Boxing

Shadow Boxing III

Read the full article posted by ESPN:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=091216/jimmyrobinson

Disciplines and some Questions:

• Psychology: Why is it that Sweet Jimmy constantly referred to the past?
• Neurology: What is the brain damage of a boxer compared to a person in the NFL
• Communication: How are legacy's created? What keeps them alive?

Thoughts:

This is a very interesting article. It really makes you reflect on your own life and why you exist or even matter. Who are the people that are going to remember you? Why are they going to remember you? what are you going to be for doing in your life? 

What was the author getting out of this search? What was it that drove him so hard looking for this person? What about this story was so compelling for him?

Sport for Art's Sake II 

Class - Wed 8/29

Todays class was a review/discussion on the the articles related to brain injury.

It was mainly focused in this direction but the main focus turned into information integration.

When we are learning new information or concepts we need to be taking something we already know and applying to the new material. By doing this your brain understands the new material and retains it better.

Side-note:
read the material through all the way. Then reread this time taking notes. It's hard to analyze something until you have looked at it as a whole.

Football & CTE - Readings/Video Analysis

Readings:

1. This is your brain on football
2. This is Ted Johnson's brain
3. Does football have a future
4. The woman who would save football
5. This is you brain on football (video)

Academic disciplines in these readings:

1. Biology
2. Chemistry
3. Mass communication
4. Criminal Justice
5. Business
6. English
7. Psychology
8. Ethics

Overall Analysis:

There is a real problem that has been uncovered. I think it is similar to tobacco use. People are hesitant to except the truth even though the evidence is right in front of them. The NFL has grown into a multi billion dollar industry. There is a lot of money involved with the NFL and these studies will significantly change the game. It would make sense that the NFL is reluctant to embrace these new findings. Without the full support of the NFL it is going to be hard for the fans and general public to give there support either. Time will go on and the accumulation of evidence will be hard for them to ignore.

Which makes me think about the question in class, "will you let your kids play football?" My answer is no, if the game remains the same. However I have not had kids yet. If I did have a son right now it would be any where from 8 to 15 years before he would be playing. During that time I believe that the game will have significantly changed. We still don't know how much will change and how fast it will occur. It is really a question to be answered as this new research is fused into the game.

This is Your Brain on Football

At least 5 academic disciplines from this story:

Biology
Chemistry
Mass communication
Criminal Justice
Business
English

Class - Friday 08/24/2012

Today we analyzed Lance Armstrong and doping. By analyzing this topic in our group discussion it was clear that it takes many disciplines to really understand this.

Real life situations need more than narrow mindedness to fully address projects and problems.

It was a very eye opening to take a subject like doping in sports and see how the dynamics of the conversation applied to so many other topics. Everything we face really does need to be approached from a interdisciplinary perspective.

First Blog Post

Sports definition as defined by the class:

A competitive competition where there is a winner/loser and the winner is based on objective measure by human achievement.



Reading that popped out to me:

1. The Power and the Gory. ( page 574). Halberstam.
2. Muhammed Ali Then and Now. ( page 702). Halberstam.
3. Ego. ( page 713). Halberstam.
4. Weird Site for a Fight. ( page 738). Halberstam.