The virus, MRSA, has been in the news again, however it has invaded a professional sports locker room this time. New York Giant’s tight end Daniel Fells recently contracted the virus, as it required nine surgeries to save his foot from being amputated. The infection will more than likely cost him his playing career. Growing up playing hockey, I was constantly in disgusting locker rooms and was also warned by my mother to also make sure my skin was covered when I touched surfaces. Obviously, anybody can contract MRSA, however the question came to me, are people who play contact sports more likely to have MRSA?

Firstly, let’s define what MRSA is. MRSA is a type of staph infection that is very hard to treat due to the fact that it is resistant to antibiotics. The infection begins as a painful skin boils and continues to get worse until treated. It is usually spread by skin to skin contact, so groups who are constantly in contact with others are more likely to contract the disease.

Are athletes who play contact sports more likely to contract MRSA? One would think, because sports like football, basketball, and wrestling involve a lot of skin to skin contact, which is how the disease is spread. Luckily, studies have been done to answer the question.

In one study done, it was determined that athletes who participate in contact sports are twice as likely to be carrying MRSA at any given time. The study followed 377 athletes from Vanderbilt who played sports such as football, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, baseball, cross-country and golf. Each month the researchers took swabs of the atheletes throat and nose to test for MRSA. Over a period of two years of college athletes were studied and it was found that between 8% to 31% of them who played a contact sport had been a carrier of MRSA at one point or another, compared to 0 to 23% of non-contact sport athletes (such as golf or baseball), and 0% to 5% of the general population. What was really interesting about the design of the study was the fact that college athletes were chosen to be the the test subjects of the study. College kids don’t exactly live the cleanliest of  lives, as living in tight dorms and apartments would maybe make them more susceptible to contracting MRSA.

What are the best ways for colleges to keep these under control? It is recommended that you cover all open wound and follow standard procedure for taking care of cuts and sores. Also, you shouldn’t be sharing personal items in the locker room setting, such as towels and razors as that is another easy way for MRSA to become spread. Teams are taking extra precautions within their locker rooms to make sure they are properly cleaned in order to reduce the chance that MRSA may become spread inside the locker room.

After analyzing the study, I don’t think it is a fair assumption to say athletes are twice as more susceptible to carrying MRSA due to the fact they play contact sports. Only college athletes were studied, and I don’t think it is fair to make that generalization until pro athletes, high school athletes, and youth athletes are analyzed. Other factors such as living conditions, how educated one is about avoiding the disease, and the cleanliness of the environment can affect how likely someone is to be carrying MRSA. For all we know, Vanderbilt could be taking extra precautions in preventing MRSA in their locker rooms, and the percentage of data could be skewed.

In conclusions. according the the data, athletes who participate in contact sports are more likely to contract MRSA compared to athletes who participate in non-contact sports, or people who don’t participate in any type of sport at all. The study can not be generalized throughout the entire sports world due to the fact that only one group of athletes, college athletes, were studied.

Penn State is a huge school and I’ll be willing to bet by now that you have experienced multiple classes in large lecture halls, exactly like we are now. Sitting in this large of a learning environment can be overwhelming to some. Do you sit in the front, back, or even the middle? It lead me to come up with the question, does where you sit correlate to how successful you are in the class?

Sitting up front has it’s advantages. People who sit up front can easily maintain eye contact with their professors and are more actively involved in the class. The people who take better notes, are more actively engaged in the class, and seem to put more effort into the class, all seem to sit in the front. According to many professors, the students who sit up front are typically their better students.

When you are sitting in the back of a classroom, it is a lot easier to become distracted, since the teacher is not able to see what you are doing, you may be more inclined to become distracted whether it be on your phone, laptop, or even chit-chatting with your friends in the back of the classroom. It is also a possibility a good student will sit in the back of the classroom, only because he is shy, not because he is a bad student.

Researchers say that sitting in the middle is the absolute worst place a student can sit. Instructor’s are typically taught to move their eyes between the front of the classroom and the back of the classroom, rarely making eye contact with students that sit in the middle. It can make a student feel excluded from the classroom, influencing how much they could be paying attention.

Fortunately, many studies have been done on this issue. One study done shows a inverse relationship between distance from the front and exam grades. Students who were deemed to sit in the front of the classroom, middle of the classroom, and the back of the classroom scored an 80%, 71.6%,  68.1% respectively on an exam given in a class. In order to conduct the study, the students were randomly assigned to different seats in the classroom. However, researchers in the study attributed the data due to factors such as students in the front have a visual advantage, a better hearing of what the instructor is saying, and greater eye contact with the instructor.

Another study was done with the hypothesis of students who sit in the front are more likely to be successful in a Biology class compared to students who don’t. The study was conducted with students who were in a biology class at Montana State University. The students taking part in the study intended biology majors with most of them planning to pursue a career in medicine. Student’s were randomly assigned seats in order to remove bias from the study. Row number and cumulative GPA were the independent variables and the dependent variable in this situation were the exam scores. After a full semester, the study concluded that seat location has nothing to do with success in a class.  Another observation from the study was during the first class, students who had the highest cumulative GPA decided to sit in the front of the class. After the first class, before the students were assigned seats, the data was graphed from the first class with the relationship between where they chose to sit and cumulative GPA, and came out with a slope of -.1, which means a students GPA fell .1 for every row they moved back. After randomizing seating for the semester, the data came back showing now relationship between seat location and success in the class.

Data from the Montana State University study showing Chosen Seat Location vs Cumulative GPA on the first day of class, showing an inverse relationship

Data from the Montana State University Study showing assigned seat location vs average exam location, showing no correlation between the data

Many different factors could’ve affected the results of the study. In the first study, the results can not be deemed accurate because it appears that only three students were used as data, and only data that supported the researchers hypothesis could’ve been used. The second study can is more accurate in my opinion. They used forty-five students in the study, which is fifteen times the amount of people compared to the first study, so the results can be more generalized, and not specific to just three people.

Third variables that affected the results of the study could be the students willingness to learn the material, how much attentive the student is in class, or maybe the student has a learning disability that hinders the students ability to learn. Their are many third variables that can either help or hinder a students ability to be successful in a class.

In conclusion, where ever you sit in class, there will be positives and negatives. Two studies have shown different results, one showing that their is a relationship between where you sit and grades, and another showing that their is no correlation. The study showing there is no correlation is much more accurate due to the fact it shows the multiple third variables that can affect a student’s ability to be successful in the classroom.

As student of Penn State, a lot of us have had the opportunity to be apart of the crazy Beaver Stadium atmosphere on Saturday afternoon/nights. Penn State is consistently rated one of the best student sections in the country, partly because of the noise that Penn State students are able to create. The players feed off the noise, the other teams struggle because of it, and the noise makes Happy Valley an unforgettable football experience. What if I told you that Beaver Stadium is able to be one of the loudest stadiums in the country without being built to do so? Sports Stadiums today are now being built with the idea of being as loud as humanely possible.

One of the biggest things Stadiums are now doing to create as much noise are possible is they are building the stadium with a smaller design in mind. You may think bigger is better, right? Unfortunately, you are wrong. You may not be able to see it, but sound travels. Because sound loses energy as it travels, the key is for stadiums to be as small as possible. What stadiums are now doing is they are “trapping” the fan noise inside the stadium. The stadiums are now being built with sides that “turn back” the crowd noise back onto the field.

Levi Stadium is the perfect example of this. Levi stadium the new home of the NFL’s San Francisco Forty Niners. Levi stadium was built tight and compact with sides that turn back, with the hope that the extra boost in crowd noise could give the home team an extra advantage.

The “poster boy” for stadium loudness is CenturyLink Stadium in Seattle, Washington home of the Seattle Seahawks. CenturyLink Stadium is the loudest stadium in the world, as it broke the Guinness World Record of producing the highest ever peak decibel level of 136.6 dB. The constant loud noise seems to give the Seahawks a major advantage, as the Seahawks have lost only two home games in the last four years. What gives the Seahawks the ultimate advantage? Two huge canopies hang down the sides of the stadium, covering almost 70% of the stadium, can be pointed to as the major cause for the stadium noise. With the sides taking a parabolic shape, as sound travels, the parabolic shape turns the sound waves straight back onto the field, making it extremely loud.

Another factor that affects stadium noise is the materials the stadium is made of. CenturyLink stadium is constructed of mainly metal and concrete. The metal and concrete basically act as a mirror or a sound reflector, and can help keep sound within the stadium and direct it toward

Obviously, stadiums are only as good as the fans inside of them. They are the biggest third variable involved in stadium crowd noise. You can use all the science in the world to develop the loudest stadium in the world, however if you don’t have a supportive, loud crowd within the stadium, the stadium design is entirely useless

In conclusion, newer stadiums are using science in order to gain the biggest home field advantage possible. Team owners are having stadiums built with science being used in order to create the loudest atmosphere possible. However, like I mentioned earlier, all that science is useless if a lively crowd is not inside the stadium

I was sitting in Spanish class the other day, and they thought popped into my head “I have been studying the Spanish language for almost five years now, and I am still not very fluent at all in the language.” For example, when Spanish is presented to me on a paper, in words, I can understand what the author is trying to say. However, when a person is speaking to me, my brain has to comprehend every word, grammar rule, and dictation that is being used in the sentence. Unfortunately, it is does not register as fast as the English language obviously. When I speak English, I can do it without thought, since I have been using English all my life. So it got me thinking, what factors affect how one becomes fluent in another language?

First it is important to learn how language in the brain works. There are two main areas in the brain that process language, Wernicke’s Area and Broca’s area.

Wernicke’s area was discovered by German scientist Charles Wernicke, and is responsible for the comprehension of speech. In other words, when somebody is talking to you, Wernicke’s Area is responsible of making sense of their words. In the situation I described above, my Wernicke’s area isn’t as strong for my knowledge of the Spanish language compared to my knowledge of the English Language, so I struggle to make sense of the Spanish.

Wernicke’s Area in the brain

Broca’s area was discovered by Paul Broca and is responsible for the neurons that are involved in speech. In other words, it is responsible for you being able to communicate with other people through the use of words. In the situation above, basically the broker’s area is not used to having to use the Spanish language, so it struggles to do so when asked.

Broca’s area in the brain

One of the first factors that affects language acquisition is age. According to researcher Eric Lennberg, there is an ideal period when a person should be acquiring a second language. Lennberg developed the critical period hypothesis which says it makes biological sense to acquire a second language during a certain period of life and it is harder to become fluent in a language after this period of time. According to Lennberg, language acquistion can only happen during the period of age two to puberty. During this stage, scientific surveys say that becoming bilingual can almost an unconscious action because pronunciation and intonation is much easier to acquire than as an adult due to neuromuscular mechanisms that are active until age twelve. In order to teach a second language more correctly, many elementary schools have begun teaching a second language in their schools. What must also be kept in mind as a third variable during these studies is the learning environment the child is brought up in, the talent the child may possess in order to learn a new language, and how much the child is speaking their acquired language.

Another factor that can go into language acquisition is usage. During my four years of Spanish in high school, I was working with the material five days a week for forty-two minutes at a time. In my college class, I am working with the language two days a week for only a fifty minute period, on top of an hour or two’s worth of homework a week. In order to become proficient in a language, that is not a sufficient amount of time to be working with a language. Most researchers believe that if an adult is speaking to a child in their acquired language, children are noticing patterns in the language, and are more likely to be able to speak it fluently on their own. The usage based theory states , as the theory states that as people begin to use a language more, they become more and more comfortable speaking it. A lot of language learning programs now offers the opportunity to study abroad, as they are almost being forced to learn a language by “studying” in another country. Third variables with this theory is how often they are speaking the language and where they are learning their language from, for example are they speaking the language with the natives or are they learning it by switching the language on their TV?

In conclusion, I have found that the two biggest factors that help with language acquisition are age and usage. Researches have developed two theories explaining why and there is research to back up their theories. School systems have begun the adjust their teaching in order to give children the best opportunity for success while learning a second language.

As a child, I have grown up playing multiple sports, but as I grew older, I mainly focused on hockey. Hockey is a sport that is played at high speeds and involves a lot of contact. As an athlete, I have suffered my fair share of bumps and bruises, broken bones, and ligament strains. Sometimes the question pops into my head, “What will be body feel like when I’m in my fourties? Was playing sports growing up worth the pain I may feel later in life?”

If you focus specifically on one sport, like I did with hockey, you are constantly putting strain on the muscles that are required to do that sport. The injuries start out as small aches and pains and can continue to grow into serious health complications in the future. A few high school softball players went on the record to say they fear they might develop arthritis in their hands to the constantly pressure that are being put on their hands/wrists from swing a bat. The Pitchers went on record saying that they fear their ligaments/joints may become weak in their pitching arms because of the constant strain being put on them. This can be applied to other sports as well. When you are constantly using the same muscle/muscles you are putting them through strain. Different people respond differently to different activities. What may put a certain amount of stress on one person’s body, may not do the same for another.

The physical toll that our body takes playing contact sports can be felt later in life. Most NFL defensive lineman weighs well over 300 pounds and most can run a forty yard dash in under five seconds. Under those specifications, a NFL defensive lineman can unleash 1,700 pounds of force with one hit! These hits occur multiple times a game over 17 week season, over careers that last years. That kind of force being applied to the body over time will force the body to eventually break down over time. Obviously, padding and equipment help, however when a player is hit in an exposed area, such as the arm, there is nothing there protecting the player from the force of the hit. Former NFLer Brad Johnson, along with many other, are now incapable of doing simple tasks such as walking down the stairs, due to the violent collisions they took over the course of their playing careers

A completely different side of injuries in the concussion issue which is now extremely prevalent in society. People who play sports such as football or boxing can possibly be taking blows to the head on almost every play. Researchers have studied brains of over 165 different high school, collegiate, and professional football players. Of the group of players studied, eighty-seven out of ninety-one retired NFL football players tested positive for brain disease that is related to head trauma. The disease found in the brain is called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or as it is commonly referred as, CTE. CTE can only be diagnosed after death, however it is the abnormal build up of the protein Tau, which blocks neural pathways that can make cognitive processes difficult. Former boxer Muhammed Ali now was diagnosed with the disease, Parkinson’s, at age forty-two because of the amount of blows that Ali took to the head over his career. Concussions continue to be a serious issue within the sports world, as many lawsuits over the past five years have been filed, due the how the players claim their injuries were mishandled.

Many different third variables can go into how a players career as a professional athlete can impact their body as they grow older. Factors such as what sport they played, genetics, the severity of injuries suffered, and their training/preparations can have an affect on how their body responds after their career. Some athlete’s may even not feel any after affects of their athletic career and will be able to live a “normal” life.

In conclusion, athletes could be putting their health at risk later in life. Athletes have even been retiring early, such as former NFLer Chris Borland, due to the health complications that may occur later in life because of the violent nature of collision sports. However, most athletes will still continue to put their bodies at risk, because let’s face it, money talks and athletes are still like all of us, and have to provide for themselves and their family.

Denver, Colorado is commonly referred to as the Mile High City, due to the fact parts of Denver sit a mile above sea level, or 5280 feet. Denver is home to four different professional sports franchises, as the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, the Denver Broncos of the NFL, the Colorado Rockies of the MLB, and the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL call Denver, Colorado home. During games in Denver, announcers will make mention of the fact that Denver is a tough place to play because of the high altitudes of the city. Now you may be asking, why is this the case? How does the Denver altitude affect sport performance?

The Mile High Seats at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado

Typically, most researchers are under the impression as altitude increase, sports performance decreases. Scientifically speaking, because Denver a mile above sea level, less oxygen is readily available for the athletes to take in. Because there is less oxygen pressure within the atmosphere, it is tougher for the the lungs to put oxygen into the blood stream. With the lack of oxygen available, breathing becomes harder and heart race increases. Since football is played in short, rapid burst about every 10-15 seconds, it can be a challenge for players to play an entire game in these conditions. The athlete’s from Denver have an advantage over their opponents, because they are used to playing in the conditions. When a road team plays in Colorado, they typically try to arrive as early as possible so they can acclimate themselves with the conditions they are about to play in.

The ability to perform at optimum level for an athlete is not the only things that is affected by high altitude levels. Hitting a baseball can seem easier in higher altitudes. Coors field, home of the Colorado Rockies, is commonly referred to as a hitters park, mostly because of the fact that it is located a mile above sea level. Because of the lower oxygen levels, the baseball is not affected by drag as much, as the ball travels through the air, it is colliding with less molecules within the air, making it travel further. Statistics can back up the hitting in higher altitudes brings more success to the hitter. According the MLB park factors, which is a statistic designed to determine whether a major league ball park is more “hitter friendly” or “pitcher friendly” , Coors field in Colorado has ranked in the top five of MLB Park factors every year since 2001, including finishing in the top spot eight times and every year since 2012. Could these results be by chance? Possibly, but these results include all teams, and not just the Colorado Rockies. A more realistic third variable can be the fact that over the past fifteen years, technology advances such as computers can help a hitter be more prepared at the plate, giving themselves a better chance of reaching base with a hit. Other sports that involve a projectile flying through the air, such as football and basketball, can use the same logic applied to hitting a baseball. Since the air is thinner, and the ball has to go through less particles within the the air, it might be easier to kick a field goal or shoot a basketball in higher altitudes.

In conclusion, altitude positively and negatively affects athletes ability to preform at an elite level. It can hinder an athlete’s performance because of the minimal oxygen particles available for use that can lead to shortness of breath. Or it can enhance an athlete’s performance, as a hitter in baseball is more likely to be more successful playing at high altitudes. The effect that altitude has on performance depends on the type of sport that is being played.

Gatorade is marketed as a sports drink. You’ve seen the commercials, top level athlete’s promote the product saying they use it to reach their peak performance. However, should it actually be used as a sports drink? More importantly, is it actually hurting their athletic performance?

Firstly, Gatorade contains a high amount of sugar. A 12 oz. Gatorade contains approximately twenty one grams of added sugars. Added sugars are bad for you health, as they add extra calories to your daily intake. Basically that is saying that Gatorade can be held responsible for weight gain in obesity a person is drinking Gatorade on a consistent basis.  The American Heart association says that no more than half your daily calorie intake should come from added sugars. Companies are becoming smart, they know that people have began to realize that people know added sugars are bad, so they try and “disguise” the fact they are using added sugars on the label. Fructose, glucose, isoglucose, and sucrose are commonly known added sugars put on nutrition labels.

Another reason Gatorade is unhealthy is because of food additives and colorings. Monopotassium phosphate is used as a food addictive within Gatorade. However, a few more common uses of monopotassium phosphate are being used as a fertilizer and a fungicide. Gatorade also contains brominated vegetable oil, which is also found in flame retardants. Research shows injecting these chemicals can lead to thyroid problems, memory loss, and skin problems. Gatorade also use food colorings such as blue 1 and red 40. There has been a link found between those specific food colorings and child hyperactivity.

High level athletes should not be putting this drink into their body. Gatorade contains too much added sugar and food additives for a high level athlete to be using. An athlete is much better off drinking water during a game or after a workout, as water helps energize muscles by hydrating the muscles during a workout. Like many tasty drinks today, Gatorade just has too many added sugars and food additives to be considered healthy in today’s society

We’ve all been there, you are in the middle of your day and you mentally hit a wall. You decide that you need to take a nap. However, if you nap for too long, you run a risk of not being able to fall a sleep at night, which I am guilty of all the time. Scientifically speaking, there is a perfect way to take a nap.

First, it is important to understand how sleep works. Sleep occurs in five different stages, Stages 1,2,3,4, and REM. The stages go in chronological order until you get to the REM stage. After you complete REM, you go back through the sleep stages back to stage one where the cycle starts all over again. A person ideally would like to get about eight hours of sleep a night, so you go through the sleep cycle about five complete times. During stage one of the sleep cycle, you drift in and out of sleep, however a person can easily become awakened. The eyes move slowly and muscle go into a relaxed state. This goes on for about five to ten minutes. During stage two, your body is preparing for the deep sleep stages of stages three and four. There is no longer constant eye movement and brain waves become slower. Stage three of the sleep cycle is when slower brain waves are mixed in with short burst of rapid brain wave activity. Stage four, is when short, rapid burst of brain waves, referred to as delta waves, are the only kind of brain waves. When a person reaches stages three and four, the person is no longer easily awoken and if the person were to become awoken, they would wake up groggy and disoriented. The last stage of the sleep cycle is referred to as REM. During REM sleep, breathing becomes more rapid, the eyes constantly are moving back and forth, blood pressure rises. After completing REM sleep, the cycle goes in reverse order back to stage one, only to start again.

Now that you know about the sleep stage, it is now time to learn how to take the “perfect nap”. In order to take the perfect nap, it is recommended you take your nap in the afternoon in a calm and peaceful environment. It is scientifically known that the way human circadian rhythm works, a person experiences a period of tiredness during the afternoon.  A perfect nap, is considered to be exactly twenty minutes or exactly ninety minutes. If one naps exactly twenty minutes, they avoid falling into stages three and four of the sleep cycle.  Remember that if one wakes up in the third and fourth stage, they wake up groggy and disoriented, almost defeating the purpose of taking a nap. When one naps exactly ninety minutes, the person has successfully completed an entire sleep cycle, as they are avoiding waking up during stages three and four of the sleep cycle.

Why should one nap? Because there are health benefits to doing so! When one naps, they become more alert after the nap. A NASA study discovered that a short nap improved their pilots performance by thirty-four percent and their alertness by one-hundred percent. Naps that are consistently taking place at a set time has been found to help people who struggle with narcolepsy. Lastly, napping is almost like a memory enhancer. In a study, people who take short naps were found to have improved on their cognitive memory test that they were given.

In conclusion, next time you feel tired or groggy, go take a nap! Knowing the facts about how the the sleep cycle works can now help you take the perfect nap!

Growing up I enjoyed playing video games. After a long day of school or a hard practice, there was no better feeling then jumping on the Playstation and playing online with a couple of my friends. If I had a dollar for every time my mom told me to get off my Playstation, I’d be filthy rich. She’d say something along the lines of “Get off your playstation and go outside and do something healthy!”. She was convinced that there are no health benefits to playing video games. However, I am here today to tell you action packed video games CAN be beneficial to your health.

Playing video game can be beneficial to your eye sight, according to some studies. According to this study, playing a first person shooter, such as Call of Duty, can be beneficial to your eyesight. Playing these types of games can improve eye sight in dark places, which makes tasks such as driving at night become much, much easier. The ability to see objects stronger at night is called contrast sensitivity function. While playing video games, constant moving into different backdrops help improve people’s contrast sensitivity function. Another way video games improve people’s eyesight is because people are exposed to multiple stimuli at the same time. When playing video games, people are forced to track multiple objects at the same time. This can be especially useful for people who’s jobs force them to have great eye sight, for example like being a ground soldier.

Video games have been found to help children who struggle with dyslexia. A study has recently been done with kids ages seven to thirteen to prove that action packed video games help kids with dyslexia. The kids were placed into two groups, one group that would play Rayman Raving Rabbids, an action packed type video game. The second group of children would play a more calming type game. After playing the video games for eighty minutes, the children’s reading ability would be tested. The children who played the more action-oriented video game were found to read at a faster pace and read more accurately compared to children who played the other game.

Lastly, playing video games helps improve your brain’s spacial recognition area of the brain, memory, and help develop motor skills. To investigate, scientists in Berlin had people play Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo XXL for thirty minutes a day for two months. In comparison to people who were not apart of the study, scientist found an increase in the amount of gray matter in the right hippocampus, which is involved in spatial recognition, the right cerebral cortex, which is involved in memory formation, and the cerebellum, which is involved in developing motor skills. The following picture is from the study and shows the MRI results after two months of participating in the experiment.

In conclusion, video games do actually provide health benefits, unlike the common perception within society that video games are unhealthy. So the next time somebody tells you to get off your playstation, just point to a couple of the health benefits and I promise you will never have to deal with being lectured about your video game playing habits again.

The sports world is a competitive world. Participants will train for countless hours in hopes of gaining the smallest advantage over their opponents. However some sports heroes inject themselves with performance enhancing drugs in order to gain an edge of their competition. However, the question remains, are performance enhancing drugs worth the risk?

From the time we are born, most of us are told to stay away from drugs, as when you hear the word drug, it is usually associated with a negative connotation. What would make an athlete turn to performance enhancing drugs? Is it worth the possible consequences that an athlete may face, such as a suspension without pay? Most sports psychologist are in a general agreement that athletes take performance enhancers for one of two reason, for financial reasons or from the pressures they face in the sports world.

Athletes use performance enhancing drugs in hope of enhancing their performance on the field. The PEDs are designed to drastically alter the human body and biological functions in order to help athletes be better on the field. PEDs actually cause more harm to the body than help. When an athlete choses to use PEDs, they are actually breaking down their body. Men may experience shrunken testicles, baldness, and become infertile. Women can develop a deeper voice, baldness, and infrequent and absent periods. Both men and women are at risk of heart failure, muscle and tendon failure, drug dependance, or develop an aggressive like behavior, known as “Roid Rage”. By using PEDs, athletes are risking their long-term health for a short term gain.

The next question we have to ask ourselves is are PED’s actually helping an athlete perform better on the field? For every athlete that successfully uses PEDs to improve in their sports, there are thousands of other athletes that are unable to reap the benefits of PEDs. One of the better known PED users, Lance Armstrong, is a good example of how PEDs can work in ones favor. Armstrong successfully beat cancer and went on to win seven consecutive Tour de France bicycle races. However, he recently admitted to Oprah that he won the Tour de France races with the help of PEDs. However, now his reputation is forever tarnished, and his company, Livestrong, has cut ties with him. However, PED use does not automatically bring success for an athlete. The biogenesis scandal rocked the baseball world in 2013. To summarize it all, a man in South Florida was selling human growth hormones to professional baseball players. One the players involved, Cesar Puello, is a good example of a player who has not experienced a hike in performance due to PEDs. Puello has yet to reach the Major Leagues and probably never will, as he is currently in the gulf coast league, a minor league affiliate of Major League Baseball and struggling.

In a 2002 survey, approximately 4% of high school athletes admitted to using PEDs. In college football, approximately 49% of players believe they have at least one teammate using PEDS. The following chart is from the NCAA.

It shows how unlikely a high school athlete is to play professional sports. The odds show that it is very unlikely that college athletes will go pro in their respective sports, so I believe it is safe to say that a minority of the athletes “going pro” are PED free.

In conclusion, PED use does more harm to the body than good. For every success story, there is thousands of athletes that have not been successful, even with the use of PEDs. PEDs damage the body and are harmful to one’s future health. Yes, PEDs build muscle and can help an athlete succeed n sport. However, it is much more necessary for the athlete to have the proper skills in order to be successful in their sport. PED users are sacrificing long term health for a short term gain

Have you ever watched a hockey game where a goalie makes a save like this? It leaves the crowd in awe and the shooter thinking “How did he do that?”. Well today, I am going to answer the question, how do goalies make saves?

First, in order to fully understand what a goalie goes through to stop a puck, it is crucial to understand the hockey rink dimensions.

We are going to focus on two different areas different different areas of the offensive zone. The blue line to the goal, which is 60 feet (18.3 m ) in distance and what is referred to as the “slot” in hockey, or the area between the two face off circles to the goal, which is 22 feet in distance  (6.7 m).

The average NHL player can shoot the puck, which weighs about 6 ounces (or 170.1 g), at a speed of around 86 miles per hour (38.4 m/s). However, the top shooters in the league can shoot upward of 100 mph, with the fastest shot ever being recorded at 108.8 miles per hour (48.3 m/s).

If the average player is shooting 86 miles per hour (38.4 m/s) and is shooting from 60 feet (18.3 m), you can figure out the time a goalie has to react to the shot. Since Velocity = Distance/Time, you can rearrange the equation to say Time = Distance/Velocity to figure out the goalies reaction time. Plug those numbers into the equation, and in this certain situation, the goalie has approximately .48 seconds to react to the puck. If the hardest shot ever recorded is being taken, the goalie only has about .38 seconds to react to the puck!

However, if you shoot from the prime scoring area on an ice rink, referred to as the slot, the goalie has even less time to react. If the player is shooting from the slot, or from 22 feet away (6.7m), at a speed of 86 miles per hour (38.4 m/s), the goalie has about .17 to react. If the hardest shot ever recorded is being taken at 108.8 mph (48.3 m/s), the goalie only has .14 second to react! To put in perspective how long a goalie has to react, it takes about 1/3 of a second to blink an eye.

How does a goal compensate for the fact that he has less than a second to react to a puck being shot? Its a simple answer, as goalies position themselves accordingly to have the best opportunity to make a save. Most will tell you that most saves a goalie makes in a game is the result of proper positioning. Goalies will align themselves with the shooter so that the goalies will appear to take up as much net as possible, giving the goaltender the best chance possible of making the save. Most of the time, the goaltender will just let the puck hit them, making an easy save in the process

Keep in mind, while trying to stop the puck, goaltenders are constantly dealing with players around the net and rarely have a clear field of vision most of the time. The puck can bounce off another player or ricochet off another player’s stick, changing the trajectory of the puck and making it even more difficult for the goalie to make the save.

In conclusion, positioning is crucial for a goaltender to stop a puck. Proper positioning can make up for the fact that a goaltender has less than a second to react to the puck. It makes you realize that goaltenders are special athletes and that being a hockey goalie is one of the toughest jobs in sports.

Hi, my name is Jordan Eisenstat. I am from Trafford, Pennsylvania, a town about 25 minutes outside of Pittsburgh.

I am doing this course because I plan on majoring in Business. When scheduling my classes, I chose this class because it basically said in the description it’s “a class for people who have no interest in science whatsoever.”

I plan on not majoring in science because I had a terrible experience with a few science classes in high school. My freshman and junior year, I had a teacher who was a complete jerk who made going to his class dreadful. I loved science in middle school, however that teacher turned me away from science after going through two years of his class.

Here is a picture of the beautiful Pittsburgh skyline

Here is a video of Phil Kessel highlights, since I am so excited he is now a Pittsburgh Penguin