Deviance Within Sports

Deviance has become very prominent in all sports. I think the major problem is that the best players are the ones who get the most attention, and to be the best people are willing to do whatever it takes. No one cares about the guy who worked his butt off every practice but just never performed at a high level, people want to see unbelievable plays, and people want to see the impossible occur. I think that is why in baseball in particular, steroids became so prominent. It became almost boring to watch...until Mark and Sammy began killing balls, hit homers left and right, and all of sudden baseball was the most entertaining thing to watch. So what does the next average guy do? Well he realizes these guys aren’t natural so he starts juicing, before you know it Bonds is breaking homerun records and everyone appears to follow their lead. Before any of us realized it appeared everyone was taking steroids...but at the end of the day it was our fascination in their perceived ability that made them want to become better. It was no longer about personal growth. It was about giving people what they wanted to see, because if fans are happy, your paycheck is going to be smiling to. But everyone wants to be the best, because the best gets the most attention and makes the most money. That is just the way it is...so why do we judge people for trying to become the best? We are the one's putting them on this pedestal, yet at the same time frown upon their wrongdoing, even though it was obvious from the get go that people such as Barry Bonds just randomly put on 50lbs of muscle of but we had no idea until the tests came back positve. No, it's called being naive and ignorant, we want to the best and support them and pretend like they are doing things, the "right" way.

-Erik Kalfus 

   Kin 332I T/Th 12-145

Oscar Pistorius in the Olympics.

This post is about Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee runner who participated in the 400 m and 4 x 400 meter relay race.  Oscar is the first amputee runner to take part in the Olympics other than the Paralympics.  What makes Oscar such a special case is his incredible ability to run, however, many feel that his prosthetic legs give him an advantage over other runners.  Earlier in his running career, there was a ban on his prosthetic by the International Association of Athletics Federation in 2007.  After a successful appeal, he was able to compete in competitions again.  Swimuit Illustrated did a lengthy article about Oscar and his prosthetic legs.  To summarize the article, it brought in eight physiologist and biomechanics experts who had no affiliation in Oscars testing to judge his legs and their advantage/disadvantage.  The decision was split between four believing his legs were and advantage, and the other four saying there were more disadvantages to his legs than there are benefits.  I honestly feel like he does have an advantage.  However, this doesn't mean to say that he is a bad athlete or he doesn't deserve to compete in races.  Only time and research will show whether he is at and advantage or disadvantage.  Until that time, i will continue to enjoy watching his races with other competitors.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/david_epstein/08/03/oscar-pistorius-london-olympics/index.html

-Vince Dinh
Kin 332I (T/TH 2:00)

Performance Enhancement Film

Last week in class we watched part of the film "Bigger, Stronger, Faster". It was about how performance enhancing anabolic steroids are conceived in in sport culture as well as in American society. The film captured my interest because I have always assumed that anabolic steroids were an adversary to any user. Sure, you could be a spectacular athlete, but the negative affects of steroids far outweighed the benefits in my eyes. I have always been told that drugs in general are essentially bad for anyone to use. Anabolic steroids have always fallen into that category. According to the film, most of the negative side effects from anabolic steroids are only recognized in a small percentage of the user population. So why is it that in modern American society that performance enhancement is frowned upon? Just like the film portrayed, anabolic steroids are the antagonist secret weapon while the hero (usually portrayed patriotically) relies on work ethic and determination. The WWE and Rocky movies are a prime examples of hypocrisy when it comes to the message being delivered and the truth behind those gigantic biceps. After watching the film, I felt that both sides of the issue were addressed equally. As for my opinion on the use of anabolic steroids in sports, I think I still need to do some more research to be persuaded into choosing a side.

-Taylor Ahuero (Kin 332I T/Th 2:00pm)

Youth Sports: Why do parents get involved?

After last weeks lecture and discussion about parents involvement in youth sports I became very interested in this topic. I think that it is wonderful for parents to be involved in their childrens’ life especially bringing encouragement through sports, but is there a limit on how much parents should be involved? With this day and age many parents are consumed in their own lives trying to get by to get food on the table so any involvement that parents can take part in I believe is vital. Sometimes though, it seems that parents get involved for the wrong reasons. I found more information on this topic on

childrenhttp://www.safekids.org/assets/docs/ourwork/press-releases/fact-sheet-parental.pdf.

On this website it explained that “there are more than 2.5 million adults who serve as volunteer coaches, yet less than 10 percent of these individuals have any formal coaching education.” So then why are these parents getting involved? There are the obvious reasons such as getting their children involved and staying active, but I believe sometimes it goes deeper then this. One study found that “32 percent of children are motivated to participate in sports by their parents’ desire for them to join a team.” Is there such thing as too much involvement?

Kristen Van Well

Kin 332i t/th 9:30am

Sports in Social Networks and Social Change

I was on twitter a few weeks ago browsing my time line and came across a tweet posted by Landon Donovan. He is one of the top professional soccer players in the league who plays for the LA Galaxy. Donovan tweeted about his life changing experience when he helped children hear for the first time by giving them hearing aids. Galaxy played against the Philippine Azkals in the Philippines and brought doctors and physicians with them to do free medical treatments to help the poor. I thought it was very sweet hearing this side of Donovan and it only inspired me to continue helping the unfortunate. Professional athletes have so much power in this world because of the fan base they accumulate through their career. Professionals have the voice to tell people to get out there and do something life changing for the betterment of themselves. What better way to spread this word than to use social networks? Everyone today is connected online and uses the internet for communication. Professional basketball player, Paul Pierce, constantly tweets about health awareness and obesity among children. He makes posts for programs kids could join to participate in physical activities and charities that people could donate to help this epidemic. Many people admire athletes and some wish to be just like their favorites. If the professionals continue to promote helping communities through their volunteer work then it would likely influence their fans to do the same and make a change in society. Sports is powerful in the American culture and are constantly followed by people through social networks. As they share their stories about doing good things for other people, it will get others to do the same.

The NBA Is Back In Action!

For many basketball fans, so anxiously waiting for the NBA lockout to come to an end, hearing the news that the NBA season was back was amazing. Being a Laker fan, I was so excited to hear the news and was counting down the days until Christmas, not only to spend time with family and open gifts, but to watch the opening game of Laker basketball. As much as this news was exciting, more news was soon to come that would leave Laker fans in utter disbelief and shock. Rumors were going around of different trades that were going to happen, players moving from team to team, and new faces wearing the jersey that every fan loves to wear. Talk of Chris Paul and Dwight Howard coming to L.A. to join the Lakers was spreading like wildfire on sports shows, in classes, and among friends. Everyone was thrilled to be a Laker fan, knowing that the addition of these two players would be a great way for the Lakers to make their comeback this season. But who was going to get traded for these two players? There was talk of Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol, and none other than the great Lamar Odom, When I heard that these were the players we were going to trade for Paul and Howard, I couldn't believe it. Lamar is one of my favorite players on the Lakers and the team seemed like not having Gasol would just be out of the ordinary. I was very upset by this announcement and felt a sense of resentment toward the Laker organization. However, the NBA had denied these trades to happen which led me to hold on tight to the hope that these 3 players would not be leaving L.A. Unfortunately, the trade of Lamar Odom did go through and he will now be playing for the Mavericks. I am really sad that he is leaving because he was such a good player and hearing interviews from him, you can tell he is very upset to be leaving L.A. Lamar recently married Khloe Kardashian and the two love birds have established a home in L.A. alongside both of their families. Lamar will have to leave the families behind to move to Dallas with his wife, which seemed very upsetting to him. On top of that, interviews with Kobe Bryant, the L.A. Laker's MVP, showed that Kobe was also really disheartened to learn that his teammate and one of his closest friends was going to be moving out of L.A. to play for the team that the Lakers lost to in the playoffs last season.
If the loss of Lamar wasn't enough, Chris Paul ended up signing to the L.A. Clippers and Dwight Howard has began to grow faint in talks of coming to L.A. Not only did the Lakers not get the two players that they wanted from the beginning, they have lost one of their players who has grown up in L.A. as originally a Clipper, but has played for the Lakers for many seasons.
With all of this sad news, I will still be supporting my Lakers this season as they battle back and show the other teams that they can still be one of the best teams around. I am going to a game in the middle of January and I am counting down the days until I will be sporting my fresh new Bryant jersey in the Staples Center among the many other Los Angeles Lakers fans!!!!


Stephanie Jarrett
Kin 332i
Tues/Thurs 12:30-1:45

My thoughts on Lifeguard competitions

If you have yet to experience a lifeguard competition, you should do yourself the favor and see one this summer. There are many that occur during the summer but one of the more popular events is the Lifeguard Taplin that is done during the surf festival in the south bay. This event is essentially a relay race that has four swimmers, four paddlers, and then four dory (pretty much a rowboat that goes through the surf) teams.
In terms of excitement, the swim portion of the relay is admittedly a little bit dull because there is not much to see. The paddle leg of the race gets pretty interesting if there is big surf. Next is the dories. These 300 plus pound rowboats operated by two brave men or women must get through the surf to round a flag that is in the water, and then come back into the shore to tag the next dory team. The trick to this leg of the event, is to get through the surf without flipping or crashing into another dory. Because of the carnage that normally comes with this leg of the event, it has easily become the fan favorite.
Last summer, a friend and myself decided that we wanted to be in the dory portion of the relay, mostly because of how fun it looks. We tried out and were the fifth fasted boat, so we became the fast boat in our agency's "B" team. Our team finished in the middle of the pack, but our "A" team got first. We were proud to be a part of the competition, and decided that we will try out again next summer, but work out more to get that "A" team slot and hopefully be a part of the winning team next year and get our names on the Taplin Bell.

Kyle A. (KIN 332I S3200)