https://www.echeat.com/ Badminton Notes History on Badminton The roots of badminton can be traced to ancient Greece and Egypt where a badminton-like game called battledore and shuttlecock was played. Two players would hit a feathered shuttlecock back and forth using small rackets. During the 18th Century, the game was named “Poona” and played in India. In the 1860s, it became popular among British Army officers who were stationed in India. They brought it back to England and the game’s popularity skyrocketed in 1873 after it was played in a party thrown by the Duke of Beaufort at his estate called “Badminton” located in Gloucestershire. In 1972, badminton appeared in the Olympic Games as a demonstrative sport and as an exhibition sport 2022-06-20T10:44:17.15-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Badminton-45572.aspx NFL – Live Football 49ers vs Rams Live - Live Stream Online W@tch Now SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS Vs LOS ANGELES RAMS - Live Stream …| Los Angeles Rams Vs. San Francisco 49ers live, Watch Los Angeles Rams Vs. San Francisco 49ers live, Los Angeles Rams Vs. San Francisco 49ers live Stream. Rams vs 49ers Live Stream San Francisco 49ers vs Los Angeles Rams Thursday, Sept. 21, 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, CA NFL Network TV The 49ers offense has yet to score touchdown and they have started the season with two losses. The Rams were competitive in their loss to Washington in Week 2.,, The 49ers offense has yet to score touchdown and they have started the season with two losses. The Rams were competitive in their loss to Washington in Week 2. (,,,,Tony)| Rams vs 49ers Live Stream,,, San Francisco 49ers vs Los Angeles Rams Thursday, Sept. 21, 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET,,,, Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, CA,, NFL Network TV By Geoffrey C. Arnold The Oregonian/OregonLive San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan was ,,,,,,,|||||||||||||||||||||||||considered an offensive guru during his time in Atlanta, but the struggling 49ers have yet to score a touchdown as they prepare for their game against the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday Night Football (5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET, NFL Network, DirecTV).,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, You can watch the live stream on the NFL’s mobile app or DirecTV’s NFL app. If the NFL Network is part of your cable package, you can also live stream ##################the game through the NFL app on%%%%%%%%%%%%%% XBox, Apple TV, or Roku device on your TV. The 49ers (0-2) are trying to score their first|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| touchdown under Shanahan. They have scored a total of 12 points in their first two games The nine points they scored against the Seattle Seahawks was nearly enough to pull off a monumental upset, but they gave up a late tou,,,,,,,,,,,,,chdown to lose 12-9. Shanahan, the offensive coordinator for the high-scoring Atlanta Falcons in 2016, is probably learning that it’s far easier to score touchdowns when you hav>>>>>>>>>>>>>>e quarterback Matt Ryan, wide receiver Julio Jones and running back Devonta Freeman instead of Brian Hoyer, Pierre Garcon and Carlos Hyde. The Rams (1-1) seem to be trending upwards under first-year coach Sean McVay. They rolled past Indianapolis 46-9 in Week 1 and then hung tough with Washington before losing 27-20 last week. Second-year q|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||uarterback Jared Goff remains a work in progress. He looked solid in the game against the Colts, completing 21-of2&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&9 passes for 306 yards with a touchdown. However, his effort – 15-of-25, 224 yards – against Washington was s|||||||||||||||||||||||||o-so, and he threw an bad interception late in the 2017-09-21T17:50:59.98-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Live™-~Los-Angeles-Rams-vs-San-Francisco-49ers-Live-Stream-NFL-___-45377.aspx 2017-09-16T11:11:43.993-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Canelo-vs-GGG-fight-Live-bout-online-date,-time,-location_-45373.aspx 2017-09-14T15:31:55.507-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Texans-vs-Bengals-NFL-live-stream-today-at-8-25-PM-ET-Paul-Brown-Stadium-45371.aspx Exercises and sports are important in the secondary school curriculum because they create the much-needed break for students from the monotony and stress of academic work. Sports also encourage the students to remain healthy and avoid sicknesses like obesity. A lot of research has shown that students perform better academically when they are exposed to physical activity, sports therefore has a direct influence on the cognitive skills and academic behavior of students which are important for academic performance, additionally, sports in the students curriculum has shown it to enhance attention, concentration, and improved behavior in the classroom (Trudeau & Shephard 2008). Basch (2011) claims that exercise directly affects the functioning of the brain by; increasing the flow of oxygen and neurotransmitters to the brain and supporting neurotrophins which are in charge of neurons which are responsible for memory and learning. He asserts that physical activity influences the development and behavior of the brain by improving attention span, information processing, retrieval and storage, in addition, sports also reduce cravings and enhance positive effects. Sports relieve students from boredom which result in higher attention levels in academics. Research also shows that exercise brings relaxation that result in improved concentration and mood, in addition to enhanced creativity, memory and problem solving skills. Students who participate in sports are less likely to be involved in unhealthy behavior because their time is mostly spent in games. Sports involvement teaches students about team work, cooperation, and following rules (Basch 2011). Students get to learn of their placing in the teams; whether they are leaders, supporters or team players and they get to learn how their performance affects the team. Practicing enhances discipline, patience, hard work and competition, which are attributes that can be translated to academics. Sports are also filled with mentors who shape students in positive ways. Coaches, leaders, and team members help students to learn how to work under authority figures, respect hard work, and good sportsman ship, this are lifelong lessons that will stay even after graduating from school. Secondary school is the stage where most career athletes get discovered or get to realize their potential. In some instances sports and academics are intertwined, for example, some schools have rules that stipulate the minimum GPA required for a student to participate in a particular sport, this will propel the student to work 2016-03-24T19:48:47.55-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Should-Sports-Classes-be-Dropped-in-Secondary-School-so-Students-can-Concentrate-on-Academic-Subjects-35185.aspx Part 1 In the book titled Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies, Jay Coakley provides numerous insights necessary for a person taking a sporting sociology course. It was published by McGraw-Hill in New York and can be found in almost every bookshop or library in the country. In general, the book deals with the interaction of sports and the society, the “mechanics” of sports community relations and behavior. In fact, the text helps readers to develop critical thinking skills. Moreover, the author addresses the issues of social inequality, social control and violence in sports as some of the most important aspects. Other problems include media influence, bioethics, developmental sports, and globalization. In examining these aspects, Coakley stimulates critical thinking skills to make readers consider the role of physiology and sociology have in sports (Coakley, 2009). Importantly, every sportsperson, coach or even amateur needs to understand the relation between the sports and the issues that humans encounter in their daily interactions with other people. Part 2 Notably, the authors raises numerous controversies and dilemmas in the sports industry. Although the material is mainly confined to the situation in the USA, readers can also find certain similarities with the trends in the global sporting environment. The book highlights many issues, including competition, politics, race, children and females in sports. Using an issue-oriented approach, the author analyzes every issue to determined the role sports plays in the society. The book discusses current sporting activities considered controversial based on sociologist and psychologist’s point of view. For instance, specialists study people’s behavior, attributes and the processes that exist in a sports setting. First, looking at the social inequality, the book examines the different forms of social division that exist and influence contemporary sports. For instance, many people are classified according to their condition, opportunity, and capability. Moreover, numerous sporting activities are influenced by religious beliefs, social class ideology, sexuality, age, and nationality. Consequently, most of the sports participants are chosen based on such grounds. Women, in particular, seem to be unfit for some of the sporting activities. Commercialization of sports, on the other hand, has led to members of the community being discriminated based on their social status, nationality, race and education background (Coakley, 2009). Moreover, there exists the issue of reaffirmation of sports as an important idea and belief in the society. This process represents the perspectives of most members of the community, as well as ideas 2016-02-17T08:45:44.27-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/sports-sociology-35177.aspx Sports Sociology Student Name Institutional Affiliation Sports Sociology Part 1 In the book titled Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies, Jay Coakley provides numerous insights necessary for a person taking a sporting sociology course. It was published by McGraw-Hill in New York and can be found in almost every bookshop or library in the country. In general, the book deals with the interaction of sports and the society, the “mechanics” of sports community relations and behavior. In fact, the text helps readers to develop critical thinking skills. Moreover, the author addresses the issues of social inequality, social control and violence in sports as some of the most important aspects. Other problems include media influence, bioethics, developmental sports, and globalization. In examining these aspects, Coakley stimulates critical thinking skills to make readers consider the role of physiology and sociology have in sports (Coakley, 2009). Importantly, every sportsperson, coach or even amateur needs to understand the relation between the sports and the issues that humans encounter in their daily interactions with other people. Part 2 Notably, the authors raises numerous controversies and dilemmas in the sports industry. Although the material is mainly confined to the situation in the USA, readers can also find certain similarities with the trends in the global sporting environment. The book highlights many issues, including competition, politics, race, children and females in sports. Using an issue-oriented approach, the author analyzes every issue to determined the role sports plays in the society. The book discusses current sporting activities considered controversial based on sociologist and psychologist’s point of view. For instance, specialists study people’s behavior, attributes and the processes that exist in a sports setting. First, looking at the social inequality, the book examines the different forms of social division that exist and influence contemporary sports. For instance, many people are classified according to their condition, opportunity, and capability. Moreover, numerous sporting activities are influenced by religious beliefs, social class ideology, sexuality, age, and nationality. Consequently, most of the sports participants are chosen based on such grounds. Women, in particular, seem to be unfit for some of the sporting activities. Commercialization of sports, on the other hand, has led to members of the community being discriminated based on their social status, nationality, race and education background (Coakley, 2009). Moreover, there exists the issue of reaffirmation of sports as an important idea and belief in the society. This process represents the perspectives of most members of the community, 2016-02-05T00:38:21.403-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/sports-and-sociology-35168.aspx WHAT MAKES A GOOD DANCER? Technique and Training A dictionary definition of dance technique might be – the way in which the dancer uses basic physical movements in performance or the ability to use fundamental physical movements effectively. In casual usage it has come to refer to a style of dance or movement vocabulary. Names associated with the techniques are normally those of a choreographer or teacher, e.g. Cunningham, Graham, etc. Good technique is crucial to dance training in terms of keeping the dancer injury-free. According to Stuart Wright, “The simple fact is that virtually all dance injuries result from faulty technique … „Technical correction is the best means to prevention and treatment.” Acquiring good technique is a lifetime process. Analysis of Technical Requirements The Plie A movement central to most dance forms. It is one of the first movements taught in a technique class, anatomically it is one of the most difficult to execute. Attention must be given to the proper alignment of the hip, knee and ankle joints. At the beginning of a plie, the legs must be aligned so that a straight line could be drawn from the hip socket through the knee and ankle joints and to the second toe. This means that the knee should not protrude in front of the toes. Any good technique will not only aim at technical expertise, but it will also aim to develop several movement skills such as strength, stamina, flexibility, co-ordination, spatial and rhythmical clarity. Strength Definition The ability of an individual to exert a muscular contraction or force against a resistance i.e., unless you are strong you are unable to articulate your body correctly. Therefore, muscular strength is best defined as the greatest amount of force that muscles can produce in a single maximal effort. It is muscular power that generates force. There are two types of strength: 1. Static: no change in the length of the muscle, but the muscle still functions. This is also known as Isometric Contraction, e.g. holding a position like an arabesque in ballet. 2. Dynamic: the muscles change in length. They either lengthen, which is known as an Eccentric Contraction, or they shorten, which is known as a Concentric Contraction. All types of contractions are used in a plie. Going into the plie the quadriceps lengthen (Eccentric), in the momentary pause at the bottom of the plie the muscles stay the same (Isometric), and the stretching out of the plie shortens the muscles (Concentric). Muscle strength is of the utmost importance to any technique; it is needed for the execution of the most fundamental movements and positioning. Therefore, knowing which muscles 2015-10-04T10:01:47.643-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/what-make-a-good-dancer-35143.aspx May have to change bits to suit youFigueroa's Framework Professor Peter Figueroa developed a ‘framework that initially supported Figueroa’s research investigating racism, but it is a useful tool to investigate the ways in which inequities can be challenged in the area of exercise, sport and physical activity.’ (Amezdroz, Dickens, Hosford, Stewart, Davis, 2010, p. 461). Figueroa’s framework consists of 5 main levels: the Individual, Interpersonal, Structural, Institutional and Cultural, which can then be broken down even further. The Individual Level is about why individuals choose to participate in physical activity. The Interpersonal Level is described as the way relationships affect decisions. The Structural Level of Figueroa’s Framework is concerned with distributing resources and rewards and how it affects access and participation. The Institutional Level is the fourth level of Figueroa’s framework and is about the institutions and organisations that establish ‘structures or mechanisms of social order, they govern the behaviour of a set of individuals within a given community.’ (Wikipedia, 2015). And finally, the Cultural Level is the level at which ‘societal norms’ and values impact the participation of people in society. Throughout the recent Squash unit, we have payed particular attention to access and equitable participation in a range of physical environments. In this research report, I discuss which levels of Figueroa’s Framework have had the most significant impact on my attitudes, behaviours, participation and progress in Squash over the term: the Individual Level and the Interpersonal Level. The first level of Figueroa’s Framework is the Individual Level. The individual level is important because it’s about the individual. It’s made of 5 factors; Personal Temperament; Individual Needs; Genetic Predisposition; Personal Beliefs, Values and Stereotypes; and finally, Self-concept and Self-esteem. Personal temperament consists of; Personality types, based on where you place your attention and draw your energy from, using the Myers-Briggs personality table; and temperament is your perception of the world and your reaction in any given situation. Individual needs is the Choice Theory. The ‘Choice Theory, developed by psychiatrist William Glasser, says that all of our behavior is our best attempt, at any given time, to meet one or more of 5 genetically determined needs: survival, power and respect, freedom, fun, and love and belonging’(K. Justice, 2015). Genetic predisposition determines peoples body type, muscle type and amount, as well as height and limb length, which may provide natural abilities that in certain sports. ‘In an effort to understand the 2015-06-17T02:42:34.43-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Figueroa-s-framework-in-squash-35116.aspx For a Team USA squad that was still talking about the lessons learned from a slow start against Turkey a week ago, this was a success. Unlike that pool play game in which they trailed at halftime before surging in the second half, it was yet another quick start (25-13 early on and 42-27 at the half). Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets) continued his impactful World Cup showing with eight points and eight rebounds to counter the Gustavo Ayon show for Mexico (25 points, eight rebounds). It's a wonder how Ayon, who is an NBA veteran, is still a free agent with his deft post skills and impressive game. USATODAY Derrick Rose continues to struggle at World Cup Stephen Curry (Golden State) scored 11 of his 20 points in the third quarter in which the Americans continued to pull away. No injuries, either, which is always a good thing for this group in the post-Paul George era. As expected coming in this was never a game. WHAT WE'LL BE TALKING ABOUT Warriors fans are used to seeing Curry and Klay Thompson play like this, but the "Splash Brothers," as they're known, showcased their sharpshooting talents for the world's stage. Curry buried six threes and hit seven of 10 shots in all, and Thompson had 15 points and hit three threes of his own (6 of 14 overall). What's more, Curry dished out four assists in 24 minutes at a time when it's looking like Team USA may need him to put his point guard hat on again. Derrick Rose remained quiet in the tournament, as the Chicago Bulls point guard missed all five of his shots and had three turnovers in 15 minutes. He's now shooting just 21.6% for the tournament (8 of 37). WHAT'S NEXT Here's a scary thought for Team USA's next couple of opponents: they're about to rest up. After playing five games in six days before this Round of 16 began, the next tilt comes Tuesday against the winner of Saturday's game in Barcelona against the Dominican Republic (FIBA world ranking of No. 26) and Slovenia (No. 13). Both teams have plenty of reason for concern, as the Americans have already obliterated them in previous matchups – a 101-71 win vs. Slovenia in a scrimmage in Gran Canaria, Spain on Aug. 26 in which Slovenia's star, Phoenix Suns point guard Goran Dragic, had just six points and one assist; 105-62 USA win vs. the Francisco Garcia-led Dominicans Aug. 20 in New 2014-09-07T03:30:55.893-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/United-States-beats-Mexico-in-FIBA-Basketball-World-Cup-35049.aspx "All work and no play makes jack a dull boy". This proverb shows the importance of games in the lives of children. The body is the temple of the mind and is intimately connected with 2012-10-27T06:48:24.543-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Value-of-Games-and-Sports-34727.aspx Have you ever thought why people do sports? Absolutely, many people seem not to know the reasons. As a anectode, there are many people who do sports for nothing around us. Everyday we can encounter with these people. They regularly do sports; however, none of them realizes the benefits and importance of sports. In fact, vice versa, some people want to be fit and attractive, look smart. Unfortunately, these people can’t consider other benefits of sports. In my opinion, there are several benefits of sports that people often do not consider: sports are required to be healthy people, are needed for enjoyment, and are great market for countries’ economies. The first advantage of sports for people is that they help people be healthy, and be fit. Throughout history, people can’t give up their interest at their body. I belive that now many people love themselves no matter how beautiful or ugly they are. Naturally, people’s first aim should be healthy and fit with the benefits of sports. Due to this fact that Sports keep our body healthy. As a possible example, imagine that there is a car which has not worked for years. If you try to run the motor engine, it will not work anymore since it has been rusted and its engine may be broken down. As a result, people is smillar to engines and motors. If we don’t do sports, we will be forced to rust, in other words, decomposition of our body; afterwards, we may have some problems with our body when we even need to small walk. In addition, sports balance our body’s blood pressure and circulation. According to many researchs which have been done by scientists, we can prove the importance of sports for our health because 70% middle aged people who did not do sports in their youth are now struggling with the problems such as high tension, trouble with blood circulation, easily become tired due to the lack of sports. The second advantage of sports for people is that they are required for our daily lives and competing at the internatinal area because of enjoyment of sports. For many years, sports have been done by people. For example, have you ever thought why people want to play football or other games? The answer may be easy since sports are entertaining. They are sometimes magics as they catch our attention and give us 2012-09-27T08:24:59.237-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/importance-and-benefits-of-sports-34651.aspx Contention: That AFL umpires are hopeless and are highly protected by the AFL Audience: AFL Fans AFL Umpires are the worst people of controlling a situation/game. You don’t see basketball referees going up to players talking back the way AFL umpires do. The Footy rules committee only keeps changing the rules because the white maggots aren’t calling them are calling one but not the rest. AFL umpires are the most protected official’s in the game of sport. Why? The AFL is so over protective of their umpires cause they don’t want the AFL to get a bad name because of it’s officials. Of course every umpire is allowed to make a mistake their are only human but AFL umpires follow them up with even more silly decisions. In last years Grand Final Darren Golspink gave a free kick to West Coast when it should have been to Sydney and then he gave them a 50 m penalty as Hall played on. Then to even the game up he give Sydney a free kick, which wasn’t there, followed by a 50 m penalty. Which put Sydney straight in front of goals if Sydney could kick straight it could have changed the end result. Umpires are just a third team on game day in florescent yellow and greens tops on green bossing around the players. Wishing they, were Chris Judd rather then being labelled as “white maggots” and “green maggots?” Umpires may get abused and hassled on game day, I understand about the abuse they get from players and spectators, but that does not give them the right to completely ruin the game and turning it into a game of Netball. You never hear about umpires in the news and I’m here to tell you that they can do even worse then the players. Can everyone remember the comments that James Hird Made about Scott Mc Clearn about his bad umpiring on the footy show. This news was in the news for weeks. Russ O’Deller an AFL umpire last year commented on the sub standard of play at a Richmond and Bulldogs game. He quoted “Half these blokes wouldn’t get a game in under 15’s in New South Wales.” We don’t hear about AFL Umpires in the Media is because the AFL is too protective of they men in white rather then players bringing in the money. Every time an AFL, players go out and 2007-09-04T07:53:53-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/AFL-Umpires-Australian-Football-League-33323.aspx 1. Newton’s three laws of motion A. Inertia- An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by a net force. B. F=ma Force=Mass x Acceleration C. To every action force there is an equal and opposite reaction force. (BGS Junior Science Booklet, 2007) 2. Newton’s Laws and how they relate to golf and lawn bowl Newton’s first law explains that a stationary object will not move unless acted upon by a net force. Newton’s second law is a formula that relates force to mass and acceleration. Newton’s third law is quite complicated but can be shortened to: for every force, there are actually two opposite forces. Newton’s laws of motion play an important role in sports like lawn bowls and golf. Newton’s first law on inertia explains that the ball will not move by itself if no force is exerted. This is why a player must apply force to the ball for it to move like in these two sports. This leads to the second law. The force on the ball is equal to the mass multiplied by the acceleration. This means that for the ball to move with more force, it means that the ball must be moving at a faster speed. However, there must be stability in this force or else the ball will move too fast or slow and miss the target. The final law explains that when a force is exerted on the ball, there is actually an equal force exerted on the hand or golf club. When you push the ball, the ball pushes you with the same opposite force. 3. How physics affects my performance Trajectory, stability, momentum and force impacts greatly on lawn bowling and golf. This is because applying a force to an object is the main point of the games. In lawn bowls, the player must apply the right force on the ball to give it the right trajectory as it rolls in a curved course to the jack. This is quite similar to golf. In golf, the player has to give the ball the right momentum so that it can move in the right trajectory as it flies into the hole. These four factors are very important and immensely affects my performance. This is because if I don’t understand these factors, my ability will not be great. There is always a specific trajectory that the ball must follow for it to meet the target in both golf and bowls. In golf, hitting 2007-07-19T10:39:09-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Biomechanics--33286.aspx Violence and Fighting in the National Hockey League Fights don’t just break out. Everything happens for a reason, including two guys trying to bash the other’s brain in. The most obvious is when someone on the other hockey team takes a cheap shot at one of the star players. Some nights you can actually feel a fight brewing, almost from the opening face-off. Both teams are running at each other, and it’s just a matter of time before fists and elbows start flying. A lot of times, fighting is a true game tactic. The Chicago Blackhawks’ star enforcer, Bob Probert has been labeled as a tough guy. He is used as a weapon to get his team back into the game. When the team is down a couple of goals, he is sent out to cause spark and get the crowd back into the game. The only strategy is hit, hit and hit. Now the guys are so much smarter, bigger and stronger, and they actually work on being better fighters. However, the smartest, the biggest, and the strongest one is Probert. The other enforcers in the NHL do not compare to him. Bob Probert is the best enforcer in the league because he has speed, balance, and grit. A hockey fight is one of the toughest things in sports. In a good 30-second fight, the two guys will land more punches than in a twelve round boxing match on pay-per-view. The importance of speed is significant during the Chicago versus Toronto game, on April 15, 1998 (1). His opponent is Tie Domi; perhaps hockey’s most hated enforcer and Probert’s frequent adversary throughout the 90’s in some of the nastiest fights in hockey history. Not to mention that he is at a height disadvantage in comparison to Probert. As the fight begins, Domi launches an attack, dropping his gloves and landing a combination of punches on Probert’s face. Although, he landed the first punch he is not as quick as the Blackhawks’ enforcer is. The surprise attack only provokes Probert- like poking a bear with a cocktail fork. The enraged winger throws a haymaker at Domi’s head. As Domi retrieves he pulls him back by his jersey and uses his head like a speed bag, landing an unbelievable 35 punches. Domi’s blood-smeared face looks like he has survived a head-on auto crash. Probert’s quickness was the 2007-04-19T21:28:24-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Violence-and-Fighting-in-the-National-Hockey-League-33058.aspx A History of Skateboarding Skateboarding is a very popular recreational sport. There are twenty million people who skateboard around the world. Skateboarding was invented by Alan “Ollie” Gelfand. They got the name “Ollie” from his middle name. The “Ollie” was a fundamental basis for harder tricks. To put it in more simple terms, it means whenever you jump with the skateboard. You do this so that you can jump over things, jump in the air to do tricks, and so that you can jump on grind rails. There are over three-hundred manufacturers of skateboards and equipment for professional levels. Some of these companies are alien workshop, antihero, birdhouse, blind, and zero. Those are the most popular skateboard companies. Each of these companies makes about 1.4 billion dollars in annual retail sales. There are about 100,000 pro skateboard decks and 500,000 manufactured each month. The cost of skateboards can vary. It all depends on what you get, if you get a skateboard that is complete, that it costs a little more that $100.00. If you just by the deck it is about $50.00 or more, just for the deck. Than you have to buy the accessories, which will most likely cost you more than buying the complete. There are alot of different ways to skate. For instance, you can free skating, street skating, vert skating, and many more. A lot of people skate at skate parks; there are 800 private and public skate parks in the US. In the sixty’s people used to do something similar to skating, it was called “sidewalk surfing.” They would take some kind of board and they would slide down the sidewalks with them. This was a national fad, they had pictures of it on the cover of Life magazine, the issue was called “yet another California Craze.” People always think that they are going to get injured or hurt when they are skateboarding. That is not true, studies show that skateboarders are less likely to get hurt playing traditional sports like baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, and football. This recreational sport was created so that it can provide teens all over, so that it can provide teens with some fun and a challenge. The challenges of skateboarding is that you need to learn to ride, then you need to learn how to do an Ollie, then learn how to do all of the 2007-04-18T22:47:34-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/A-History-of-Skateboarding--33025.aspx Sports History of Boxing Great Muhammad Ali “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!” These were the famous words said by Muhammad Ali after his first title fight against Sonny Liston ( Rummel 57 ). Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest boxers known today. Although Ali was a great boxer, he had to overcome many obstacles to get to where he wanted to be, like segregation, racism, the selective service, and being a Muslim. Cassius clay was born on January 17, 1942 in a working class family in Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Cassius Clay Sr worked as a sign painter and his mother, Odessa Clay was a house cleaner ( Tessitore 62 ). The black workers were never paid very much, but his father always kept food on the table. The extended Clay family was a big one, and at family gatherings Cassius was the beautiful child, always laughing, making jokes, demanding, and winning everyone’s attention ( Remnick 34 ). “ He always was a talker,” Odessa Clay said. “ He tried to talk so hard when he was a baby. He would talk so fast like lightning.” As a child Cassius grew up where segregation was a big and important issue ( Remnick 45). Everywhere he went he saw bus drivers, drugstore men, and grocery store cashiers were al white, and he was confused of this. He would often ask his mother why there were so many white people running the businesses, and not any blacks. On an afternoon in 1954, when Cassius was only twelve, Cassius had been riding his bicycle, which had been given to him by his father for Christmas ( Rummel 37 ). Cassius stopped at the Columbine auditorium, there had been a show going on and he went in to watch. When he went to leave he noticed that his bike had been stolen. He looked for his bike, but could not find it, and that’s when he ran into a policeman named Joe Martin, who ran a boxing program. He told the cop what happened and said he was going to beat up whoever took it. The cop told young Cassius he had to learn to fight before he started going out and beating up people. Cassius later sign up at 2007-04-18T01:02:06-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Sports-History-of-Boxing-Great-Muhammad-Ali-32942.aspx Badminton is one of the most popular sports in the world and has been around for a very long time. Its popularity is spreading rapidly across the US. In this paper I will discuss the history and origin of badminton, the rules, and facts that I found interesting in badminton. Badminton originated in India and then went on to China, Japan and Thailand. An early version of this game in china used a shuttlecock but not a racket. Instead the shuttle was manipulated with feet. In England it was called shuttlecock and was hit with a wooden paddle by children. British army officers began to play it as a competition in Pune, India where badminton got its first name; Poona. In 1877 the first ever set of rules were invented for badminton along with the first badminton club. In the traditional scoring system, men’s singles games were played to 15 points and women's singles which was played up to 11. A match was decided by the best of three games. Only the serving players were able to score a point. In doubles, both players of a pair would serve before the service returned to the other side. In 1992 people made new rules saying that if the players were tied at 13-13 or 14-14 (9-9 or 10-10 for women's singles), the player who had first reached that score could decide elect to set and play to 17 (or to 13 for women's singles). In December 2005 the IBF experimented with the scoring system, intending both to regulate the playing time and to simplify the system for television viewers. Games were lengthened to 21 points. However, the new scoring system makes the game duration significantly shorter. The experiment ended in May 2006, and the IBF ruled that the new scoring system would be adopted from August 2006 and on. Players win a rally by striking the shuttle onto the floor within the boundaries of their opponents' court. Players also win a rally if their opponents commit a fault. The most common fault in badminton is when the players fail to return the shuttle so that it passes over the net and lands inside their opponents' court. If a let is called, the rally is stopped and replayed with no change to the score. Lets may occur due to some unexpected disturbance such as a shuttle landing on court. For my interesting 2007-04-03T21:30:19-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Badminton--32886.aspx Hunting does not really have rules, but it has regulations and laws. Early game laws in Europe were enacted to make hunting the sole privilege of the nobility and to prevent poaching; in the 19th century such laws were generally modified to allow anyone with a license to hunt. Game laws in the U.S. are directed at protecting wildlife from indiscriminate slaughter and capture, restricting the taking and molestation of game to certain so-called open periods of the year, or prohibiting the hunting and killing of game entirely. Apart from the states' police power, the ownership of fish and game resides in the people of the states. Where no individual has any property rights to be affected, the legislature, as the representative of the people, may withhold or grant to individuals the right to hunt and kill game or may qualify or restrict that right. In other words, under U.S. law the hunting and killing of game is a privilege rather than a right. Each of the 50 states has its own game laws, which are administered by fish and game commissions or by other agencies. Under most statutes, the possession or sale of certain fish or game during certain so-called closed seasons is prohibited. Occasionally these statutes expressly apply only to game caught within the state, but in most states these statutes have been held to apply to out-of-season possession or sale of game whether or not it was caught within the state. Certain statutes place limitations on the age, sex, or size of game allowed to be hunted, and bag limits per hunter may be set for the day or for the hunting season. Many states require hunting and fishing licenses, for which a fee is charged, that permit the taking of certain varieties during stipulated periods. Where waters lay between two states the right of fishery is generally regulated by an agreement between the two states. When lands or waters are owned by a private individual, the right of hunting or fishing belongs to the owner or tenant. The owner of land on both sides of a stream has the right to fish in the stream, but the rights of the owner of land on one side only extend to the center of the stream. The leisured nobility of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome enjoyed hunting for sport. Greek historian Xenophon argued that hunting is an asset to society, 2007-04-03T21:00:14-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Hunting-Early-Game-Laws-in-Europe-32883.aspx Literature on Atheletes in Society “Where have you gone Joe Di Maggio,” by Goodman focuses on the misguided perception that society has on our athletes. Athletes are placed on a pedestal above the rest, and are given special privileges in order to maintain their heroic status. “Hero,” and “supreme beings,” are used to describe our athletes’ personalities but underneath the glory they are just like us; only they are trained to focus on one skill. Hero is defined in a dictionary as a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for their brave deeds and noble qualities, as well as for a mythological figure of great strength. Although athletes demonstrate god-like qualities, they seem to put aside their moral and behave like delinquents. This attitude is produced by society, “coddled by universities, lionized by local communities and endowed with six-and seven-figure salaries.” Athletes are chiseled by society to become “winners,” and they learn that “success, rather than hard and honest play, is what brings rewards.” Their status shields them from many responsibiliets and provides them with second chances that normal citizens wouldn’t have. In many situations many faults preformed by the athletes are overlooked and we “wipe the slate clean,” when it is smudged, leading them to believe that they are entitled to commit wrongs. In order to ensure that nothing threatens an athlete’s eligibility to compete, coaches may intervene when they get into trouble with the law, and have the cases quietly dismissed. An example of how athletes are exempt from punishment is the rape case of Mike Tyson. “He eventually came to believe, like a medieval king, that all he saw rightfully belonged to him.” He spent his time outside the ring behaving in a barbaric manner and at one point his charges he was pressed with rape charges a, but needless to say the charges were dropped. He would below, “Don’t you know who I am? I am the heavyweight champion of the world,” not taking into consideration whether his actions were correct or not. Although, there are some exceptions among athletes who use there attributes to give back to society. Two examples of athletes that demonstrate heroic traits not only on the field, but also on an everyday bases are Alan Grey and Martina Navratilova. Alan Grey 2007-03-08T00:35:02-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Literature-on-Atheletes-in-Society-32780.aspx Jake Burton and the History of Snowboarding Twenty five years have gone by since Jake Burton Carpenter started making snowboards. His company today is the most successful and largest manufacturer in the world for snowboarding. A key success to Burton Boards was pushing to make snowboarding a sport. The idea came from building a better Snurfer, a sled toy that was shaped like a small water ski with rope tied to the nose and used to stand on. Purely sport, not the Burton company was Jake’s main focus when he first started out in the 70s. He worked with ski areas to get the new sport moving and onto the mountains. He succeeded in the early 80s by convincing Stratton Mountain to give it a shot. "I was talking to all these successful entrepreneurs and realized that it’s not impossible to get a business going," recalls Jake (Morrison). Friends were turning friends into snowboarding and sales doubled every season. Skaters, surfers, and skiers everywhere were discovering the new sensation. The temptation was there to get all the money and have stock to go out and build factories and such, but Burton was more focused on a developing high quality snowboarding gear. A big step for Jake was creating a group of senior managers. These would be the key people and to divide the tasks of the company. With good decisions, Jake created a great senior management group, they all ride and are dedicated to the sport. A majority of them have been at Burton for ten years. Burton, the company does not have any stocks because Jake doesn’t think it makes sense to have shareholders who don’t snowboard. "How can they be better owners of a this company, I live it, I love it-this sport is my life." Jake isn’t working 70 hour weeks anymore, instead he’s out riding and taken his success as an opportunity to get more involved in the sport than ever before. In 1995, Burton started CHILL, a learn to snowboard program for needy kids in the Burlington, Vermont area. The company focused on kids who didn’t have the money to get to a mountain and snowboard. The 2007-03-08T00:30:44-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Jake-Burton-and-the-History-of-Snowboarding-32778.aspx College Football Rivalry between Ohio and Michigan The first is that a person always, if possible, buys an automobile that was made in the U.S.A. The other is to always root for The University of Michigan to beat Ohio State in any sporting event. I am not always very good at doing the first; my financial situation tends to overshadow my desire to buy American. But I am always able to uphold the second, no matter what is at stake. Michigan is a far superior school than Ohio State in a number of ways. Michigan dominates Ohio State when it comes to football, hockey, swimming and even team nicknames. I almost feel sorry for Ohio State because of how sad their programs are, but then I come back to reality and remember how funny it actually is. I have several friends who call themselves “Buckeye fans.” It is extremely amusing when they say this because most of them do not even know what a “Buckeye” is. A Buckeye is Ohio State’s nickname and is not what one would call a very intimidating name. “The Buckeye is a tree, native to Ohio and particularly prevalent in the Ohio River Valley, whose small, shiny, dark brown nuts with a lighter tan patch resembles the eye of a deer”(Ohio State web site). Basically, their nickname is a poisonous nut! Talk about being intimidated. Now, let’s look at the Wolverine. The Wolverine is a very intimidating and feared animal; it is pound for pound the most ferocious creature. I would rather take my chances overpowering a little nut that fell off a tree, than a fierce, destructive animal. Swimming has always been a weakness for Ohio State and a strong sport for Michigan. Ever since 1927, the Wolverines have dominated the Big Ten Conference and the Buckeyes. According to the information I found, Michigan has not lost to Ohio State in over 10 years. Michigan has won 31 Big Ten Championships, including 10 in a row between the years 1986 and 1995, and 11 NCAA Team Championships. Since coming to coach the Wolverines in 1982, Jon Urbanchek has posted an impressive 96-4-0 record in the Big Ten and 142-26-0 overall (U of M swimming web site). The Wolverine swimmers are always in contention for the Big Ten and National Championships and show no signs of slowing down. As the water 2007-03-06T22:29:32-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/College-Football-Rivalry-Between-Ohio-and-Michigan-32751.aspx Gymnastics These days sports are a big part of our lives. Although many sports are given more attention then others such as hockey, basketball, and soccer. These sports are usually shown on TV and can be played indoors and outdoors. One of the sports that we hardly ever hear or view is Gymnastics. Many people do not even consider gymnastics a sport. Gymnastics is the oldest sport and was first played in the Olympics. Even though people know about gymnastics, it isn’t as popular as it used to be when it first arrived. Gymnastics has been part of the games since ancient times. Ancient Romans used gymnastics as part of their military training. In the following paragraphs, I will be explaining the history and famous people, the types of competitions and the scoring and judging of gymnastics. Firstly, gymnastics is the oldest sport has been around for over 2 thousands years. This sport was first introduced for military training and later on recognized as a sport. It is one of the oldest games to be part of the Olympics. The sport traces its origin from Greece, to Roman ceremonies and to today’s modern days. It was introduced to the United States in the mid 1800’s. In 1896 gymnastics came into the Olympics. The sport we all know and loved was in its first scale debut. The World Championship gymnastics emerged in the early 1900s, and it is still held to this very day. In gymnastics there are many people who accomplish above the line. Such as Mary Lou Retton, the first women to gain a gymnastic Gold medal in all of United States. Another, famous gymnast is Larissa Semyonovna Latynina, the first woman to win more Olympic tittles then any sport. Secondly, there are five disciplines in Gymnastics. These disciplines are women's pair, men's pair, mixed pair, women's trio, and men's four. Each pair or group performs routines that include tumbling skills, partner balances, and tempo skills. Balance skills highlight the gymnast’s strength and flexibility through pyramids and static positions of the top. Tempo skills involve somersaulting and twisting with landings on the floor or catches by a bottom partner. Gymnastics events are separated in to two groups, men’s and woman’s gymnastics. In the men’s gymnastics, the event includes floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel 2007-02-12T06:52:26-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Gymnastics--32613.aspx Racial Discrimination in Sports The treatment of minority athletes, particularly African Americans has been an issue in sports for decades. When a colored person played a so called white sport 50 tears ago they had to overcome many challenges from the public. Many people believe that discrimination is not a problem anymore, but many disagree and say it is. In 1947 Jackie Robinson walked out on a baseball field to play with the Brooklyn dodgers as the first ever African American to play in a major league baseball game. He was considered the person that broke the collar barrier in professional sports (50 years later the same team had the fewest minority players in the MLB. (Sports and Athletes.pg.129) Jackie wasn’t the only black person that had to overcome these racist problems in the 1900s but he was the first to actually do it. Athletes from Hank Arone to resent day Ricky Waters have to deal with the same stuff, just not as harsh. Racist conflicts still exist. 1997 was the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the collar barrier in major league baseball back in 1947. So what is being to done to try and stop discrimination in sports? Well president Bill Clinton inaugurated a national discussion of race in America in 1996, and as time goes on there will be more and more laws and other actions to try to stop the racial war from getting worse in are future. Many people say that the only way to get ride of racism is for the people of America to stop being racist. Surveys show that more then 65% of Americans have said something racist about a black athlete in there life. The percentages of minority’s in professional sports vary from sport to sport. In Major league Baseball the percentage of blacks is at a two decade low at 17 percent. The percent of Latinos in major league baseball has been rising for the last 20 years and is now at about 20 percent with a 4 percent increase from lat year. These days the NBA seems to have the largest percentage of blacks. In the 1996 season the NBA was at an all-time high of about 80 percent black and about 10 percent Latino making them dominate over white athletes. When you think of all the big names in the NBA who do you think of 2007-01-29T04:59:59-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Racial-Discrimination-in-Sports-32473.aspx Opinion on the Use of Steriods in Baseball In professional sports athletes are trying to gain and advantage on their opponents all the time, especially in baseball. Many professional baseball players take muscle enhancers and weight gainers to improve their game. The athletes that are really trying to get an edge on their opponents may resort to steroids. Baseball players should not be allowed to use steroids or muscle enhancers because, it gives them too much power, they have a better advantage over the other players, and it can cause major health risks. Baseball players that turn to creatine are having a bigger advantage over the other athletes in the major leagues. The player’s strength created by taking creatine is allowing them to hit much better. Their batting averages are rising enormously and they are hitting more homeruns then usual. Today there are many more homeruns then there were five years ago. This is basically because nobody really knew about creatine back then. Now that the baseball players have turn to creatine the teams are scoring more runs in the games, and the players are taking away the reel feel of the game. “ Many athletes are currently supplementing their diets with creatine to increase their strength, muscle mass, and weight by providing their bodies with more available energy, thus reaching new heights in athletic ability” (The Purpose of Creatine). Athletes who are taking creatine are becoming much larger in all areas on the playing field, whether it’s hitting, fielding, or there speed. Since they are taking creatine they are becoming phenomenal players and get all acknowledgements by the fans. The truth is that they are not becoming great players by doing work they are becoming star players by using creatine. Therefore using supplements such as creatine should be banned from baseball. Taking steroids or muscle enhancers can cause very harmful health risks. Athletes think that if they take these products they will become better players without any problems. Many people can suffer severe side effects from taking steroids or creatine. Steroids may cause small side effects, but a major side effect if you take steroids is, you could suffer s heart attack. “Anabolic steroids cause heart attacks, myocardial infarction, and stoke, which can result in death” (Nelson 54). If a player chooses to take steroids they need to realize there are so many health risks and side effects. The selected baseball players 2007-01-11T19:58:07-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Opinion-on-the-Use-of-Steriods-in-Baseball-32377.aspx The Influence of the Internet on the NBA In 1993 the National Basketball Association entered the world of internet by initiating NBA.com, their official home site. The impact it has had on the league is unique, and I will discus how the internet made NBA the global league it has become. Specifically I will look at the introduction of live Web cast games. About the NBA Since its founding in 1946, the NBA has become a global phenomenon that transcends national boundaries. With 29 teams in the United States and Canada, NBA games and related programming are broadcast to 210 countries in 42 languages. The NBA is one of the largest suppliers of sports television and Internet programming in the world. Through NBA Entertainment, the league's award-winning production and programming division, the league produces NBA.com TV, a 24-hour television network, weekly television shows, and exclusive content for each of the NBA's team Web sites, and the league's official site, NBA.com. The league has partnered with the leading Internet content and technology providers, including America Online, Convera, IBM, RealNetworks, USA Networks, and Yahoo! to bring the game experience even closer to its fans worldwide. NBA in a unique position For the last 20 years the NBA has been in a unique situation that has allowed them to take greater benefit from the internet then probably every other league. The explanation to this lies firstly in the fact that as a basketball league, the NBA is a hundred times more popular then every other basketball league in the world. The quality of play, the entertainment value and the money involved are so much better in the NBA that there really is no competition. This puts the NBA in a position where they draw every basketball fan around the world to them. The other sports competing with basketball as major sports are football (or soccer as heathens say) and golf. What separates the NBA from football is that there are several professional football leagues fighting for world supremacy. Italians follow Serie A, the British follow the English Premier league, the Spanish watch Primiera Divisione etc. Golf, unlike basketball, has never been a sport that has drawn attention from the young and trendy groups of our population. Basketball is by many considered the most hip and cool sport, and where golf has traditions, basketball have the ability to adapt to time. NBA.com is one such adaptation. NBA.COM 10 years ago 2007-01-11T04:38:01-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Influence-of-the-Internet-on-the-NBA-32346.aspx Should College Athletes Be Paid? College athletes should be paid to play for many reasons. First of all, college athletes aren’t allowed to work. How are they going to pay for all the necessary expenses if they come from poor families? This also leads to players accepting illegal money, cars, clothes, etc. College athletes bring in millions of dollars through merchandise and games. Most of the athletes that have the opportunity to leave school and turn professional do so, because college athletes live in near poverty. Since college athletes are not allowed to work, even if they have the extra time to do so, they have to sacrifice meals, new clothes, and other necessary items in order to save money for they future. Some of the players who receive no money from their families accept illegal offers in order to buy necessary items. Most college athletes don’t turn professional, so the athletes won’t have any working experience when they get into the real world. This would give the non-athletes and advantage in the working world over the athletes. College athletes bring in millions of dollars to their schools. For example, the University of Miami received about 8 million dollars for the Miami Hurricanes playing in the Nokia Sugar Bowl. The apparel also brings in a lot of money by selling hats, footballs, and jerseys. Also the Orange Bowl holds over 60,000 people and they sell tickets at an average of 20 dollars each. The players should receive some of this money because without them the schools wouldn’t receive all the popularity and money. College athletes live in near poverty because the money they receive isn’t enough to pay for all of the miscellaneous expenses and necessities. The few athletes that graduate from college, that could turn professional before their senior year, stay because their parents support them by sending money. If college athletes are eligible to be paid, there would be more athletes graduating. Paying athletes would be good for everyone and players would go for an education instead of only concentrating on sports. If colleges don’t pay the athletes the professional leagues should. Professional leagues such as the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB use colleges as minor leagues. Most of the players in these leagues come from universities across the U.S.A. Since the professional leagues get the athletes from the universities, they should pay them the same way they 2006-12-20T02:06:29-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Should-College-Athletes-Be-Paid-32109.aspx History Behind the National Football League The founding of the National Football League vastly impacted the social culture of Americans. It achieved this because of the Americans love and pride for games and competition, the rise of popularity of football throughout America, especially in colleges and high school, the works of the television, the rise of talent of athletes, commencement of paying athletes, and splitting of the NFL into two divisions. (A rivalry within a rivalry separated by regions of the United States.) In the Eastern United States, a game very similar to soccer was invented and played during the mid 1800’s. It consisted of 30 or more players. The object of game was to kick a ball across the other teams goal line. This game was becoming extraordinarily popular, and additional stricter rules were being applied to this game. This game was called football. In this game two teams played, and both teams had different rules on playing it. One by McGill’s rule, and the other by Harvard’s rule. Harvard’s rules were more like soccer, and McGill’s rules were more like rugby. Running with the ball and tackling were the prime reasons why this game was introduced to, not just Harvard, but other Eastern Colleges all over the United States. Improving the game was the first priority at this time. As this rugby style football became popular, Walter Camp played a major role in developing rules that increased action and competition for this game. “ Camp was largely responsible for establishing the system of downs and yards to gain and for introducing the center snap to the quarterback. He also helped set up the scoring system in which touchdowns, conversions, field goals, and safeties were worth different amounts of points.” (365) The love and pride for the game developed and so did competition. High schools and Colleges organized teams, and competition increased. As a matter of fact competition was getting so large that the sport was turning violent and dangerous due to the lack of protection from tackling and blocking. Since players suffered severe injuries due to the lack of adequate equipment and no helmets, Theodore Roosevelt stressed that changes had to be made in order to make this a safer game. The founding of the game “football” was developed 2006-12-05T15:26:34-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/History-Behind-the-National-Football-League-31877.aspx Intro In 1936 a scientist named Ruzika was the first ever to make a pure form of testosterone from cholesterol (steroid.com). It is then that steroids emerged as a performance enhancing drug. I am pretty sure we all have pre conceived ideas and notions about steroids and the people that use them. Today I would like to talk to you all about the fact and fiction of steroid usage. 1st I would like to talk about the History of steroids, 2nd the types of steroids, 3rd anabolic and androgenic affects, and 4th laws and regulations surrounding steroids. Now let’s get pumped and look at some history. History In 1936 a scientist named Ruzicka synthesized the compound testosterone from cholesterol, as did two other scientists, Butenandt and Hanisch (steroid.com). Testosterone was, of course, the first anabolic steroid ever created. In 1967, the International Olympic Council banned the use of anabolic steroids and by the mid 1970´s most major sporting organizations had also banned them. In the 80s testosterone was a prescription drug. Media reports began to associate steroids with performance enhancing efforts in the context of competitive sports. Steroids were decried as cheating to gain an unfair advantage. It then was proposed in the media that steroid abuse had trickled down to high school boys. In 1988 there was a Canadian sprinter named Ben Johnson who was stripped of his Olympic gold medal for testing positive for the Steroid Stanozol. Stanozol is an oral steroid, but what other types of steroids are there? Let’s take a look. Types of steroids There are two way to take steroids, either orally or by injection. In a seminar I listened to called Pumped, it was said in order for oral steroids to withstand the breakdown from the liver the drug is modified by alkylation beforehand. Alkylation is the addition of a carbon atom or atoms at the alpha position of the number 17 carbon atom. They are also known as C-17 steroids. C-17 steroids are alpha alkylated steroids. The Liver is stressed by these types of steroids very heavily. Injectable steroids are usually injected into a muscle and not a vein. Most injectables go through a process called esterification. Esterification is the addition of carboxylic acids to the 17-beta hydroxyl group of the testosterone molecule. These esters allow the testosterone to be released more gradually from the muscle. This is to maximize the anabolic effects and minimize potential 2006-11-20T09:08:21-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Steroids-Speech-Includes-Outline-with-Bibliography-31822.aspx The Differences that Make Japanese Baseball This report will talk about and explain the history of Japanese baseball. This paper will go into detail about the date of establishment of Japanese baseball and where the first teams were played. The paper will compare the terms of Japanese baseball with the terms of American baseball. The paper will also discuss the founders of the Japanese leagues and different teams. I will give background of some of the famous Japanese baseball players, and will also tell about some of the greatest moments from in Japanese baseball. Finally, it will name some baseball players who played in the United States and continued their career in Japan. The Japanese began playing baseball around the 1870s. They learned the game from missionaries and American teachers. Albert Bates, a teacher, organized the first game in 1873 (Whiting, 27). The team Bates got together consisted of station workers, technicians, and a railway engineer. They used make shift gloves and run in sandals. The Japanese liked the game because of the statistics, rules, and regulations that were parts of the game. Horace Wilson, also brought baseball to Tokyo while he was a teacher from 1867 to 1912. He gave his students a bat and ball and taught them the fundamentals of the sport (Whiting, 27). As Japan became more interested in the world, western sports became popular. The Japanese thought that the battle between the pitcher and the batter was like the battle in martial arts sports. There was mental and physical strength needed for baseball and that is what the Japanese liked. Baseball became known as the sport of the upper class and teams in the high schools and colleges grew. Tokyo’s “Big Six” Universities were where the most competitive baseball was played. The universities were Rikkyo, Waseda, Meiji, Keio, Hosei, and Tokyo Imperial. In the spring of 1905, Waseda University sent its Varsity Nine to America to play a series of games against high school and college teams. An American professor at Waseda promoted the tour. The Japanese government was interested enough to pay for the trip! (Obojski, 33) Albert Goodwill Spalding, was a pioneer of baseball. He was a pitcher for the Boston Red Stockings. He said that once people saw two good teams play, that game would be popular around 2006-11-17T02:56:08-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Differences-that-Make-Japanese-Baseball-31811.aspx Understanding the Basics of American Football Football is a team sport mostly played in the US and Canada by high school, college, and professional players. It is a dangerous sport because there is a lot of physical contact. While millions of people watch the sport, not all of them understand how the game works because it is a difficult game to understand right away. It gets easier to understand the game after you have played it. The object of the game is to score points by carrying the ball across the goal line of your opponent, or by kicking the ball through your opponent’s goal. Football is played by two opposing teams, of eleven players. Each team tries to move the ball down the field to score points by getting in to the end zone guarded by its opponents. During a football game the teams are designated as the offensive team and the defensive team. The offensive team is the team with possession of the ball. The defensive team is the team who defends a goal line against an offensive team. The eleven players of the offensive team are divided into two groups: seven linemen, and four backfield players, called backs. The linemen play on the line of scrimmage and the backs play behind the linemen in various positions. The defensive team consists of a row of linemen, a row of linebackers, and a collection of defensive backs, called the secondary. Players score points by running or passing the ball down the field until they reach the endzone, which is worth seven points. Or they can kick the ball through the other teams’ goal post, which is worth three points. Mean while the Defense is trying it’s hardest to stop the Offense from scoring points. After on team scores they kick the ball to the opposing team to give them a chance to score. If a team can’t get a first down (move the ball ten yards toward the other teams goal within four tries, they turn the ball over to the other team. At the end of 60 minutes, whatever team has the most points is declared the winner. To protect themselves from violent body contact, players wear complicated equipment such as lightweight flexible padding covering the thighs, hips, shoulders, knees, and sometimes the forearms and hands. Players also wear plastic helmets with guards that cover 2006-11-11T19:23:17-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Understanding-the-Basics-of-American-Football-31726.aspx The Abuse of Steriods in Sports Today In the world of sports it is not rare to see athletes give their heart and soul for the love of the game. From sunrise to sundown they practice everyday to perfect their game. Then there are those who take an alternative route. Now athletes are taking performance enhancers such as creatine, androstenedione and worst of all, anabolic steroids. Steroids are chemicals that act like hormones (substances in your body that regulate bodily functions). Anabolic steroids are the ones that are abused to build muscle mass or to make your workout longer. They are chemicals of artificial testosterone, which is a male hormone. With higher testosterone you can have more physique and body hair and a deeper voice. It mainly started in the 1950’s when some athletes were juicing up for training purposes but now you will find all sorts of athletes using this drug. From high school to professional sports a lot of athletes are using steroids. Even though it is illegal there are over one million steroid users. Five percent of male and two percent of female high school students are using steroids. So that would be equal to 375 thousand males and 175 thousand females. Why take steroids if you already know that it is not good for you? Most of the steroid users are injecting for better performance and strength for their sports, but, other users are simply juicing to build more muscle mass or to look better, physically. Inside their bodies they are actually ruining themselves. Taking steroids is a big threat to your health. You could have severe acne, genital changes, water retention, and yellowing eyes and skin. Its not only your appearance that could be at risk but you can also get other health problems. There are coronary artery diseases, ligament injuries, high blood pressure, changes in your cholesterol level, sterility, and liver disease. For males you can get breast development, kidney disease, headaches, muscle cramps, abdominal pains, and bone pains. For females you could get male patterned baldness, smaller breasts, deeper voices, hairy bodies and menstrual irregularities. What I don’t understand is why some take steroids to look better. Would you be attracted to a woman who is just like one of the guys, literally? And girls, would you want someone who has yellow skin with acne all over his 2006-10-31T22:21:30-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Abuse-of-Steriods-in-Sports-Today-31640.aspx Catch and Release Ploicies in Fishing Every bass fisherman fishes for the same reason, in hopes of catching a ten-pound-plus bass. This dream will not be fulfilled if bass fishermen, as a brotherhood, do not practice catch and release. America’s love affair with the catch-and-release ethic has had a profound impact on the sport of bass fishing over the past thirty years. Quite simply, it recycles the resource. But improper care and the handling by anglers can jeopardize this valuable natural resource. Without question the mishandling of fish before they are returned to the water can prove fatal. Extensive research has been conducted by state fisheries agencies nationwide looking at the phenomenon of delayed mortality, and scientists have concluded that the biggest factor resulting in delayed mortality relates directly to the care that fish are given immediately after the catch is made and in the hours that follow while they are confined inside a boat’s live well. Clear lake, California is known for its huge Florida-strain bass. The chances of catching a ten-pound-plus bass are higher than average. Clear Lake houses hundreds of tournaments every year; honestly, there is at least, one tournament every weekend of the year. The enormous amount of pressure placed on this lake can have a tremendous effect on the fish. Clear lake is only one of the thousands of lakes with this type of problem. There have been cases of trashcans full of dead bass from tournaments. Seeing those fish dead in a can for only about a one-thousand-dollar purse in a tournament is disgusting. If fish are not released right after being caught, their chances of survival are slim. When bass are caught and kept, it reduces the number of fish in the lake and if it is a big fish, it eliminates a fish with “big bass genes.” All big fish have big bass genes. If a big bass is caught and immediately released, it is then able to reproduce and its offspring will carry those genes along with them through the generations. Big bass, usually females, are targets for trophy-fish fishermen. Any fish eight pounds and over would be considered a lunker or big bass worthy of being mounted on a wall. Rich Holland, Western Outdoors writer, says the problem is “eighty percent of big bass are females” (69). During the spring when bass spawn, female bass are swollen 2006-10-28T20:33:54-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Catch-and-Release-Ploicies-in-Fishing-31605.aspx America's National Pass-Time When you hear the term baseball what do you think? I think, an all American sport that was started in the 1800’s. In early baseball it wasn’t very popular but soon caught on. It really started to become popular when the American league and the National league were founded. Baseball is a fairly easy sport. There are usually nine people on the field at a time. There are three in the outfield and six in the infield. As far as offense is concerned the just try to hit the ball that was thrown at them at about one hundred miles per hour. A good pitcher can throw a variety of different balls, including a knuckle, curve, sinker, slider, and fast. These variety of throwing are used to throw the batter off and make the ball look like its going somewhere that it really isn’t. But it isn’t only the pitchers job the catcher plays a big role in this process as well. He uses finger signals to tell the pitcher what kind of balls to throw dependent on whet kind of batter is up. The batters in the national league can only use wooden bats and the have to be solid wood. The reason for this is aluminum bats have too much “pop.” This means the ball bounces off the bat so fast the pitcher doesn’t have enough time to get out of the way when the ball is hit at him. Also when a batter hits the ball and it is caught in the air he is out. When and if the batter gets on base he can still get out. The pitcher can throw the ball to the base the runner is at and try to get him out. He can also get out on a force. This is where the ball is hit, fielded and thrown to a bas all before a runner has a chance to get to the base. However, if a runner starts toward a bas and gets there before being thrown out this is called a steal. It is a legal play that just farther advances a runner on his way back to home plate. You don’t have to be a professional to play the sport. There are leagues for all ages all 2006-10-28T20:17:42-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/America-s-National-Pass-Time-31601.aspx Steriod Abuse in Professional Baseball Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals steps to the plate as the Major League season of 1998 is winding down. McGwire, who has been chasing the single season home run record, has sixty home runs. One more will tie him with Roger Maris, the all time single season home run record holder. McGwire awaits the pitch from the opposing pitcher. It’s a little outside, ball one. He steps out of the batter’s box to regain composure. He wipes the sweat from his brow and steps in for pitch number two. This pitch is a called strike, a fastball up in the strike zone. McGwire squares up and takes a few swings to stay loose. The third pitch comes, Crack! It’s a laser down the left field line. Will this be it? Time seems to stop as the crowd of 40,000 plus is on their feet, camera flashes going off in hopes of recording this moment forever. The ball is going, going, gone. He has done it. McGwire now is tied with Maris for the single season home run record of sixty-one in a season. This moment will forever go down in the books as one of the most eventful days in baseball history; however, it is plagued with much controversy as McGwire has admitted to taking a substance called androstenedione. Although this is a purely legal substance in Major League Baseball many think it performs just as a steroid and should be banned from professional sports all together. Andro has already been banned from the NFL, NCAA, and the Olympics (Reilly). The performance enhancing supplement androstenedione should be banned from professional baseball because the health risks are too great, some studies show that it doesn’t work as warranted, and it sets a bad example for youth. In opposition to this argument some people feel that this substance should not be banned from professional baseball because it’s a natural, dietary substance. It is legal and sold over the counter to whoever wants it; therefore, it can’t be very harmful to one’s health. Since andro is natural the FDA does not regulate it, so many dangerous side effects are not yet known (Hayden). “…androstenedione, a “precursor” molecule that is just one metabolic step away from testosterone…” 2006-08-31T17:52:43-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Steriod-Abuse-in-Professional-Baseball-31403.aspx Examining Japanese Sports and Games The topic I chose is Japanese sports and games, especially sumo and other sports. I chose Japan because I went to a camp where some Japanese tourists were staying and I met some great people. They were so friendly and kind that I want to find out more about their 2006-08-28T00:05:57-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Examining-Japanese-Sports-and-Games-31358.aspx Athleticism of Professional Wrestlers The worst thing a person could say about professional wrestling is that, “professional wrestlers are not real athletes.” Today’s pro wrestlers are some of the most highly trained athletes in the world. Their bodies are finely-tuned and well-defined. Many of the wrestlers come from athletic backgrounds ranging from Olympic wrestling to collegiate football. They possess strength, conditioning, and, most importantly, they put their bodies on the line every time they step into a wrestling ring. Like every other amateur sport, including basketball, football, and baseball, wrestling has a professional level of competition. However, unlike other amateur sports, wrestling’s profession is widely known as a complete fake. The outcome of a match up between two wrestlers is always decided before the match takes place. Although viewers on television and spectators at the live events have no idea who is going to win or what will occur during a match, it is certain that script writers behind the scenes have already decided weeks in advance who the winner will be. Because of this, many people oppose professional wrestling and its soap opera-like qualities. They say it doesn’t involve legitimate competitive action. This male soap opera façade and lack of true competition, however, should not take away from the athleticism of the wrestlers involved. Take wrestlers Kurt Angle and Dwayne Johnson, for example. No one can refute their superior athletic ability. Kurt Angle was the first American ever to win a gold medal in Greco Roman wrestling at the 220-pound weight class during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a. “The Rock”) gained All-American status as a defensive-end for the University of Miami football program. They continue their careers by competing in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). They entertain the audience with all sorts of moves including the Olympic Slam, the Ankle-Lock Submission, the Rock Bottom, and the People’s Elbow. Although these moves are controlled so no one gets seriously hurt, sometimes accidents do occur. Wrestlers are constantly putting their bodies on the line. It’s not easy to perform high-risk moves (i.e., jumping off the turnbuckle) and come away unscathed. One match alone can last anywhere from ten seconds to one hour. During that match a wrestler is required to lift his 200-plus pound opponent several times, run across the ring, jump 2006-08-27T23:16:28-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Athleticism-of-Professional-Wrestlers-31342.aspx Rock Climbing in America's National Parks Before me spreads an ocean of grey. The granite wall looms above me and calls in its silent voice for me to go on, higher. Focus. My hand reaches out, seeking the depths of the crack before me. I make a fist and weight my body on this new hold, first testing it, then trusting it. I reach out with my other arm and clip my safety line to the bolted belay station. A wave of tension flows from my arms and brain as I breath deeply, and I relax for the first time since my feet left the ground. Finally, I have the time to see where I am. I gaze out over Howe Sound and drink in the sights. An eagle soars over Squamish, sharing my view. A small fir tree struggles against the confines of a crevasse at my feet. Below me, all of the little worker ants are busily following their paths and routines. Some of the more inquisitive ones are looking up with wonder at me and the monolith which I am on. Here I am able to see the world clearly. Here, high above the tedium of our society I feel as though I am truly balanced. I balance myself when I climb, and my soul emerges balanced once I am done. If there is one lesson that climbing can teach us, it is the value of balance. People have been climbing for longer than history can define. It is one of the most primal instincts we posses. The urge to go up high and see as much as we can is something that we all share, yet only a handful of us listen to this calling. Climbing as a form of adventurous recreation has been gaining popularity now for several hundreds years. In Canada, it was the botanists David Douglas who made the first recorded alpine ascent in 1827(scott pg33). His accounts of the area added fuel to the building fire of interest surrounding the Rocky Mountains of Canada. If only Douglas could see what he had begun. Climbing has evolved much since the days that Douglas plodded up that mountain with his wooden snow-shoes. There are now many facets to the climbing genre. Mountaineering and alpine climbing are two of these types which are common in parks in Western Canada. Alpine climbing can be differentiated from mountaineering in 2006-08-27T22:03:24-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Rock-Climbing-in-America-s-National-Parks-31326.aspx The Competitiveness of Hockey I love Hockey because it's a very competitive game. There is nothing better to me than winning a big game or making a nice play. Some people have different opinions than me on what the game means to them. My mom and my girlfriend are good examples of this. My mom goes to the games and enjoys watching the goalies. She enjoys there bright colored padding and is always is amazed at how they can skate with all that heavy equipment on. My girlfriend, like my mom, does not go to watch the high paced action and the competitive nature of the game, she simply likes to watch the players on the ice and see if any are good looking. For instance, last game I played my team won 5-4, I asked my girlfriend after the game what the score was and she didn't know, she just told me that "number 13 white was really good looking." For me hockey is about competing. Making a big hit or scoring a nice goal is what I enjoy about the game. Hockey lets me channel my competitiveness. I'm a very competitive person in every aspect of my life, not just in hockey. Being a student athlete I have to juggle school and hockey. Sometimes it can be very demanding and difficult to do both. Last month I had three tests in one day and a big hockey game that night. I knew I couldn't fail my tests so I stayed up until 5:00am studying that night. To me I was competing. If I fell asleep I knew I would fail my exams; I couldn't give into my fatigue and sleep. I had to compete to stay awake and concentrate on the task at hand, which were my study notes. I managed to pass all my tests and have good game that night because I focused my competitiveness and didn't allow myself to fail. Constantly changing as I've grown is my point of view on hockey and competitiveness. When I was younger my friends and I would go to our local rink and play hockey all day because it was fun. We used to play all afternoon until our mothers yelled from the front steps "dinner time!" After dinner 2006-08-25T17:30:19-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Competitiveness-of-Hockey-31276.aspx The History of Modern Basketball Basketball is an extremely popular around the world. It is a court game played by two teams with five players each. Basketball was invented by a man named James Naismith. The game was first played with a soccer ball. For the goals there were two peach baskets. The object is to put a ball through a hoop, or basket, and score more points than the opposing team. Although basketball can be played outdoors, it was invented to serve as an exciting indoor exercise for the winter months in the northern climate regions. The 2006-08-13T10:02:48-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-History-of-Modern-Basketball-31253.aspx The Importance of Physical Therapy The principles of physical therapy have been around since the dawn of man. When people think of physical therapy they think of someone who is trying to relearn how to walk after a debilitating car accident or some circumstance like that. When in reality the act of physical therapy can be as little as rubbing a bruise or scratching an insect bite. Physical Therapy 2006-08-01T09:26:42-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Importance-of-Physical-Therapy-30912.aspx Problems of the NBA Draft System David Stern, along with 13 NBA general managers, gets to play Powerball Sunday in the annual NBA Draft Lottery. Will the Knicks, with just a 4.4 percent chance of winning the lottery, get a little home cooking? Will MJ's Wizards get an extra Ping-Pong ball or two for wiping out the luxury tax this year? Did Jerry West know something we didn't when he took the head job out there in Memphis? The NBA, in an effort to avoid the riot that would take place if the Knicks are in the first envelope, has invited a handful of media members to witness the actual drawing, the first time it has ever opened the process . . . but in the end, someone still will get screwed. You have to go back to the 1990 draft, when the Nets took Derrick Coleman, to find the worst team in the league drafting No. 1. The Knicks' winning the lottery would actually be less strange than either the Bulls or Warriors taking home the honors. Last year, the Bulls had the worst record in the league and ended up with the No. 4 pick. The Warriors had the second-worst record and ended up with the No. 5 pick. In 2000, the Clippers ended with the worst record and the No. 3 pick. The Bulls had the second-worst record and drafted No. 4. The Nets, who got the No. 1 pick, had the seventh-worst record in the NBA. In 1999, the Grizzlies were the worst team in the NBA, but could manage only the No. 2 pick. The Clippers won only nine games, but had to wait until pick No. 4 to take Lamar Odom. In 1998, the Nuggets took home the worst record honors but nabbed only the No. 3 pick. In 1997, the Spurs leapt ahead of the Grizzlies and the Celtics to grab the No. 1 pick and Tim Duncan. In 1993, the Magic grabbed the No. 1 pick with a 41-41 record, best among lottery teams. You get the picture. With two players, Duke's Jay Williams and China's Yao Ming, duking it out for the top prize, Sunday's lottery will go a long way in determining who will be the No. 1 pick in this year's draft. Both players have their pros and cons. Williams is the most NBA-ready 2006-07-31T08:35:15-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Problems-of-the-NBA-Draft-System-30866.aspx Basketball Career of Michael Jordan Michael Jordan was born on January 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York and was raised in Wilmington, North Carolina. He has two brothers, is married, and has three kids. He is considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time (Kornbluth). My focus will be on his hardships, accomplishments, and people who influenced him. First, I would like to touch on some general information about Michael. He wears number 23 on his jersey because he considered it to be half of his brother's number, 45. He had wanted 45 because it was his brother's number and he deeply admired his brother, but he was on the same team as his brother so he needed to pick a different number. His most well known superstition is that he wears his University of North Carolina basketball shorts under his game shorts. When Michael was a kid, his favorite sport was not basketball. In fact, it was baseball. He was a pitcher on a little league team. He played baseball because he was short (Kornbluth). Later in his life, he would try to leave the NBA and play major league baseball. Michael was not always rich. His parents had to work two and three jobs each to support the family. Before Michael's dad built him a basketball court in his back yard Michael shot, basketballs into a trash can (Kornbluth). Michael was not always good at basketball, either. People told Michael that he was too short to play basketball. Michael now stands six feet six inches tall. He also went to the school gym before school to shoot baskets, stayed after school to shoot baskets, and could be found in the school gym on weekends shooting baskets. He also played his brother, Larry, one-on-one in basketball. His brother was only a year older than Michael was, but he was much better and taller than Michael was. Michael would often times lose and end up getting in a fight with his brother. This caused Michael to be extremely determined to succeed at basketball (Kornbluth). In his sophomore year of high school, he tried out for the Varsity team. He did not make it, so he was placed on the Junior Varsity team. On the J.V. team, he averaged 28 points per game. He thought this would get the attention of the Varsity team coach. It did. However, 2006-07-31T08:19:39-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Basketball-Career-of-Michael-Jordan-30858.aspx Anabolic Steroids and Their Effects on Lean Muscle Mass Anabolic steroids, or more precisely, anabolic/androgenic steroids, are synthetic derivatives of the natural occurring male hormone testosterone; “anabolic” meaning growing or building and “androgenic” meaning masculinizing or generating male sexual characteristics. Most healthy males produce between 2 and 10 milligrams of testosterone per day. The hormone’s anabolic effects help the body retain dietary protein, thus aiding in the growth of muscle, bones, and skin. The androgenic characteristics of testosterone are associated with masculinity. They aid in the maturing of the male reproductive system through puberty, the growth of body hair and the deepening of the voice. Androgenic characteristics also affect aggressiveness and sex drive. The use of anabolic steroids to increase muscle mass and aggressive behavior is a fairly old concept. Testosterone was first synthesized in 1935 and used to increase aggressiveness of German soldiers in the Second World War. But it was not until 1953 that the first “true” anabolic steroid was discovered. Nandrolone, 19-nortestosterone, was found to have three to five times the anabolic or muscle building effect of testosterone. While many of the testosterone derivatives are more anabolic than androgenic, there are no anabolic steroids that are purely anabolic or androgenic. Whether anabolic or androgenic effects occur will depend on the dosage and type of anabolic steroid used. As different anabolic steroids became available to the medical community their use became more widespread, especially anabolic steroids that had minimal androgenic properties; the minimal androgenic activity allowed them to be used by females to treat various conditions. Anabolic steroids have proven to be very beneficial in treating several conditions from anemia to sexual dysfunction. For the past twenty-five years anabolic steroids have been given somewhat of a bad reputation. As early as 1950 athletes were already abusing them and by the 1980’s steroid use by athletes was in full swing. The most famous anabolic steroid of all time, Dianabol, was often quoted as being the “breakfast of champions.” Horror stories were trickling out of Eastern European countries on how women athletes were transformed into men after years of anabolic steroid use. And how both male and female athletes were suffering from anyone of a number of different side effects. With such bad publicity and strong media attention the US government labeled anabolic steroids as a schedule III compound. This new classification made 2006-07-24T19:18:24-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Anabolic-Steroids-and-Their-Effects-on-Lean-Muscle-Mass-30603.aspx The Evolution of Basketball Basketball today is a rim-rattling, slam-dunking, high flying show. Would you believe that the first basketball teams shot at peach baskets? Or that players were not allowed to dribble the ball? The sport of basketball has changed dramatically over the years. The origin of basketball dates back to one hundred and nine years ago (Tejada 14). The first game was played on December 21, 1891 (Tejada 14). Even back then basketball was a thrilling sport. Although it has changed very much since this date, the basic idea of the game is still the same. The first game was played in Springfield, Massachusetts during the winter season (Swallows). The game was invented in order to keep football players in shape during the off season when it was too cold to go outside (Swallows). It snows quite a bit in the north eastern part of the United States and there were not to many indoor games at this time for children to play. Basketball allowed these students to have something to play and keep themselves in shape. The game of basketball was designed and founded by Dr. James Naismith (Davis). James Naismith was born on November 6, 1861 in Almonte, Ontario. Much later in life he became a teacher at the International YMCA Training School (“Basketball”). Dr. Naismith was assigned to discover a game that would keep the boys on the football team in shape during the off season (Leiser). Naismith borrowed ideas from the outdoor sports rugby and soccer in order to come up with basketball (Davis). These two sports involved much running and team work. Naismith decided that by combining the two he could come up with a great new game. James died On November 28, 1936 (“Basketball”). This was only three years after seeing the sport that he invented become part of the Olympic Games (Leiser). The pride he must have had in his accomplishments had to of been phenomenal. Just knowing that the training game he invented was placed into the Olympic Games would probably be the greatest achievement of his life. The original game of basketball had many aspects that no longer exist in the modern day version.. The first game had only thirteen rules (Leiser). These rules were 2006-07-22T11:00:20-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Evolution-of-Basketball-30426.aspx Review of Ken Griffey Junior Biography He leaps into the air, scrambles up the outfield wall, one hand on the padding, glove up, and makes the impossible possible. The crowd goes wild as he makes the marvelous catch. Baseball just wouldn’t be the same without Ken Griffey Jr.’s excellent personal qualities and his athletic ability. Junior has always tried and worked himself to the limit. In the biography book, At the Plate with Ken Griffey Jr., by Matt Christopher shows how Ken has confidence in himself, possesses great skills, and soon will be a baseball superstar for the Seattle Mariners. One way Ken changed baseball was by bringing his hard work and love for the sport to the game. He never quits on anything that he starts. He tries until he has done it right and even that isn’t ever enough for him. He always works hard to accomplish his goals and dreams. While he was in high school, he was in trouble. He needed to bring his grades up so that he could keep playing his two favorite sports, baseball and football so he hit the books and studied as much as he could. He was determined to get his grades up, and so he did. By the next semester, he was back playing both football and baseball. From then on he was doing great in both school and sports. Ken later decided that he would follow his dad and choose to play baseball. Little did he know that he was going to be on the Seattle Mariners. Ken did everything in his power to help the Mariners become a winning team and in 1995 he did it. He made history! He took a losing team and brought them to the American League Championships that year. That’s not all Ken had to offer to the Mariners and baseball itself. He brings his confidence to every game for himself and for the entire team. With this confidence, the team started to win and improve. Everyone on the team started to believe in himself and the team. As players started to improve, they needed a new stadium, so they went to the governor for help. The city later had a vote, but the votes for having a new stadium were too few. Even though they did not get a new stadium, their confidence grew and that is what had helped 2006-07-19T20:41:35-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Review-of-Ken-Griffey-Junior-Biography-30399.aspx General Information on the Game of Baseball Baseball was officially recognized in 1907.Even though the official came evolved from a much earlier game called base-ball, which was played around 1787. Abner Doubleday invented the game in Cooperstown, New York in 1839. Now in that city stands the official baseball hall of fame. However it did not get its first set of official rules until 1845. Alexander Cartwright made the rules. Baseball is Americas past time. It first got popular in World War Two. It was easy for people to play and the materials didn't cost much. Soon after, in 1871 they organized the National Association of Professional Baseball Players. Then two leagues organized they were the American (formed in 1900) and National Leagues (formed in 1876). Both of the leagues have teams from all of the states. In 1921 Kenesaw M. Landis became the first baseball commissioner and had control over all baseball phases. After he died in 1944 all his successors had less power. Although there are many variations of Baseball it is played in one specific way. There are two teams of about nine players each. Each of the teams has a pitcher, a catcher, and batters. The remaining people are left in the outfield or on bases. The field is about an acre and is square or rectangular shaped. In the middle of it is diamond. In the center of the diamond and out side it are usually grass except for the bases, the pitchers mound, and the dirt outline of the diamond. Then they have a steel cage behind home base to keep the ball from going into the crowd. Once you have the players and the field you set the game up. The batting team has one person at bat while the rest of the team waits their turn on the benches. Usually the batter wears a helmet. The other team has a catcher kneeling behind the batter and a pitcher on the mound. Then they have a person on all the bases. The remaining players are spread out in the outfield. Next to catcher is an umpire, which is like a football referee. He makes calls and watches to make sure no one cheats. Baseball today is very popular and most major league games are sold out. Kids play peewee and youth baseball. While teenagers play high school. Often most 2006-07-19T12:37:13-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/General-Information-on-the-Game-of-Baseball-30388.aspx Hockey Career of Wayne Gretzky EARLY HOCKEY YEARS Born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, January 26, 1961. Wayne began skating at the age of three on a backyard rink built by his father, Walter. He began playing organized hockey in grade school and was soon such a dominant scorer that he was moved out of his age bracket to play with players several years older. Gretzky's idols as a young hockey player were his father and Hall of Fame forward Gordie Howe. After playing in several local and regional leagues, Gretzky advanced to play junior hockey with the Sault Sainte Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League, a developmental league for young players. During the 1977-78 season with the Greyhounds he compiled 182 points, with 70 goals and 112 assists in 64 games. EDMONTON OILERS Before the start of the 1979-80 season, the Oilers and three other WHA teams were accepted into the NHL. During his first NHL season Gretzky became known as The Great One. He accumulated 137 points with 51 goals and 86 assists. The total earned him the first of eight consecutive Hart Memorial Trophies as the league's most valuable player. A year later, Gretzky scored 164 points a league record at the time and won the first of seven consecutive Art Ross Trophies. The 1988 Stanley Cup victory was Gretzky's last in Edmonton. Team owner Peter Pocklington, struggling to keep his team profitable as the salaries of the franchise's top players rose, began to dismantle his dynasty. On August 9, 1988, in what is considered by many as the most significant trade in NHL history, Pocklington traded Gretzky and two Oiler teammates to the Los Angeles Kings for two players, three first-round draft choices, and cash. AFTER EDMONTON Over the next eight seasons in Los Angeles, Gretzky gradually relinquished his title as the game's dominant offensive player to the Pittsburgh Penguins' Mario Lemieux. His presence on the Kings, however, changed the team from a struggling franchise to one of the NHL's most glamorous teams. Aided by other former Oilers Gretzky helped turn the Kings from a losing team playing in front of small crowds to a consistent winner that sold out almost every home game. During the 1992-93 season Gretzky guided the Kings to their first Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost to the Montréal Canadiens, 4 games to 1. The Kings failed to reach 2006-07-18T12:50:44-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Hockey-Career-of-Wayne-Gretzky-30346.aspx Excessive Spending on Pro Athelete Salaries Sports, one of the oldest activities humans participate in can be traced back thousands of years, but only recently has it emerged as a problem that effects everyone regardless of if they follow or even like them. Today the average worker in Canada earns about 45-thousand dollars per year. Compared to the salaries professional athletes make it is a miniscule amount. The average professional athlete makes at least 100-thousand dollars a year and some of them don’t even play a single game for their team. Athletes make more on average then professionals from many other fields such as medicine and law. These ludicrous salaries leave repercussions and impacts in their path. These repercussions and impacts land on the laps of millions of taxpayers across the world. In today’s world of money equals power finance, these athletes have a stranglehold on the media and many impressionable people, especially children. The jobs that propel our country through everyday life such as medicine, have rules and regulations when it comes to salaries. A doctor who can work over 300 days per year has a cap on his salary that falls not much higher then the average athlete’s salary. These specialists work together to make the world a better place to live. Athletes on the other hand do not help the world, all they do is satisfy a want. The professionals, on the other hand, satisfy needs of people, whether it is surgery or a lawsuit. People can learn to adapt without sports, but it would be nearly impossible for a community to function properly without doctors. Another problem with athlete’s million dollar salaries is that the money used to pay them comes out of the pocket of the taxpayer. Not only are ticket prices ridiculous, but once inside the stadium both food and merchandise have extra taxes. Maybe athletes should pump some of the money they make back into the economy to make the spectator sporting experience less costly. Athletes should be responsible by helping to fund stadiums, and by giving more money to charity. One of the main problems in today’s world is a child being influenced in the wrong way. Some of the bad influences arrive from snooty professional athletes that disregard the impact they make. Sports stars like Mike Tyson, 2006-07-13T19:07:45-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Excessive-Spending-on-Pro-Athelete-Salaries-30236.aspx History of Soccer There is documentary evidence that a game or skill building exercise, involving kicking a ball into a small net, was used by the Chinese military during the Han Dynasty - around the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. Earlier evidence - of a field marked out to play a ball-kicking game has been found at Kyoto, in Japan. Both the Greeks and ancient Romans played a soccer-type game which resembled modern soccer - although in this early version, teams could consist of up to 27 players! It is impossible to say accurately where and when soccer started - but it is reasonable to assume that some type of ball game - from which the organized sport we know today developed - has been played somewhere on the planet for over 3000 years. Britain is the undisputed birthplace of modern soccer/association soccer. Soccer - as soccer is called in Britain was a popular sport of the masses from the 8th century onwards. But this game was a war game! There is a story which places the first soccer game in the east of England - where the locals played 'football' with the severed head of a Danish Prince they had defeated in battle! In medieval times, towns and villages played against rival towns and villages - and kicking, punching, biting and gouging were allowed. The object of the game was to move the ball to an agreed spot which had been marked The earlier version of soccer was so violent, that many attempts were made by the authorities to ban soccer. In England, King Edward III passed laws in 1331 to try and exterminate soccer. In Scotland, King James 1, in 1424, proclaimed in Parliament, “No man shall play soccer.” Good Queen Bess, Queen Elizabeth 1 of England, had a law passed which provided for soccer players to be “jailed for a week, and obliged to do penance in church." But no law could stop the game in Britain. It was too popular. In 1815, the famous English School, Eton College, established a set of rules which other schools, colleges and Universities began to use. Later, these were standardized and a version, known as the Cambridge Rules, was adopted by most of England's Universities and Colleges in 1848. But now, soccer was divided into two separate camps. Some colleges and schools preferred to follow rules drawn up by Rugby School 2006-07-05T07:11:45-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Sports--30007.aspx The NHL Promotes Violence in the League Instead of Hockey During the 2002 Winter Olympics, the hockey games were fast-paced, exciting, and full of tension and well-coordinated offensive plays. And as I was watching these games it readily became apparent to me that the reason the players were focusing entirely on their skill was that none of them were approaching the aggressive type of playing they had during the regular NHL season. Crosschecking against the boards was rare; penalties tended to be even rarer, and throughout the entire Olympics there were no fights. The Olympic’s play contrasts to today’s NHL, where people are frequently crosschecked and injured, penalties are frequent, and rarely do teams get through a game without at least one fight. I feel that if the penalty for excessive violence in the National Hockey League was equal to the penalty in the International League, NHL game play would be greatly improved. Therefore I feel that the penalty for violence in the NHL should be increased to the standards held in the International League. In the International League, players caught fighting are instantly ejected from game play; after being ejected, a player is not allowed back in for the rest of the game and can sometimes be barred from multiple games as a result of one fight. Their penalties are strictly enforced; anyone caught crosschecking or pushing receives an immediate 2 minute roughing penalty and a player can also be suspended from the game if he receives two roughing penalties in one period. In contrast to this, in the NHL fights are common, averaging one a game. While the rules state that any player caught fighting after being instructed to stop receives a game misconduct, frequently all that happens to the players in a fight is a minor 2-minute penalty for all players involved. Also the NHL’s stance on penalties is much more lax then that in the International League, in the NHL players often shove and crosscheck others into the boards in order to stall or delay them from getting the puck. In the International League this could be considered equivalent to a fight which would lead to a player getting ejected, but in the NHL this is commonplace. The fighting in the NHL is often glorified and portrayed as something that only real manly men can do. Several websites, the most popular of which is www.nhlfights.com, offer in-depth coverage of 2006-06-21T17:40:43-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-NHL-Promotes-Violence-in-the-League-Instead-of-Hockey-29794.aspx Marco Van Basten of AC Milan's Soccer Team Thinking of the greatest victories for the AC Milan (Italian Soccer Club), most soccer fans would scream out the name of the club’s all time best player, Marco van Basten. Marco or Mike van Basten has brought himself and his team to be one of the best soccer teams in the world since 1988 European Championships. Marco van Basten was born on October 31, 1964 in the Dutch city of Utrecht in Holland. As a child, Marco was not dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player, but he would rather be the most unbelievable kicker ever seen in the soccer world. Marco began his career with a short lived spell at local side Edilwijk before being whisked off to Dutch super club Ajax Amsterdam (Netherlands Soccer Club) in 1980. During his seven years with Ajax, Marco scored twenty-eight goals in just twenty-six games. Marco and his Ajax won the Dutch league in 1985, and he received his first trophy called the Golden Boot (European top soccer). The year of 1988 was probably Marco’s best year when he joined the AC Milan and won the Serie A championship. With his traditional strike and his sensational hat trick (scoring three goals in one match), which he was the first and so far only player to do so, Marco was named the European player of the year and the top player in European Championship. “After watching him for a while, you will be amazed with his all round skills and his big body frame twisted and turned inside the box, fooling the best of the defenders with such ease, and his ability to turn the slimmest chance into a goal made him one of the most deadliest striker of all time,” “Van Basten the divine!” wrote Dianni Brera, one of the greatest Italian football journalists. The 1990 World Cup in Italy was a disappointment for the Milan and all Dutch fans because Marco van Basten failed to score and lost the final game against Germany. However in 1991-1992 European Championship, Marco inspired Milan to some of the greatest soccer games ever seen in Serie A. He smashed all unbeaten records and beat the best goalkeeper at that time. Unfortunately, his career was destroyed with an ankle injury, which was mostly caused by the attacking of other teams’ 2006-06-21T16:45:59-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Marco-Van-Basten-of-AC-Milan-s-Soccer-Team-29781.aspx Football Stories of Joe Montana Joe Montana. When his name is said, sports fans all over the world begin to tremble with excitement. When it is announced over the loudspeaker at football games, fans go wild. He was the greatest quarterback to ever play the game: Quarterbacks may come and go, but none will ever be as brilliant, nor as exciting as Joe Montana. He was Joe Cool, the quarterback who never quit, the quarterback who could overcome any deficit, any pressure, and injury. Despite horrible injuries, he won more than seventy percent of the games he started during an illustrious sixteen-year career in the National Football League. Not bad for someone who had eighty-one players picked ahead of him in the 1979 draft (Miller). I remember the first time that I ever saw Joe play. It was early in the 1988 season, against the New York Giants. Games versus home teams (Giants and Jets) and prime time games are just about the only times the New York audience get chances to watch the 49ers on television during the season. I was lucky, because in the first football game that I ever saw, I got to see the 49ers and Montana's magical play and greatness. The 49ers were down 17-13 in the fourth quarter with about three minutes remaining and Joe sprung into action by driving the 49ers down the field seventy or so yards and won the game with a touchdown pass to wide receiver Freddie Soloman. The final score was 20-17, another comeback performance for the king of comebacks, Joe Montana. He instantly became my favorite player and the 49ers became my favorite team. Later that year, during the playoffs, I saw the 49ers (with awesome performances by Joe Montana, Roger Craig, Jerry Rice, John Taylor, Ronnie Lott, Charles Haley, and company) destroy all their opponents by at least twenty points a game and go to Super Bowl XXIII. This was my first Super Bowl, and Joe Montana shone when it was most needed. With less than two minutes remaining, he drove the 49ers ninety-two yards and hit receiver John Taylor for a thirty-four yard touchdown to win the game. A sterling performance by teammate Jerry Rice kept Joe from winning his third MVP trophy. Ever since the 1988-1989 season, I've been an avid fan of Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers. No one on and off the 2006-06-16T18:48:35-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Football-Stories-of-Joe-Montana-29645.aspx Comparing and Contrasting Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier The 1960’s brought out two famous boxers that were born in the 40’s. These two boxers have some similarities and some differences. At points in their life they will turn from friends to enemies. Although two boxer from the same time period may have had differences in their life’s together and apart does not mean they can not be friends again. Muhammad Ali was born January 17, 1942. He was born as Cassius Clay but later changed his religion and name. Becoming the first man to win the heavyweight title three times, Ali was both arrogant and charismatic in his style of fighting. Whenever he was around he brought excitement with him. He often predicted the round in which he would beat his opponents. So talented and so fast, Ali was able to box while holding his left hand by his side and often pull straight back to avoid punches. In 1967, Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army because of religious beliefs. He was arrested and had his boxing license suspended. Because of this his heavyweight title was taken away. While Ali was gone Joe Frazier boxed through the division and earned the title of heavyweight champion. Ali returned in 1970 this is where he set the fight for him and Joe Frazier. Both men were unbeaten. But Ali would always claim himself as the peoples champion. This fight was named the fight of the century, but not for Ali he was dropped by the 15th round. This made Frazier the winner by unanimous decision. Ali regained the heavyweight again by beating George Forman. Then that put him in position for a rematch against Frazier, in which Ali defeated him. Muhammad Ali defeated the title against a host of boxing contenders until 1981 with him final defeat. Now he has Parkersons disease. This disease may have affected him physically but not mentally because he still believes and says he is still the champ of all times. Joe Frazier was born January 12, 1944. He became a boxer by accident. He first went to the gym to work himself into shape. Shortly after, He began to fight competitively and became one of the best amateur heavyweights in America. Frazier didn’t lose until fighting Buster Mathis. Turning pro in 1965 he ran off 11 straight 2006-06-16T15:29:22-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Comparing-and-Contrasting-Muhammad-Ali-and-Joe-Frazier-29628.aspx Impact of the 1994 Major League Baseball Strike On August 12, 1994 professional baseball players went on strike for the eighth time in the sports’ history. Since 1972, negotiations between the union and owners over contract terms has led to major economic problems and the absence of a World Series in 1994. All issues were open for debate due to the expiration of the last contract. Until 1968, no collective bargaining agreement had ever been reached between the owners and the players (Dolan 11). Collective bargaining is the process by which union representatives for employees in a bargaining unit negotiate employment conditions for the entire bargaining unit (Atlantic Unbound). Instead, the players were at the mercy of each owner who possessed the exclusive right, at the close of each season, to resign each player on his roster. If the owner chose to renew a players contract, that player had the option of agreeing to those terms or not playing baseball. As a result of the obvious imbalance in the labor situation, the players attempted on several occasions to organize a union. Although this process may seem like a simple one, baseball has proven that it can be very difficult. The players have been represented by various unions in the twentieth century, all of which have failed until the current union, the Major League Baseball Players Association. After fourteen years of negotiations between the current union and the owners’ representative, the first ‘basic labor agreement’ between the two parties was reached. Led by Marvin Miller in 1968, the players received higher minimum salaries, better health insurance plans, and increases in retirement benefits. These so called “Basic Agreements” in major industries usually turn out to be more complex. As a result, strikes and lockouts have occurred ever since (Koppett 23). The baseball strike which occurred in 1994 was really about one thing; money. Two major issues led directly to the interruption and eventually the cancellation of the entire season. After a 28-0 vote among the owners, they agreed to share revenue on the condition they could get the players to accept a salary cap. The issue of revenue sharing was directly linked to the salary cap. By taking this action, the owners signaled they had come to realize the problem of disparity between big market teams (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago) and small market teams (Seattle, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee). The problem, however, was that 2006-06-16T14:59:28-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Impact-of-the-1994-Major-League-Baseball-Strike-29611.aspx Achievements of Michael Jordan Michael Jordan is the Chicago Bulls superstar who beat Charles Barkley and Akeem Olajuwon for Rookie of the Year Honors in 1985. Perhaps, he is the greatest player to ever play the game....he even has six championship rings to back up his claim, including 3 straight from 1991-1993, and 3 more in 1996-1998. Michael was named the NBA Finals MVP in all of those titles. He's won them all with Scottie Pippen. In 1991, Jordan's Bulls finally overcame the greatest impediment to their team's success, Isiah Thomas' Detroit Pistons, who had regularly eliminated the Bulls from the playoffs. In 1993 he averaged 41.0 ppg in the finals, for a record. This 6-6 superstar guard is a perennial NBA first teamer (10 times from 1987-1993 and 1996 and again as a unanimous selection in 1997 and 1998). He was once again an All-NBA First Team member in 1996 after making his return from baseball. You can always pencil Mike in as the starting guard for the all-star game (13 appearances in 1985 and from 1987-1993, 1997-1998 and again in 2002). He started for the ninth time in 1997, as the first player EVER to receive more that 2 million votes. In the 1997 Game he became the first player ever to record a triple double in the all-star game with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 11 asssists. Jordan was not named MVP that year (Glen Rice received that honor), but he did win the Game's MVP award in 1988 after scoring 40 points and again in 1996. Jordan was once again elected to start (10th time in 12 appearances) in 1998 after leading the eastern conference in voting. After coming out of retirement, Jordan was elected to start again for the eastern all-stars in 2002. Jordan holds the record for most career scoring titles with eight, including 7 straight, also a record. He scores so many points that it is almost unfair to compare him with other players. On November 6, 1996 Michael scored 50 points for the 36th time in his career! Jordan eclipsed the 25,000 career points total, and he continues to dominate in that statistical category. He was the tenth player to score that many points, accomplishing the feat against San Antonio on November 30, 1996, with his 35th point of the game. On January 4, 2001 Michael Jordan scored his 30,000 career point, becoming 2006-06-16T14:37:23-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Achievements-of-Michael-Jordan-29597.aspx The True Definition of a Baseball Player To the average baseball fan there are many different types of players. There are pitchers, catchers, infielders, and outfielders; there are home run hitters, contact hitters, and speedsters; but to someone who really loves and appreciates the game there are really only two kinds of baseball players, those who are ballplayers and those who are not. The tenth edition of the Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines ballplayer as a noun that means "a person who plays ball; especially a baseball player." Under this definition everyone who played the game would be a ballplayer, but this is very far from the truth. What separates the ones who are ballplayers from those who are not? Skill and ability have little to do with it. A player does not have to be successful to be a ballplayer either. Being a ballplayer does not take a high batting average, a low ERA, a World Series Championship, or a multi-million dollar sports contract. A ballplayer's name is not necessarily known outside of the game's inner circle or his team's hometown. So what is a ballplayer? A ballplayer can be described in many ways. At the least he is an overachiever who makes the most out of himself by possessing a strong work ethic. He is a hustler who is tough and gives his all every play of the game. A ballplayer has a great feel for the game derived from countless hours of practice and countless innings of play. He possesses great knowledge of the game of baseball. He is a team player and he is a winner. Ballplayers are not usually flashy. They are dependable, they love to play, and they are the types of players coaches want on their team. A believer in the value of a ballplayer is Jim Leyland, one of the most respected coaches in the world. He led a low budget Pittsburgh Pirate team to multi-divisional titles in the early nineties and took a team of free agents in Florida to the Marlins' first World Championship. He once told the owner of a team, "Give me three good players and six ballplayers and I will never lose a game." He believed that the problem with his winning equation was not finding the good players, but finding the ballplayers to go with them. Baseball historians often talk about the "Golden Age of Baseball" in the early to 2006-06-15T16:12:40-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-True-Definition-of-a-Baseball-Player-29545.aspx Deviant Behavior in Sports Nature always has a way of balancing itself out, and in my opinion, deviant behavior is no exception. For every report we read about how playing in a sports program has kept someone off the streets and out of a life of crime, we come across another about excessive violence or drug use by an athlete. Sports definitely discourage off the field problems, but they also bring about a whole new set of on the field problems. Playing sports brings out the competitive sides of many athletes. To most athletes, winning is everything, and they will do absolutely anything to make sure they win, including the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The idea of athletes using drugs has always been a hot topic, and will probably remain that way. In a recent article, Matt Bernard summed it up best – “We expect our athletes to celebrate nature and the body beautiful, but we also demand that they win competitions. What’s a jock to do?” (Bernard, 1998) World class athletes are pushed harder than anyone in the world, by fans, by coaches, by themselves. To succeed at a top level today, you almost have to use some type of performance-enhancing drug. According to the conflict theory, everything in sports begins with the financial aspect. The drive professional athletes have, despite what they may say about their love of the game, is usually their astronomical salaries. In most of the professional sports leagues, the salary you are given is based solely on how well you perform. The players with the highest stats are always the highest paid, and most athletes will do anything it takes to improve their personal game. Since so many players are using drugs today to be bigger, faster, and stronger, more up and coming athletes are forced into using supplements just to keep up. People today accept moderate drug use as “just part of the game,” while only 20 years ago it was a scandal to even be mentioned in the same breath with drugs. According to the interactionist theory, people play sports as a means to develop their own personality and identity. They use the opinions of their teammates, opponents, coaches, and fans as a way to discover themselves. This type of thinking can often lead players to succumb to peer 2006-06-14T23:30:46-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Deviant-Behavior-in-Sports--29501.aspx A Brief History of the NFL Superbowl This was war! Since its inception seven years earlier, the upstart American Football League (AFL) had fought the National Football League (NFL) for players, fans, television revenues, and respect. The successful new league had won everything except, respect. On January 15, 1967 the first World Championship game against the AFL and the NFL took place. The powerhouse NFL champions the Green Bay Packers against the AFL champion the Kansas City Chiefs. What ended in a 35 to 10 loss to the NFL, the AFL earned its long sought after respect. But the winner that day was not the AFL or even the NFL; it was professional football. January 15, 1967 was the first ever Super Bowl. A few seasons later it was the Super Bowl who merged the two leagues into what we all know it as today, The National Football League. Thirty-four years later the Super Bowl has become Americas most watched sporting event. It is often the most watched television program each year, and nine out of the top 15 shows in history are NFL championship games according to Nielsen Media. The popularity of the Super Bowl has seen television networks like NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX fight it out each year for the contract rights to broadcast, this much anticipated event. Many factors contribute to the broadcasting networks' struggle to obtain the rights to air the Super Bowl, mainly advertising dollars and television ratings, but it's not always worth the fight. A Brief History of Sports on Television (2) In 1960 the AFL sold its rights to ABC. The NFL and CBS agreed to broadcast rights in 1961. But also in 1961, Congress passed the Sports Broadcasting Act, which permitted leagues to act as cartels in the negotiation and sale of their broadcast rights. This led the NFL to make arrangements, which all networks got some games at some times. When the broadcast rights were sold on a club to club basis, fans got the chance to see their local teams' away games. It bought a new dimension to the avid sports watcher that has never been seen before in the professional football league. Over time, television increased the club revenues drastically. After the AFL and NFL merger the Super Bowl in particular began to be tossed between different networks mainly CBS and NBC. CBS form 1967 to 1984 aired the Super Bowl ten 2006-06-13T18:22:02-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/A-Brief-History-of-the-NFL-Superbowl-29435.aspx Boxing Career of Muhammad Ali As an amateur boxer, Ali attracted notice in 1960 by winning the Amateur Athletic Union light heavyweight and Golden Gloves heavyweight championships. He won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. He turned professional soon afterward and became world heavyweight champion by knocking out Sonny Liston in seven rounds on Feb. 25, 1964. Gifted with unusually fast reflexes, excellent hand-leg coordination, and finely honed defensive skills, Ali successfully defended his title nine times from 1965 to 1967 and was universally recognized as champion after outpointing World Boxing Association (WBA) champion Ernie Terrell in 15 rounds on Feb. 6, 1967. Ali often proclaimed his invincibility in doggerel verse and made the boast "I am the greatest!" his personal slogan. In 1964 he joined the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims)--adopting a Muslim name--and in 1967 he refused, on religious grounds, to submit to induction into the armed forces. He was subsequently convicted of violating the Selective Service Act and in consequence barred from the ring and stripped of his title, although the conviction was ultimately reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971. Ali had meanwhile resumed boxing in 1970 and had defeated two other title contenders, but on March 8, 1971, he lost a 15-round decision to the heavyweight champion, Joe Frazier. For nearly three years Ali fought other title contenders, including Jerry Quarry, Floyd Patterson (making a brief comeback attempt), Joe Bugner, and Ken Norton. Finally Ali won a unanimous decision over Frazier on Jan. 28, 1974, that led to his meeting with the new champion, George Foreman, on Oct. 30, 1974. His eighth-round knockout of Foreman regained for Ali the undisputed world heavyweight title. After defending his title successfully six times, he lost it to Leon Spinks on Feb. 15, 1978, in a split decision. Ali regained the WBA title from Spinks seven months later on a unanimous decision, thus becoming the first boxer to win the heavyweight championship three times. In 1979 Ali announced his retirement, at that point having lost only three decisions in 59 fights. He returned to fight World Boxing Council champion Larry Holmes in 1980 and Trevor Berbick of Canada in 1981 but lost both fights. In 1984 it was confirmed that Ali was suffering from a series of symptoms variously known as "punch drunk" syndrome, or chronic encephalopathy of boxers; it is characterized 2006-06-13T17:34:40-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Boxing-Career-of-Muhammad-Ali-29412.aspx The Sport of Swimming: Water Polo Swimming is the act of moving through water by using the arms and legs. There is no way of telling how long the sport has been around. Pictures and drawings show men swimming in a dog stroke. The first known race happened in the year 1844 in London, England and was established by the England's Swimming Society. In this race, American Indians won using windmill strokes. The sport of swimming was introduced in 1896 in Athens, Greece. It was later split into the following events: the backstroke (in 1900), the breaststroke (in 1908) and the butterfly (in 1956). There was also a 2006-06-11T19:26:05-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Sport-of-Swimming-Water-Polo-29216.aspx Understanding the Historic Art of Judo Judo is different things to different people. Simply translated, Judo means “the gentle way”. To most people, that’s all it means. To some, they know it simply as an Austin Powers’ lethal maneuver, but to many others around the world, it means so much more. It is a fun sport, an art, a discipline, a recreational or social activity, a fitness program, a means of self-defense or combat, and a way of life. There’s an ancient history behind Judo and many misunderstood beliefs about the art, some of which will be addressed. Jujitsu is the source of modern Judo. Medieval Japanese Warriors practiced many forms of unarmed combat, some of which were grouped under the general name "Jujitsu " for "the gentle practice." The object of all these martial arts forms was to avoid an enemy's superior strength and to use that strength to his disadvantage. Since Jujitsu was strictly a combat technique, contests were rare and were decided only by the death or crippling of one of the contestants. When Japanese society began to change structurally in the 1860's, feudal lords no longer had their private armies; the martial arts, including Jujitsu, began to die out. In the early 1880's, Professor Jigoro Kano, a teacher from Tokyo and an expert in many types of Jujitsu, decided to save some of this ancient knowledge. He modified or eliminated the most dangerous of the Jujitsu techniques and created a new discipline, which he called "Judo" or "the gentle way." Judo is "the gentle way" because the end result is the accomplishment of a goal with maximum efficiency and minimum effort. As an art, Judo enables its practitioners to gain self-respect, self-confidence, and self-expression; as a science, it involves a mastery of such basic natural laws as gravity, friction, momentum, weight transmission, and unity of forces. As a sport, rather than simply a combat form, Judo includes a code of sportsmanship, a sense of mutual respect, and a system of ethical and moral development. Judo is both an art and a science. From its simple beginnings in nineteenth-century Japan, Judo has spread in popularity throughout the world. Its rich, medieval heritage combined with Professor Kano's modern, scientific approach has made Judo into the exciting sport it is today. One of the more interesting things about 2006-06-11T02:41:42-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Understanding-the-Historic-Art-of-Judo-29184.aspx Examination of the Growing Popularity of Steriods in Sports Steroids or anabolic-androgenic steroids are a man made synthetic substance that increase and enhance the output of mal testosterone. They promote the growth of skeletal muscle but they have many side affects. Athletes and bodybuilders often use it as a way to quickly build muscle mass although its original purpose was to cure patients with an abnormally low amount of testosterone. Steroids can be taken orally, which is the most common, or injected. Steroids have many major side effects that can cause the body to be severely internally injured. But the effects of steroids are different for the person that is using it. For men the side effects may include the shrinking of the testicles, a reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, development of breasts, and an increased risk for prostate cancer. For women the side effects may include a growth of facial hair, male-pattern baldness, changes in the menstrual cycle, and a deepened voice. For children who take steroids their growth maybe stunted due to the premature aging of their skeletal muscles. This may cause the child to be forever short if they take the steroids before their growth spurt. For everyone there may be very severe consequences such as liver tumors and cancer, jaundice, fluid retention, high blood pressure, increases of LDL and decreases of HDL. The various studies suggest that using more than one type of anabolic steroid at the same time ("stacking") causes a stronger inhibition of the functions than using one single anabolic steroid. After abstention from anabolic steroids these changes in fertility usually reverse within some months. However, several cases of have been reported in which the situation of hypogonadism lasted for more than 12 weeks. Research also indicates that some users might turn to other drugs to alleviate some of the negative effects of anabolic steroids. For example, a study of 227 men admitted in 1999 to a private treatment center for dependence on heroin or other opioids found that 9.3 percent had abused anabolic steroids before trying any other illicit drug. Of these 9.3 percent, 86 percent first used opioids to counteract insomnia and irritability resulting from the anabolic steroids. The use of steroids in teenagers is not predominating but it does occur. In a recent NIDA study it was found that 3% of 8th graders use steroids, while 3.5% of 10th graders and 2.5% of 12th 2006-06-06T14:09:54-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Examination-of-the-Growing-Popularity-of-Steriods-in-Sports-29057.aspx Pete Rose: Am American Baseball Great Pete Rose, was a American baseball player and manager, who set the major league record for career hits with (4256). He was born by the name of Peter Edward Rose in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a switch hitter who played both infield and outfield. In 1963 he signed with the Cincinnati Reds and he became National League rookie of year. He stayed with the Reds until 1978 and then got traded to the Philadelphia Phillies (1979-1983). He open the 1984 season with the Montreal Expos but late in the season was traded back to the Cincinnati Reds, where he finish his career as a player in 1986 but remain to manage the Reds until 1989. His aggressive base running earn him the nickname “Charlie Hustle” for his speed. One of 2006-06-01T18:58:41-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Pete-Rose-Am-American-Baseball-Great-28982.aspx Negatives of Alcohol and Sporting Events: Detroit Fans Sigmund Freud, who crafted himself a pretty good living out of post-game analysis, once observed that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. He said this without needing to go back and look at the videotape, which puts him slightly ahead of many members of our current head-coaching roster. And now, in the wake of the Canadian Anthem Flap (Volume 47), it feels like the appropriate time to trot out the corollary, as follows: Sometimes a moron is just a moron. Just a guess here, but I'm betting the people who booed the Canadian anthem never thought past the third beer. Sometimes the Little League parent who trashes his kid in front of God and everybody else is just the fool in the rain. Sometimes the hockey goon who takes a physical game and turns it into pointless bloodsport is the stupid exception, not the reasonable rule. And sometimes that embarrassing act by the fan in the stands is just that. Give it a moment. It'll pass. There was a great temptation on the parts of the self-appointed guardians of human behavior to make a mountain out of the molehill that was built the other night before the Pistons-Raptors game just outside Detroit, not far from the Canadian border. There, a group of remarkably vocal and undeniably clueless fans began booing during the playing of the Canadian anthem. The timing was unfortunate. Strike that: The timing was insanely hideous. It occurred on the same day that funerals began in Canada for four soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan, victims of "friendly fire" when an American F-16 mistakenly bombed a cadre of Canadian troops. You put those facts together, and you very quickly could conclude the worst about the moronics that emanated from the Palace stands. You also -- and let's be very precise here -- would be going one fact too far. The thing about morons is this: It is impossible to give them too little credit. Yet in a situation like this one, the tendency is to go the other way -- to assume, for example, that the booing in the stands and the burial of four soldiers could somehow be combined in a single thought pattern. Sorry, no. Just a guess here, but I'm betting the people who booed the Canadian anthem never thought past the third beer. I'm betting the people who booed didn't know Canadian soldiers had been killed 2006-05-31T18:58:47-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Negatives-of-Alcohol-and-Sporting-Events-Detroit-Fans-28936.aspx Professional Wrestling The topic I have chosen to write about is the world of professional wrestling. There are many reasons as to why this subject has interested me. One major reason is that I grew up watching pro-wrestling on television. As a child, I was fascinated with the spectacle of the wrestling matches and wondered at the wrestlers themselves. At that age, I took wrestling for what it was. It was a full-contact gladiator sport filled with exaggerated and extravagant wrestlers, cocky commentators, and interesting "one-of-a kind" personalities which added up to a high entertainment value. As I got older and more aware of the sport, I did not just see it as another part of sports entertainment but also as a multi-million dollar business which catered to a wide audience. I began to wonder what was it that made this popular genere work and how it was able to attract the crowds of people, young and old. I also wanted to know the history of pro-wrestling. How did it get started and how it became a part of the American culture? As a fan for several of my childhood years, I now wanted to know the real deal behind wrestling. The professional wrestling sport is a very secretive business. It is on a "what you see is what you get" basis. Many of the fans take the sport for face value and enjoy it for what it is, even if many of them are uninformed on the inside workings of it all. Although many books have been published about wrestling, a high number of them are as cryptic and secretive as the business itself. That is why I am motivated to go into an in-depth research to answer and unravel the questions of the professional wrestling world. Professional Wrestling. Part II: Knowledge andPreconceptions After being exposed to professional wrestling for quite sometime, I became somewhat knowledgeable of the sport. I became familiar with most of the wrestling superstars it produced, notably Hulk Hogan which many consider the icon of pro- wrestling. I was also mindful of the wrestling maneuvers and techniques that were used. Although I knew all this, it was all common knowledge. Through personal experience, the people I know who are fans of the sport only know this basic ideology of its premise. I feel that one major reason for the scarce information on pro- wrestling is due 2006-02-16T03:32:35-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Professional-Wrestling-28500.aspx Going For The Gold: Training In Swimming There is not much of a life for swimmers. Imagine practicing seven days a week, two times a day for four hours each time in the pool. This is an ongoing process if one desires to become a nationally ranked swimmer. Because swimmers swim all year, their work-outs build up as their competition approaches making it harder to have time of their own. When they get closer to the big meet, swimmers put in more time at the pool and weight room. Since physical fitness along with preparation becomes essential as the important meet nears, a training process through the year is necessary for swimmers to compete successfully. According to Steve Clark, who was once a world recorder holder and Olympic and world class swimmer, in Competitive Swimming As I See It, swimmers improve their performance by splitting a swim season into three phases: early season, mid-season and pre-competition (85). Early season training helps swimmers get into shape progressively without starting off with hard training from the beginning according to Swimming Coach and Physical Education Professor, James Councilman’s, book, Science of Swimming (239). The early season training regains swimmers’ strength after the swimmer does not have strenuous work-outs. Each week grows more intense than the previous as the early season progresses. The early season prepares for the mid-season, which usually begins after first month. In order to train a swimmer into the mid-season, the early season has to “improve the swimmers’ strength and flexibility through dry land exercises, to improve stroke mechanics, starts and turns of the swimmers, and prepare or condition the body for the hard work that is to come in the next phase” (253). Dry land activities have a direct effect upon swimmers’ strength. During dry land activities, it is important for swimmers to work the muscles that are mainly used to swim. Ninety percent of the thrust though the water comes from these specific muscles: the pectorals, the latisimus dorsis, the triceps, the shoulder muscles, abdominals, the upper thigh, hip muscles and muscles located in the wrist. Many of these muscles are located in the upper body, because three out of the four competition strokes use the arm pull for two-thirds to three-quarters of the stroke’s propulsion. Some activities to benefit these muscles includes pulley weights, isometric-isotonic and weight lifting (Clark 123-4). To improve swimmers’ stroke, coaches of swimmers focus 2006-01-02T04:02:31-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Going-For-The-Gold-Training-In-Swimming-28379.aspx Destructive Celebration in Sports Increasingly we read and talk of sports fans that celebrate their team's victories 2005-10-16T00:09:44-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Destructive-Celebration-in-Sports-28054.aspx Soccer: Why It Can't Make It Big In The U.S. Soccer — or football (or foosball or futbol), as it is called by the rest of the world outside the United States — is surely the most popular sport in the world. Every four years, the world championship of soccer, the World Cup, is watched by literally billions all over the world, beating out the United States professional football's Superbowl by far. It is estimated that 1.7 billion television viewers watched the World Cup final between France and Brazil in July of 1998. And it is also a genuine world championship, involving teams from 32 countries in the final rounds, unlike the much more parochial and misnamed World Series in American baseball (that doesn't even involve Japan or Cuba, two baseball hotbeds). But although soccer has become an important sport in the American sports scene, it will never make inroads into the hearts and markets of American sports the way that football, basketball, hockey, baseball, and even tennis and golf have done. There are many reasons for this. Recently the New England Revolution beat the Tampa Bay Mutiny in a game played during a horrid rainstorm. Nearly 5000 fans showed up, which shows that soccer is, indeed, popular in the United States. However, the story of the game was buried near the back of the newspaper's sports section, and there was certainly no television coverage. In fact, the biggest reason for soccer's failure as a mass appeal sport in the United States is that it doesn't conform easily to the demands of television. Basketball succeeds enormously in America because it regularly schedules what it calls "television time-outs" as well as the time-outs that the teams themselves call to re-group, not to mention half-times and, on the professional level, quarter breaks. Those time-outs in the action are ideally made for television commercials. And television coverage is the lifeblood of American sports. College basketball lives for a game scheduled on CBS or ESPN (highly recruited high school players are more likely to go to a team that regularly gets national television exposure), and we could even say that television coverage has dictated the pace and feel of American football. Anyone who has attended a live football game knows how commercial time-outs slow the game and sometimes, at its most exciting moments, disrupt the flow of events. There is no serious objection, however, because 2005-09-14T00:37:18-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Soccer-Why-It-Can-t-Make-It-Big-In-The-U_S_-27975.aspx Examining the Origin of Modern Day Surfing Table of Context [i:5bb1f5580d]Introduction Page 1 Orgins Page 1 Evolution of the Surf Board Page 2 Expansion to U.S.A. Page 4 Expansion to Australia Page 5 Business Page 7 Conclusion Page 9 Bibliography Page 10 [/i:5bb1f5580d] Introduction The history of surfing dates as far back as the origins of the Hawaiian people. What began in Hawaii, has quickly expanded throughout the world to almost every beach and to places where people never thought that could be surfed. From a long, heavy plank of wood, the surf board evolved to a shorter, lighter fiberglass and foam board. Because of the far travels of many ambassadors of Hawaiian surfers, the once small sport of surfing in Hawaii began to spread to many other countries. Today, it is not only a popular sport, but a widespread art, a growing business, and an American subculture with a broad future ahead. Origins From long ago, Hawaiian would pass down chants of stories of people riding giant waves. These chants were passed down from generation to generation, however, it wasn’t til the early 19th century that they were written down by scholars like Samuel Kamakau (Young, 32). The Hawaiian word for surfing is “He’e Nalu”. “He’e” meaning run as liquid and change from solid to liquid. “Nalu” meaning surging motion of a wave and foaming of the wave (Young, 31). Some chants that go back to th 15th century AD illustrate how important surfing was in everyday life and shows that surfing going back to when in the first Polynesians first arrived in the Pacific (YH, 31). The Kapu system was a type of law that would restrict certain materials for boards, the length of boards, and beaches for Alii or the Ruling Chiefs (Young, 19). The common size of a board for an Alii was from fourteen to sixteen feet long and the common size of a commoner was ten to twelve feet long. (Young, 31) The first Western Explorer to discover the Hawaiians was Captain James Cook, a British Naval Captain who came to Hawaii in the 1770s. He wrote what he witnessed in a log of Hawaiians catching swells with large narrow boards (Young, 31). Evolution of the Surf Board The surf board evolved from the first heavy long wooden board and evolved to many types of new styles 2005-09-14T00:30:37-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Examining-the-Origin-of-Modern-Day-Surfing-27972.aspx Does Participation in Danger Sports Endanger 2005-08-25T06:32:03-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Does-Participation-in-Danger-Sports-Endanger-Lives-of-Others-27773.aspx The year was 1920 and pro-football was in a state of confusion. The three main problems that led to all the confusion were, salaries rising, players jumping from team to team and the use of players still enrolled in college. So, on August 20, 1920, a group of men representing the four current pro teams met. When the day was done the American Professional Football Conference was born. The A.P.F.C. was formed to make one governing body over pro football. Then, on September 17, 1920, a second organizational meeting was held. At the second meeting the following teams attended: the Akron Pros; Canton Bulldogs; Cleveland Ohio Indians; Dayton Ohio Triangles; Decatur Illinois Staleys Athletic Club; Hammond Indiana Pros; Massillon Tigers; Muncie Indiana Flyers; Racine [a Chicago street] Cardinals; Rochester New York Jeffersons; Rock Island Illinois Independents; and [the State of] Wisconsin. One of the first orders of business was to change the name of the American Professional Football Conference to the American Professional Football Association. The second order was to appoint a president. So Native-American Olympic Gold Medallist Jim Thorpe was elected as league president. Other rules were made such as a membership fee of $100 per team; to be charged to give an appearance of respectability No team ever paid it. Scheduling was left up to the teams, and there were wide variations. This occurred both in the overall number of games played and in the number played against APFA member teams. Four other teams-the Buffalo All-Americans, Chicago Tigers, Columbus Panhandles, and Detroit Heralds-joined the league sometime during the year. On September 26, the first game, which featured an APFA team was played at Rock Island's Douglas Park. A crowd of 800 watched the Independents defeat the St. Paul Ideals 48-0. A week later, October 3, the first game matching two APFA teams was held. At Triangle Park, Dayton defeated Columbus 14-0, with Lou Partlow of Dayton scoring the first touchdown in a game between Association teams. The same day, Rock Island defeated Muncie 45-0. At the league meeting in Akron, April 30, the championship of the 1920 season was awarded to the Akron Pros. The APFA was later reorganized, they realized that Jim Thorpe was a better player then president. So, they picked Joe Carr as the new president. Carr moved the Association's headquarters to Columbus, drafted a league constitution and by-laws, gave teams territorial rights, restricted player 2005-08-25T06:18:47-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Fetal-Football-League-27768.aspx Gaining that little bit of competitiveness can lead to greater increases in performance. Steroids increase muscle mass and strength which helps athletes recover quicker from injuries. The most common sports where you would find the anabolic steroids are in body building, football, track & field power events and weightlifting. Another (1) performance enhancing drug is amphetamine. Amphetamine also has very serious side effects in the male and female body. Both males and females can experience feelings of anxiety and restlessness along with a rapid heartbeat and heavy breathing. Amphetamines, as with any other performance drug, can become addictive. Athletes use the drug amphetamine to boost their alertness and in fighting of fatigue in sports. This type of drug is found in all sports except for the sports where very intense concentration is required. The last of the three most popular enhancement drugs is the human growth hormone (HGH). Like the previous two drugs, HGH also has major side effects that can permanently damage an athlete. HGH in men and women can cause the thickness of skin, can damage the internal organs, and the bones and facial features. More seriously use of HGH can lead to diabetes, heart disease and possibly a shortened life span. The human growth hormone is known as a steroid substitute and is used primarily in the sports where steroids are used. HGH is a popular drug because it is undetectable in urine, therefore athletes tend to use this drug because there will be no trace of the drug after a game or race. Performance enhancing drugs can have a very serious impact on the public. If the public reaches the point where they find that sports revolve around just drugs and less athleticism, the television viewers and attendance at sports contests will fall very quickly. If this does happen it may lead to financial problems for the athletes. Drug scandals may cause the media and athletic sponsors to re-think their commitment to that specific sport. Performance enhancing drugs are found in almost every type of athletic organization: pro sports, college sports, high schools (where it is very popular), through coaches, other athletes and the black market. In professional sports it is very likely to see them while athletes are in the training stages before their season begins. It is very common to see the performance drugs being used by the rookies (2) as well. A young 2005-08-21T05:55:54-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Drug-Testing--27752.aspx ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT INJURIES, ACL Injuries: How to Prevent and Treat Them The volleyball match has been going on for over an hour. Both teams have been trading points and side-outs. The ball is set high outside so that the big outside hitter can put the ball away. She comes in hard, plants, leaps into the air and smashes the ball down the line in a twisting motion. As she lands on her right leg, a POP is heard and down she goes. What has just happened is occurring more and more often in athletics, the athlete has just torn the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). In this paper I will describe ACL, how it is injured and diagnosed, how it be repaired and what is being done to prevent ACL injuries. The Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) is one of the two cruciate ligaments of the knee, the other being the Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL). These ligaments are the stabilizers of the knee. The ACL is a strip of fibery tissue, which is located deep inside the knee joint. It runs from the posterior side of the femur (thigh bone) to the anterior side of the tibia (shin bone) deep inside of the knee. The ligament is a broad, thick cord the size of a person's index finger. It has long collagen strands woven together in a fashion that permits forces of up to 500 pounds to be exerted. The function of the ACL is to prevent the tibia from moving in front of the knee and femur. The ACL also prevents hyperextension (or extreme stretching of the knee backward) and helps to prevent rotation of the tibia. The amount of knee ligament injuries have been on the rise in recent years. Over the last 15 years, ankle sprains have decreased by 86% and tibia fractures by 88%, but knee ligament injuries have increased by 172%. The injury usually occurs in either a slow twisting fall, a sudden hyperextension, or a sudden hyperflexion as when landing from jumping. When the injury occurs the athlete usually hears a "pop" and they will have immediate swelling of the knee. When the person tries to put weight on the leg it will feel like the knee isn't underneath the athlete. With most injuries the type of movement will help to determine the injury: "I twisted to the right." etc. When ACL injuries occur there is a "popping" sound 2005-08-15T08:25:13-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/ACL-Injuries-How-to-Prevent-and-Treat-Them-27666.aspx Frost leaned back against the towering oak tree, a soft breeze murmering all around her, rustling though the leaves above. Dark hair tumbled down sun kissed shoulders framing a sturn yet lovely cherub face. She possesed an angelic quality in the peaceful way she slept. She drew long steady breaths. Behind closed eyes buried memories played out in her mind, pulling forth both comforting and painful emotions. Her earliest memories were diverse and unclear. Warm evening suppers with forgotten parents soothed her. All that she was sure of was that one night she laid tucked lovingly beneath her hand stitched quilt. A dark man came calling; muffled thuds broke the night silence below her, followed by her mothered screams. Frost had escaped through her window, climbed down and she hid in the shrubs by the forest. The dark man and his army had burned her village to the ground, horse hooves and war cries echoing through the flames. Soldiers, with menacing swords clutched tightly in their chubby fists, had wandered near where the five-year-old was crouched. At first she sat frozen with fear hearing their heavy madingly steps. The instant the sword poked through the bush she broke into a run, leaving the bloody ruins of Seles behind. She ran for hours stumbling over logs and twigs matting her hair. She ran until a gentle pair of talons plucked her from the ground and lifted her from the urth. A scream escaped her dry throat then all became black. When she awoke Frost had been frightened, it took her weeks to adjust to Fehybrand the dragon who had rescued her. He raised her among the other dragons treating her like one of his own; he became her mentor and taught her how to fight. Every now and then he would show her a useful magic trick. When she became sixteen, he gave her a jewel he had recovered from the rubble of her home. Fehybrand had used one of his powerful spells to customize it especially for her. The jewel that had once belonged to her mother was a brilliant shade of pale blue. She learned how to use it to enhance her powers and transform her into a winged warrior known as a dragoon. Later on she learned how to use the jewel to sense evil, other dragons, and dragoons. ";"100";"392";"1012879684";"29713";"8" "jztnicedave";"Persuasive Essay On Tennis In Schools";"Tennis is the most 2005-08-07T06:58:35-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Tennis-Story--27575.aspx Careers in Sport Management For the longest time I could not decide on a major and a career to study throughout college. When I came to Georgia Southern University I discovered that they had a major that was very interesting to me. Sport Management id the ideal major for my interest and me. Since I love sports I figured that this would be the career for me. A degree in Sport Management helps to prepare for success in sport related occupations. The job market varies in the field of sport management. Some occupational opportunities include: athletic trainer, coach, sports official, Sports agent, camp director, sporting goods sales/dealer, pro scout, athletic director, sport promoter. The list can go on of the opportunities in this career. Mostly anything sport related in today's business world is included also. The nature of a person in a sport management career is based solely around sports. Depending on what occupation you decide to pursue the work and conditions will differ. Some typical activities are, plan and direct athletic events, represent professional athletes, plan and direct the training of the team players, evaluate skills and potential of players, or work extensively with players, coaches, officials, managers etc. The work condition can vary with different jobs or tasks. A scout will be called on to travel about 3/4 of the time. Athletic directors handle the athletics of their prospective schools along with coaches. A sports agent working conditions can involve a lot of long hours and extended pressure. Some employment settings are colleges/universities, camps, sporting goods stores, management firms, professional teams, fitness centers and the media. The job outlook for most careers in Sport Management is fair to good. Sport Management is one of the fastest growing fields of study in the country. With that there will lots of job openings and new businesses starting. Some jobs in this field are limited. For instance, anything dealing with professional teams is limited due to the number of sports teams. Successes in the teams help with salary and benefits for the employees. Most jobs in the sport management field are setup to where an employee must work his or her way up the ladder. For example, the job may ask the employee to assist in work and the salaries are not as high. In some jobs such as being a general manager of a professional team the job is to an extent being 2005-07-24T02:48:34-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Careers-in-Sport-Management-27350.aspx A Discussion of the most Popular Nutritional Supplements Nutritional supplements are becoming more and more widely used by athletes in the world of sports today. Some supplements are more commonly used than others. Creatine is one that acts as a lean muscle builder and is the most commonly used. Ephedrine, which is also known as the oral form of adrenaline, is one of the more dangerous supplements. There is also Xenadrine, which is an herbal weight loss formula. Many of these supplements have side effects that can be harmful and even deadly. The most commonly used supplement used by athletes in sports today is Creatine. Creatine helps muscle growth and helps re-grow muscle tissue faster. Creatine is mostly taken before workouts to minimize soreness and to lift more weight in shorter lengths of time. Creatine is found in most foods people eat everyday. However, the amount of Creatine in food is so small that it has little effect. This is why some athletes experience different results depending on their diet. Most reports of athletes taken this supplement say that after a five to ten pound gain in muscle mass they see no other significant results. Creatine also has many side effects. Nausea, headaches, and fevers are a few. The most experienced side effect is upset stomach. One of the more dangerous supplements used by athletes in sports today is Ephedrine. Ephedrine is also known as the oral form of adrenaline. It is closely related in structure to methamphedamine and was originally used to relive severe asthma attacks. Ephedrine increases heart rate and increases blood pressure, which is why it is taken before workouts to "pump" athletes up before a workout. The side effects of this supplement include dehydration, clenched teeth, upset stomach jitteriness, dry mouth, nervousness, muscle tremors, heart palpitations, and irritability. The main side effect, which is effecting most athletes, is dehydration. Many athletes are not drinking enough water while taking this supplement. One of the best herbal weight loss supplements on the market today is Xenadrine. Xenadrine. Xenadrine contains ephedrine and/or caffeine. This is why most people who are taking Xenadrine experience bursts of energy. In just a few weeks of use, users experience visible improvements in muscle tone and fat loss and increased metabolism. Only short-term use of months at a time is recommended to prevent tolerance to the supplement. Xenadrine is taken by users about thirty minutes prior to workouts. 2005-07-11T06:22:06-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/A-Discussion-of-the-most-Popular-Nutritional-Supplements-27292.aspx Should Steroids Be Banned? It is amazing what athletes will do to achieve higher levels of performance and to sometimes get the extra edge on the competition. Most of the time people do not realize the long-term effects that result from the decisions they make early in life. This resembles the use of steroids in a person's life. Steroids became an option to athletes in the Olympics and other major sporting events during the 1950's. But this use of steroids among athletes only became widely apparent when Canadian sprint runner Ben Johnson tested positive for steroid use after winning the gold medal for the one hundred-meter dash during the 1988 Olympics (Francis, 45). Now a skinny fifteen-year-old can just walk down to the local gym and find people who either sell or know how to get in contact with those who sell the drug that will make him envious of his friends. Steroids are an attractive drug. While steroids seem harmless to the unaware user, they can have a risky effect. Most of the time whether the users are new or experienced, they do not know the dangerous consequences steroids can have on their bodies and their minds. Though steroids cause a relatively insignificant number of deaths in our society, the banning of steroids is justified because steroids have a lot of side effects not known to the uninformed user. Even though steroids are known as a somewhat dangerous substance, they are legal to have and to consume. There has not been a study that proves such possible side effects are linked to medical problems of steroid users (Rogak, 89). There are those who have pointed out several cases where someone has died and an autopsy has shown that the person was using steroids, but they claim this does not mean that it is a deadly drug as some medical professionals have stated (97). Some advocates of steroids believe that because steroids are legal, and because it is the decision of the user to take the drug, steroids are not causing a problem in society. Alcohol and cigarettes are consumed by millions of people, causing a lot of deteriorating effects on their bodies, but there has never been a ban on these items because of the dangers that they can cause. Why should steroids be different? Some people say that 2005-06-30T05:07:08-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Should-Steroids-Be-Banned-27205.aspx [i:420e86357f]Outline Compare: Thai Boxing and Western Boxing are both called "Boxing" and "the art of fighting" Contrast: Premier Purposes, constituents and rules of Thai Boxing divide two sports to be completely different. [/i:420e86357f] Though both sports are called as "boxing" and "the art of fighting", Western boxing and Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) are totally different. Both sports were originated since up to thousand years ago. Informer without rules or principles, Western boxing and Muay Thai could be brutal contests in which each competitor tried to conquer his rival by any means. On the other hand, both arts of fighting at their well- controlled best are real sports. They are competition in which each man applies to beat his opponent by intelligent use of skills in which he has been thoughtful trained. However, the premier purposes, constituents and rules of the Thai Boxing make the two sports become obviously distant. First of all Thai Boxing was originated since Sukhothai Period, three thousand years ago, though it took 300 hundred years later to become well known during Ayuthaya period (1560 A.D.). While Western boxing was well advanced by the time of the Sumerians who lived five thousand years ago, which is much older than Thai boxing. The premier purpose of Thai boxing was to be used as the unarmed fighting art by Thai soldiers. It was our traditional martial art in which ancient Thai soldiers used Thai boxing to fight against Burmese soldiers since the age of wars last 500 years ago. In contrast, the Western Boxing were started as " manly art'" or common sport or personal combat, not for the real war. The purposes of Muay Thai competitions during the age of wars in Thailand was not only for entertainment but also for motivating Thai men to be alert of possible wars that they would always prepared. In contrast the early Western boxing competitions were generated as a staging bout for the entertainment. On the other hand, today the Western boxing is a common sport used in the general sport competitions such as Olympic game, SEA game, and etc, unlike Western boxing in Thailand we recognize the art of Muay Thai as the traditional culture. With the reason professional boxers of Muay Thai then are able to enter the Olympic boxing matches. While Western boxing match allows the contest to start since once both opponents get in the ring, Thai boxing has a 2005-06-29T04:51:13-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Difference-between-Western-Boxing-and-Muay-Thai-27187.aspx In the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, sprints and jumps were on stage. United States sprint dominance was as evidenced by world records and medal counts. Bob Beamon (US) long jumped past 28 and 29 feet. Dick Fosbury (US) also gathered attention for his medal performance. He took off in the high jump with his back to the bar and landed on his back. Although others claim to have been using this style as far back as the early 60’s, his name is forever linked with the Fosbury Flop. Next we will breakdown the key elements in the high jump and put together training plans for a couple different weeks. The high jump has an Approach that contains a transition from linear to a curve. It has a Takeoff that is similar to the long jump, employing a penultimate and takeoff step. Lastly, it has Bar Clearance and Landing in the pit. Let’s begin by taking a closer look at the Approach. THE APPROACH To keep the approach simple we will discuss it as having 5 steps on the straight and 5 on the curve including the penultimate and takeoff steps. Most athletes will take their first step with the same leg they takeoff with. The drive phase will be two steps. Athletes should be moving into an upright running posture by the third step. The athlete will continue to accelerate in a straight line until they reach the fifth step. Watch for deviations to the outside, which slow the athlete down. Athletes will also tend to slow down as they approach the transition to the turn. The athlete should have two measurements for their approach, one parallel to the pit (between 8’-14’ depending on speed) from the inside standard and another directly back on the apron from that point. The transition to the turn should be a blend from straight ahead running to single track running while continuing to accelerate. To run on a turn each successive step must be directly in front of the previous one. In addition, the takeoff and penultimate steps must also be on the turn. Initiation of the turn on the fifth step happens on toe off. Instead of continuing to push directly behind, the athlete will push to the outside. This action will begin turning the body towards the far standard. The next step will land on the turn directly in front of the previous 2005-06-21T20:16:50-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Track-and-Field-High-Jump-27085.aspx So You Wanna Be A Boxer? Eric Phillipson Growing up, I’ve always been intrigued by classic fighters like Muhammad Ali, and Joe Frazier. I’ve also been amazed at the speed and power behind current fighters such as Arturo Gatti, Roy Jones Jr., Micky Ward, and even Heavyweight fighters like Lennox Lewis. Boxing is a sport that not many people watch, but all are intrigued by the dedication, the training, and the heart behind it. Professional Weight Class: Heavyweight: 190+ Cruiserweight: 190lbs Light Heavyweight: 175lbs Super Middleweight: 168bs Middleweight: 160lbs Junior Middleweight: 154lbs Welterweight: 147lbs Junior Welterweight: 140lbs Lightweight: 135lbs Junior Lightweight: 130lbs Featherweight: 126lbs Junior Featherweight: 120lbs Bantamweight: 118lbs Junior Bantamweight: 115lbs Flyweight: 112lbs Junior Flyweight: 108lbs Strawweight: 105lbs Amateur Weight Classes: Light Flyweight: 106lbs Flyweight: 112lbs Bantamweight: 119lbs Featherweight: 125lbs Lightweight: 132lbs Light Welterweight: 139lbs Welterweight: 147lbs Light Middleweight: 156lbs Middleweight: 165lbs Light Heavyweight: 178lbs Heavyweight: 201lbs Super Heavyweight: 201 lbs+ Why are these weight classes important? Well, you don’t want to train to be a heavyweight when you weigh 135lbs. The difference between the training styles of a lightweight and a heavyweight is that as a lightweight you are going to want to focus on speed, and as a heavyweight your focus will be on power. The Middleweights are the biggest balance of the two. Dedication: Training to be a boxer isn’t like other sports, in that you can’t say “I’m training; I hit the heavy bag for awhile today.” It doesn’t work well in other sports, and it will work horribly in boxing. Boxers wake up early in the morning, and go to bed fairly late considering their routine. Most boxers wake up at 5am to do their early road work of running 3+ miles. They do this day in and day out. Now, as if waking up and running at 5am wasn’t difficult enough, most boxers spend upwards of 3 hours at the gym. At the gym you will spar, shadow box, do circuit training, hit the heavy bag, hit the speed bag, etc. What most fail to realize is how difficult this dedication is. Take into account that the beginning professional boxer hardly makes any money compared to other professional athletes. What it boils down to is: Do you really want this, or are you trying it on for fun. If it’s for fun, this article is not for you, and boxing training is not for you… stick to the weights. Good Morning Sunshine: The alarm is going off, that buzz in your ear; it feels like you just went to bed. As you 2005-06-21T16:39:09-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/So-You-Wanna-Be-A-Boxer--27083.aspx One of the most little known species of ants in North America is the leaf-cutter ant. This is mainly because it lives in tropical environments and it is not aggressive to animals or humans if not disturbed. The leaf cutting ant is a social insect. Alone the ant is virtually helpless but with the colony it can be a thing feared by animal and human alike. The leaf-cutting ants have a very important role in the tropical forest. They create and manipulate the environment around them. They also can do major damage. The leaf-cutting or fungus-growing ants are distributed from northern Texas to central Argentina. These ants are injurious since they cut the green vegetation from trees, shrubs and crops, and carry it into the nest, where they cultivate fungi on it. They have been known to denude a tree or ornamental plants in one night. It has been estimated they do $1 billion damage per year in North and South America today, these ants still cause millions of dollars in crop losses in many South American countries. Although primarily an agricultural pest, this insect on occasion may invade the home for cereals. In the United States, the Texas leaf-cutting ant, Atta texana , occurs in Texas and Louisiana. This ant is believed to cause a total yearly loss of $5 million in the United States (unison services. 1998). There are about 9,500 named species of ants. These ants are divided into 16 sub families and 300 genera, all which belong to the family called Formicidae, the family of ants (Hoyt. 1996). The leaf cutting ant belongs to the genus called Atta. There are fifteen different species of Atta and all are limited to the new world (Holldobler & Wilson, 1994). The leaf-cutter ant looks pretty much like a regular ant in North America except that it is a little bigger than most ants. Looking at the ant in the untrained eye a person usually perceives that it is a primitive organism. Looks can be deceiving. The leaf-cutter ant is a complex superorganism unique social, environmental, and food gathering behavior. The anatomy of the leaf-cutter ant is pretty simple. It has a one segment "waist" (pedicel) between thorax and abdomen. Sharp spines on waist and backward from head. Antennae 11-segmented very long and elbowed without distinct club. The legs are very long. This ant can be light to dark reddish brown (Smith. 2005-06-19T18:21:12-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Leaf-Cutting-Ants-27004.aspx Steroid Use Research Paper: Steroids Must Be Curtailed It is amazing what athletes will do to achieve higher levels of performance and to sometimes get the extra edge on the competition. Most of the time people do not realize the long-term effects that result from the decisions they make early in life. This resembles the use of steroids in a person's life. Steroids became an option to athletes in the Olympics and other major sporting events during the 1950's. But this use of steroids among athletes only became widely apparent when Canadian sprint runner Ben Johnson tested positive for steroid use after winning the gold medal for the one hundred-meter dash during the 1988 Olympics (Francis, 45). Now a skinny fifteen-year-old can just walk down to the local gym and find people who either sell or know how to get in contact with those who sell the drug that will make him envious of his friends. Steroids are an attractive drug. While steroids seem harmless to the unaware user, they can have a risky effect. Most of the time whether the users are new or experienced, they do not know the dangerous consequences steroids can have on their bodies and their minds. Though steroids cause a relatively insignificant number of deaths in our society, the banning of steroids is justified because steroids have a lot of side effects not known to the uninformed user. Even though steroids are known as a somewhat dangerous substance, they are legal to have and to consume. There are those who have pointed out several cases where someone has died and an autopsy showed that the person was using steroids, but some professionals claim this does not mean that it is a deadly drug (97). Some advocates of steroids believe that steroids should be kept legal, because it is the decision of the user to take the drug, and that steroids are not causing a problem in society. Alcohol and cigarettes are consumed by millions of people, causing a lot of deteriorating effects on their bodies, but there has never been a ban on these items because of the dangers that they can cause. Why should steroids be different? Some people say that the wide spread use of steroids among athletes is forcing the young athletes to use steroids, even though it 2005-05-17T02:50:54-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Steroid-Use-Research-Paper-Steroids-Must-Be-Curtailed-26648.aspx The Difference Between Blades And Blades Hockey is a sport of finesse, toughness, and speed all wrapped up by player talent. Hockey can be played on any surface, though ice and hard rubber "roller turf" are the two major fields currently played on by professionals. All though to some these two variations on hockey may seem the same, they actually have many differences. Roller hockey contrasts that of ice in several ways. While the playing surfaces are the most obvious difference, number of players, periods, and skates also vary. The most obvious difference between the two sports is their playing surfaces. Ice hockey is played on a three inch layer of ice cooled to approximately ten degrees Fahrenheit. Roller hockey is played on a two inch layer of a plastic and rubber composite compound. Both types have specific advantages and disadvantages. Roller "turf" almost never needs any repairs while ice must be resurfaced between every period. Ice is generally known for being a faster surface but a good argument to that is the fact that the players and equipment have more to do with speed than the surface. Hockey would not be hockey without the players. The NHL is famous for its five on five play. Roller hockey, on the other hand, is four on four. Strategically in ice hockey two players stay primarily on defense while the other three are sent forward for offense. Roller hockey, however, with only two forwards for offense, one of the two defense-men must move up to join the attack in order for teams to have an effective attack. While causing a minor headache to defensive players, having four players on the floor allows more open ice to skate and make plays in. This too has a downfall though, four players doing the work of five can be tiresome to players leading to the need for shorter periods. Ice hockey by league standards consists of three-twenty minute with a fifteen minute intermission after the first and second periods. Roller hockey plays four-fifteen minute periods. The first and second periods are separated by only a five minute break, the second and third by a fifteen minute intermission, and finally the third and fourth by another five minute break. Overtime periods are also different. Overtime in ice hockey is 2005-05-15T08:02:43-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Ice-Hockey-versus-Ice-Skating-26615.aspx How to Hike The Appalachian Trail The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, is a footpath in the eastern United States for outdoor enthusiasts, extending about about 2140 miles from Maine to Georgia, along the crest of the Appalachian Mountains. The trail passes through 14 states and is maintained by 34 different trail maintenance organizations. It is the longest marked, continuous footpath in the world, at some points reaching elevations of more than 6000 feet. Wooden signposts and white paint marks on rocks and trees are placed along the trail. Construction of the Appalachian Trail was begun in 1922 near Bear Mountain, New York. By 1937 the footpath, extended from Mount Katahdin, in Maine, to Mount Oglethorpe, in Georgia, and was ready for use. Later, (after 1937) the trail officially ended at Springer Mountain, 10 miles northeast of Mount Oglethorpe. In 1968 the Appalachian Trail became part of the National Park System and was officially renamed the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. To hike the Appalachian Trail, it is suggested to shop around for a good pair of hiking boots, a tent, and a sturdy backpack. Hiking the distance mentioned above obviously requires excellent footwear, and a light pack. Figure in fatigue and you need a comfortable tent to sleep in at night. Good boots are "solid" on the bottom, so that you cant feel rocks or stones through the soles. If you can press in the bottom of the sole with your thumb, the soles are probably too soft to give your foot proper protection. The top of the boot should be stiff to hold the ankle in place and provide it with good support. While it's possible to treat non-waterproof fabric boots with liquid silicone, it generally doesn't waterproof the boot enough to be useful. Stick with leather boots that can be treated with Sno-seal, beeswax solution, or other waterproofing solutions. Feet change over time, as do shoes. Wearing a pair of shoes and/or hiking boots changes the shape of the shoe to fit your foot. Eventually though, the reshaping causes the shoe to rub places on the foot, causing blisters. All boots are made on different "lasts". The last is the "form" the boot is built around at the factory. The size and shape of these lasts, even between identical sizes of boots, can vary greatly. For instance, some boots are built around a European last which is typically narrow in the front, compared 2005-04-11T06:30:58-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Hiking-The-Appalachian-Trail-26475.aspx [i:1145dc876c]Jocks and Burnout's Social Categories and Identity in the High School[/i:1145dc876c] The research for this book was collected in-between 1980-84. It was done in the Detroit area at five high schools. Each predominantly white with a mix of financial categories. The book discusses (in a nutshell) how the social groups (Jocks and Burnout's) are formed and the reasons why they use totally different avenues to reach the same goal (namely, becoming adults). As the writer depicts, life for children in elementary school, falls basically into two different categories, the haves and the have nots. Because of this situation the kids usually head in two different directions in trying to reach their goal of becoming adults. There are the working class families that seem to have less time to spend with their children (while busily trying to support them) who many times end up leaving their children to be watched by the older sibling. These kids learn quickly to fend for themselves and realize at a young age that in there later lives there parents may not be able to totally provide for them. The kids spend more time exploring and growing on their own. As they head into Jr. High, they may possibly try smoking or drinking not only as an experiment in life but to show that they are like adults. Also they begin to look at the school system and regimentation as their enemy. Trying to forces them into a mold in which they do not need or care to fit. They are trying to show other people that they can be adults themselves. Not that they need other adults to guide them. In the school setting, they don't see how any of the classes or activities will help them later in life to get a job (applications, job contacts, networking ect.). Finally it was noted that many kids get the views that they have of school from their parents. If their parents did well in school and felt that school helped them to progress in life than many times so do their children and if they feel that school was a waste of their time and in the long run they still ended up fending for themselves anyway, their 2005-03-29T01:06:09-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Social-Categories-and-Identity-in-the-High-School-26431.aspx Why Sports Teams Move and Cities Fight To Keep Them Professional sports, like most of our popular culture, can be understood only partly by through its exiting plays and tremendous athletes. Baseball and football most of all are not only games anymore but also hardcore businesses. As businesses, sports leagues can be as conniving, deceitful, and manipulative as any other businesses in the world. No matter what the circumstances are, it seems that Politicians are always some how right around the corner from the world of sports. These Politicians look to exploit both the cultural and the economic dimensions of the sports for their own purposes. This is what is known in the sports industry as "playing the field". In the last decade, almost all the big cities in the United States, and a few small cities as well, have battled with each other for the right to host big league franchises. Cities spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build new stadiums and offer enticements to private franchise owners. Politicians often push for stadiums and other favors to teams despite not having support from neighborhoods and general opposition across the whole city, especially where these high dollar stadiums would be built. Some of the most prolific franchises in sports, like the Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Colts of the National Football League, have moved to other cities breaking off their loyalty to the hometown fans. More important than the actual moves are the more frequent threatened moves. When teams "play the field" and explore the option of playing in other cities they are able to lure interested cities into giving them just about any royalty they want. New stadiums are only the beginning. The willingness to threaten departure has secured for teams a variety of land deals, lower taxes, more revenues from parking and concessions, control of stadium operations, guaranteed ticket sales, renovation of stadiums with luxury seating, control over neighborhoods and transportation systems, and that's only the beginning of the list. Franchises are able to control their own destinies and have major advantages over city officials. This is what as known in the sports industry as the "uneven playing field". City officials react to the offensive strategies of team owners, but never can anticipate what the owners are prepared to do. Team owners have complete control over 2005-02-28T02:58:31-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Why-Sports-Teams-Move-and-Cities-Fight-To-Keep-Them-26349.aspx Tennis The origins of tennis are mysterious and unknown. Although some historians have claimed that tennis was developed as far back as Ancient Egypt. However, the first recorded ball and racquet game was first played by monks located somewhere in southern France around the beginning of the twelfth century. They usually played with their hands and hit the ball against a wall. However, the monks soon developed crude instruments with which to strike the ball. They also developed the first type of playing court, which was usually the monastery courtyard. It is there where they devised a crude net with a rope to divide the playing areas. Over the next few centuries, the game spread to several countries in Europe, and it developed several variations. By the start of the nineteenth century, the game became popular and competitive in Great Britain and quickly developed into today's modern tennis, which now consists of many organizations with numerous levels of competition for all ages and skill. One of the main competitive organizations in the United States is the United States Tennis Association (USTA). The USTA is divided into three age groups. These age groups are junior, adult, and senior. The junior age group usually ranges from ages eight to eighteen. This program primarily focuses on the development of the player without breaching his or her amateur status. The next two age levels are adult and senior. These two levels have a wide range of amateur and professional tournaments for all levels of play. The USTA works in conjunction with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) is the next level of competition for advanced tennis players who are attending a college or university. The ITA is part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Included in the ITA is the current membership of every coaching staff in all of the NCAA Divisions, NAIA Divisions, and also all of the junior college divisions. Through the ITA Intercollegiate Program, over 5,000 players at ITA-member schools participate in 80 ITA Regional Championships, which culminates into the Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships for NCAA Division I and the ITA National Small College Championships. At the next level, some advance amateur and college players choose to join the professional tour. There are two main professional tours in the world. Those two are the Association of 2005-02-23T08:47:48-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/History-of-Tennis--26326.aspx Rise of women sports in American: A Society Changes Today when you talk about women and sports no one really makes a big deal about it, because it has grown to be a huge part of our society in this time of day. Women sports have grown rapidly in the past decade due to such success stories as the women's world cup soccer team and all the recent Olympic gold medal winners. The first and most important historical moment that impacted the growth on women's sports was the 1996 gold medal basketball team. This team showed everyone that the United States could and will be a dominant figure in women's Olympic basketball in days to come. This win also opened eyes in the United States and showed that we needed a professional league of our own so we could become even more of a dominant world power on the basketball stage. Now that everyone saw that these girls could play Commissioner Stern helped create what we know today as the WNBA. During the 2000 games in Sydney the women's basketball team went 8-0 to capture their second gold medal in a row. Next, I would like to talk about women's soccer, which nowadays have became one of the most prominent women sports in the United States. Soccer, which has always been dubbed the "World Sport", has always been know as a man's sport, but now it is a huge sport for women today. Finally, the last sport I want to talk about is women's softball. Women's softball is becoming the most popular sport in the United States, due to the fact of them winning the gold medal in the Sydney Olympics this summer. These women showed great composure on the world stage by starting the games with a 2-3 record and winning the 5 games to bring home the gold medal. Now that I have talked about the growth of the Women Sports I want to talk about how this impacted society as a whole. Women Sports shows little girls that it is not bad to dream about becoming a professional athlete today, and it also gives them role models to look up to and mold their game around. Speaking of Role Model's many come to my mind, but I will talk about 3 in particular. The first sport's figure that comes 2005-02-20T06:20:01-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Rise-of-women-sports-in-American-A-Society-Changes-26278.aspx Health and Diet There are two major factors that determine the physical appearance of a person, how they feel and their weight. Diet and exercise is a great mediator in the way person looks, weighs and feels. Your diet will greatly impact on the way you look, the way you approach things and the amount you will be able to do physically. A good balanced diet consists of the five major food groups. No single food can provide all the essential nutrients needed for good health and well being. The five major food groups are: Bread and Cereal, Fruit, Vegetables, Meat and Meat Alternatives and the Milk Group. Bread and Cereal are recommended for six or seven serves per day. Fruit is recommended for two to three serves per day. Vegetables are recommended for four serves per day. Meat and Meat Alternatives are recommended for one serve per day. The Milk Group for a young or still growing person is of much greater importance than when the person has stoped growing. The reason for this is because while growing your body needs fats and dairy products for energy and nutrients. After growing has stoped your body will store this as fat because the need for energy and nutrients is not as great. If you follow these plans to eat [above and below] you will look and feel great, you will also be able to participate in more physical activities such as running, skipping and swimming. The food groups are broken up into three other groups: Eat Most, Eat Moderately and Eat Least [as seen in chart below]. The eat most food group consists of foods such as: wholegrain cereals, bread [preferably wholegrain], pasta, rice, vegetables and fruit. The eat moderately food group consists of foods such as: milk, cheese, yoghurt, lean meat, poultry, fish, nuts, eggs and pulses [e.g. soya beans]. The eat least food group contains foods like: butter, margarine, oils and sugar. Also to compensate for the fluids lost through perspiration, expiration and urine and faeces we should drink two to three litres of water per day. These ideas may contribute to general health and well-being if put into practice. Exercise will also help you lose weight and have higher self-esteem by burning kilojoules that will inturn make you thinner. Exercise will also work your muscles and make you more flexible and agile. By participating in sport and exercise you develop 2004-12-29T06:29:51-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Health,-Diet,-and-Physical-Fitness-26085.aspx Sport in Australian Society Australian people's lives are greatly affected by sport. In Australia, most people will either participate in sport or watch sport, weather it at the arena or on television, what ever you do it would be hard not be caught up in all the hype surrounding sport. A lot of people will participate on weekends at a social level, but some people will play representative sport, that is the reason that many Australians have come to think of themselves as a great sporting nation. It is these ideas that have allowed Australian athlete's to become world champions. People participate in sport not only for the physical values but the values of team spirit, sportsmanship, relaxation and for some financial rewards. Sport is - one or more people competing against another team or individual to see who will win. Sport also is - a game played at a non-competitive level. Some people however believe that competitive sport causes narrow-mindedness or that winning and competition lead to individualism and selfishness. Sport is open to people of any age or race. Anyone can participate in sport, however as you get older you may be limited physically to the amount or sport you play. Some other limitations may be the resources available, your age, your time available or the costs involved. A survey was said to be conducted by the courier mail titled, "Yes, We Really Are Sports Mad". The survey had the following results, 88% people in capital cities play sport with 1 in every 2 of those people taking part in at least four sports a week. Swimming was seen to be the favorite sport among participants with tennis, fishing, snooker and pool close behind. Also in this survey it was said 2 out of 3 Australians that live in capital cities will go to at least one sporting match a year. The reason a large number of Australian lives are affected by sport is because you hear about it every day, weather it be on the radio, in a newspaper or on television. The Courier-Mail devotes a section of the paper just to sport and so does the news services. On Foxtel and Galaxy there are two sports channels and on Optus Vision there are three. On the AM radio stations, there will be three or four minutes every half hour on sport. A large section of the media is devoted 2004-12-29T06:28:46-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Sports-in-Australian-Society-26084.aspx Shooting free throws is tough for basketball players on all levels. Here is how to shoot a free throw in five easy steps. Making a free throw in a basketball game should be simple. It’s only a fifteen foot shot, you’re in perfect line with the basket, and nobody is guarding you. But often times it can be a nightmare for players, from the grade school level all the way to the pros. Here are some ways to improve your free throw shooting: 1.) Relax before stepping to the free throw line. Before the referee hands you the ball to shoot, take some deep breaths. Walk around a little bit and get yourself mentally relaxed. Sometimes standing at the free throw line waiting for the other players to get set can put some undue pressure on you. Let everyone else get set before you do. 2.) Get your feet set. When the referee hands you the ball, set both of your feet where you feel most comfortable. If you’re young and jump forward a little bit when you shoot, that’s fine. Just allow for that little jump by stepping back a step from the line so you don’t jump over it when you shoot. If you are able to keep your feet still, get as close to the line as possible. It doesn’t matter where you stand or if you jump or not. The goal is to make the shot from behind the line. How you get it to go in doesn’t matter. There are no extra points for style. 3.) Have a routine for bouncing the ball. Some people like to bounce it three times. Some bounce it five. Some don’t bounce it at all. Whatever you do, be consistent each time. The more consistent you are, the more comfortable you will feel each time you step to the line. 4.) Ignore everything and everyone around you. It can be intimidating with players standing on each side of you watching you shoot. It’s even more intimidating if a big crowd is watching. You need to focus on the basket and on your routine. Picture yourself in your driveway, at practice, or somewhere where you feel comfortable. The more distractions you can eliminate, the better off you’ll be. 5.) Shoot the ball the same way each time. It’s all part of your routine. Use the same strength and same arm extension. 2004-12-28T06:10:38-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/How-to-consistently-shoot-a-free-throw-26053.aspx A Comprehensive Look At Knee Injuries In Sports The knee is a complex joint. There are many different injuries that can occur during sports. The most predominant type of injuries to the knee are those done to the Meniscus and the ligaments. There are two areas of ligaments that are commonly affected; the Cruciate ligaments and the Collateral ligaments. Within the Cruciate ligaments there are posterior and anterior injuries, and within the Collateral ligaments there are medial and lateral injuries. It is very important that these injuries be taken seriously in athletics due to the seriousness of their affects to the knee. One of the most commonly injured part of the knee is the meniscus. The meniscus is a wedge-like rubbery cushion where bones of your legs connect. The meniscal cartilage curves like the letter "c", and helps the knee joint carry weight, glide and turn in many directions. This helps prevent the bones in the leg from grinding against each other. The two Menisci are easily injured by the force of rotating the knee while bearing weight. A partial or total tear can occur and the serious of the injury depends on the location of the tear. When an athlete tears the meniscus he might experience a "popping" feeling, but he may still be able to continue playing. The following days after the tear the player will experience more pain accompanied by stiffness and swelling, tenderness in the joint line, and collection of fluid on the knee. Sever pain may occur if a fragment of the meniscus gets caught between the femur and tibia. Treatment for a mild meniscus tear is basic. Using the "RICE" formula, rest, ice, compression, and elevation; the knee may be able to heal on its own. Some doctors may recommend therapy to strengthen the muscle. If the tear does not heal on its own, repair may be necessary. Either through arthroscopic surgery or open surgery. These two surgeries will be performed to trim off the pieces of cartilage damaged by the injury. Injuries to the Anterior and Posterior Cruciate Ligaments are generally referred to as sprains. The ACL, Anterior Cruciate Ligament, is usually stretched or torn while when the feet are pointed in one direction and the knees are turned in the opposite direction. The PCL, Posterior Cruciate Ligament, is 2004-12-22T22:05:13-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/A-Comprehensive-Look-At-Knee-Injuries-In-Sports-25980.aspx Cases of Violence in Sports and How They Should Be Handled Violence in sports will always be a big issue although I don't think it will ever be truly resolved. In sports there is competition and where there is competition people are striving to be the best. There is a lot of strong emotion when people are trying to win for themselves or for their team. In sports as long as there is competition and high emotion, there will always be the potential for violence. The intense competition that is a part of sports can and often does lead to violence. The violence isn't always among the players of the sports being played. At a nine-year old soccer game in Staten Island parents of opposing teams became engaged in a verbal fight over a call that a referee made and it became a big brawl between parents. This shows the kids at that game that if their parents can engage in a fight with the opposing teams parents then that makes it right to throw an elbow in a game or shove someone. Yet in professional sports it isn't the athletes most of the time. Usually the fans are the ones to cause the riots and fights. Especially in the sport of soccer, the fans take the sport so serious and they aren't even playing in the game. Unhappy Corinthian fans said that the players were slacking off and so the fans gave the team a piece of their own mind by invading the field, cursing at the players and punching their own team. Corinthian fans have been known to turn against there own team in unfavorable times. These are obviously not true fans. A few years ago Latrell Spreewell was in an incident where he choked his coach. This brought major conflict to the NBA; they did not know what to do with Latrell. At the time he was on the Golden State Warriors, they needed to make the playoffs and to do this they needed Latrell. But to let him physically and orally assault his own coach and to get away with it, who knows what type of controversy this could bring to the basketball world. They had to do something with Latrell but what? If they suspended him, the team would have no chance of getting to the playoffs and, without the possibility 2004-12-20T03:25:53-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Cases-of-Violence-in-Sports-and-How-They-Should-Be-Handled-25850.aspx 50 Years of Speed The Goodyear Thunderdome was the first purpose built Oval speedway outside of the continent of America. Construction started in November 1984 and it was officially opened by the Mayor of Keilor on August 3rd. 1987 although it was christened by Americans Richard Petty, Bobby Hillin Jnr. and Rodney Combs along with local men Jim Richards,Graeme Crosby and Gary Rush. The first race was only a couple of weeks later when a 300 Km. Touring Car race was run on the combined Oval/road circuit.The race was won by Terry Sheil and John Bowe in a Nissan Skyline(the only time a Japanese car has won on the Thunderdome) from the Commodore of Larry Perkins and Bill O’Brien. Allan Grice had been quickest in practise with a lap of 1m.45.74s and he also set the fastest lap in the race with a time of 1m.46.17s. Later that year another race took place on the combined circuit and this was a round of the World Touring Car Championship.Pole position went to Klaus Ludwig in an Eggenberger Ford Sierra with a 1m.42.92s but in the race it was his team mates Steve Soper and Pierre Diuedonne who took the honours from Emanuelle Pirro and Roberto Ravaglia in a BMW M3. The race was not without problems as it began to rain very heavily just before the start and so for the only time a race was run on the Thunderdome in the wet. The other feature was that the combined circuit goes in a clockwise direction (same as for AUSCAR) which was fine for the locals but not so good for the European Fords and BMWs. The first Oval meeting was held on February 28th. 1988 and it was a mixture of Americans, mostly from the Winston West series,and Australians. A bonus for the organisers was that just 2 weeks before the event Bobby Allison, one of the imported stars, won the biggest NASCAR race of them all, the Daytona 500, giving the Thunderdome a huge publicity boost. A crowd of over 46,000 saw a typical NASCAR race which,of course, had a typical NASCAR multi car shunt.On lap 80 the cars of Allan Grice, Gary Collins, Dick Johnson, Brad Noffsinger, Harry Goulart, John Lawes, Terry Byers and Bill Venturini were all put out of the race after coming together in Turn 3 but again typical to NASCAR 2004-12-20T03:25:21-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/50-Years-of-Speed--25849.aspx After winning his third consecutive NBA championship, at the peak of his career, Michael Jordan, on October 6, 1993, announced his retirement shocking the entire sports world. Jordan said, “the mental aspect is not the same - the challenge is not as great. I promised myself - and I have said many times publicly - that when the mental challenge began to fade, I would leave. That time is now here.” He then decided to pick up the game of baseball, for 1994 baseball season, playing for the Birmingham Barons, an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox in the Class AA Southern League. With the mental challenge gradually returning, on March 18, 1995, Jordan publicly announced that he would rejoin the Chicago Bulls and play in the next day’s nationally televised game against the Pacers at Indianapolis. He stepped onto the court with a new jersey - the number 45 - a perfected fade away jumper, and whole new game. Jordan returned to the game, with only one ambition in mind, to prove to the NBA fans worldwide that he is, without a doubt, the greatest player ever. After his return, he was able to dominate the game and market, in such a way that no other player can compare with. Michael Jordan returned to the NBA in the middle of the regular season, in which the Chicago Bulls were in a disaster. With a pitiful 34-31 record, Jordan’s return was the team’s only hope. Although looking a little rusty in his first game, he was soon able to pick up it up in his fifth game with an unforgettable 55 points against the New York Knicks. With Jordan the Bulls went 13-4 to finish the season with 47-35 overall, bringing the team to the playoffs. Jordan proved that even after years off he could come back at an old age and actually dominate the league more than he did previously. He showed that one could still lead the league well into his thirties. He may have been a little less agile, but in compensation Jordan was a far more effective and controlled jump shooter, three-point scoring threat, and remained an outstanding all-around contributor. Only after his return, in the 95-96 season, did Jordan start all 100 games for the Bulls, becoming the first and only player to 2004-11-29T16:34:42-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Michael-Jordan--25776.aspx Based on their recently completed survey of high school athletes, Mayo Clinic doctors are recommending a large-scale study on the use and long-term effects of creatine, a supplement used by athletes who believe it enhances athletic performance. The survey of high school athletes completed at the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center showed that users of creatine usually rely on friends for their information about the supplement and most either aren’t aware of the dosages they take, or take more than the recommended amounts. The Mayo Clinic authors used anonymous surveys returned by male and female high school athletes during the August 1999 pre-participation examinations to determine the level of use and knowledge about creatine. Of the 328 students surveyed (182 males and 146 females), 27 athletes (26 male, 1 female) or 8.2 percent, reported creatine use. Most of the users were high school football players, who received their information about it from friends. And most of them reported they did not know how much creatine they were taking or reported taking amounts that were more than the recommended doses. The article “Creatine Use Among a Select Population of High School Athletes,” appears in the December issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, and is among the first to look at the use of creatine among users in the 14 to 18 year-old age group. Creatine users in this population reported relatively minor side effects, such as: diarrhea, cramps and loss of appetite. Multiple studies have failed to document performance enhancement with creatine supplementation, the authors report. Both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Collegiate Athletic Conference (NCAA) have expressed concern about creatine supplementation practices. Anecdotal reports of muscle cramping, strains, dehydration, gastrointestinal distress, nausea and seizures have emerged, but long-term prospective population-based studies are lacking. Creatine use has generally outpaced scientific study and athletes at all levels may feel that it is a “safe” alternative to anabolic steroids. A 1997 survey of NCAA athletes found almost one-third reporting the use of creatine, while the use of creatine by American professional football players has been estimated from 25 to 75 percent. “Given the uncertainties regarding effects and side effects of creatine supplementation in the high school population, healthcare professionals should strive to become unbiased sources of information for athletes regarding the use of creatine,” the authors write. The authors also stressed that further study 2004-10-31T03:13:48-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Creatine-Supplementation-in-High-School-Athletes-25663.aspx VIOLENCE IN SPORTS “…Steeler running back Rocky Bleier, whose war time experiences, not so oddly, offer some insights. To Bleier, there are interesting parallels between survival in war and survival in the NFL. ‘The experiences with war injuries and football injuries are quite the same,’ he said.” (Casay) The injuries that are accumulated during sports are rapidly increasing to the point that there are injured players on every team in each game that is played. This is especially true in the most physical professional sports, i.e., NFL and the NHL. Most of these injuries are directly related to the increasing violent nature of pro athletes. “`The cost of the aggression -- the punishment -- has to be greater than the benefits,’ said Dr. Brenda Bredemeier, sports psychology consultant at the University of California-Berkley. The latest outbreak of violence occurred in Bredemeier’s back yard, Oakland, where (Latrell) Sprewell attacked Coach P.J. Carlesimo during practice and, according to published reports, threatened to kill him if he wasn’t traded.”(Detroit Press) Pro athletes are committing criminal acts and the law for the most part is letting them get away with crimes. Another case of violence by a pro athlete happened recently. Ray Lewis was initially charged with murder along with two of his friends for an altercation that happened in Atlanta after the Superbowl on January 31, 2000. The three men got into a fight with two other men and killed them. “Lewis pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and Superior Court Judge Alice D. Bonner sentenced Lewis to 12 months’ probation, the maximum sentence for a first-time offender.”(CNNSI) This case made me think to myself, “Would a man facing murder charges with two of his friends be able to walk a free man with no jail time at all and still be accepted by society?” Pro athletes receive star status by the public and the media, encouraging law enforcement officials to look the other way whenever they break the law. Our judicial system in turn hands out less severe penalties for criminal offences committed by pro athletes than the average criminal offender. Violence in professional sports is seen in the actions of one player against another, but is now rapidly increasing outside of the games to where the players are now being deemed as criminals as well as athletes and tarnishes their image as role models to kids. Athletes in pro sports are 2004-10-30T23:10:44-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Violence-in-Sports--25651.aspx The Art of Streetball Street basketball, the back-bone of what basketball stands for today. "Streetball is more than just a game, it's a glimpse of heaven on earth." For those of you who don't know what streetball is all about, there is no word to describe what you're missing out on. It's all about freedom. Streetball is the most open-minded and free flowing game in the world. It gives kids, teenagers and adults the opportunity to test their creativity, stretch their limits and boundaries, and most importantly, lets them be themselves on the court without being told what to do. "Streetball is definately about respect," said Shane from the AND1 team. "This is Respect, this is tradition, and this is what I stand for," said Hannibal, court announcer from Rucker Park. "Without respect for the game, there is no game." -said a streetball league player. The rules for streetball are simple. There are no set rules, the only rule is to respect the game. Meaning you must respect foul calls or non-foul calls when they are made. Those players who have a weak game and can't rely on their talent and willpower to win, they tend to make bad foul calls which earns them disrespect on and off the court. Disrespecting the free flowing streetball style is disrespecting the game. Fouls, travelling, double-dribble and out of bounds are usually not a big issue when it comes to pick-up basketball. The game relies more on earning the ball instead of saying, "Your toe was out of bounds, my ball." It's all about earning the ball, playing good D, pulling down a board or making a big block. Defense is your only weapon to getting the ball back. On Offense you are in total control of what happens next. There's no coach saying pass and screen away, there's no player saying you ain't meant to be handling the rock and there's no clock saying you got 24 seconds to do something. It's all about freedom right here. You make the next move, left, right, pass or shoot. This is what gives the strugglers the opportunity to achieve, the quiet players become out spoken players and the weak players become the strong players. Streetball and basketball are two different games. Basketball is organised by referees, rules and boundaries kids must abide by. Where as streetball is almost the opposite. Streetball lets players test their creativity 2004-06-13T00:19:28-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Art-of-Streetball-25165.aspx Not many people know the onus of being a student athlete in college. This burden set on them has caused the graduation rate of scholarship players to average at about fifty percent from 1995 to 1998. In order to be eligible to play, the athletes must be full-time students , which means taking at least twelve units a semester. Because these athletes are taking so many classes, they must make time for a considerable amount of studying and homework. Then add up the amount of practice their sport requires and I doubt they will find a second to rest. Student athletes are the hardest working students in college. Most student athletes have a demanding and rigorous schedule. This is partly because of the required twelve units minimum a semester to qualify as a full-time student. Without the full-time student status, they would be ineligible to play sports. That means at least three hours a day of courses on average. My schedule is similar to this, in that I am taking fourteen units this semester. It averages out to about three and a half hours of class a day. Scheduling the class times can also be a burden. It took my friend, Chris Carter, who plays baseball for Chapman University, two weeks to plan his class schedule around his job and his training. An athlete cannot have class on Fridays because some games occur on Fridays. Therefore, it makes it even harder to plan. My physical therapist, Jim Hairston, is a teacher at Chapman University and he said that many of his students who play sports have a harder time staying awake because of lack of sleep. These could all attribute to the recent fall in the graduation rate. Another conundrum student athletes must face is finding time for studying and homework. With classes half the day and training the other half, that leaves the night for studying. Most athletes do not get started until about eight o’clock because of late practices. Mr. Reames, a teacher at Foothill High School, said that we should expect to spend about four hours a night studying , and that does not include homework. Even if the athlete had only two hours of homework 2004-06-10T04:50:06-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Assiduous-College-Athletes--25099.aspx