The Contender Analysis

In the article “Playing With Pain” by Michelle Crouch, published by Scholastic SCOPE, in December 2015 and January 2016, is about how when you specialize in one sport, you put a lot pressure on yourself to do well and be the best you can be, but some consequences can be life changing.

Most people make mistakes, they may accidentally do it. When people do this it is more likely that they didn’t think before they actually did it. In the story, “The Fight,” by Adam Bagdasarian, the protagonist, a popular boy that got in a fight, named Adam learns to think before he acts. Which could hurt not only him, but other people too.

Mark Schultz’s progression through the sport was much faster than mine. Starting off his wrestling career as a junior in high school, made it hard for Mark to become a successful wrestler in high school . Although he started late, he had a very good coach named Tim Brown and had a good wrestling team with many future college wrestlers on it. “My coach was Tim Brown, a heavyweight wrestler and football coach.” (Mark Schultz) Because his high school team was very good, he was able to go to a college for wrestling. He became a very good

Furthermore, achievements are the fuel that powers others to push themselves and set goals. It is the never ending desire to improve. Louie Zamperini spent his whole life training to be a better runner. In other words, the fastest olympic runner in the world. But what is left of someone who has been striped of everything they know and love? In Louie's eyes, the answer is nothing. When he went to war he aspired to show his dedication to his country, although he could have never predicted the outcome that he would soon receive. Throughout Louie’s journey of war, he was deprived of food, dehydrated and constantly abused and tormented. The list is never ending. Louie might had cheated death hand full of times, but when he looked at his body all “he thought, is a dead body breathing” (Hillenbrand 182). He was ashamed of what his body had become, and in a way he had lost his greatest achievement. “Legs that had sprung through a 4;12 mile over bright sande on that last morning on Kualoa were now useless” (Hillenbrand 182). In this moment Louie felt defeated the most, although his journey did not stop there. It gave him motivation. In the poem the narrator says the phrase “watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools” (Kipling 15-16). To sum it up, it means that if you can use other peoples’ mistakes or wrong doings to

Quite often kid’s of this generation seem to try to act “cool” or “tough”, to up their reputation when with their friends. It seems quite common nowadays. In the story “The Fight” written by Adam Bagdasarian the main character (the boy) the same happens when he is trying to act tough by instigating a fight with a fellow peer in his school. However, throughout the story the boy seems to really be weak on the inside. He is mentally weak because he fakes being tough, is over dramatic, and is scared to fight.

To anyone who dedicates their life to sports, especially athletes, any injury could be career ending. However, no matter the injury, the athlete refuses to take “no” for an answer when it comes to their active sport dreams. Full Out is a 2015 dramatic biography of gymnast Ariana Berlin who dreamt of winning gold in the Olympics and attending University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), home of many strong Olympic gymnasts. Nonetheless, after enduring a car accident that left her with a broken wrist, two broken femurs, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, two collapsed lungs, pancreatitis and in a coma for 5 days, doctors claimed that she would never fulfill her dreams of being an Olympic gymnast; or a gymnast at all for that matter. Ariana

In the first half of the historical nonfiction novel, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini endures many hardships in his life. These struggles make me feel sorry for him and the trouble he is in. As a child, he was unable to fit in, his peers considered him “a bad kid”. Louie would unfortunately steal things on the streets, and consistently get into fights with others, commonly for no reason at all. However, the positive side to his actions, was the speed and running ability he built up. I felt relieved when his brother encouraged his participation on the school track team. In a nutshell, Louie was a natural star. His large, skinny frame and long frame gave him ideal running characteristics. No longer was Louie a bad kid, he was a

An active lifestyle was enthusiastically encouraged by my parents for their three boys to support not only physical activity and growth, but a competitive spirit, and a sense of belonging with peers from my school and the community. Through hard work and practice I played at the top level for every sport that I tried out for. What I lacked in size I made up for with heart, hustle, and passion. Consequently, my personal compensation was the pride I earned through hours of practice to develop the skills needed to perform at the highest level.

Well, in the present, you see a whole bunch of gymnasts, revolutionists, and billionaires being interviewed. In fact, this year, the worldwide event of the Olympics is coming up, and you see a whole bunch of pro athletes there. You might be wondering, “How does this have to anything with never giving up?” If you’ve seen interviews of people like that, you would’ve seen that they never gave up. Everyone has bad days that sometimes, they just want to quit. I saw a Gabby Douglas movie once that was based on her life story, and she wanted to give up gymnastics once. I was surprised. But today, she is still doing gymnastics. She pushed through and achieved her

Throughout the course of the existence of humanity, there has always been some form of Government which includes all sorts of pros and cons that coincide with the representatives of an office. The Contender, by Rod Lurie, is an example of these points. This novel consists of the competition in Politics and Society from a debating standpoint which is due to the persistence of one trying to claim a spot already or about to be possessed by somebody else in the White House.

In Frank Bruni’s Op-Ed “The G.O.P.’s Blinkered Contenders,” Mr. Bruni tries to prove that the Republican Party is moving backwards and needs to select a newer more decent fore-runner. He states that “The Republican keeps announcing its new modernity, declaring its new inclusiveness, swearing that is has changed and then showing it hasn't,” (Bruni). He makes many strong arguments against the contenders, although his opinion of the G.O.P. is biased. He uses many short snappy paragraphs to make it appear that he has numerous arguments, where in reality he could have narrowed them down to a few smaller ones. He ends with, “The ophthalmologist needs better vision. So does his party, if it wants passage

The athlete escaped the pain of watching himself loose his ability. The athlete now will be remembered as a champion and nothing else (John 1858).

Fosbury’s experience can suggest that when you are challenged you don’t have to solve the problem the old-fashioned way. Fosbury faced a challenge that he was unsure that he could overcome. He trained hard. Instead of doing the traditional method, Fosbury improvised to show his strengths and conceal his weakness of not being able to jump as high as his peers. Even though no one favored him to win, he worked and trained his way to an olympic gold

I’ve often had to live up to the expectations of my two oldest sisters who started in Volleyball and Basketball. I set forth on a path to exceed these expectations. My success in and out of athletics is a direct result of how far hard work, dedication, and integrity can go. To live up to the expectations of my sisters, I knew that I would have to put in extra hours in the gym and on the court. Staying late after practice and putting in my own hours made it more difficult to spend time with friends and finish homework.

(Even if that means staying up till 2 in the morning.) My sister may not be the most athletic person you meet--much like me, but she still continues to work at it. When it came to tennis she took lessons and learned how to get better. She decided to run cross-country even though she was one of the slowest runners on the team. Now she is the runner-up for the varsity team. (Which I must say running cross country is the sport that all people would dread, after all, cross country is most sport's punishment.) Instead of quitting because she wasn’t the best, she practiced. Her first year of speech and debate, when she didn’t place at her first meet, what do you think she did? Did she burn her posters and quit Speech and Debate? Or maybe she went to her friends and made up a story about how the judges were biased? No, she went and tried harder, using the judge’s comments to fix her speech. After working at it, she ended up winning 2nd place at state. Therefore making her footprint even bigger for me to follow. Teigen has always been extremely loud and dramatic, so when she tried out for her second play she got