Is modern athletics straining the human body beyond its natural strengths?
Beyond the obvious example of football players carrying more weight than their joints were designed to bear... a lot of other sports seem to be stressing us unduly.
Baseball pitchers, for example, just don't last like they once did and even golfers don't hold up like in the old days.
Replies to: Is modern athletics straining the human body beyond its natural strengths?
In the 1890s, football was almost banned because of deaths. Sports have always involved risk...
'Football degraded in the 1890s to a sport that left many of its participants crippled, disfigured or worse. In 1897, a member of the Georgia football team died in a game against Virginia — an incident that nearly led the state of Georgia to ban football. Two weeks later, the New York World reported that at least eight people died playing the sport that season, and it listed more than 200 additional serious injuries that had occurred. “The list,” the World reported, “is a gory calendar of human anguish, an encyclopedia of broken bones, torn ligaments, fractured skulls, twisted necks, shredded muscles, broken ribs, gashed bodies, dislocated joints, backs and chests crushed in, scalps ripped off and jaws mashed.”'
Link: https://www.tnmagazine.org/football-was-so-brutal-in-the-1890s-that-many-called-for-its-ban/
Without question, in its infancy, college football was brutal and sometimes fatal
Probably not correct to say that it was almost banned, though many called for its abolishment. President Teddy Roosevelt summoned the leading head coaches to the White House and pressed for changes to make the game safer. Unsurprisingly, Teddy loved college football and wanted to preserve it.
I have recommended this book before and will do so again. A must read for any college football fan - The Opening Kickoff.
Link: The Opening Kickoff
Thank God it wasn't our university would have dissolved.
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We used to play dodgeball with golf balls. Now that's a risk.
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ELP that is a little nuts, but you weren't hitting with clubs were you?
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We'd line up guys against a giant brick wall and hurl golf balls.
If you were hit, you'd sit out until last man standing. Then it was their turn to throw the golf balls. Sometimes, the ball would miss a dude but richochet off the wall and get him in the back. LOL. This was back in middle 1960s when it was every man for himself at the playground.
I was born in 1950 and I remember in grade school playing in gym class, what we called murder ball
and everyone loved it. In a class of about 40 it was the one last standing that one. Great, great fun. I am lucky to have experienced most of my life being non woke.
Murderball you say?
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Link: Murderball
I feel sorry for these kids. Every sport is year round. Muliple sport kids are rare these days.
And none of them are going to the Pros (unless you ask their parents). Takes a lot of the fun out of it.
Absolutely true, each high school coach thinks his or her sport is the one that should get the most
focus in the "offseason." My daughters loved each sport they played but felt pressure to do the AAU season for basketball in the spring which made it tougher for them in their high school sports of track and softball respectively. And in the summer they were pressured to go to basketball camps and volleyball camps or play for softball teams. It only slightly improved them as high school players but at least it gave them something to do during the day. To their credit they each worked jobs at night in the summer. It cost the family money and it was bs seeing so many parents push their kid like they were the next All American. The money spent on travel I guess was worth it because if was fun for us to watch them play. When I look at it objectively though, who would want to watch those games at that level. Pretty boring if you want to speak objectively.
IMO, it is because athletes start specializing at an early age.
For example, It used to be football in the fall, basketball in the winter, track in the spring, baseball in the summer, etc.
Now they pick one sport at the age of 8, and train a limited number of muscle groups while still developing.
My youngest grandson plays HS football. It seems like he's always in training, lifting, working out.
He has private conditioning coach, private position coach, private speed coach. He's at camps most of the summer when the team isn't going 7 on 7s with other programs. The problem is, he loves every second of it. The dual sport guys are just as nuts. HS football is a year round sport unlike when Grandpa played 50 years ago. And now my grandson has discovered golf so when it's not football, he is zeroed in on golf.
U trade knee injuries for back ones in golf. Swing too damn hard
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The reverse C position that Nicklaus lived by was deadly on the backs.
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The reverse C position that Nicklaus lived by was deadly on the backs.
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Either that or people are too muscular and tight. The number of injuries
To baseball players, especially pitchers is staggering
Re: baseball pitchers. The thinking is that reduced batters faced = pitchers over-throwing.
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Yep a good start now is lasting 6 innings. I miss the complete game pitcher but they didn't throw
quite as hard with the exceptions of Ryan, Koufax, Feller and I cannot remember whether Spahn threw hard, but he won like 370 games I believe. One reliever who threw hard was Ryne Duren, plus he was blind as a bat and used to throw the first warmup pitch to the backstop to intimate hitters. I thought of another one who went 9 and threw hard, that tall guy that pitched for Arizona and the Yankees.
Yeah, when I first saw Tim Lincecum throw like an explosion, I thought that arm wouldn't last long.
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