(Presenting MUC. Where, When, How.)
How does MUC fit into an athlete’s schedule?
Making Up Crap is a program presented to student-athletes in three one-hour sessions. Typically, Directors of Student-Athlete Academic Services find that study-table is an effective time-frame for MUC. In this format, the first hour of three consecutive evenings of study-table is the context for MUC sessions. Most institutions choose to hold these sessions once the term is under way and the student-athletes have experienced the challenges of their academic course work. Other institutions choose to present the MUC program during summer bridge programs. Each one-hr. session is tightly scripted to provide the student-athlete practical and tangible learning strategies and tactics, ones that can be utilized immediately, the next day, in classroom &/or individual study time.
Hour #1:
The hour begins with a humorous Jay Leno story. Dynamic strategies for learning/remembering are detailed, all of which maximize he human genomic emotional, physical, emotional, and visual powers of student-athletes. A paradigm for remembering data is taught, one that will be demonstrated by the student-athletes in the next session. Several entertaining video clips are used to reinforce significant MUC points. This session teaches how to do MUC.
Hour #2:
Student-athletes employ the learning strategy taught in the first hour, to learn/remember twelve distinct pieces of information. They are shown how pop music, odd relatives, common personal events, an Italian restaurant famous for its table salt, and Dr. Giordano’s remarkable resemblance to a famous world-class athlete can be used as powerful learning strategies. This session solidifies the power of MUC for the student-athlete by showing how broadly this learning system can be applied to all kinds of life experiences. Because participants have actually done the process and have felt the experience, they grasp the power that it has for their personal learning needs.
Hour #3:
While the first two hours were about learning the MUC process and how to apply it, this hour shows the student-athlete how to adopt a powerful mindset (psychological advantage) as they “get on the field of academics.” Like an athlete gets mentally ready for a contest on the playing field, it is also necessary to get mentally ready for the field of academic activity. The hour begins with a Muhammad Ali video and ends with a George Foreman video. In between, the strategies for achieving an IPS (Ideal Performance State) in academics are contrasted with the same psychological prep-work, with which they are very familiar, for the athletic field.
Student-athletes depart the three hours of instruction and coaching with powerful new tools to use, and a new way to gain the mindset needed to employ them.
ENDNOTE: Student-athletes are uniquely and exceptionally strong in their emotional, physical, and visual abilities, attributes that make them successful on the field of play. As they grasp that these same strengths can be used to give them equivalent success in academics, they gain a new strengthin their classwork. They can now be confident that they will achieve more in their studies than they have in the past. They gain a new sense of personal efficacy in academics.
