My name is David Sims, and I’m from Chicago, Illinois.
Since childhood, sports have been
very important to me. I started playing
sports at the age of 10. I had the
luxury of having the park district right across the street from my house, so
there was always a sport or activity for me to engage in. My first sport I played competitively was
soccer. I learned the fundamentals and
quickly rose to be one of the better players on my team. At the age of 13, I made the decision to trade
in my soccer cleats for baseball spikes.
I played baseball throughout high school. I was an all conference player my senior
year. I did not continue my baseball career after high school because my young
egotistic self felt that my skills were too good to only play for a D2 or D3
college.
I think a society is a specific
community of people who interact with one another. In an ideal world, everyone in the community
would get along and socialize in harmony and peace, but that is not always the
case. Sport plays a huge role in many
societies. I think it is important to
study the relationship between sport and society because sport affects society
and vice versa. Sometimes, events in society correlate directly
with events in sports.
I am most passionate about safety
in sport. I have seen many injuries that
could have been avoided by rule moderations or equipment enhancements. Sport needs to be safe to preserve its
positive reputation. I like when sport
organizations modify or add rules that makes the game safer, especially in
youth sports. I think it is important to
instill the correct fundamentals and techniques to the youth in order to reduce
injury and preserve the quality of sport.
In class, I talked about how
Michael Jordan was a significant figure because he helped bring the city of
Chicago together. During the Jordan Era,
The city rallied behind the Chicago Bulls’ success. This past summer I watched a friend compete
in an inner city basketball league. This
league had teams that represented the west and south side of Chicago. With all the violence going on in Chicago, it
was nice to see different societies brought together in peaceful harmony to
enjoy the game of basketball. I believe
MJ’s contribution to sport have made events like this possible. The championship game was at the United
Center, and my friend’s team won.
Brandon Silva
ReplyDelete9/2/14
David, I enjoyed your introduction particularly when you mentioned your concern for safety within sport. It seems like this has been an issue lately, especially with concussions. Most notably, the NFL seems to have taken the most drastic strides to protect player’s safety in recent years. It seems that many who are opposed to these rule changes argue that the new rules inherently change the nature of the game. One might argue that by changing the rules and penalizing players for certain hits, it takes away from the fundamental nature of the game. Outside of football, I have heard reports of people petitioning to do away with heading in soccer at the youth level in an attempt to avoid concussions. Obviously, heading the ball is a major aspect of the game of soccer and removing it could arguably alter the sport. My first question is how might you respond to the argument that some rule changes may inherently change a sport? Additionally are there any other safety issues outside of these that you would like to see addressed?
Brandon,
DeleteI agree that rule changes might change the nature of the game. Any kind of change to a sport can be seen as taking away from the game, for example, instant reply in baseball. I think it boils down to is what these organizations feel that society will accept. Lets say the NFL says we are going to play two-hand tag football, in an attempt to make the game safer. Even though the league is trying to “improve” the league, society will hate this idea because the game will change completely. Finding that middle ground is hard. Outside what you have already mentioned, I would like to see Little League address the use of aluminum bats.
-David
David (and Brandon),
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you bring up the subject of safety in sports - especially football, with all the concerns about concussions. After today's class, I was in a meeting where the conversation turned to research that is being done on this very subject. One of the suggestions that was made is that perhaps during practice, players need to play without their helmets and pads, so they learn to tackle properly - not leading with their heads. The analogy was made to rugby, where tackling does not lead to nearly as many injuries. And of course rugby players do not wear pads or helmets. Another suggestion was made that perhaps in junior soccer, players who are 14 years of age or younger will not be allowed to "head" the ball. This seems to be in agreement with what Brandon wrote.
Good discussion on these topics and nice introduction, David.
Dr. Spencer
David,
ReplyDeleteLike the previous two comments, I am interested in your passion for safety in sports. I am a big football fan, and obviously football comes with huge risks in safety. Concussions, torn ligaments, broken bones, and other injuries plague the NFL and have it searching desperately for some way to reduce these injuries or explain them away. Since you are so passionate about the safety aspect of sports, I'd be interested in hearing any ideas you might have as to how the NFL could change some rules/procedures or equipment to improve the safety of the players. Also, do you think the NFL is at risk of running itself into major legal problems because of player safety, and possibly an eventual closing of the league (it has been discussed in media recently.)
Joey Durant
David,
ReplyDeleteI am also intrigued by your introduction. I would say from a youth standpoint, safety is the number one aspect for a parent. No parent wants to see their kid injured or put their child in danger. I agree that the NFL needs to implement some system that decreases the head to head hits. I have seen in youth football leagues they have been using a "heads up" style of play and encouraging the players to lead with their shoulders instead of their head. Obviously, not all plays and hits are the same, so there will be some grey areas on accidental contact, collisions, etc. But stemming off NFL helmets, and I am not sure if you are a hockey fan, but hockey helmets are (in my opinion) so behind in safety compared to NFL helmets. I am not arguing that football hits aren't hard or anything like that, but NHL players face the danger of getting checked or elbowed in the head, crashing into the boards, or worse, getting hit with a 100 mph slap shot straight to the face. Being from Chicago you must remember Duncan Keith losing 7 teeth from taking a puck the the face. There are some regulations and suspensions given in the NHL about head contact, but sooner or later I think we will see more serious injuries due to lack of protection of the face and head in hockey. Just a thought since every comment was directed towards the NFL.
Mike Harrington
Mike,
DeleteI definitely agree that hockey has some safety issues, and I remember Keith’s teeth getting knocked out. I’m not too familiar with hockey’s protective helmet. It looks like a helmet with an eye protector, which leaves the mouth area vulnerable. I would think hockey would have the most protective gear due to the amount of contact. I’m sure the NHL and NFL has a team/committee charged with trying to make the game safer. It’s probably harder on the NHL because due to the low scoring atmosphere, fans are attractive to the big hits and fights.