Basketball

A true athlete develops his entire body to compete with the very best in his sport. He trains both his mind and body to reach his goals. His mind should be able to handle the pressure and stress that are involved in his competitive sport. He must be emotionally fit to compete in his sport; otherwise, he’ll lose or fair far below his expectations. His body should also be able to act and react in the right manner. The mental, emotional and physical aspects of his game must all come together as one.

Whether an athlete is a catcher in baseball, a center in basketball, or a quick-running lineman in American football, he must perfectly develop all his faculties to achieve an above average level of balance and stability in his sport. Athletes should pay more attention to balance and stability because these factors are extremely critical in the success of their goals. The terms balance and stability may seem to have the same meaning, but they don’t (Carr, 2007, p. 89). These terms however, are very much related to each other. Balance and stability don’t always go together.

Depending on the sport, an athlete may have more balance and less stability or none at all and vice versa. Both of these factors are necessary in almost all physical sports though because athletes have to constantly move their bodies while staying on the ground. Balance is a person’s ability to get rid of forces that ruin the evenness or equilibrium of things. Almost all people have balance to some degree. Young and old people use balance to stay on their feet while they’re walking, running or hopping. Balance is also used in other movements, such as when a person tiptoes or dances a complex routine.

Maintaining one’s balance gets harder as the person encounters obstacles in his path. For example, a running back maintains excellent balance while he pierces the defense of the opposing team. In basketball, a point guard also displays above average balancing skills as he dribbles the ball around players guarding the basket (Carr, 2007, p. 89). There are many levels of balance. Not all people have the same level of balance. Athletes typically have greater balance than normal people because they arduously train to improve it. The concept of balance has been used in various sports for a very long period of time.

As Sprunt (2000) and others noted, the term off-balance is also widely used in different types of sports. Thus, a basketball player may be said to have been caught off-balance if he loses his footing as he scrambles for the ball. Generally, it is not good to lose your balance in any kind of sport (Sprunt, 2000, p. 63). Balance itself is related to another important factor in executing movement: stability. Stability is the ability to maintain a person’s balance while encountering things that ruin that balance. To put it another way, stability is how balanced a person is.

Different athletes have different tactics that increase the level of their stability as they encounter forces that may be going against them. According to Foran, athletes typically face gravity, air resistance and friction when performing in sports (Foran, 2001, p. 119). For this reason, some athletes train hard to raise their stability to the level of being as steady as a rock. Sports shows typically have play by play slow-motions that showcase moving stability by players of different sports. For instance, stability is clearly shown on highlights of football plays.

A football player displays excellent balance when he reaches out for the ball whizzing through the air. He jumps high using a single leg and lands gracefully on the same leg. However, that excellent balance may be disrupted by a rampaging opponent that slams into him as he’s floating above the ground or standing on one leg. After the dust clears, you’ll usually see the other player down on the ground because he traded stability for balance. Compare the previous example of a 300 pound lineman with his body arched and his center of gravity positioned low.

This athlete can receive the hammering force of a 400 pound lineman, pushing him to get out of the way. The athlete does not drop to his knees, spread-eagle on the ground because his stability is way off the charts. If the lineman is really stable, he may even have the ability to push back his opponent or ram his way through the defense, sending him crawling on the ground. In this case, his opponent is the one that lacks stability and so he pays dearly for it (Foran, 2001, p. 119). Also, stability may be harder to maintain if forces are coming from many different directions.

A lineman may be able to defend against the opponent directly in front of him, but he may not fare as easily if the opponent comes from his left, right or back. It’s still possible to hold a great level of stability however, if the athlete’s position is correct and if he has the right body to counter massive objects that’s coming at him from different directions. Almost all kinds of physical sports showcase balance and stability. Sports like baseball and basketball are no different because athletes continuously move their bodies in these sports.

As Thompson and Baldwin (2007) observed, athletes in these sports and others must do various drills to improve their balance. They must train their core muscle groups to have the excellent level of balance and stability that their sports require (Thompson and Baldwin, 2007, p. 369). In baseball, balance and stability are shown in the role of the catcher who tries to catch baseballs sent flying by the pitcher. In basketball, balance and stability are exemplified by huge, tall centers or post players that play near the basket.

It is important to note that these sports are played very differently but both of them require superb balance and stability nonetheless. First, the baseball catcher has to have great physical attributes such as fast feet and hands, mighty arms and excellent balance and stability. He spends much of his time on the baseball field crouching and anticipating the ball that the pitcher will throw. His weight is distributed on his heels. He bends his knees so that his upper leg is parallel to the ground. You’ll also notice that his backside is positioned close to his heels.

His back must not curve and shoulder blades must be positioned a little bit backward to give him more stability. To further increase stability, he must hold his head up high and he must hold out his glove. This unique crouching position is supported by the baseball catcher’s amazing balance and stability (Thompson and Baldwin, 2007, p. 369). The baseball player in the previous example shows linearity in his balance and stability. Remember that balance is a person’s ability to get rid of forces that ruin the evenness or equilibrium of things.

Compare this to stability which refers to the level at which a person can maintain his balance while encountering things that may ruin it. Simply put, linear stability occurs when you are able to resist an object that tries to move you. In the previous example, the catcher’s stability is put to the test when tries to stop a ball that’s flying toward him at 80 or 90 mph (Thompson and Baldwin, 2007, p. 369). Stability that is based on linear movement is influenced by the mass of the moving object that carries force and the object that tries to stop that force.

The moving object here is the ball that flies toward the pitcher and may end up in the catcher’s resisting hands. For many catchers, reaching the optimal stability that is based on linear movement is very easy. Baseball is a tough sport because it requires players to have great balance and stability while maintaining focus on the ball that’s flying toward them. The catcher in the previous example must train hard to be able to block bad pitches and throw out runners who attempt to steal bases. In some cases, the catcher may have to abandon his crouching position to block a bad pitch.

This move trades stability for balance to catch the ball. The crouching position shows the three most important principles of a stable body (Mull, 2005, p. 174). First, the catcher increases his stability by broadening his base. The resulting position is that the catcher’s feet are wide apart and firmly on the ground. Second, the baseball catcher centralizes his line of gravity by straightening his back and holding his head up high. Third, he crouches with his knees bent to lower his center of gravity, further adding to the stability of his whole body.

When all of these positions are combined, the catcher comes up with a stable crouching position that allows him to easily move his whole body when catching a flying ball even when it is outside the normal zone. Stability is also based on an athlete’s capability to move his line of gravity forward, anticipating a fast-approaching force. This type of movement may unbalance him for a short duration of time, but the force of the approaching object might restore him to his previous balance. This is not the case though for a baseball catcher who blocks bad pitches.

Even though the ball flies fast toward the catcher, its mass is still little compared to other balls. The catcher then puts his line of gravity directly in front of the approaching ball but quickly restores his balance. He also usually drops to his knees to bring down his center of gravity and increase his stability. Balance and stability can also take each other’s place in baseball. For example, balance and stability are reversed when a runner steals a base and is challenged by a catcher. The catcher positions his line of gravity directly in front of the fast-approaching force to throw the runner out.

Another skill of a baseball catcher is throwing the ball to the base, which consists of applying force rather than resisting it. The catcher tends to rise to keep his line of gravity in the center and avoid falling down before throwing the ball. His weight is transferred to the back of his foot as he moves his body backward to throw the ball. There are also cases where the player who throws the ball temporarily moves his center of gravity outside the area where support is strongest. As the ball is thrown, the center of gravity moves from the back of the support area to the center and then to the front.

The dynamics of balance and stability can also be seen in the sport of basketball. There was a time when post players were players that are massive and tall. This allowed them to block offensive players that run to the basket. Today, however, post players are not that huge anymore and they have better footwork. They are faster and more agile, so they can keep up with quick short players that have many tricks to drive to the basket. While post players of the past and today are different, they both still use the principles of balance and stability when playing their game.

A post player or a center receives huge forces when guarding the basket. This is a prime example of static stability in the face of opposing forces (Moran and McGlynn, 1997, p. 56). Post players from the opposing team constantly push and pull him to get him out of the way. Mass is important in being a post player to have enough balance and stability to withstand those vicious offensive moves. The more massive a player is, the greater is his stability. For example, Shaquille O’Neal or Shaq was extremely successful because of his extraordinary mass. There was a time when basketball experts claimed he weighed around 380 lbs.

90 percent of that weight consists of muscle tissue and other nonfat tissue. Because of O’Neal’s great mass, other players find it very difficult to break his defense. Offense under the basket is also easy because his defenders just seem to bounce off him. His level of stability is excellent, which makes him an almost perfect post player. The perfect post player though, is not the perfect basketball player. In fact, a player who has a great mass often finds it difficult to change his direction when moving. In this case, quickness and agility are sacrificed for stability and balance.

This is similar to a rampaging sumo wrestler that gets easily thrown out of the ring when his quick opponent steps to one side. Post players though, typically play within a very short distance from the basket, so their weakness in terms of quickness and agility is hard to exploit. New centers or post players like Yao Ming have less mass but are quicker and more agile. They are less stable because of their small base, but they can change direction quickly, which is useful in guarding against fast players that drive to the basket. Tall players however, may have lesser balance than shorter players because their center of gravity is very high.

You’ll notice that short players are very balanced even when they are dribbling around a number of defenders because their center of gravity is nearer to the ground. Having a wide base is extremely important in being a post player (Chandler and Brown, 2008, p. 87). For this reason, many post players spend long hours in the gym to build their body and widen their base. If a post player’s base is not wide enough, he’ll find it harder to stop offensive attacks coming directly at him from the opposing team. Blocking a player with a small base is easy if the post player’s base is large.

Another important factor in being a good post player is the center of gravity. It’s always best to lower a player’s center of gravity to increase his balance and stability. The reason why post players play with knees bent is that they have to widen their base and lower their center of gravity. It’s not always best to widen the base and lower your center of gravity though, as the post player will be sacrificing his height. This makes him vulnerable to high-jumping players from the opposing team who can always drive to the basket and jump high against the short post player.

A post player may also move his base forward to face the opposing force. Moving the line of gravity forward stabilizes the post player, helping hem to successfully guard the basket. It’s not advisable to move the center of gravity too near the front of his base though, because this might result in the player losing his balance. In conclusion, applying balance and stability when playing different sports is important to athletes for them to achieve their goals. Both athletes and coaches should pay more attention to balance and stability to be more successful in their sports.

Various sports skills should be honed and trained so the athlete becomes more effective. The physical, mental, and emotional aspects of his game must all come together and become one. While other attributes such as agility and speed are also important in executing different sports skills, balance and stability are very basic in almost all kinds of sports. Without balance and stability, an athlete has a higher chance of failing in his chosen sport. He must constantly weigh the pros and cons of developing balance and stability over other attributes.

He may also review the tradeoffs between balance and stability because each one presents their own advantages in a sport. He’ll be more effective in his chosen sport once he perfects his balance and stability. References Carr, G. (2007). Mechanics of Sport: A Practitioner’s Guide. Detroit, MI: Human Kinetics Foran, B. (2001). High-performance Sports Conditioning: Modern Training for Ultimate Athletic Development. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Sprunt, K. , Kerwin, D. , & Fowler, N. (2000). An Introduction to Sports Mechanics: A Home

Study Pack Providing Sportspeople with an Introduction to the Basic Mechanics of Movement. Coachwise. Thompson, W. , & Baldwin, K. (2007). ACSM’s Resources for the Personal Trainer: Techniques, Complications, and Management. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Moran, G. , & McGlynn, G. (1997). Cross-training for Sports: Programs for 26 Sports. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Chandler, T. J. , & Brown, L. (2008). Conditioning for Strength and Human Performance. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Mull, R. , Bayless, K. , & Jamieson, L. M. (2005). Recreational Sport Management. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

This argument is intended to show that Charles Barkley, a major star in the National Basketball Association (NBA), supports the unpopular dress code then-recently established by the league. The writer intends to show that the dress code has support among the players and that there are good reasons to support the code.

The writer apparently wants the reader to understand that 1) some basketball players support this new rule, 2) that the manner in which people dress can make a difference in their lives, and 3) that some professional athletes can and do act as role models to their young fans.

The occasion for the argument is both present and future. The first occasion arises from the ongoing argument that athletes should be role models for their fans, of which the dress code is a part. The second occasion for the argument is future, in that the present change that the author would like to effect would have an effect at a future date. This article argues fact, evaluation, and proposal. It argues fact by describing the actual dress code and the evidence of the other basketball players’ behavior in response to it.

It evaluates that behavior and the probable effect that inappropriate dress might have on teens. Finally, it proposes different behaviors for basketball players as a group. The target audience for this article appears to be basketball fans, particularly teenagers and their parents. This article makes appeals from of logos and ethos. The author argues logically, stating cause and effect in terms of both how basketball players’ examples have an effect on their fans and how an individual dresses affects other people’s perception.

In addition, it argues using ethos when the author describes the words and actions of Julius Irving and of Jay Leno. Charles Barkley is making the argument, which the author is reporting. Because Barkley is a basketball player himself, he appears to be reliable and to make a valid argument.. The author attempts to make himself appear trustworthy by interviewing Charles Barkley for his article. In addition, he provides illustrations of other basketball players, possibly to indicate that he knows–or at least knows of–the players of which he writes.

Because Barkley was a basketball star and is currently employed as a TNT commentator, his words are already have authority. In addition, the author cites Julius Irving, the tape of the Jay Leno show, and the facts and figures involved in Barkley’s charitable work and business. The arguments made do not define what the “appropriate” forms of dress might be, either according to the dress code or according to society. Nor does the argument define what it means to dress like a basketball player, as opposed to what it means to dress like other people.

In addition, the author does not describe how Charles Barkley himself dresses. There is some attempt to argue the dress code from a racial perspective. However, a better argument that is also touched on is that young fans look up to professional athletes, who should provide good examples for them. The argument attempts to serve the interests of the fans, but professional athletes also gain from it by their increased credibility in the eyes of the public if they dress “appropriately. ” The argument is framed by the discussion of the filming of the Jay Leno segment.

It is arranged as a story within a story, in which the author discusses a conversation that takes place during the event that he describes in the opening of the article. The language of the article is straightforward and simple and addresses a topic that the audience cares about. It appeals to the audience by making its points in an easy to understand fashion.

As I stroll up to the two giant doors I reach out and grasp one of the pairs of handles, my fingers smudging its shimmering, chrome profile. As I enter the gym, the smells of stale sweat and cleaner mingle with my nose, creating flashbacks of prior experiences. I flash my ID card to the employee working at the front desk and continue on through until I reach my ultimate destination; the basketball court.

When I enter the court the first thing I notice are the baskets. They stand over the court like sentinels; opposing each other on opposite sides like guards on the border of North and South Korea. The padding on the backboards, now a bland blue from wear and tear, is falling apart like an old sofa, while the backboard itself, once crystal clear, is streaked with white blotches and scratches. The rims, connected to the backboard, are a rusty orange that blisters whoever is foolish enough to hand on it. While the baskets are needed to play the sport, the most important component of a basketball court is the floor.

The basketball court’s floor is springy and seems to assist in your jumping ability. They are made of a hard wood that is a tinged yellow, similar in color to an old desk. When the floor is clean, you can nearly see your reflection, but don’t let its shiny surface fool you though; landing on it may prove to be more painful than you think. However, when the floor is dirty it is unforgiving; your shoes slip and slide across the surface, like a scene out of a comic book. Even though the floor of a basketball court is important, there is something else needed to play the sport.

In order to play the sport of basketball you need, quite simply put, a basketball. Employees working in the front of the complex will provide you with a basketball, but you have to leave your ID card with them. The basketballs are made out of bright, orange leather that is firm, yet soft to the touch. They bounce easily, allowing you to perform whatever dribbling technique your heart desires. Every player handles a basketball differently though and there are many different types of players that play at the gym.

The people that hoop at the gym can be put into different categories. Most players fall into the stereotypical role of the player that just plays for fun: he wears ankles socks and cheap shoes, and usually isn’t that great of a player. Other people include the buff guy that relies on his strength rather than his fundamentals, the shooter with his reliable ability to spread the floor with his range, the slasher who is able to get to the hoop and create open shots for the shooters, and finally the ballhawk who annoys you with his intense defense and his knack of getting loose balls. All of these people are different but they mesh because their strengths compliment other people’s weaknesses.

Whenever I go to the gym all of the sights, smells, and sounds help create images in my head that make me want to go back again and again. But probably the most memorable experiences are leaving; my slow, fatigued steps finally leading myself back through the giant doors and out into the world.

Persuasive Speech Nearly two weeks ago, over 700 men and women signed on to play in the largest post-season tournament in professional sports, or should I say, amateur sports. The athletes in March Madness, the post-season basketball tournament, practice multiple times per day, all year round, and even on the weekends. When they aren’t busy between practice and traveling around the country, they are watching film to make themselves even better. That sounds a lot like a professional athlete to me. The only thing that isn’t professional about their lives is their pay check.

The networks that host March Madness rake in millions of dollars through commercials. The schools rake in money through merchandise and ticket sales. The athletes rake in, well, nothing. Other than experience and exposure, these athletes aren’t allowed to make any money or even accept rewards for their accomplishments. The money generated by March Madness rivals the money earned from the post season of nearly every professional sports league in the world. At $613 million, the NCAA is earning over 40 percent more ad revenue than the entire NBA playoffs and over 60 percent more ad revenue than the entire post season for Major League Baseball.

Given that professional basketball and baseball players bring home millions to their families every year, one has to wonder: What is the NCAA doing with all that money? The money doesn’t disappear just because the players’ families don’t get it. Instead, we see coaches signing blockbuster deals worth tens of millions of dollars. It’s time to let the players have a piece of the pie. You can’t possibly convince me that head coach Gene Chizik was worth more to Auburn’s championship football than their quarterback Cam Newton.

Plus, kids in Alabama aren’t buying Chizik jerseys from the university. Still, we somehow expect that a kid from the inner city should be happy with a scholarship. The truth is that almost none of us would accept a scholarship over a job that generates tens of millions of dollars. That’s why we see kids like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James coming straight out of high school and to the NBA. Now, for them, that move paid off. However, there have been plenty of talented high school students who were lured by the money of professional sports but were never able to make it.

Now they’re stuck without a job or an education. As Americans, should we be encouraging this risky behavior? Those who oppose paying college athletes say that a full ride scholarship with free room and board should be enough, and the kids should get used to the idea of working hard in school and not worrying about money. However, kids are only guaranteed these scholarships one year at a time. Meaning that if a kid sustains a career or season ending injury, now he’s left at school without a scholarship. Now he can’t pay for his classes.

Now he can’t pay for room and board. Most college athletes can’t pay the fees their school charges, so why not help them out if they get hurt? Others also say that athletes can go out like any other citizen and find a job if they need to support their family while in college. The reality is no college athlete can possibly hold a job while being part of a team. Between traveling half the season, suffering through day long practices, sitting through night classes, these kids can’t find any time to fit in a job.

Like I said, this dilemma encourages many to skip college and enter the pros, sometimes, without enough experience and no college education. Allowing the payment of athletes would end the lying and cheating that all but criminalizes big-time college sports. All the rumors and finger pointing, often times without any evidence, only creates dark clouds around universities. When SMU was convicted of rewarding their football players with cars and other material items, the football program was given “the death sentence” for one year, and it destroyed their reputation.

Without distractions in the media, kids would be allowed to focus and not worry about the safety of their programs. The current system is practically like slavery. These kids work their hearts out and play through injuries in fear of losing their scholarship. Meanwhile, their families are left at home, struggling without their kids’ help. Keeping athletes and their families in poverty while coaches and administrators get rich is not only un-American; it is an emmbarrassment to us all.

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Many in the community are not aware that the class of Sociology of Sport is offered in the school. Many who do recognize that the class is being offered in the school may also question the value and academic merit of such a course. What people don’t see is that the world of sports is closely linked to the social world. Social attitudes are reflected in the world of sports. These attitudes can be seen in different ways such as the social atmosphere affecting sports, the ways in which we define sports, exempting the world of sports from the world of citizenship and deviance in sports.

Through these ways we can see how such a class can enlighten a person on sports and the real world. In this course of the Sociology of Sport, we intend to identify and understand the place of sports. We also underline the world of sports and see how the social atmosphere affects sports and vice versa. With New York City being a predominantly urban area, people who grow up in New York City are almost automatically more into the sport of basketball. The social atmosphere affects the interests of the social world largely. Being that it is an urban area, there is limited space within the city.

The space that is available is usually converted into basketball courts due to the limited space and concrete floors. There is not enough space for a large field with grass in New York City. But if you were to go out more east towards Long Island and the Suffolk counties, you will see that the social atmosphere begins to change due to society. Out in Long Island, grass and trees are seen more often than in New York City due to more open spaces for people and their homes. Larger fields and different kinds of fields are seen more often. Due to more open space, a greater interest in lacrosse, soccer, and football is very apparent.

Sports such as lacrosse is played in Long Island and never seen within the city. Long Island high school mostly have a lacrosse team while the only city high school to have a lacrosse team is Benjamin Cardozo which happens to be located in Bayside, Queens, the border between Queens and the Long Island counties. Sports participation affects family dynamics as well. The biggest dynamic that the participation of sports affects is time. Through my own experience I was able to see how much the dynamic of time was affected within our family.

During high school, I used to have soccer practice every day except for Fridays. I remember getting out of school and running to the train to be able to make soccer practice at 4PM out in Long Island. I would get home, change and wait in the car for my mother to get home from work. My mother didn’t even have the chance to eat anything as my younger brother had to be drooped off at his practice first which was in Bayside then head off to my practice in Long Island at Hofstra University. Practice would be three hours and then it would be another hour of driving to pick up my younger brother and get home.

We would arrive home around 9PM and I would have to manage to get my school work done and eat dinner with the family around 10PM. I always thought a sport was a team competition in which both teams compete to meet a goal and therefore a winner is determined. But I learned throughout the course that there are many different kinds of sports such as the ones we saw in the past winter Olympics with sports such as curling, or figure skating that are not always within a group or falls under the team category. Sport is whatever we or society, define it to be. Any organized sport requires money, equipment and time.

The rules in each sport differ. The rules change to meet the cultural needs of a society. Rules are arbitrary. For example, when playing a game of tennis there has to be an agreement between the two players or teams that hitting the ball over the net and maintaining the ball within the area of the tennis court is fair play. One player cannot smash the ball out of the court and into the parking lot and call it a win because he had the strongest hit, unless there was an agreement between the two. This is why there must be a set of rules agreed upon the two players because they can play the game of tennis differently.

A more visible example of rules changing to meet the cultural needs of a society is one that we see in our everyday lives while watching professional baseball or MLB. The Major League Baseball is divided into two leagues which are the National league and the American League. The American League has a designated hitter while the National League does not allow designated hitters within their rules. Rules do not conflict when teams of their respected leagues play against each other but when a team from the National League has to play against a team from the American League, rules conflict. Teams must now play according to home field rules.

That means if the American League team happens to be the home team, rules apply for the allowance of a designated hitter. Back in the schoolyard, are arbitrary all the time. Rules are less strict in the schoolyard compared to rules in the NBA or in college basketball. Players also cut some slack on less talented players who may constantly commit “travels” or “double dribbles”. Sports don’t exist in a cultural vacuum but the world of sports is very much like the world of masculinity. During the course we watched a video of “Killing Us Softly”, which has to do with the study of gender representation in advertising.

It reviews if and how the image of women in advertising has changed over the last 20 years. With over 160 ads and TV commercials, as a viewer we see how women are portrayed and how the idea of masculinity is a never ending philosophy over the years. The images portray violence of women in society, such as a woman and a shadowy figure behind her. There are also ads of woman used as footstools, woman being murdered, and men as perpetrators of violence in community. The image of masculinity is deeply linked to violence. This social attitude is reflected into the world of sports with big muscular men and skinny women.

The men always want to be the bigger and stronger man on the court whether it is on a basketball court and a player preferring to slam dunk over their opponent rather than a simple lay-up or on the football field and the players creating the most violent tackle of bringing their opponent to the ground and then taunting them. Even women in the WNBA are commercialized with makeup and sexualized in a way. People even say such a great tennis player as Serena Williams looks like a man or women weight lifters being men like or called “lesbians” for their “manly” features of having big muscles.

Such players as Anna Kournikova who may have not won an important competition within their careers still manage to increase and gain more endorsements than a Serena Williams for their image of being attractive and feminine which appeal more to men and the public. Despite the many similarities that reflect from the “real world” to the world of sports, many of the realities that people would have to deal with in the “real world” they don’t have to go through in the world of sports. This raises the question of “what makes the world of sports exempt from the world of citizenship”?

An example of this situation is of violence and deviance in sports. Recently during a women’s basketball game, one of the players turned and punched one of her opponents during game play. For this act of violence the player was suspended for two games and had to give an apology to the victim. If this same situation occurred in the “real world” in the street, that would be considered an assault crime and the aggressor would have gotten sued by the victim for physically hurting someone. Players in professional sports are perceived to perform deviance when they are discovered to be using steroids for performance enhancing.

But what deviance is there in using steroids for performance enhancing if some runners sleep in oxygen tanks the night before a competition? That would also be performance enhancing by receiving large masses of oxygen before a long race. If normal people do what athletes do to their bodies that would be self destructing themselves. Athletes at times force themselves to play on bad conditions and not only that but as I explained before, many professional athletes choose, knowingly, to take and consume steroids.

Despite the proven effects, professional players still “break the rules” of sport and take such a substance to enhance their performances. Many of the social attitudes and atmospheres have proven to provide a great effect on people and the world of sports and the citizenship world. Many deviances and acts of violence show how much a difference the situation is handled in their environments. The realities and consequences of situations are different in the world of sports than to the world of citizenship. With this course I was able to learn how to relate attitudes and situations and analyze how linked both worlds are.