My Favorite Sports

Growing up in a large family and a busy lifestyle as an athlete has shaped me into who I have become today. My life has been about being the best student, athlete, teammate, brother, son, employee and husband I can possibly be. Being involved in various sports with several different teams, going away to school, getting married have all been big parts of life for me some newer than others but all big in their own way. My life has always been about fighting through adversity to achieve a common goal at no matter what the cost getting to the finish line is something that must be achieved no matter the circumstances. Growing up I was always taught to work hard to achieve your goals no matter what it takes quitting is not an option. If you get yourself in to something and commit it’s up to you to finish what you started. Growing up in a big household with four brothers and sisters there was never a dull moment as something was always happening. It was enjoyable to grow up with so many personalities in my house it taught me how to deal with different issues that others face each day, and to always take others into consideration when making decisions. Being the second youngest in the family I saw my older siblings move out and took it upon myself to be the role-model for my youngest sister and show her that if you make smart and rational decisions good things come from doing so.

Occasionally in some athletes’ lives, the parents pick the sport their child participates in. They may do this because they want to envision themselves and their child participating. Athletes’ parents push them to go to practice and games, and they end up quitting due to the parents “gap between the child’s desire to have fun and the misguided notion among some adults that their kids’ games are a miniature version of grown-up competitions, where the goal is to win (Atkinson). This problem can lead to psychological and anxiety issues in children. If a child believes they have to be the best, but they physically and emotionally can’t, it can make the relationship between the parent and child distant and not as strong. Parents hope to see their children in the professional sports; however, only “one in six thousand high school football players will make it to the NFL” (Atkinson). With these statistics, the odds are very low for athletes to make it that far, and parents pushing their children to be that .0001 chance can stress a kid out and strain their academics. In bigger schools, it is more competitive to be on a school sports team, which can cause heartbreak if an athlete does not make the team, but the parent can take it to a whole new level believing that the child did not work hard enough. This can sometimes lead to the student being punished, with

Every child at some point in their lives dream about becoming a rock star, doctor or an astronaut, but the career that stands out the most is becoming a professional athlete. Why? One reason could be the ever increasing media coverage on each individual sport with certain channels devoted for just that particular sport, keeping viewers updated and thirsting to get out and play. Another could be the ease of getting out in the backyard as a kid to shoot the basketball, throw a football, or hit a baseball because it is harder to perform heart surgery or fly to the moon when you're only a child. With that being said; it is easy to look up to a professional athlete and put your heart and soul into them wearing

Sports are extremely popular around the world and only get more popular as time goes on. Sports is on television (TV), in the news, in the newspaper, and online. It only makes sense that this is the case. A sporting event is the ultimate drama. The variability of a game is what gets people so into it. Sports can tell a story, and teach great life lessons as well as inspire people. If sports are that important to the people around the world who watch it, just think about how important sports are to the ones who actually play it and coach it. It is their passion, their persona, their life. With the media’s harsh expectations of teams today, unless a team wins a championship, they are deemed unsuccessful. Since expectations are so high,

In today’s society, NFL players and hockey player are the inspiration in the lives of today’s youth. Little boys strive to be the best they can be in football and hockey, because their dream is to one day become a professional athlete. Young boys focus on sports like football and hockey, because they are two of the most populist sports in America. Many young children want to play professional sports for the fame. Some want to be a professional athlete because of all the money they can make each year. They also want to make money to make a better life for themselves and their families. Most children

During childhood, many young Americans (most prominently young boys) idolize the stars of their favorite sports teams. According to Epstein, “The model of the type may be the professional athlete.” (par.25). This seems to be the biggest problem that Epstein addresses relating to the obsession with youth culture. Since it is true that many young males aspire to become professional athletes once they become old enough, the vast majority who does not complete their goal still follow their favorite team. The professional athletes they admire live in utter excess, living with careers that require little effort more than perfecting plays and passes to entertain the masses. This relaxed lifestyle allows them to spend their (almost entirely) disposable incomes on whatever they want. The professionals who have made it seem to have kept the “stay young” mindset. The others who watch the stars remember how they could be living that life if they worked harder on

Baseball... America’s pastime, many people dream of playing baseball in America and few make it to the majors. The book “The Natural” by Bernard Malamud followed the story of Roy Hobbs, a man who just wanted to play baseball. That was Roy Hobbs’ dream, to be the greatest ball player ever. Roy was drafted into baseball and started on the New York Knights. He played his first year and was the greatest ball player in his league, but his choices, jealousy, cockiness, and greed impacted his career. Everybody looked up to and loved Roy because he saved the New York Knights and made them a first place team after years of disappointment. The fame was unreal and he could not believe how his life is going. He started reading the media more often and

Growing up in Louisiana I was surrounded by all kinds of different physical activities. All of my siblings were involved in sports and it was only natural that I developed a love for them too. As a child I remember going to the park to play basketball with my cousins or just playing football with everybody from the neighborhood. Sports became a huge part of my life, and I surrounded myself with people who loved them just as much as me. Things began to change when my family and I moved to Georgia. I noticed that I wasn’t playing football in the neighborhood anymore. The kids were different they would rather sit in the house and play video games instead of being outside. My love for sports was always there I just needed a spark to bring my passion back to life.

When someone looks at an professional athlete the only thing that comes to mind is how far the person has gone in order to achieve his or her dream. It has become an instinct for people to just look at the superficial part of the athlete such as fame and riches which blocks out the people that worked the hardest. Behind every athlete there is a parent that is supporting them on their highs and on their lows, which is the reason why the athlete is always thankful for their parents. But the most outstanding parents are the resilient ones because no matter the rough situation they are going through they are able to give their all for their sons or daughters.

Sports are not for everybody, not only because of talent level, but because a certain mindset is to be had to be successful at any sport. A commitment is made. Forty hours of practice a week, the average amount of time spent practicing for football players, all for a one hour game, the average time of one game of college football, takes dedication. That is not even counting the time spent icing, resting, and studying the playbook or film, not to mention the school work to be kept up with for college and high school students. Most athletes have become used to the grind and juggling three or four time consuming activities all at one time while being successful at each. Waking up at the break of dawn, following a schedule, and suffering consequences when a bad choice is made creates character and discipline that is often needed for many little league, high school, and college athletes. The most important non tangible thing sports teach anyone is how to get back up after falling, how to get knocked down but get right back up and keep going, how to move on from failure and overcome it, focusing on the next important part of life. These skills of determination and courage taught through sports are essential for being successful in any part of life and are hard to come by anywhere

Sports don’t just teach you to be aggressive and competitive. Sports teach you a lot about how to be ready for a life after college and after sports. People who are successful in sports have to have an insane work ethic,

Every few years in the world of sports, a natural phenomenon appears where the son or daughter of a famous sporting parent, follows in their mother or father’s footprints and goes on to have an illustrious career in the world of sports. Whist it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the offspring of a sporting legend will have genes in their makeup which allow them to be naturally good at sports, to actually use it to be successful under the weight of expectation which they are put under, is an achievement in itself. Let’s take a look at just some of these incredible humans who have matched the exploits of their parent. The Elways Think Denver Broncos and you immediately think of the Hall of Famer John Elway, one of the greatest QBs to ever play in the NFL and a highly successful player and manager with 3 Super Bowl rings on his hand.

“Sports psychology offers a contribution to the search for reasons of abandon by combining development, the overall skills of the young men with the acquisition of those sports. The interest in seeking motivation for participation emerges in the 1970s with a study led by Alderman and Wood (1976) with young Canadian athletes. These authors found that

Growing up in Oklahoma, with no NBA team in the state I found myself becoming fascinated with the Cleveland Cavaliers star player, LeBron James. His impeccable skills improving every game to his fancy pair of shoes initialed LBJ also different every game always seemed to amaze me more. I was in the library one evening and started to think about my favorite basketball player LeBron James and thought that I should read about him. I found the book The Rise of a Star: LeBron James and it was very fascinating learning about LeBron, because he grew up and was always in the spotlight as a young kid. I learned an important lesson, reading Rise of a Star: LeBron James and watching More Than A Game. It went along to teach me don’t give up, because of the obstacles faced as a child, turn it into motivation to place yourself where wanting to envisioned years from now. I feel LeBron James will help young individuals realize that if they focus on big goals that there won’t be any way that their past can affect what their future holds if they work hard. LeBron showed me that there are obstacles that will stand in my way but they can be conquered.

Basketball is my favorite sport because I remember at a very young age of about three or four years old, in 1998, I first watched a National Basketball Association (NBA) game. I was watching when the Chicago Bulls was playing as I sat in the living room with my father and my uncles. I didn’t know what they were talking about, but my eyes were glued to the television when I saw Michael Jordan dunked on two people. His performance gave me the motivation and I started playing basketball to make a career out of it. I wanted to move my family out of the poverty without any financial worries so I stared practicing each day. Every day as I was on the basketball court playing, I used to wake up early in the morning dribbled the basketball from my house to the basketball court and into the park. I was about fourteen years old about to go to high school so I was practicing to make the tryouts. It was the summer time like around July 2009 and at first, I wasn’t good enough so, I told my mother that I needed a couch to work on my feet and left hand. She called one couch up and we had a one on one session to train me. After practicing, I went back to the courts and played a full court game with older and bigger guys. It was five on five and I was the youngest of them. I had a little jump shot, but I really had a back board shot. I was good with angles for a little man at that time, but I was only getting better. I started challenging grown men that were old enough to be my father. I lost some games, but won a lot plus my younger brother was always there with me. He used to stay on the sidelines watching because he couldn’t play with me. Yet, he was too young at the time to