Wednesday, September 14, 2016

"Soccer Injuries Surge as More Kids Play"

Samantha Huss
Current Event
15 September 2016


Rapaport, Lisa. "Soccer Injuries Surge as More Kids Play." Scientific American. N.p., 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 13 Sept. 2016. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soccer-injuries-surge-as-more-kids-play/>.


Over the last twenty-five years, the rate of injuries in youth soccer players has doubled. More kids are playing soccer which accounts for the increased number of injuries, but the rate which these injuries occur has also risen. This means that each soccer player is statistically more likely to injure themselves and for it to happen more frequently. Most of these injuries are contact or collision injuries which have most likely increased because of increased pressure within the sport. Players are taught to play with a mindset of doing whatever it takes to win the game, and this translates to children risking anything, even an injury, for their team. Furthermore, more players have been specializing in one sport and playing soccer all year instead of doing other sports during the off season. This translates to players both over using certain parts of their bodies and becoming stronger on the soccer field, and results in many more injuries.
Soccer is an extremely popular sport. All over the world, children practice this sport everyday, and in turn are risking injury constantly. I play soccer for my school team and a lot of my friends play as well. The great risk of injury which we are all taking is shocking to discover. All of the soccer players I know have injured themselves in some way, whether it be serious or very small. All successful soccer players have to push themselves extremely far. With professional players running, on average, seven miles per game, and young players running about four, the risk of overuse alone is extremely high. It is important for people everywhere involved in soccer to be aware of how high the risk is for players. The discoveries detailed in this article are very important for coaches, players, and parents.
The author of the article did a great job of presenting facts and establishing a trustworthy argument. The article is filled with facts which support the claims being made. The author also was good at using precise, clear phrases to get her point across. The article was very detailed, however it reused similarly vocabulary and seemed slightly repetitive. It would have been improved if it used different vocabulary to keep the reader more engaged. Although the article was well written, it would also have been improved if the author had gone on in the research and suggested possible ways to help prevent injury. It felt slightly unfinished because it only presented the problem, and didn’t suggest possible solutions. Overall, the article was very informative and increased my understanding of possible injuries, and the risk of injuries, from soccer.  

4 comments:

  1. My fellow classmate Samantha Huss wrote an amazing review on "Soccer Injuries Surge as More Kids Play," by Lisa Rapaport. This article outlined how increased popularity in soccer along with a high pressure competitive environment has led to more soccer related injuries. Samantha did a great job of inducing her review topic and summarizing the article that she read. This summary was both clear and easy to understand. Next, she made a personal connection to her life stating how many of her soccer playing friends have had small and large injures in their sport careers. This made the review relate more to my life and allowed me to see the topic in a more realistic light. Also, Samantha used correct punctuation and had understandable word choice. The length of the review was manageable and allowed for the topic to be thoroughly covered without unnecessary information being provided.
    I feel their are only slight areas that could be improved in the review. To start, many of the sentences were repetitive and said the same things in different ways. This made the review hard to get through at point. I would have liked to see each idea only stated a single time. Also Samantha had some run on sentences that seemed very awkward to read. This could be improved through addition periods to separate thoughts. These errors were only at some points of her review and could be easily revised.
    The main aspect of the article that shocked me was when Samantha stated that in an average soccer game, a professional soccer player runs about seven miles while a child soccer player runs about four miles. She then stated that these conditions can lead to high risks of overuse injuries.This made me have absolute fear for the younger generations who have to play sports in high pressure environments. Furthermore, this section made me scared that my five year old sister, who started soccer a few weeks ago. will become injured under these conditions.


    Rapaport, Lisa. "Soccer Injuries Surge as More Kids Play." Scientific American. N.p., 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 13 Sept. 2016. .


    ReplyDelete
  2. My classmate Samantha Huss did an excellent job reviewing the article, "Soccer Injuries Surge as More Kids Play". She summarized the article very well, and was able to organize this summary in a way that outlined the article very well. It allows the reader to fully understand the idea the article is trying to explain, without being too complicated. Furthermore, she related the point of the article to her own personal life. By describing how she plays soccer, and is constantly putting herself at risk, allowed the reader to become more engaged and interested by the topic. Finally, Samantha did a very good job describing exactly where the article itself could have been improved, giving specific details as to how the article used repetitive vocabulary.
    Although this review was very good, there are a couple of things that could be added or improved to make it even better. Samantha described how the article included many facts to back up the points being made. She could have included some of these specific facts or quotes, in order to back up the ideas discussed in her review. Furthermore, there are a few grammatical mistakes, such as missing words or commas, that could be added to this review. Once these changes are made, the review will be even better than it already is.
    I found this article very interesting, because many of my friends also play soccer. I was surprised to read how much of a negative effect playing only one sport at a young age can have. I didn’t know how important having diversity in sports at a young age is to avoid injury!

    ReplyDelete
  3. My classmate Samantha Huss wrote a very good current event review about soccer injury. In her review she talks about how the injury rate of soccer has increased over the past 25 years. She does a good job off explaining the reasons behind this statistic. She states that more kids are starting only focus on soccer instead of widening their ranges. This makes part of the kids body stronger thus leading to more injury. She Also did good job of reviewing the article of her last paragraph. She says that the article only presented the problem and no solution. She was also very good at relating the article to her experience as a soccer player. This makes her review much easier to understand for the reader which is a good thing.
    One of the things that she forgot to include is evidence from the article which would have made her points a lot more influential. This is bad because it makes the reader read the article for evidence instead of having it clearly in front of them. This mistake is easily fixed by grabbing a couple quotes from the article and putting them in where they are needed. The next mistake she made was she lacked detail in some areas of her argument. The details that could have made her argument better were in the article. When she is talking about reasons that injury occurs more she could have used a statistic from the article to prove what she is saying. This problem could also be solved by using more information from the article.
    Her review educated me more on the risks involved with playing sports. This makes me feel unsafe because i have played soccer all of my life. I usually play goalie which is probably the safest out of all the positions because it involves less interaction with the other teams players. This article (along with a tragedy) makes me realize how dangerous sports can be. The tragedy that I am referring to is when one of my former classmates was killed due to a soccer related incident. This incredible sad topic has made me realize that soccer can be deadly in the right circumstances. My little brother plays soccer and i hope that he will be safe when he plays.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My fellow classmate Samantha wrote an informative article on "Soccer Injuries Surge as More Kids Play." In this article she talks about the risk of injury as more kids play and the rate of it. She mainly did a good job writing this review. As an example, her summary is eye opening and engaging and it makes me want to go on reading this review. Also, she does a good job with explaining the reasons behind this shocking statistic which is that more people are playing the sport compared to 25 years ago and the coaches put a winning mentality in the children's brains now a days. In addition, I like the fact that she is a soccer player herself because that makes this review more meaningful and insightful. It is much better to have a person who has experience playing this sport tell me about these statistics than a person who has no experience playing soccer.
    While this review was informative, she had a few flaws. For example, she could have included evidence from the article such as statistics from these injuries. If she had done that, it would have been much better for me to understand what exactly is going on and the severity of the injuries. Furthermore, she could have included other aspects of the article such as, the researchers of this cause. She could have done this by citing the researchers who carried out these studies. It she had done that, the article would be much more detailed and valid.
    Overall, she wrote an insightful review about this subject matter. She has made me realize the importance of trying to win games while also being safe and aware. I am a soccer player myself who plays a lot and also plays for the school. I am extremely aggressive when I am playing and now I know that it is ok to play that way while also being safe. After reading this article, I will now try to be more cautious of my safety while continuing to play aggressive in order to win game. This review should serve as a wake up call for players, coaches, and administrators for this sport. If we as a soccer community are informed of this then this sport can be a much safer game. While new measures have been put into place in regard to player safety, there has more to be done and that is the main takeaway of this informative review.

    ReplyDelete