Volleyball at the Beach Park
Nestled between high-rises filled with lavish condominiums and quaint beachfront shops lies the center of teenage life on Saturday mornings, Laudermilk Beach Park. It is here that all of the problems of everyday life are forgotten for a few hours every Saturday, and teenagers are able to relax and do what teenagers do best, play volleyball.
The day’s events begin around 10 o’clock a.m. when most adolescents make their way from their beds to their bathrooms. After showering and dressing in the customary cut-off T-shirt and swim trunks (most often shorts adorned with flowered designs), teens start their cars and head off to the Laudermilk Park, about a thirty-minute drive. Around eleven o’clock, the parking lots become filled, and volleyballs begin flying through the air. Before long, teams of twos and fives take over the courts and begin to play. Onlookers get quite a show.
Shouts can be heard everywhere on and off the court. On the court, teammates shout to one another, ordering sets and spikes, working hard for the next point. Off the court, kids celebrate the well-constructed plays of others and claim rights to the next match. At the end of each game, winners run swiftly to the adjacent beach for a swim, while losers meander sullenly to a drinking fountain housed under an elevated shelter. It is only seconds before new games begin, and the cycle begins again.
Next to the court, under the shade of a large oak tree, sits Ali. Ali is a man of about 55 who attends the gathering every week. He used to be a professional volleyball player, and now spends his time watching the game at a youth level, and giving advice to novices and experienced players alike. He watches pensively from under the shade of the large branches, quietly munching on his turkey sub-sandwich. Every few minutes Ali yells wisely to a young player. He says, “Keep your jump approach in stride,” and “Remember to cup your hand before you make contact, then follow through.”
Down near the water teams celebrate, and boys and girls flirt in the warm ocean. An occasional roar erupts from all around when a boy on a skimboard attempts a flip and lands headfirst in the water. Uninterested girls lounge lazily in the sand, turning themselves every so often to avoid burning, as if they were on a rotisserie.
At this day in age we bask in the luxury of having easy access to advanced technology at our disposal. From the World Wide Web, to cell phones, music, movies and video games the human race has thought of any and everything to keep us entertained. Over the years studies have shown reasonable concerns regarding the long-term effects of video games. These games can desensitize gamers to real life violence, which is usually seen in the younger crowd. The studies especially hit on the games containing player-on-player violence. Though these games are extremely entertaining and can get kids to settle down for a while, if not properly supervised, they can produce adverse effects. Other studies have shown that video games can be used as way to yield positive outcomes such as, good problem solving skills, cooperation in a group and the ability to flow. Although there has been psychological research on children learning through the actions of others some believe that children are automatically able to distinguish between what is just a game and what is reality. The longer they are allowed on their game system the more they become convinced that their games are real. Some researchers believe violent video games can channel the aggression of the child but the parents are to blame for what happens to the child after playing an excessive amount over a period of time. Children can become preoccupied with these violent video games which have been proven to be the cause of poor social skills, uncontrollable aggression and a false reality.
Joes High School’s total enrollment consisted of sixteen girls, and twenty boys. Ten of the boys that had enrolled there played basketball. All of the boys were over six feet tall. Lane Sullivan, the new coach of the basketball team, had never even touched a basketball before he started coaching. Sullivan had never coached anything at all before he started coaching the Joes basketball team. In order to gain knowledge about the sport, he got a book about it. He started coaching in 1927, but before the 1928 basketball season, Joes High School didn’t even have a gym. Instead, they’d practice outside on a dirt court, and two times a week they’d take a bus to the nearest gym, which was ten miles away. In order to play home games, the boys had to play in the local dance hall. The “court” was nowhere near regulation size, and the ceiling was so short that the boys couldn’t shoot an arched shot. The people who attended these basketball games had no place to sit and watch the game, the all stood around the edges of the court and on the small stage. Joes High School finally got their own gym around Christmas time because the people of Joes donated their time and material in order to make it happen.
Basketball was first introduced to Nova Scotia as early as 1895 but in the past thirty years the popularity of the sport has really taken off. The high concentration of universities in the province, the tradition and esteem of the high school programs, and the continued support from a large and knowledgeable basketball community have made the game a staple of Nova Scotia life, culminating with the capital city of Halifax becoming known as the basketball capital of Canada. When you talk about basketball in the Maritimes you can break it down into different levels of competition. There are the club systems throughout the province, the regional and provincial teams, then high school basketball, then you have to look at intercollegiate basketball, and finally pro basketball that was here for a short period of time. Another way of looking at how the sport has come along in the past thirty years is by focusing on the people who have been an integral part in its development. People such as Bob Douglas, Mickey Fox, Ritchie Spears, Brian Heaney, Steve Konchalski, and Bill Robinson, who through different roles have made and continue to make an impact on basketball in this province. Others who will not be discussed as much but whose role was just as important are those who laid the groundwork for all of the aforementioned. People such as Stu Aberdeen who created a legacy at Acadia University and in the process developed some of the best coaches this province has ever seen. Others like Al Yarr, Terry Symonds, and Frank Baldwin, whose tremendous efforts at the minor, high school, university, and national levels earned him the name Mr. Basketball. The foundation that was set by these people has allowed basketball to flourish in Nova Scotia on every level.
National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2012). Computer Forensics Tool Testing Handbook. Retrieved March 23, 2014 from http://www.cftt.nist.gov/CFTT-Booklet-Revised-02012012.pdf
Coakley (2009) starts off the chapter by introducing how participation in organized sports came about and how gender roles played a major role early on. He describes how most programs were for young boys with the hope that being involved would groom them to become productive in the economy. Girls were usually disregarded and ended up sitting in the stands watching their sibling’s ga...
Gatz, Margaret, Michael A. Messner, and Sandra Rokeach. Paradoxes of youth and sport. Albany: State University of New York, 2002.. 12-13.
Growing up, my brothers participated in many sports activities. They played hockey in the winter and baseball in the summer. Practice was held once a week and a game was scheduled for the weekend. The coach was usually a volunteer teacher or a parent of a teammate. In my brothers’ free time, they simply played whatever sport or game they wanted to play. Youth sports have changed in the pas...
Warren insists that the “moral” sense of human and “genetic” sense of human must be kept separate in this observation. As she defines the two, she goes on to say that the confusion of the two: “results in a slide of meaning, which serves to conceal the fallaciousness of the traditional argument that since (1) it is wrong to kill innocent human beings, and (2) fetuses are innocent human beings, then (3) it is wrong to kill fetuses. For if `human' is used in the same sense in both (1) and (2) then, whichever of the two senses is meant, one of these premises is question begging. And if it is used in two different senses then of course the conclusion doesn't follow”(Warren 434). With this she concludes that a human being is one that is a fully active participant in society. In the moral commun...
Volleyball Rules, Tips, Strategy, and Safety. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2005. Print. The. Hartwell, Eric. A.
One article points out that video games have a big impact on children’s lives and that many of the games played are violent. Researchers have found that “nearly all children spend time playing video games” and studies have found that “8th graders spent an average of 17 hours per week playing video games” (Tamborini 336). Moreover, 68% of the most popular video games contain violence (Tamborini 336). So it is clear that many children have access to violent video games and they have a big impact on their lives simply because of the amount of time spent playing them.
“Some children may become more aggressive as a result of watching and playing violent video games” (Violent). From the video games the children wants to try new things they learn from it. The children will think it's cool to act like the things they see in the video games. Kids will also be irritated cause of the video games they play and they will act aggressively to others. Children will also try to play aggressively with their friends. They will call their friends names for not being able to take t...
Volleyball today has little resemblance to its predecessors. The modern version of volleyball played today has changed so much compared to the original game. The rules and scoring systems have changed multiple times. Equipment and technique have changed a fair amount too. But one of the original ideas from William G. Morgan that has stood the tests of time, the original goal of the sport. The goal to have a sport for all ages that brings people together to have fun and exercise together.
With fast growing technology has made video games better. It has created a getaway place where one can role play and forget about the reality. But as video games become more popular it also becomes more and more violent. Playing hours of violent video games so impact the mind and behavior of young teens and children. Violent video games can cause aggressive behavior in children and teens. Children and young teens play hour of violent video games learn to be more violent and more demanding. They also seem too distant themselves form others and to be in their own world. This can cause interference with reality, being confused between the virtual world and
"Does Participation in Sports Keep Teens Out of Trouble?" ModernMom.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2014.
Larson, Reed, and Sean Seepersad. “Adolescents’ Leisure Time in The United States: Partying, Sports, And the American Experiment.” New Directions for Child & Adolescent Development 2003.99 (2003): 53-64. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.