The grassy field at the park near my house was the scene of my first experience with organized sports. I had anxiously awaited my first game after spending years watching my older sister from the sidelines. Since that day when 4 year-old Kelly stepped off the field sports have been a huge part of my life. I played soccer, lacrosse and basketball in elementary and middle school. Then specialized in basketball during my high school days. All of my four sisters and I were active athletes. Every weekend we hopped from basketball gym to soccer field. If we were not playing sports, we were passionately watching our favorite teams play.
Sports and I always had a great relationship until I was introduced to an aspect of sports I was unfamiliar with, injuries. I had seen football players get carted of the field after a crunching hit or witnessed my favorite athlete sitting out with a sling on his arm; however, I never knew how painful sports injuries could really be. The wrong turn in a seventh grade lacrosse game meant lots of ice packs and Advil until I was taken to the doctor. Then came a quick surgery, a week spent on crutches, and a month with no sports. A few years later my shoulder a practice collision during basketball practice left my left arm hanging out of its socket. This injury brought another surgery, a month in a sling, and a year without sports. MRIs, arthroscopic surgeries, slings, and crutches introduced me to the field of sports medicine.
- How are sports and injuries connected?
- What is sports medicine and how has it evolved?
- What effect can injury have on an athlete?
Hey Kelly
ReplyDeleteI don't know how painful a sports injury could be, but after reading this I can only imagine the pain that you went through. I like how you are tying your injuries and how you had to deal with them to sports injuries which happen all the time in professional sports. I your paper, I think you should discuss how athletes deal with not only the injuries themselves but the toll they bring to their daily lives.
~Adil
I like how you introduced sports as an important part of your everyday life and then when a mishap occurs, it leads to these foreign, unexpected circumstances, which could've skewed your original perspective of sports. I agree with Adil about talking about the effects of athletic injuries, especially to sports themselves. What happens when an athlete, after injury, can no longer practice the sport?
ReplyDeleteOuch, was the first word to drop in my mind. But the topic is great, it works so well for the class theme and your passion for sports! Honestly wasn't an athlete like you but I did watch plenty of friends get transported into the ambulance after a brutal fall and boy was it not pretty. Just painful to watch, can't even imagine the actual feeling.
ReplyDeleteAnd a great topic for you to get the ins&outs of it out, picking out all the details and such since it's a topic you have big interest in anyways. Thinking this topic is a success :]
My Magic Thesis Sentence
ReplyDeleteBy looking at sports medicine, we can see how injuries affect athletes, which most readers don;t see; this is important because sports are such a large part of athletes' lives and injury can have a great impact on them.
You've got a nice start here, Kelly. It's great that you have a passion for, as well as personal experience with, your topic. As your group mates have alluded (as have you, in your magic thesis sentence), it will be important for you to hone in on exactly what you mean by "effects"/ "how injuries affect athletes." Do you mean the emotional/psychological? Their inability to play sports? Research will definitely help here. You have a good direction so far, and I look forward to seeing how your ideas continue to develop and become specific as you keep working on this paper.
ReplyDelete