Apolo Ohno Speed Skating

In “Children Need to Play, Not Compete,” Jessica Statsky argues that younger children should not be involved in overly competitive sports. Statsky wrote that organized competitive sports were to the disadvantage of children both physically and psychologically. In youth athletics, some parents and coaches put their own dreams in front of their children 's’ well-being by stressing winning. Statsky concludes “all organized sports activities” to be remade as a more enjoyable game regardless of each athlete’s ability and athleticism. The author states many issues that kids have when they are forced to play a sport just to win or that they don’t enjoy. Some kids just don 't enjoy sports, but their parents force it on them. Certain organized sports programs promote winning over physical skills and self-esteem. Statsky brings up valid points that early childhood shouldn’t involve intense physical competition, which is associated with the risk of injury to the body and mind.

At this camp Danny’s friends are all in different groups, leaving him all alone. To make matters worse for Danny, all of the kids in his group are a lot bigger, faster, and skilled more than he is. This makes Danny start to regret coming to this camp. At the beginning of camp nothing is going right for Danny. His coach doesn't like him, his friends aren’t with him, and a boy named Rasheed Hill, whose team got beat by Danny’s team in the championship game

Chris Givens was a middle school boy and he loved to play baseball. Chris lived and breathed baseball. He would watch every game he could. Also, the only sport he played was baseball so he was the best at it. However, there was one problem for Chris. He was not one the most popular kids. Only the most popular kids were picked onto the school's baseball team. Chris had tried to act cool and even hang out with cool kids, but it never worked out. Even though Chris was not like everyone on the baseball team he is determined to be the first kid to make the baseball who wasn’t popular.

In the beginning, fifteen-year-old Felton Reinstein had always been on the small side. When he starts to develop, everything changes. During gym class one day, Felton smokes all of the football players in a 600-yard race. Felton was never into sports, but there was no doubt he was “stupid fast.” He explores his newfound athletic prowess, while his mom grows in depression, and he still has to put up with his annoying brother named Andrew.

Coaches are always trying to push athletes to be able to accomplish the best of their abilities. However, for nine boys it was a little bit more then their coach pushing them; it was dedication and the ability to over come obstacles. In an award winning novel by Daniel James Brown The Boys in the Boat is a true story about nine young men that came from low income families and were able to accomplish something inspiring. All nine boys in the boat that were racing for gold in the Berlin 1936 Olympics came from working class families. Coming from next to nothing and putting the past behind them they won the gold medal in Berlin. The book was primarily focused on Joe Rantz, one of the nine boys that were racing for gold. Coming from a very unstable background, his mother passing away when he was a young boy, and abandonment, Joe used these early life hardships to make him

Author Kris Vervaecke wrote an essay titled, "A Spectator's Notebook," for Writers in Sports. She talked about sports and how they affect different generations. Vervaecke supports her claim by showing how much she loves sports and by using her children as examples throughout the essay. Her son, Ben, represents strength, determination, and talent because of how successful he was in golf, and before he leaves for college he puts in Michael Jordan’s Air Time, that united Ben and Vervaecke. On the other hand, Vervaecke’s daughter, Emily, is a bench-warmer and was told she is only smart not athletic, so she was “benched” in the classroom. She then talks about her other son, Andrew, and describes him as the true athlete of the family because of how much people liked him. Vervaecke’s purpose is to show that sports are not just about something fun to do or watch, but can have a motivational impact that can affect someone's emotions, and she does this by developing an influential tone.  Although Vervaecke mainly talks about her experiences and her childrens throughout the essay, her experiences apply to many students across the country. Many student-athletes are very successful in their futures because of what sports have taught them. Students should be involved in sports because student-athletes learn responsibility, how to manage their time, and take care of their psychological

In Charles O. Jones' essay "It Ain't Broke", the author counters those who critique the American system of separated powers. He argues that having such a system is useful in preventing the passing of legislation that hadn't been debated enough to predict its consequences. Jones has high confidence that the current system of government will almost always find a way to succeed, and that divided governments accomplish equally as much reform as unified governments. However, in the case of the politics leading up to the passing of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, his theories are disproved.

Throughout the book “Fellowship of the ring”, Frodo Baggins, the central character, embarks on a journey not only literally, but mentally. Frodo discovers traits about himself that he never knew he had, or discovers that he could do what he thought he could never do. Frodo’s journey in this book is to take the “Ring of Power” to Rivendell, the elvish kingdom, and protect it from Sauromon, and the knights of Sauron. He brings along his bodyguard, Samwise Gamgee, and they meet Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took along the way. Frodo encounters Aragorn as well, who serves as a very useful person to his mental development, as Aragorn teaches him many things. Frodo is able to deliver

He sees himself far beyond his peers, and continues to maintain this pace, believing himself to have mastered this passion, or to merely have the physical endowments for it. Before he has passed the sixth bend, however, his lack of form immediately shatters, he drags himself in exhaustion. Once he sees the crowd he passed overtake him and jog out of sight, only then has he realized the necessity of restraint, of sobriety, of symmetry, and, above all, of form.

Jessica Statsky, in her essay, “Children need to Play, Not Compete” attempts to refute the common belief that organized sports are good for children. She sees organized sports not as healthy pass-times for children, but as onerous tasks that children do not truly enjoy. She also notes that not only are organized sports not enjoyable for children, they may cause irreparable harm to the children, both emotionally and physically. In her thesis statement, Statsky states, “When overzealous parents and coaches impose adult standards on children's sports, the result can be activities that are neither satisfying nor beneficial to children” (627). While this statement is strong, her defense of it is weak.

The main idea of this paper is to introduce you to what really happens as a high school athlete and the things you learn along the way. High school sports is way more than just playing the sport, it shows you what you are really made of and how to handle problems life is going to throw at you. The adversity you face as an athlete carries over to real world problems and you have been there and done that, so handling adversity is second nature. This information comes from all my coaches, myself and Friday Night Lights. I feel I have already grown as a person by competing in athletics and calling other people my brothers. Not only does high school athletics help you in the long run, but it helps you with problems you have now.

In light of Jessica Statsky’s book ‘Children need to play, not compete’, she argued that, with the vivid increase of sporting competition lately in the United States, children have been exposed to the adults hard and rigorous training by devoted parents and coaches at their tender age making a game that is supposed to be fun and joy look hectic and strenuous to them due to the standard of training they are made to go through and also the belief that they must always win thereby making them lose the spirit of sportsmanship, and neither gaining satisfaction nor benefiting from them. In as much as sports are good for physical, mental and emotional growth, it should be organized in a manner that the youths will enjoy the game at the end of it rather than the fear of being hurt or defeated by the other competitors.

The fact that young people now have the opportunity to get into professional sports at a younger age now encourages this trend. If a young person is very successful at a sport, the media will rave on about them and the publicity will only force them to work harder. Freddy Adu, a thirteen-year-old soccer sensation, is getting large amounts of publicity for his remarkable skills (Goodall, 2003). He has been featured in Sports Illustrated where he was referred to as “the prodigy of American soccer” (Wahl, 2003). Newsweek has also included articles about this remarkable soccer player, calling him “a preteen phenom” (Starr, 2004). ESPN Soccernet also reported information about his amazing skills (Goodall, 2003). The publicity of Adu is making this young athlete a star and keeping other young athletes focused on similar opportunities for themselves.

Therefore, what started as a devastating baseball accident, turns into a cultural friendship, through which the boys encourage and strengthen each

The continuous victories of Soviet Russia and East Germany were no accident. Their governments took great care to build excellent training facilities and fund sports clubs to train their athletes. The states would pick out promising students and put them under extensive training in state-operated training bases and specialized sports schools. Local schools would have intense rivalry for spots in these training bases. Youths under these programs would then be channeled towards the sports which suited them best. These training programs would be based upon a universal standard for the players that must be achieved. At the same time, they were also trained to be athletic “ambassadors” for their countries, brainwashed to sing praise of the country at their international games. Another reason for this brainwashing is the possibility of them being influenced by their capitalist western opponents. Athletes that ran away were forgotten, erased from the history