Reflection on Senior project mentor hours

This is my reflection of my capstone project.  Capstone project was very fun.  I used critical thinking, communications, collaboration, and creativitiy in my project.  First off I used critical thinking by learning the process of rehabbing an injury and preventing another injury.  By that I mean not rushing my injured knee, and taking my rehabilitation process seriously with my physical therapist.  Next communication was important to me.  Communication took place when I have to talk with my mentor about what are the steps I need to take to become healthy and to gain confidence in my injured leg.  For collaboration, our goal was to get me at full strength and healthy with my knee, so I can perform at a high level in basketball where I had got injured and just try to prevent getting injured again.  Creativity was one of the most important aspects of my project.  Creativity was important because I told my mentor I want to play basketball at a high level without getting injured often.  So he designed a physical therapy regimine for me and it was a process.  My routine involved some type of cardio exercises, stretching, and exercises for the knees, such as lunges, leg press, etc.

Capstone project helped me tremondously.  At first I was scared but I realized I wanted to be a physical therapy and it was a time to get a head start in leaning about rehabilitaion.  Personally I learned dicipline, patients, and work ethic.  I learned that if you want something you have to attack it and be patient because results might not come as fast as you want them to come.  Socially I learned how to interact with my mentor.  For example, talking about my goals what do I want and learning new ways to get better.  Intellectually I learned to stay positive and focus at the task at hand.  There may be some bumps along the journey but the main focus is to remain focused.  This was a fun process.

There were many challenges that I had to overcome such as staying patient so I dont rush back from my injury.  Another challenge I encountered was consistency, this was one of the toughest parts of my project because for my project there was a lot of working out and getting into shape and it becomes tough and when you can really use a day off but its better you dont because you want to become better than ever it is tough.  To be the best you have to work hard, and that was my main focus.  Lastly, the cardio and conditioning part of my rehabilitation process was tough mentally.  When you are tired and you have to run it can be mentally challenging but you have to stay focused and fight through it because you want to be the best you can be. 

This was my senior project and I had lots of fun.  It was challenging but it feels good to almost be finished.  I want to thank my mentor and my English teacher for helping me in my project and I hope I show that I learned alot because I feel I did.  Thank you one more time and it was a good experience.

Mentor Hours (May 1)

Today is the last day I spent with my mentor.  I got in the gym with him early in the morning and we got to work right away.  We started off talking about my project and my injury.  He evaluated me and told me my leg is almost at full strength and I just need to continue taking care of my body.  Then we began working out.  We first started with a cardio warm up.  Next we did balancing exercises on the trampoline and one legged gums.  Next were lunges and side movements.  Lastly we worked on some cardio.  After my workout, I did some icing for about an hour.  It was a productive day and I spent another 5 hours with him.  I had a great time with my mentor.  He was very nice and open to any questions I had, and he pushed me to get back to where I wanted to go and I really respected that because he really cared about me.  I am going to continue working with him because I feel he can still help me even though my project hours with him are done.

Mentor Hours (April 20)

Today I met up with my mentor.  It was a very productive day.  We worked mostly on cardio. I did some sprints and worked on the correct form of running.  It was challenging but I know it can improve my for of running and also if I have good technique of running then I may run with less stress on the knees.  Less pounding on the legs.  After I did some running then we moved on to bike, elliptical, and stepper.  This has helped me get into shape because I got injured in a basketball game and I told my mentor that I want you to help me rehab my knee as if I am a basketball players.  He told me that i need to get into better shape, strengthen my core and balance.  This was a fun and challenging day and we met for another 5 hours mostly talking and watching videos on athletes rehab, also a check up appointment and my workout.

Mentor Hours (April 10)

Today I spent lots of time with my mentor.  First he evaluated my knee to make sure I am gaining muscle and strength back in my injured knee.  He wanted to make sure that my knee cap was in place and the areas surrounding my knee cap were at full strength.  My mentor had told me that I have got alot stronger since my injury because I kept up with my physical therapy regimine and he said I looked very healthy.  He told me I had a ways to go but if I stay focused I will get there.  Today we did mostly balancing exercises and core work.  It was very challenging because when I got injured my core became very weak and all that time off from injury began to reflect on my core.  He had me do planks, squats, one leg balancing exercise, and lunges.  This was how we spent my day and after my workout we talked a little more.  We spent about 5 hours together because I had iced off and on after working out for about an hour and we talked alot about basketball and how I can improve my landing and prevent injury

Mentor Hours (April)

Today was the first time meeting with my mentor in 2 weeks.  He went on vacation so this was the next time I met with him.  It was an intense day, first we started off with some light jogging for about 10 minutes with walking in between.  Then after that I got on the bike for about 20 min.  After going on the bike, I started my physical therapy exercises.  For my first exercise I did some lunges.  I could feel the burn becase my mentor had me doing the same exercises shown in the previous blogs every day so he wanted me to get used to a different routine.  Next after some lunges were leg press hops off one leg and landing on the other.  That was my favorite exercise because it helps me with  balance, jumping and how to land in basketball.  Lastly after my workout we talked about taking the neccessary steps possible to get my knee back to a 100 percent and prevent reinjury as much as possible. This was my routine for the day and we had met for about 2 hours.

Mentor Hours (March 17)

Today is the second day meeting up with my mentor.  I spent 3 hours with my mentor today.  Today we pretty much did the same as the first time we met because my injury is still new so we are still taking it easy so the procedure is pretty similar to the last exercises that we did.  He did not want me to run yet because  my injury is still new.  So i walked for about 20 min and did the bike for a half hour.

Mentor Hours (March 12, 2013)

Today was the first day I spent with my mentor.  I was with my mentor for about 5 hours today.  We started off by talking about physical therapy.  I hurt my knee about a month and a half ago and it was a good time to begin physical therapy.  He evaluated my knee to make sure everything was okay and at full strength to make sure i was ready to begin exercises.  Then after evaluation of my knee.  He explained the procedure of how to make my knee stronger than it has ever been.  The next thing we did was exercises for my knee such as lunges, backward lunges, leg press, one legged balance workout, and bike for 45 min and walking on the treadmill for 20 min on low resistance.

Log hours for Physical section of Capstone Project

* I am writing a note because I have not started my hours yet.  I will probably start the beginning of next week because my mentor has been out of town and he got back early this week.  I just wanted to let you know that I will start real soon and this is so I keep you updated with my project and so that when you put the grades up for blog, I do not get a zero for blogging

Tough Decisions

In life there are tough decisions we have to make as people.  Decisions are based on the pros and cons of our decisions.  The pros and cons can be such as whether we want to make ourselves happy,what is right or if we want to make other people happy.  From my experience, an incident that I can remeber most was at my basketball game.  The decision I had to make was whether I wanted to take the last shot of the game or did I want to pass the ball and forget about the last shot.  My decision was based on if I wanted to be a hero or was I afraid that if I missed my teammates and coaches would be mad at me.

I was afraid of my teammates being upset at me if I had missed the shot.  Another part of me was afraid of regretting I had not took the last shot and passed up on the opportunity.  I had a tough decision to make.  As the coach was drawing up a play for us, he wanted the ball in my hand.  At that point I felt a little more comfortable because I had trust from my coach.  In my head I felt good but as I was thinking before we went out and played the last few seconds was whether if I missed, would my teammates still respect me and like me.  My decision was based on me and how I would feel if I had not took last the shot.  I practiced all my life for these moments and I was not gonna pass on this opportunity, so I told myself I am going to take the last shot.  I had took the last shot and it had not went in the basket and we lost the game.  But I felt good because I took the shot and I overcame the fear of losing the respect of my teammates.  My teammates still loved me and they were happy I took the shot because I play hard and they trust me.

Overcoming a fear can be the hardest thing in life.  Their are consequences that come with your decisions but that is what makes the journey fun.  You learn from the mistakes and you face adversity and comeback even stronger.  Failing at something can be painful because you put your heart into your goal and get no results.  That is the toughest part but that is where I had to learn from my mistakes and comeback stronger than ever so the next time I am in the position to take the last shot again, I would have confidence and knock it down with my teammates and coaches support.