage now, deliberate
Fly Apollo.

Revenge
Seek revenge
Bittersweet taste
But heed the advice
A Chinese Proverb
Better dig two graves
One for your enemy and one for yourself.

Darkness
My vision
I see dark long hair
And am in collision
With large lagoon eyes in despair

Pain mixed with sadness
Deep and hollow
There's kindness
But I just can't follow

Regret and fear
I look to past time
In this atmosphere
To commit a crime

Anger and sorrow
Tears of rage
Got to borrow
But can't disengage

Those lagoon eyes
Hopeless
Tried to ratify but misapplied
Warmness.

Friday!
Such a struggle sometimes
To get through the week
Between-times
Let’s all take off in a caïque

A mathematical brainteaser
Called Sudoku
Just can’t do it in the freezer
While eating tofu

Even drinking coffee
Doesn’t soften the blow
And licking too much Toffee
Swear I saw a UFO.

Finally!
Friday is here
Leisurely
I’m drinking beer.

Lips
Sweet taste, lips creasing
Your creases lock onto mine
Lips move, new ones form
Now slick with saliva
Hunger
Explore
Need air
Part with regret.

Integrating Mindmaps with Slideshare: How?

The Sports Coaching Pedagogy Unit at the University of Canberra has 3 assessment items as part of the overal grade and the above mind map addresses the 2nd assessment item, the presentation which is a literature review on any topic of interest relating to sport.  It is worth 30% of the final grade.

I chose the topic of 'what motivates the motivators'.  Each branch addresses the definition of motivation and the various research literature surrounding motivation of coaches and athletes.  Its fascinating stuff!

The mindmap appears daunting on first view but its quite simple; there are 6 main branches radiating out from the central image and you follow these along to the child and sibling branches.  I created this map on the iPad using iThoughtsHD.

A requirement of assessment item 2 is that the format is uploaded and should be compatible with Slideshare.  After much head scratching and racking my brains, I haven't been able to find a way to upload the map such that a user will click on the Slideshare url, press play and have each slide open up as single topic branch along with a voice over.  I can certainly upload it and have the map display on one slide but this is not ideal.  So what CAN be done?

• Use iThoughtsHD hooked up to a HDMI compatible projector or TV which will then display the whole map on the screen.  You can then scroll around on the iPad, zoom, shrink etc and show up nicely on the large screen.  Disadvatage is that you have to be present in the room to make the presentation.
• Use the latest version of  iMindmapHD from ThinkBuzan on the iPad which I have installed.  This app has a presentation feature which allows you like iThoughtsHD to hook up the iPad and present on the screen.  However, unlike iThoughtsHD, you press play on the app and each time you tap on the screen, a branch will dispay on screen allowing you to make your presentation.  You can go back and forth as you like.  Disadvantage is that you have to be present in order to make the presentation.
• Use the Mindmanager app on the iPad (I have this as well!) but like the previous two, it has those shortcomings.  Or, use Mindmanager software on the PC or Mac, create your map and then use the export to Power Point feature which will create each branch as a powerpoint slide.  Thats pretty decent, but the software is way too expensive at US$399 for an electronic download.  So that's out.

So what is left?  I have a several options: go with the iThoughts app, display it on a large screen, scroll using the iPad, record the video clip and then afterwards do a voice over.  Or, use the iMindmapHD presentation feature, record the video clip and then do the voice over.  I could as I mentioned above, upload the map onto a single slide on Slideshare and do a 15min recording voice over explaining my literature review findings.  Or abandon the whole thing and create the power point slides and do the voice over.

I've posted a question over at the Slideshare Forums.

Thanks for reading!

A SWOT Analysis

The above mind map is a SWOT Analysis map that I downloaded freely from Bigger Plate.  The Bigger Plate site is a fantastic resource that allows fellow mind map enthusiasts to upload and share their maps.  This particular map was created using iMindMap software from ThinkBuzan.  I used iThoughts from my iPad 2 which then launched Bigger Plate from Safari and then I was able to download the SWOT map into the iThoughts app.  I then adapted the map to suit my needs.

The SWOT analysis has come about due to the fact that I teach and run a Salsa Club here at the University of Canberra.  The club is part of the UC Clubs & Societies and as a result, several requirements must be met before funding can be acquired hence the SWOT analysis is one such requirement.

There are several SWOT analysis maps on Bigger Plate but this one seemed to suit my needs.  As you can see, each main branch includes the familiar Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Threats which you then progressively drill down as per the requirements of your organisation.

I won’t explain the rest of the branches as they are pretty self-explanatory but the key idea with the SWOT mind map is clarity and purpose of thought.

The Coaching Plan

The material presented in this post is my interpretation from two units I am currently studying at the University of Canberra: Sport Coaching Pedagogy and Motor Control & Skill Acquisition.  Any errors posted here are entirely my own.

I’ve been learning and teaching Mambo which is a particular dance style of Salsa for close to 7 years.  Mambo has its origins in New York City.  I’ve been very fortunate to have been trained by Raquel Paez who is the director of the Salsabor Dance Company here in Canberra.  She is a technique driven coach which may not sound like its much fun, but learning technique from the ground up does give you the freedom to explore options within the genre and with that freedom does in fact come fun.  Therefore, this post will deal with how to structure, plan, deliver or teach a particular dance movement to students enrolled in the on 1 to on2 Conversion Class in the Salsabor Dance Company.

A particular challenge in designing, planning and teaching this movement has to do with the fact that these students have been learning mambo/salsa through a musical timing known as on1.  This simply means that students break (change in direction) on counts 1 and 5 of the musical phrase.  This type of dance timing gives off the feel of being percussive or staccato in nature.  Now all of a sudden, I am asking these students to convert to on2 meaning they break on counts 2 and 6 of the musical phrase.  The feeling here is one of syncopation or perhaps a reggae feel when dancing.  The breaks in the first are done in the odd beats while the breaks in the second are done on the even beats.  Both methods are beautiful to watch with on2 being particularly spectacular.  But before I get to describing the planning and delivery, I must get the theory of out of the way first.

Details of both on 1 and on2 dance styles can be found on YouTube.

Motor Control Theory

Motor Control Theory rests on evidence that there are structures responsible for many different kinds of rapid acts (Henry, F.M. 1961, 1968) and (Henry, F.M. & Rogers, D.E. 1960).  If the action is brief and the environment stable and predictable, then we simply plan the movement in advance and it is executed without further thinking on our part.  The movement simply happens.

Executing fast skilled movements however, requires the use of large numbers of muscle control and joint action control.  This is known as managing your Degrees of Freedom.  It certainly is a challenge for athletes or the general public exercising to manage your degrees of freedom and perform the action skilfully.

In the map adjacent, you can see that the Motor Program contains 5 main stages.  In the 1^st stage is The Input could be something as simple as cricket ball speeding towards you.  The Stimulus Identification would be used to evaluate the environment, you would then respond or not which is the Response Selection and finally there would be a Response Program.  The Response Program helps us to organise, plan and then send to the Motor Program.  The Stimulus ID, Response Selection and Response Program are known as the Executive which are simply the stages we use to process information.

The Motor Program then begins to act on our Spinal cord and Muscles.  The Motor Program, Spinal cord and the Muscles belong to what is known as the Effector which links the Motor Program to the Peripheral Motor System.

The final stage is the Output which will let us know whether we’ve been successful in defending the wicket or leaving the ball alone if wide or attacking the ball for that possible four.   Note the word possible since once a decision is made, there will be a change in the environment meaning we hit, defend successfully or miss as intended or miss as in out.  At that stage, information arriving at us is too late for us to do anything about it – the environment has changed.

When learning movements or a sequence of movements, the Motor Program can only do a short string of movements and with practice, longer sequences of movements can be initiated with better control and thus more skill full actions.  When this sequence of moves has been learned, it is then stored into long term memory.  When required, it is retrieved from short term memory within the Response Selection stage.

It is worth noting that there is an alternative to the Motor Control Theory known as Bernstein’s Dynamic Perspective (Bernstein, N.I 1967) but it is beyond the scope of this post to discuss.

Learning Situation

Ok, with the theory out of the way, let’s move onto the Learning Situation as shown on the mind map.

Diagnose the Learning Situation

·         Who are the learners and their characteristics?  Their goal of learning?

o   Social dancers from all walks of life: students, singles, mum’s and dads, athletes, etc.  Goal of learning is to learn on2.  Various levels of on2 experience;

·         What is their target skill and characteristics?

o   The target skill involves learning a shine (fancy footwork) that involves 4 by 4 counts of musical timing.  In salsa, this is known as 2 phrases of 8.

·         Where is the nature of the target context?

o   This is the dance step itself.  It doesn’t involve partner dancing.  The steps involve the familiar ‘basic’ within on2 but also fast timing footwork, torso and shoulder moves.  The moves are to be executed within the musical timing however, the music chosen will be slow.

Design the Learning Experience

·         Practice Preparation

o   Students are presented the information (dance steps) slowly.

·         Practice Presentation

o   Students practice the dance steps.

·         Practice Feedback

o   Students are given opportunities to ask questions and provide feedback.

Modifying

·         Relearning

o   In a sense, students are relearning something that appears old (on1) to something that is quite new (on2).  This can be quite difficult to overcome

·         Resisting old Habits

o   Old habits are learned from on1 dance timing.  So the mind needs to make a ‘mind switch’ in order to be successful for on2.  This links in with Relearning and resisting those old habits.

Coaching/Teaching Tips

On the map, we now move onto Coaching/Teaching Tips.  These are all quite self-explanatory so I won’t spend too much time writing about them - this post is getting long!

New material must be broken down into essential concepts and must be presented in ordered fashion, known as a hierarchy of sequenced moves.  The first moves must be mastered as pre requisites before moving onto the next dance step and certainly before varying those dance steps.  It is essential to master the Executive Program (mentioned above in the Theory section) before adding new material and/or varying the material.  Finally, practicing anticipation is vital to successfully executing the move.  This means that waiting for the first beat of the musical phrase before moving will allow correct timing.  Being in sync with the music does indeed make for a magical experience!

Conclusion

Usually in scientific reports, the conclusion isn’t used as a heading but what the heck; this isn’t a scientific report so I’ll use it as a heading!

The final sections in the map such as Shine and Coaching/Teaching Practical are hints that I need to do in order to have the shine plan and counting sequence required but also to draw on the video and written text requirements for passing the Unit Sport Coaching Pedagogy.

I realise that some of the coaching concepts such as presenting new and complex material at first glance by breaking it down may be a matter of common sense but sometimes common sense may be lacking.  Theory with good evidence can help us move down that track of common sense and present us information that at first glance may appear quite puzzling but in reality, common sense applies.

Thanks for reading!

References

Bernstein, NI (1967). The coordination and regulation of movements. Oxford, England: Pergamon Press

Henry, FM (1961). Reaction time-movement time correlations. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 12, 63-66

Henry, FM (1968). Specificity vs. generality in learning motor skill. Classical Studies on Physical Activity (pp. 331-340) Perceptual and Motor Skills, 12, 63-66

Henry, FM & Rogers, DE (1960). Increased response latency for complicated movements and a “memory drum” theory of motor neuron reaction. Research Quarterly, 31, 448-458.

Mind Maps as an over-arching Guide to Clarity of Thought

The map displayed adjacent is an overarching guide designed to help me structure my thoughts for my first 6 blog posts.  These types of maps are called Mind Maps and though they have been around for centuries in many different forms, it was Tony Buzan that popularised this type of form as a way to structure and clarify thinking using colour, pictures, text and to make associations and links between thoughts.

Hi achievers use what is known as Bi modal thinking that marries up the right and left hemispheres of the brain.  While the right hemisphere is associated with pictures, imagination, colour, rhythm, space and a global, big picture outlook, the left hemisphere works with numbers, words, lists, logic, details and order.  Both brain hemispheres add and support each other and help us to remember, to use mental rehearsal and to think outside of the box.  Bi Modal thinking in a nut shell, provides positive whole brain benefits.

The information presented above is well known hence why Mr Buzan took the mind map to the level it is and why they work so well.  It is a multi-million dollar industry targeting software, books and writing materials all designed to get you to become a bi modal thinker.  Certainly, mind maps have been a big influence on me.  For example, I use them to quickly sketch an outline when I’m attending lectures and I use software both on the pc and the iPad to refine the maps.  With respect to lectures, a mind map interestingly can also reveal whether the lecturer has structured his or her thoughts in a logical, sequenced manner when presenting the material to the class.  The mind map will either be chaotic or well-ordered or even a combination of the two.

In closing, the map above will be refined as I move along and post.  This is a big strength in mind mapping in that it allows for terrific flexibility and adaptation to meet changing demands.  This is really what bi modal thinking is all about.