Physical Literacy The idea of physical literacy is very important to me because sports and weight/conditioning training have been

a huge part of my life and still are today. When I am training or preforming I may seem intense or extremely energetic but in a way I am calm and I would not want to be doing anything else. The way I define my physical literacy is how much knowledge I have about my body and the mental capability I have to endure all the hard work and pain I go through in order to improve my physique and play. I have improved my physical literacy by doing a lot of research on training, nutrition, and supplementation. When I was younger I never did well in sports. Actually, I never really contributed to winning or losing. When I played soccer I was more focused on just running around and I never had a competitive edge that I have today. I remember other kids on the teams were far more advanced than me. I was still enjoying myself out there, which is the main aspect of playing sports at that age. I was also far less advanced with baseball when I was little. Again, my focus was not on the sport it was playing in the dirt in the outfield. I had always, and still today, loved being outside and playing in the ground but the point was that I just had no focus or concern for baseball. I remember one kid on my t-ball team who was almost expected to hit home runs and I was just lucky enough to get on base. I didnt have much fun with baseball as much as I did with soccer. I believe I didnt have as much fun with baseball because it wasnt very physical, it was more of a skill. With soccer it was more running as to standing in the outfield waiting for a ball to surpass the infield. Those two sports quickly died out when I was around the second grade. I had always loved watching football every Sunday with my family. I was the typical little boy who got overly excited when someone got hit really hard. It was amazing how much emphasis was put into
Comment [C7]: Why? What do you enjoy about watching football? Are all of the members of your family physically literate? Is that an important dynamic in your family? Comment [C6]: Why not? And what did you learn about your body or being on a team from playing baseball and soccer? This might be a good place to discuss literacy more explicitly. Comment [C5]: It sounds as though you were an outside-play kind of guy. Do you still have those interests now? Comment [C2]: Remember this is a personal narrative, so you do not have to have a formal thesis statement. Make your memoir yours! Tell a story, share some dialogue, etc. You can have a thesis, but I dont want you to limit yourself. Comment [C3]: What does that mean? Comment [C4]: Why do you think you enjoyed this aspect of soccer when you were younger? Comment [C1]: Why? What about athletics is important to you?

broadcasting NFL games. The commentators and the replays kept you interested in between plays and even commercials are mostly football related. I was in love with the Carolina panthers, and I still am today. I would wear my Julius Peppers jersey around the house, tackling pillows, and punting the ball. I would beg my brother to play football with me and when he didnt I would get mad at him. I would force him to play with me, props of being the big brother. I was awful at catching the ball and my dad would constantly work with me, he would never quit no matter how many times I had dropped a ball. I remember him telling me to watch the ball stop spinning in my hands. We would do this game where I ran across the yard ten times and I would get a 100% or 90% depending on how many times I caught or dropped the ball. We also had this ball with a lot of decals on it. I had to state what I first saw on the ball as I watched it stop spiraling in my hands. and I eventually got catching down to a tee. Soon I became very good at catching the ball compared to other kids. This was the first occasion where I started to develop a physical literacy path. This was the first time I had the want or in my eyes, a need to improve my athleticism. I started begging to go outside and throw and catch the ball because I wanted to get better. I was very lucky to have my dad as a coach through all of my pop warner football days. He is probably where I got my physical literacy from. He would always be coaching me outside of practice and he and the other coaches would stay after practice and talk. Some of the time I was playing tag with my other teammates but mostly we would just listen in on the conversation. They discussed certain plays and defenses. They discussed what would work and what would not work. I remember doing drills in the yard with my mom and dad. When I played in middle school I played on two teams at the same time, my middle school team and my travel team. High school football will be some of the greatest memories of my life.
Comment [C13]: So you acquired physical literacy by observing the Discourse community? What did they talk about? What did you learn by eavesdropping? Comment [C14]: In the future? Think about verb tense and what meaning you are trying to convey. Comment [C12]: Why? How did he contribute to your physical literacy? Comment [C10]: How did he work with you? What did he do to increase your ball handling skills? Comment [C11]: Why was it significant? What lessons did you learn? Comment [C8]: This is a great image! As a reader, I want more of these. Comment [C9]: Ha! Great voice here.

My junior and senior year of high school I made the all-conference, all-county, and allregion teams. I played center and I was small for my position but I handled guys 150 pounds more than me. I was a stats leader all year for the offensive line and I held records in the weight room and on the practice field. This all came from how hard I studied my opponent and how hard I worked in practice. My first year of high school I picked up rugby and to this day it is what I love doing the most. I love practicing and I especially love the games. I never knew much about it but I was very good at picking it right up. My first year I tried out for the North Carolina all-stars team and made it. I made it the next three years as well and every year we went to an eastern United States tournament and the past year I came just shy of an opportunity to play for the USA all American team. That all came from how much I put into working out and how much knowledge I have about my body. Within the past couple of years I have been very intrigued by muscle growth and the certain ways to eat and lift weights. I would spend at least an hour every day researching about different ways I should be lifting to produce lean muscle mass. I had an account on a website to track my weight, nutrition, and training. I changed the way I ate. I went from eating about three meals a day with not much snacking and not much care what I ate, to eating six very specific meals at very specific times. I did this because it speeds up your metabolism by substantial amounts. I consider my body to be a working sculpture, which is still going to take some time before I get where I want. I didnt eat for pleasure, I ate for a purpose. I am not saying I never cheated because I would be lying. I also went from drinking about twelve cups a day to drinking around three gallons of water. The goal is to turn your body into a machine with a near-

Comment [C15]: I dont think you need a new paragraph here because you are still talking about high school football.

Comment [C16]: So how does this relate to your physical literacy? I love hearing about sports, especially football, but remember what you are supposed to focus on. I think this is an area where you could give more analysis about how the experience affected your literacy. (e.g. Being a small center means that you have to read the defense and line in order to anticipate their moves and respond.)

Comment [C17]: Why do you enjoy it so much? Be specific. Comment [C18]: Why?

Comment [C19]: Wow impressive. What did you learn from that experience that relates to your physical literacy?

Comment [C20]: Interestingwhat sort of sources did you consult? When did you do your research? Comment [C21]: Do you need this paragraph break?

Comment [C22]: Why? What did research tell you? Comment [C23]: Great analogy Comment [C24]: I wish I could say the same

Comment [C25]: The goal for what? Why is having your body in such prime condition significant?

perfect schedule of eating and near-perfect nutrition. I like to compete, obviously, so being able to compete with my own body was a new and interesting hobby. I lifted weights twice a day and I had a schedule of what to lift, how many reps, and how many sets. I didnt just get a lifting schedule from somewhere, I put it together with the collaborative research that I had obtained from my online page of my progress.done. I also learned much about supplements. I only drink a certain kind of protein which has a finer strand of the broken down amino acids and very little carbs. I researched about creatine. NEVER BUY CHEAP CREATINE! Unless you insist on cramping, bloating, and discomfort for a majority of your day. I am constantly working on my body and my mental strength to keep pushing myself through the grind. I am very proud of it although I will never be satisfied or especially complacent. I can appreciate, however, how far I have come to be able to consider myself physically literate.
Comment [C29]: So what is required to consider yourself physically literate? Comment [C30]: Ethan, I enjoyed reading about your physical literacy. You stay focused on a particular form of literacy without becoming repetitive. My biggest suggestion right now is to think about adding details and fleshing out ideas. You have a lot of interesting thoughts that answer what, so now you can consider answering more of the why and the how. Give your reader a more clear image of exactly what you mention. And I agree with you when you say that you dont connect with literacy consistently. While I dont want you to repeat yourself and the word literacy thirty times, I did highlight a few places where I thought you might add literacy details. I hope my suggestions help. Mrs. Davis Comment [C27]: OKAY! Why not? What is the difference? How did your physical literacy lead you to this conclusion? Comment [C26]: From where? Give some examples of your schedule or lifting activities. You could even include them in your literacy memoir as a visual aid. Just a thought

Comment [C28]: You do not really explain this at length in your memoir. How does mental strength play a role in your physical literacy?