Injuries Effects on Athletes

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         In my overall blog posts I learned that in any sport at anytime you can get injured, and after your injury you may make an extraordinary recovery or not make one at all. Sometimes you can control how you recover and sometimes you do not have that luxury. Looking back on my blog posts I will highlight some of the key ideas and quotes.
When you are starting college on scholarship, there seems like there is nothing that could go wrong. Then you realize that it could all be taken away if you plant on your knee the wrong way in practice. Injury, although sometimes is very treatable, triggers a number of emotional responses. According to an article on NCAA.org, the emotional responses include, “sadness, isolation, irritation, lack of motivation, anger, frustration, changes in appetite, sleep disturbance, and disengagement.” All of these can be signs of mental illnesses because of injuries that not just affected your performance in the sport you love, but also could have taken away your free education and a chance at the next level.
It seems like there is nothing better than being a pro athlete, but is it really worth not being able to run around and play with your  kids at a young age? A former pro athlete chimed in on it. According to an article from the Washington Post a former offensive lineman, Pete Kendall states, “I can’t run anymore,” he then goes on to say that, “I can’t play basketball with my kids, can’t walk for any extended distance.” This definitely makes people realize the effects that playing a professional sport does to you. You have to wonder that if Kendall could go back would he change his path in life, and just play in college and get a degree so he can be effective in the work force?
Another point I would like to make is that all injuries are not career ending. Actually some people make remarkable recoveries and come back and compete at a championship level. I will refresh you on a few people who made it through a terrible injury. Niki Lauda- He was “one of the best drivers” in Formula 1 history who was trapped in a fire, and went into a coma. Surprisingly, he was back racing in six weeks, and took 4th place in the Italian GP. This in my opinion is one of the biggest miracles in all of sports to be in a coma and then a few weeks later be back to the sport that you love. This shows that athletes can come back from terrible injuries and still make an impact. Maria Sharapova- She was a tennis player who was “dominating every court,” despite a nagging shoulder injury that took her out of play and into surgery. Many thought that she would never be the same, and some thought she would never even return. But through vigorous rehab she was back on the court in a year. She won the French Open capping off an already impressive career making her one of the best to ever play. No matter what sport you are returning to I admire someone who can come back and play at such a high level.
I concluded that it truly depends on the person, if it is really worth playing professional sports, and risking injury.

The Power of Cooperation

 

Source: http://www.strategies.com

What helps a person become a true leader, one that would be respected by his or her team? Nowadays we see many different kinds of leaders, ranging from strict supervisors to relaxed and “chill” business masters. However, the amount of success the person will have as a leader depends not only on the leadership style he or she chooses, but also on the amount of interaction that is formed between the leading person and the rest of the team. 

As the article “4 Simple Things You Can Do To Be A Better Leader” published in Forbes website in 2014 points out, usually the most- respected leaders “have the ability to combine leading from the front and working in the trenches alongside their team.” The Forbes websites serves as a reliable source of information as it has achieved great popularity because of its current articles on vIn other words, if a person expects to become a true and respected leader, he needs to understand that working “above” everyone else won’t help at all, that is, he will have to get his hands “dirty” while trying to figure out how to lead the business successfully. Therefore, in this brief essay, I argue that in order for a person to become a well- respected leader, one needs to communicate with his or her team, listen to their own views and opinions and, most importantly, work together in order to succeed in the future and achieve as many goals as possible.

• To start with, as the article emphasizes, “leading by example involves an element of servant leadership.” In other words, one cannot be a true leader without having all of the respect coming from the members of the team who, as already known, are the main parts of the machine that run the entire company. The author incorporates the example from the Navy SEAL teams, where the philosophy of servant leadership and the need of respect is ingrained in each candidate from day one of training, especially for the officers. As the author points out, “as a SEAL you are taught to lead and be led”,  you “train with your team and fight with your team.” This example shows that good leaders do not simply take their position as a “stronger” one and, on the other hand, work together, hand in hand, with the team members through any kind of obstacles they might encounter. Also, “any good leader will make a point to acquire the best possible talent they can”, the leaders’ talents will thrive only if they give their talents the necessary resources to succeed. The most important thing while being a leader, in my opinion, is to understand that if you work together with all of the team members and understand what they do every day, they will give you the proper respect you deserve. The most rewarding part of earning team’s respect is that the relationship formed on the basis of this value will go a long way for fueling company growth.

• To add, another factor that will determine the level of success one will have as a leader is the ability to learn from one’s team members. It is apparent that sometimes people who receive the leadership positions tend to become arrogant and “fueled” with pride. However, if the leader wants his or her company to move forward and make a lot of progress, he or she should never assume to know everything. This is because, as the article points out, “the minute you do, you’ve already failed.” The author of the article uses the example of Navy Seal Team once more to explain that when “fresh” officers arrive to a Seal Team, the good leaders know when to take charge and when to let the more experienced senior SEAL lead the way. This example emphasizes once again how important it is to not only lead the team, but to also listen to their experiences, as there always are things that one has never heard before and that knowledge might help him or her to finally pave the so-wanted path to successful business career.

• In addition, is it crucial for leaders to understand that they should “always learn as much as they can from others who have paved the way for them.” It is known that professional development for any leader is critical, so why not consider the talent you’ve hired and learn from them? This is quite well illustrated by new companies where weekly “knowledge sharing” sessions and constant collaboration are held across all departments. In other words, if an individual wants to lead the team, he needs to get involved and “soak up as much knowledge as he can.”

• Lastly, when leaders devote more time “working directly with their teams on various projects”, they acquire a better understanding “of what each person’s skill sets are.” In this way, good leaders will be able to identify gaps, ensure people are doing what they are supposed to do and know when there’s a need to adjust “certain systems and processes.” It is difficult to expect to be able to provide a meaningful direction to the reports if one doesn’t fully understand how the entire business machine works and looks like.

All in all, great leaders know that becoming the most important person in the entire machine means much more than just filling in a lot of papers and signing hundreds of different contracts. On the other hand, great leaders are able to realize that the progress and achievements will come only when the entire team functions properly through respect, trust and, most importantly, cooperation.

Questions that I will be trying to answer in the future research:

1. What are the “outside” factors that could influence the person and make him a better leader?
2. Does the country the person lives in influence the level of success he or she can have as a leader?

You Have to Walk Before You... Drive?

Source: http://www.scionoforlando.com/research/2014/2014-scion-fr-s-and-subaru-brz.htm

What Prices a New Car?
Before I can find the truth about how used cars are priced I had to first find out why new cars are priced the way that they are because that is one of the biggest factors on what the car will be worth later. However this wasn't an extremely hard task seeing as my dad owns a car dealership. So I asked him what determines the prices for new cars. For the first little bit of time he just listed off a bunch of different parts of the car, the exhaust system, the interior, ect. That was pretty common sense to me but then he said something that caught my attention. He told me that where the car is made is a big factor in what the car was priced at. He told me that a two of the exact same car, one made in the US and one made in China could priced $100s differently.

Example:
Take the Subaru BRZ and the Scion FRS for example. Those two cars were co-engineered by Toyota (Owns Scion) and Subaru. Exactly the the same car. Down ever exact detail those two cars' body frames (The actual frame of the car) are exactly the same. However these two cars cost different amount of money. So if you want the reliability of a Subaru, the price of a Scion, and the look of a sports car the FRS is the perfect car for you.

Is money the most important thing?

My original question was to try and find out how record companies determine the best type of music to use to make the most money.  Throughout my research I found that they sign all sorts of artists and genres in order to do this so I created another question to keep my research going which is how do record companies make their money so i could learn more about the process of what they do.  I found that they really do take a gamble when signing those artists, but they also rip off the artists and take away all of their artistic freedom.

Through the article "How Record Labels Really Make Their Money" I found that record labels really take a risk on who they sign when signing an actual artist and that they really rip off the artists because of this.  They make the majority of the money when an album or even a song sells because of how much of a risk they are taking by signing a new and upcoming artist.

According to the article “How Record Labels Invest” by the IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry), spend somewhere between $500,000-$2,000,000 in order to sign an artist and give them all the benefits that they get with a signing (these statistics are based on major record labels not independent record labels).  This money is spent on many things like advances, recording costs, video production, tour support, and marketing/promotion. This is an add on to the last article where it goes in depth on how much money is actually being spent on each artist and it’s an alarming amount and I never thought it would be this much.  in my opinion it kind of explains why they rip the artists off so much with all of their rules.

In the article called “Record Contracts Explained by Richard Salmon he explains how the record contracts work and how lenient they are with all of their legal binds when offering a contract to a certain artists.  It explains that because of how much money and how much of a risk the record companies are putting into these artists that they create many rules that the artists have to follow like they can’t go to any other label to record a song or even be featured on another artist’s album without their permission which makes sense, but still seems a little over the top with certain things.

According to the article “Independent or contract: Do musicians still need record labels like Young Money and Sony?” by Alicia Adejobe many artists are starting to become independent with the help of all teenagers favorite thing, social media.  In this article it talks about how many artists are becoming independent so they don’t have to r=follow all of the rules that the record companies impose on them.  They are then using social media to promote their music and tours because they don’t have the record companies to help them.  Because of this though the record companies are becoming more lenient and signing different contracts where they will be more in the promoting and tour aspect of it and back up the artists as opposed to them actually controlling them.

Overall I found that record companies really make their money by ripping off the artists and controlling their artistic careers.  But through the new age of technology with social media and streaming services more famous artists are becoming solo artists or independent artists in order to make the most of their careers.  For the first time in the modern music era artists seem to have the upper hand especially the new artists because they have many services to start their careers and record companies will soon have to change if they want to be a major factor in artists careers and be the big super powers that they used to be in the music business in order to make the most money possible.

Noble Noble Laureates

SOURCE: https://upload.wikimedia.org

The Nobel Prize is known as the highest distinction for a person's achievement. Received by many famous historical figures, the Nobel Prize is given to people who truly make an impact on the world. The Nobel Prize in Medicine is given to those who make an impact on the world with a breakthrough in some kind of medical field. This year, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to three people for their advancements in making anti-parasite drugs. One of the three people awarded with this honor is Youyou Tu. She was given this award for her advancement in the treatment of Malaria. She did this in a way that is not usually seen in common medicine. In the article Anti-Parasite Drugs Sweep Nobel Prize in Medicine 2015 it goes over how Dr. Tu made such a revolutionary discovery regarding parasite medicine.


Many people are familiar with traditional medicine. The idea that remedies such as rhino horns or herbs can cure disease. Many people write off these medicines as bogus but Dr. Tu proved this to be wrong. In earlier days, treatment for malaria were showing to be even more inefficient. Dr. Tu went back to her roots, literally, and researched over 2,000 Chinese herbal remedies to find a treatment for malaria. One of the herbal remedies for this was an extract from wormwood. This extract was found extremely effective in treating malaria.Tu, who made this groundbreaking discovery, has herself been surrounded by some controversy as this is the first reward she has been given in China and she has not been elected to any major academic board. But her colleagues all agree that she truly deserves this award. She has dedicated years of her life to this research and it's really starting to pay off. While she is getting critical acclaim around the world, she's being critically accused within China. But, despite that, the research she's doing in proving to do some good. The drug she derived from the wormwood tree is being distributed helping those who truly need treatment for malaria.


So, the discovery made by Dr. Tu is doing a serious amount of good. The drug itself is being distributed around the world to people who are being seriously harmed by malaria. While one might think that this drug might not be able to reach those who really need it (those in Africa and other impoverished nations) but the contrary proves possible. The drug, made possible by Tu, is being distributed around the world by organizations like Doctor's Without Borders and UNICEF. In the end, the discoveries made by Dr. Tu will help many people who need it.

Does Extracurricular Matter?

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As a young adult close to ending his career as a high school student and about to start his career as a college student the amount of extracurricular I’ve done in the past comes to mind when it comes to applying to schools. I personally haven’t done many extracurricular but the few that I have, I’ve invested many years of my life to. I believe that to certain extents, the extracurricular that children take part in do have some sort of effect on their future academic and career success. Steven D. Levitt, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago stated that he found no correlation between the amount of extracurricular a child takes part in with academic success. While I agree with Levitt’s finding that the amount of extracurricular has no effect on the child’s future success I believe what’s important is the quality instead of the amount. It may look good on paper that a child has taken Karate lessons for one year, piano lessons for two, gymnastics for 2, and so on, but the amount of time dedicated is so minimal that it has little to no effect. I personally have spent ten years of my life playing the violin and 7 of those years playing in the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras. Even though it’s only one activity outside of school, the lessons I’ve learned as a musician are invaluable and would have been impossible to teach if I only played one or two years.

Starting at a Young Age

All sports are obviously dangerous, but I am going to tell you the most dangerous ones, according to healthgrade.com. 

According to an article written by Sandra Gordon, Basketball is a popular sport—more than 26 million youngsters ages 12 to 17 play it—but it causes the most injuries for players of all ages. This honestly comes as a shock to me because most people do not view it as physical as football or hockey.

In the same article as mentioned above, Gordon states that, “[Football] causes the most injuries of all sports for children and teens ages 12 to 17. Play it safe: Wear all pads and other safety equipment and warm up properly before playing. Remind your child of proper tackling techniques and to limit head contact.This does not come as a surprise to me because of how much contact is involved in the sport. The quote also includes ways to prevent the injury. This can be very helpful, because from my experience as football player, coaches do not always enforce wearing all the proper types of pads which could turn into to a very serious injury. 

Gordon shares that, “soccer, football, basketball and baseball, account for about 80% of all sports-related emergency department visits for children ages 5 to 14.”  This shows that these contact sports need more regulation, supervision, and education.  If children and their parents were given more education on prevention, I think these injuries would decrease.  It may help to decrease the number of concussions in all sports.  Surprisingly, hockey is the number one sport for concussions.  Gordon sites that 33% of hockey injuries are concussions.  Baseball and cheerleading also have a high incidence of head injuries.  Protective gear and proper training can again help decrease these injuries.

The last unexpected sport where injuries are high -- volleyball. There are many injuries to joints, primarily elbows and knees.  How to prevent these injuries must be drilled into parents and players -- education, education, education.  This education can prevent arthritis, joint replacement, and even depression later in life.  These injuries many times carry over into the adult years.

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