Collegiate Sports - Week 11

In one of the last weeks of lecture, we discussed a topic that we could easily relate to: collegiate sports. As students at one of the most elite schools in the nation, we take our collegiate sports very seriously.

We take so much pride in the abilities of our sports teams here at the University of Texas. I actually talked about this same topic in my sport sociology class. Our professor asked us how our college experience would be different at UT if we didn't have sports. Most, if not all of us, responded "we wouldn't even be at this university if there were no varsity sports." Personally, I chose to come here because of our strong athletics program. Of course I also wanted a terrific education but our football team was a huge decision-making factor when deciding where I was going to go to college. 

Every athletic department has their own mission statement to inform student-athletes, the university community, and the citizens of the state of Texas what they value. As we progress into the future, we become more focused on graduating our athletes. This is a positive step in the right direction. It is understood that there will be athletes who are good enough to make it to the next level professionally and won't necessarily "need" to graduate; however, there are top universities everywhere that are encouraging these athletes to finish. This looks great for the graduation success rate and academic progress rate. 

Vince Young is a great example for this. He is a tremendous athlete that was more than capable of making his sport into a professional career. Although he took this route, somewhere along the path he realized that an education is a very important thing to have; therefore, he came back to UT and finished out his degree. 

Violence Sport - Week 10

Have sports become too violent today that we have been forced to question the ethics of the game? We've gotten to a point where we fight precious animals in order to win bets and become competitive. To me, this is completely ridiculous. How has this become acceptable and how is it appropriate in certain cultures:

Personally, I am a huge fan of Michael Vick (his athletics side, of course). I don't judge his personal actions when I'm cheering for him on Sundays; however, when I think about all of his unethical behavior, I can't help but become less of a fan. It is just ridiculous to me how people can deviate so far from cultural norms. By underconforming, Vick ignored the rules and therefore suffered the consequences.

Recent studies of collegiate football players showed an association between multiple concussions and reduced cognitive performance, prolonged recovery, and the increased likelihood of subsequent concussions. These blood sports and violent behavior violate the ethical principles of beneficence and justice. Sport becomes a form of war and forces you to objectify yourself. It will be interesting to see how much more (or less) violence in sport will become in the next 50 years.

Sports and the Cold War - Week 9

We had a guest lecturer this week, Dr. Hunt. He did a great job of informing us about the world of sports during the Cold War. The main point that caught my attention is whether or not we should focus on mass fitness or elite competitiveness. Physical inactivity had started to become a huge problem because there were many young Americans who failed to pass the military fitness test. Also, the Kraus-Weber tests portrayed how unhealthy America is. There were 60% of US children who failed this test whereas Europe only had 9% fail.

John F. Kennedy became very interested in this and decided to fix the problem. He chose to enforce the idea of mass fitness aka start from the bottom and work our way up. By encouraging everyone to do at least the minimum amount of physical activity, we would be able to work towards elite competitiveness. I completely agree with this theory. By implementing a simple exercise program, we can start with younger generations and hopefully increase the health and well-being of our future.

Race and Sport - Week 8

One of the most important issues in sport today is the number of opportunities offered to all races. We watched a movie in class that was fascinating about Jackie Robinson. This particular African American baseball player excelled in football, basketball, track, golf and swimming too.  He had the most modest personality of all.  Despite much racism in baseball, he always maintained composure. All races loved him. Branch Rickey of the Dodgers made him the 1^st black ball player in the major leagues. He was seen as “unconquerable” and instantly became the nation's famous baseball player.

So after hearing stories like Jackie's, we ask how has race in sport changed over the past 100 years? Do we still honor athletes based on their natural ability and not their race? I believe that we have come a long way. Careers in sports today are offered to not only just white males but to those who are qualified. Of course we will always have issues with diversity and discrimination, but how else can we learn and improve our ways? By experiencing challenges like this, we are able to better society in many different ways.

Gender and the Body - Week 7

This week's lecture was by far my favorite. The main reason being that we were able to see how gender is viewed in sport by taking a class poll. We discussed the muscle problem among women's bodies by asking what is and is not acceptable in today's society. Modern media continues to play a role in criticizing strength in women. Over time, myths began to stir regarding women and strength. Some of these include: that women are physiologically different and inferior; that women should do different types of exercises than men do; and finally, that strength is both "unfeminine" and symbolic of "lower class" women.

It is amazing to me how athletes care so much about their performance that they will do anything it takes, even if this means distorting their body to become the best. In my opinion, I wouldn't want to live my life looking like this, no matter how much money I made doing it:

I'd prefer something like this:

By taking a quick survey, we were able to reason through these myths. We were shown pictures of four different women. This first, Lenda Murray, was a professional body builder. The second, Brandi Chastain, is a professional soccer player. The third, Serena Williams, is a professional tennis player. And the fourth, Katie Stam, is the current Ms. America. After polling the class, there were some similarities and differences. As a gender, the males collectively agreed that Katie Stam had the most attractive body out of the group of four women. The females on the other hand found Brandi Chastain to have the most attractive body. As for the least attractive, both men and women agreed that Lenda Murray was the least feminine. Words such as manly and masculine were used to describe her, whereas Katie Stam had adjectives like beautiful and perfect. 

Ethics and Obesity - Week 6

During week 6, we welcomed a guest speaker to come and talk about the youth obesity epidemic. Baker Harrell, who is Founder/CEO of ACTIVE Life Movement, explains that, in order "to build strength, to enhance muscle size, to improve endurance and cardiovascular fitness, and to live a long, full life, it is important - if not essential - to remain healthy." Here's the link to the ACTIVE Life website:

http://www.activelifemovement.org/

This Austin based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is dedicated to organizing the movement for healthy change in America. Their mission is to make healthy the norm by generating a persistent demand for healthy living among all sectors of society. After visiting this website and learning more about the organization, it became very clear as to why Harrell came and spoke to us about obesity. Our overall quest as a society is to better understand the root causes of the US youth obesity epidemic.

In the book "Why We Hate Fat People," the author explains how we are trying to understand our own attitudes about fatness. It is important to recognize that fatness has always had political connotations. Many years ago, historically speaking, fatness has always been associated with power, health, and well-being. The wealthy were typically fatter than the general population. Today, however, the reason that so many people think the rise of obesity is a cause for alarm is because of our own chronic feelings of helplessness.

Because children and adolescents mature along a spectrum of chronological age, assessments of youth overweight and obesity are more difficult than evaluations of adults. The many disparate and interrelated factors associated with the US youth obesity epidemic make comprehensive research on the issue a daunting task. We're looking for a balance, to make healthy the norm and to create a demand for healthy. It is important for all of us to commit to end this problem in order to save the future generations.

Kinesiology in Historical Perspective - Week 5

As we move into week five of the class, we begin to delve deeper into the historical aspects of sport. This particular lecture, we discussed how the topic of kinesiology evolved. During the late 19th century, physical anthropology was considered to be the first scientific area of study in order to test strength. Then going into the 20th century, there was a rise of sport as physical education. As mentioned in the Exercise and Sport Science article, "it was no longer the exception to find physical education courses included in the curricula of liberal arts colleges and universities." The popularity of of interscholastic and intercollegiate athletics was a huge factor in creating demand for physical education teachers.

The inventions of basketball and volleyball promoted the idea that team sports taught moral qualities that were of benefit to society and therefore educational. This era was called the Muscular Christianity Movement in the United States. With mind, body, and spirit being recognized symmetrically balanced, no aspect is held in greater regard. Once again, the article explains that "the drive to identify and organize the body of knowledge led to the ascendency of research, the administrative and curricular reorganization of departments in colleges and universities, and the creation of sub-disciplines and specialties."

Of course, kinesiology programs will be different wherever you look. But at UT, our PE program underwent a paradigm shift in the 1970's. The physical activity programs, health program, and PE department are now combined into one department where movement competence courses are no longer required. The UT Kinesiology program asks that their students should be knowledgeable of: physical activity in health, wellness, and quality of life; scientific foundations of physical activity; cultural, historical, and philosophical dimensions of physical activity; and the practice of physical activity. Below is the link of a degree plan for an undergraduate student at UT majoring in Kinesiology:

http://www.edb.utexas.edu/education/assets/files/KHE/KHE%20UG%20Degree%20Plans/10-12/10-12%20HP%2005-24-10.pdf

As you can see, a Health Promotion major at UT must take at least 3 physical activity classes, one historical class, etc. This type of program is a great example of what young adults should be learning about in the kinesiology world today. So in conclusion, over the past 100 years, we can look at kinesiology in a historical perspective and see how much it has changed. As a matter of fact, it will always be changing on so many different levels. It will be interesting to see, in 50 years or so, what types of classes will be required for UT kines undergrads.