In chapter two of the book, The Sports Gene, the author David Epstein compares and contrasts two high jumpers that have achieved their greatness in very different ways. Donald Thomas is a basketball player who happened to be in the right place at the right time when a fellow high jumper challenged him to clearing a high jump, which he surprisingly did with ease. The other jumper; Stefan Holm, was a trained professional who had won the previous championships. These two athletes could not be anymore different, but have just the same ability in their sport.…
The short, sudden fiction “Popular Mechanics,” is written by Raymon Carter. The text portrays a couple who fight for their child. This story symbolizes the hardship of love and letting go. It shows the both the man and woman not letting go of the child, literally. If had they let go, the child will have been in the possession of the other person, but the child will be unharmed. The baby symbolizes the bond they had in the past. Neither of them want to let go of the beauty they share, but one or the other is left to be torn apart from their loss. Knowing this brings a deeper metamorphic side and greater intensity toward the reader.…
Jorge Borges and Julio Cortazar use magical realism to aid the reader reveal new aspects of reality. In the tales “The Garden of Forking Paths” by Jorge Borges and “Letter to a Lady in Paris” by Julio Cortazar.The use of magical realism aids the reader develop deeper understandings of the subjects in the work.…
Many people have thoughts about different places and what they are going to be like. Like Pablo Medina a 12-year-old child that went to the united states and had an experience that was not as wonderful. In the memoir “Arrival: 1960” Medina came over from cube to start a fresh new life, Medina believed that life would change by moving countries. What hit him was experiences can have change on one's perspective of a bright, picturesque perception to a dark pessimism.…
Fewer kids play amid pressure.” by Machael Rosenwald, the author addresses an issue widely faced by many children. Quitting sports because of the pressure their parents put on to them to keep playing to hopefully become a professional “elite athlete”. A survey was taken to see what the top factors contributing to kids happiness was. The results helped to prove the fact that children aren’t in games for winning or being the best. This is proven when the article reads, “...low on the list: playing in tournaments, cool uniforms and expensive equipment. High on the list: positive team dynamics, trying hard, positive coaching and learning”(Rosenwald 3). As this shows, children enjoy not being pushed to constantly be the best. Instead, they prefer being encouraged and not being forced into…
Renowned psychologist, Carol Dweck correctly portrays how athletes incredible performance is directly connected to their growth mindset. Dweck uses Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and how he rebounded from failure. Through his mother telling him to ‘. . .go back and discipline himself. . .’ (86) and countless hours of hard work, he turned himself into the greatest basketball of all time. Through hard work and never giving up, Jordan proves Dweck’s point of how effective growth mindsets are.…
The movie Hoop Dreams traced a poor young talented African American named Arthur Agee from grade eight to college. Arthur hoped to play professional basketball in the future to help his family to escape poverty. Despite the fact that his family background and the neighborhood he lived in, disadvantaged him to pursue his goal in many ways. Firstly, Arthur is determined to play professional basketball, in order to help out his family. Secondly, his ability to adapt difficult circumstances played a significant role toward his success in basketball. Thirdly, his education value hoping that playing basketball could lead him to a college education. For Author playing basketball, it is not only a fun activity for him, but it also acted as a tool to…
Allen Iverson is one of the most famous basketball players not only because of his talent, but also because of his reckless attitude outside of the game. The documentary shows how Iverson acted as a child and shows how he committed himself to sports so he could get out of the projects. The film shows how he struggled with adversity and was eventually able to overcome it by dedicating himself to basketball. There are many psychological principles in the documentary that relate to how Iverson was able to leave the projects because of his dedication to sports. The main principles featured in the documentary are situation approach, trait-centered view, need achievement theory, consequences, outcome goals and mental toughness. These traits focus on Iverson’s personality and how he rose to fame as an unconventional basketball player.…
Worsnop, Richard L. "High School Sports." CQ Researcher 5.35 (1995): 825-848. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Ridley, Folsom, PA. 2 Dec. 2007 .…
King, Peter. “CHAOS BY DESIGN. (Cover Story)” Sports Illustrated (2011): 46. Master FILE Elite. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.…
The main issue that the field of sports faces today and in the future are gambling, drug abuse, emphasis on winning in youth sports and burnout of young athletes. The youth league has major turn games into all about winning is most important which cause athletes to burnout. The youth burnout syndrome occurs when a youth athlete has worsening performance despite intense training.Coaches and parents have pressure kids that show some talent for the sport, to show “commitment” by specializing in a single sport. The major issue of coaches and parents pressuring is the obsession with their child getting on all-state teams, scholarships and pro contracts. The result would lead to the constant high levels of physiologic or emotional stress, fatigue,…
According to C. W. Mills, “social imagination is an awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person’s choices and perceptions. It’s a way of seeing our own and other people’s behavior in relationship to history and social structure (1959)” (OpenStax College, 2015, p.6). Sociological imagination is the ability to see individual behavior within the larger society and the impact of society over each individual’s private live. Therefore, personal troubles and public issues are very closely related.…
The limitations include all the 11 high schools that participated in the study had provided a licensed athletic trainer (Cournoyer & Tripp, 2014). Another limitation of the study noted was the questionnaire was distributed out to very large groups were the players could have helped each other on the answers even though the researchers and coach were present at the time of the questionnaire (Cournoyer & Tripp,…
Since its beginning over a century ago, basketball has evolved from a simple form of exercise with only a few rules to a highly competitive and complex national sport. Basketball was invented by James Naismith at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891 (Fox 11-13). It began as an activity for the “‘ball-game’ void” months of winter (Hanson 65), and Naismith had five standards for the game. He wanted a ball that could be handled by a player’s hands; no one was to run with the ball, and anyone could grab the ball from another player as long as the ball was in play. There was to be no personal contact, and the goal was to be raised from the ground. He created the idea and standards for basketball by combining certain aspects of American…
It is a phenomenon that many teenagers have played competitive sports from the time they were young children. Some of them start so young as five years old. Whether or not they should do this, there are different opinions, some people think they should not start at so early age that they will have to move away from home and leave school. However, I strongly believe that exceptionally talented young athletes should be allowed to play professional sports. It is a good choice for them, even though they will have to move away from home and leave school.…