Since my last blog, I was pretty stressed about the research project as a whole. Completing chapters 1 and 2 were not too bad actually and doing the proposal in detail definitely helped me out. I reused a lot of information for the introduction, however chapter two I had to do more research on my own. Chapter two took a bit of time coming up with eight scholarly sources, but it worked out great in the end.
Looking ahead to chapters three and four, I expect chapter three to be the most difficult of the two. Luckily, Ms. Aeschliman provided links to help me out creating a proper survey. I recommend https://www.researchconnections.org/childcare/datamethods/survey.jsp and https://explorable.com/surveys-and-questionnaires. I believe handing out a paper form survey randomly selected starters on the varsity football team will provide more feedback than asking them to fill out a google form survey. I think they will not care if it’s a google form survey because I know plenty of friends who do not fill out google form surveys when asked to. Now, onto the interview process. The questions will have to be worded in a specific way so the trainer and coach will be honest. For example asking them straight up if they inadequately follow protocol will most likely be a no because no one in their right mind would say yes. I think asking questions more on the lines of if they know coaches or trainers who have done such a thing, or if they believe coaches and trainers do indeed inadequately follow protocol. More possible questions could be if they know what our protocol procedure is and what the punishment is for disobeying protocol. I am open to ideas for more possible questions! I should have all of my data collected by Wednesday of next week; I cannot be for sure though because the trainer does not come into school all the time and I know Coach Cazlet is a busy person. I would expect that I receive full cooperation from the trainer and coach, moreover the questions will not be handed out to them ahead of time. I want the answers for them to be a spur of the moment or what their initial reaction is instead of the “politically correct” answer. Chapter four, like I said earlier, should not be too difficult because taking stats this year should help me out to analyze data because that’s what stats class is all about. I want their to be graphs or charts to break up the paper rather than having thousands of words in a row. I do not know how many graphs or charts I should include which I am sure would be an easy question to get an answer. I cannot wait to finish this research paper for the sole purpose of having one more day of school before I graduate! This paper will fly by before I know it.
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Now that I finally have a research topic, although I would like to narrow it down just a little bit more, I can start my project. There are many aspects to talk about, but I will share with you all the parental concerns regarding how they feel about letting their kids play football because of concussions. More and more parents are starting to not let their kids play football and current NFL players have openly said that they will chose to not let their kids play football. Some youth football leagues start tackle football as early as pre-K. I know this because I played tackle football in Pre-K and my last blog briefly explained some of my experiences. Since kids are able to start tackle football at a young age, concussions should be a serious danger especially because their brains are not even close to being fully developed. Parents are starting to do their homework and realize how dangerous the game is for teenagers (college and high school) and children. Parents are starting to be more involved in their child’s youth football league. What I mean by that is they will ask the coach what classes the coach has taken regarding player safety, making sure their equipment properly fits, and being at their child’s game just in case if there is an emergency. It may seem obvious for a parent to go to their son’s football game, however some parents do in fact have other priorities. Also, now that coaches are required to take classes about proper tackling and blocking techniques (all done to limit concussions) this does relieve parents. But, the truth is not all coaches pay attention to the classes and teach the kids proper form. With a growing number of youth football deaths, this is the main concern for parents. Because why wouldn’t a parent be concerned when there own child has their life risk. Granted, the likelihood of a youth football player being killed while playing the sport is minimal. Let’s face it, youth football deaths should be going up not down because there are more changes being made to make the game safer. Another concern for parents is the violent nature of the sport. The audience who watches football are most intrigued by the “big hit.” This is what draws most people to watch the game in the first place. And these parents are afraid that their kids have this mindset where they want to “show off” and try to make the big hit which can be dangerous. Instead of going 110mph and trying to take the other player’s head off (complete exaggeration but you get the point), kids should be focused in making proper tackles with little head injury risk. Starting at an early age, I always showed a great interest around sports. This is one of my great passions in life and I would not be who I am today without it. When I was faced with the task to choose a topic that I will be researching throughout this entire semester, I was overwhelmed and did not know where to start. I tried not to worry because there would be plenty of time, but that was not the case. Ms. Aeschliman gave great advice to pick a topic that you are passionate about. After some thought, I came up with the idea to choose a topic related to sports. I did not know what I would do with sports exactly, but at least I had my brain thinking. I had all sorts of ideas in mind, for example how Tommy John Surgery works or should D1 college athletes receive pay. Still, I thought these topics were not “good” enough to basically write four papers (the four chapters) about them. There has to be a topic related to sports where I could write on and on about it without getting bored; I just haven't discovered it yet. The sports news that I watched and listened to talked about concussion related issues in the NFL for a fair amount of the time. I thought to myself, this would be a great general topic and then I can narrow it down. Finally!! I now have the topic: how concussions affect the NFL currently, and what the future holds. I am very interested in this idea because this has been an ongoing issue for quite some time, so there is proven research already. Also, I do have some background knowledge about concussions when I played football as kid, but not NFL players who are involved with concussions. There were some instances when I got my ¨bell rung¨, acted a little droopy, and still went back on the field for the next play. My coaches said, ¨Winkel, you good¨ and I replied, ¨Yes coach¨ just as any kid would do in my situation. Concussions in the NFL will not only affect the NFL´s business now, but also in the future like I said before. The average retirement age is starting to decrease because many players think they have made enough money and don't want to risk having permanent brain damage (there may be other reasons for a player to retire early, but this is certainly a big one). Also, as a fan of the game I love the big hits because that is what caught my eye to watching football in the first place. However, players are starting to get penalized for these big hits because the contact seems too violent when in fact the hit is completely legal. Trying to make the game safer could result in the loss of TV ratings as well. I look forward to posting more blogs and beginning my research. |
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