The Development Of The Athletic Type

Stephen G. Miller, the author of Ancient Greek Athletics and many other academic writings lived a very astounding life. Miller spent a great portion of his life traveling between the United States and Greece. He went to school to become an archaeologist and afterwards became a professor at Berkeley and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Miller was driven by Plato’s love for his work; however, he faced a minor setback when he realized Plato’s language was beyond what he could understand. He then decided to change his studies to archaeology because of his new-found love for amazing indoor and outdoor work. Miller had a unique perspective on ancient Olympic games because he directed excavations for multiple years at one of the Panhellenic sanctuary sites. He has written dozens of academic books along with children’s books, therefore I was excited to read this authors rendition of the earliest Olympic Games.

Every elite athlete makes it look easy. Splashing through the water or striding gracefully down the track making it look effortless. Some people assume they are “naturals,” that their perfect DNA sequence is what has brought them to this level. Others argue that hard work and drive is what has made the difference, separating the elite from the average. These thoughts are the ones that give rise to the age-old nature vs. nurture debate. Countless hours of studies and research has concluded: it’s both. High performance sports consultant Ross Tucker puts it this way, “The science of success is about the coming together of dozens, perhaps hundreds of factors” (1). The relationship of such factors, including genetics, types and lengths of

Athletics had relative importance in pre-industrial Britain mostly taking place at traditional fairs and festivals. For example a wake was seen as a great social occasion whereby mainly the lower class men would compete in events such as stick fighting, running, climbing a greasy pole and wrestling. These activities were seen as ‘athletic’ events and were an opportunity for the lower class men to show off their power and strength to the women. In addition women had the opportunity to take part in events such as smock races. Festivals and fairs such as these would take place on church holy days such as Easter and were seen as a chance for celebration and enjoyment. Prime examples of Festivals such as these include the Much Wenlock and Dover

Human genes are explored to look for what makes athletes great, or to see if elite athletes are a product of hard work and determination. Many aspects of a sport rely on the genes athletes are given, however work ethic is also important in creating an elite athlete.

Again, professional, elite, collegiate, and high school sports are immensely popular in the United States. However, the aforementioned information highlighted some of the difficulties that may accompany an athlete’s retirement from sport. Moreover, research established that one of the major difficulties experienced by retired athletes is the loss of athletic identity (Hurley, 2014, Taylor, Ogilvie, & Lavalle, 2005). Therefore, a comprehensive review detailing the role of athletic identity will be conducted here.

The question people have been asking forever is; How much of what happens in our lives do we actually control? Two articles try to respond to this puzzling question, “The Sports Gene” and “The Outliers”. “The Sports Gene” by David Epstein is about a high school student named Donald Thomas trying high jump for the first time, and eventually becomes the world champion. “The Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell is about studies and experiments proving that hours of practice lead to success. Of the two articles, “The Outliers” best answers the question of how much control do we have of our lives, because it uses more reliable sources and scientists and experiments to support their answer.

History In the early 1800’s, the primary mode of education for the lower class were charity schools (Tyack & Cuban, 1995). These schools were created by Protestant organizations and focused on serving as many needy children as possible (Tyack & Cuban, 1995). With limited budgets to operate on, extracurricular activities were not offered (Gorn, 2004). By 1850, many states paid for public schools through taxes and budgets increased compared to their charity school counterparts (Zirin, 2008). At this time, the popularity of sporting events was growing (Tyack & Cuban, 1995). The game of baseball, a variation of the English game rounders, was becoming the most popular sport in America

Sports are a popular pastime among all ages and types of people. People not only participate in them for fun, but also for money, physical fitness, rush of competition, and for many other personal reasons. Playing sports is especially common among young people in schools. Athletics are great and enjoyable for many reasons, but there can be a point where sports participation can go too far and become negative for children and adults. Sports specialization for young people is an increasing trend that results in sports having a negative impact on individuals and society.

There are a lot of aspects that should be taken into account when determining what makes an athlete successful. One could argue that natural ability is one of the determining factors which leads to success. For example, if an athlete has dreams of playing in the NBA then height makes a difference. There aren’t many successful players in the league under six feet tall. One could argue that level of competition plays a role in the development of an athlete. This could include the skill level of the opponent or outside factors such as playing conditions or game circumstances. These types of arguments play a role in athlete success, but will not be used in this paper because they are factors that are out of the athlete’s control. This paper

As a casual reader of the sports section of this newspaper, you come across many articles depicting the triumphs of local athletes. However, very rarely do these articles describe the actual athlete behind the success. Athletes come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. They range from the incredibly talented to the horribly uncoordinated. Some are great teammates while others would rather be a one man team. Certain athletes seek out attention from the people around them while others are modest and stay in the background. The fact of the matter is that there is a wide spectrum of different types of athletes that exist in this world and no two athletes are exactly the same. However, each can be put

Majority of young people 's lives, they are constantly pondering just which college to attend or what profession is best. In most cases, individuals who attend college are not aware or decided on what major will be pursued. To self reflect and figure out what exactly is the right fit, a large portion of time and effort was spent during the school year to come to the college of choice. As to why it is the best fit in preference, based off research and perception, is the college, Mount St. Joseph, which offers Sports Medicine, and Athletic Training undergraduate degree, and as a major, presides in Cincinnati, Ohio. Information from SparkBox states that

basketball, soccer, and tennis. I loved each and every one of these sports in a

Regardless of the result, the successful implementation of a training drill during a game boosts self-esteem. Coaches, families and teammates can also boost a child’s self-esteem by cheering and encouraging a child’s skill development. These coping skills transpose into lifetime benefits such as reduced levels of anxiety, a more positive view on life, fewer social problems hence less chance of giving in to social pressure, a better body image and being less likely to engage in risky behaviors such as drug use.

The period of 1865 to 1950 was critical to the formation of “Modern” sport that is recognized today. In an article by Allen Guttmann titled From Ritual to Record: the nature of modern sport, Guttmann outlines seven characteristics that played a central role in the development of sports. These concepts were created as a sociological history of sports and took into place both American and European competitions. Guttmann’s notions of secularism, rationalization, bureaucracy and quantification, among others, all advanced the culture of sports; yet the most important of the stated characteristics is equality.

Although, athletes are the role models the boys grow up playing sports but when they do not perform in an excellent or right way they are chided as girls in a away to help them perform better. The language that is in the media attributes and reinforces the dominant discourse that males are stronger than females. (Public research group, 2010). In addition, men are expected to have healthy strong bodies and simultaneously on the other hand isolate and seclude themselves from females as to not care how they look. Men that are obese are subjected through oppression as a result of the factor that they do not fit in the masculine stereotype of a muscle built body. Furthermore, young boys are taught this early and consequently reproduce this discourse to discriminate others in school that do not fit in to Western culture's ideology of masculinity. This discrimination of the obese instills a fear on the youth that to be fat is not ideal and is therefore seen in revulsion and hatred. Nevertheless, the discourse implies that genetics do not play a role and that every male can get this perfect body of masculinity in a sense. Therefore, a man would need to endure the journey for how ever long it takes to achieve this. In contrary, this is not the truth a man may go the gym everyday for a number of years and never achieve this form of masculinity because for their body type and genetics is impossible. Moreover, the stereotypes against overweight men at a first glance