Extreme Sports
Nobody can deny that the newest crazes with kids are the extreme sports. The phenomenon has reached all the way down to kids as young as early elementary school. Is it a problem, or is it a blessing? Much of it depends on whom you ask, but a deeper look will shed a little bit of light on the entire matter.
Why Choose Extreme Sports
The TV in your living room is starting to collect dust and burn less electricity while the video game system sits in the corner doing the same. It is exactly what you may have wanted all along, but it does mean that your child is likely deep into the fun that is extreme sports. Don’t let the name fool you, extreme sports can be used to describe a number of activities, but for your child, it is likely BMX biking, skateboarding, or trickblading (tricks on roller blades specially made for the job).
Trickblader
Essentially, a trickblader will use a special type of roller blades that have smaller thicker wheels, wider boots, and what is called a grind plate that allows them to slide across surfaces when so desired. The blades are made so that participants may perform many of the same tricks that skateboarders do, only now you will see them on roller blades, more or less.
BMX Bikers
BMX bikers are a different sport altogether. These are special bikes with pegs on the wheels for tricks, pads on the places where impact will most likely occur, and no front brakes. The bike is made for racing and tricks, but primarily to be used on dirt or certain types of urban setups.
Skateboarding
As for skateboarding, it is the sport probably most closely linked to extreme sports. For quite some time now, boarders have been hitting half pipes, grinding, and grabbing their board. Though you may associate the sport as a boy sport, many more girls are starting to get involved in these extreme sports and are having a great deal of success along the way.
Extreme Sports Advise
Go watch your kid working on his new extreme sports might just scare you. The first time you see your child “getting air” off of a ramp or pipe, you will be clinching with each landing. The important thing, though, is just to make sure they have the right equipment and they are as safe as with any other sport. In fact, one national safety organization performed a study and found that more injuries per participant occur in hockey, football, basketball, and soccer than in skateboarding. So you can breathe a little easier.
One important thing you can do is to make sure your child is wearing the right kind of safety equipment. Helmets, elbow pads, and kneepads are musts for the sake of safety. Most skate parks, in fact, will require kids to wear such protection before they are allowed to ride on the property. Falls are a part of the sport, but with proper protection your child will be in no more danger than on the football field or basketball court.
One problem that extreme sport kids have is finding a place to practice their new love. Many parks no longer allow extreme sports in the area, but the children need places to jump, grind, and try out new tricks. One solution that many cities have adopted is to erect extreme sport skate parks. In these facilities, ramps, half pipes, and even stairs and rails are provided so that kids can jump, grind, and get air all they want in an area free of traffic and pedestrians. This makes it safer, and in many ways more fun for the kids overall.
Summary
Future of Extreme sports are the wave of the future. Though you may not always understand these new sports your kids are into, they are still active and Healthy sports. Competition is alive, but they may be perfected without 9 others or even one other kid around. A trip to the skate park alone can end in the perfection of new trick or technique. The idea is to just support your kids and allow them to compete how they want to. Get them the right safety gear and the right facilities and before you know it you may just have a world -class competitor on your hands.
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XTRA INFO
#1 by Need Help on July 28, 2010 - 7:44 pm
Extreme sports?
What should bungee jumping or other extreme sports be considered an adventure, sport (discipline) or irresponsibility? Take a position on these activities and defend your point of view in a cause and effect paragraph.
I’m willing to give ten points to the person who answer this correctly in less than an hour!!!!
#2 by Isaac on July 29, 2010 - 12:46 am
Think of this, what do you mean by an adventure? it could mean going outdoors and having a camping trip, or going hiking in the woods, to easily explain this
An adventure is an activity that is comprised of risky or uncertain experiences that are undertaken at least in part for the sake of physical or emotional excitement. The term is more popularly used in reference to physical activities that have some potential for danger, such as orienteering, skydiving, mountain climbing, and extreme sports.
The term is broad enough to refer to any enterprise that is potentially fraught with risk, such as a business venture or a major life undertaking. An adventurer is a person who bases their lifestyle or their fortunes on adventurous acts. Cheers
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#3 by ninja cat on July 29, 2010 - 12:48 am
The term extreme sports gained popularity in the 90’s inrefrence to increased popularity in sports that exposed the participant to excessive risk. before I can answer your question, I would have to examine the difference between sports and activities. A working definition would be a competitve physical activity or an active pastime participated in for excercise. Bungee jumping is not a sport. It could be cosidered an activity, but is niether competitive nor exercise. So now with a working definition let us look at you question: are extreme sports adventure, sport or irresponible?
Responsibility or irresponsibility is in the eyes of the beholder. A professional athelete hitting a twenty foot tall jump and sailing 100+ feet is not being irresponsible, but a lay person trying to hit the same jump absolutely is, they have not trained their balance and nerves enough to react to the situation or pressures that will ensue as a result of their actions. However when you think about the increased popularity or climbing with out ropes, I tend to think their irresponsibility involved. Maybe because it is easier for a person with little or no experience to climb 50 feet up a cliffside and then fall then it is for a person with little or no experience to hit a large jump wrong, or maybe it has to do with the fact that the person that climbs a 1200 foot cliff with no ropes is going to die when they screw up not just break some bones. Responsibility lies also in the image that you are projecting to others.
Other sports that are deemed extreme: downhill biking, skate boarding are more competitive and thus more for the masses. these I would classify as sport.
Adventure does not apply to this question, because adventure is a very relative term. One man’s adventure is another man’s daily routine. Camping and hunting might be an adventure for the business man, whereas a trip into the city might be an adventure for the ranch hand.
Basically in any sport deemed extreme, there is a level where the sport is not extreme (where most people paractice said sport). Then there is a leve which becomes extreme (where serious injury may result). Then there is a level which becomes irresponsible (death is the result).
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