Daily Archives: October 25, 2012

Swimming Injuries?

Usually when you hear of sports injuries you assume that the person plays a contact sport like, hockey, lacrosse, football, or basketball, and not of a competitive swimmer getting hurt. People think that because competitive swimming is a non-contact sport you can’t get injured. Well those people are wrong. Although swimming may not be a contact sport you still are able to get injured in different ways.

Most swimming injuries are caused from  overuse or repetitive stress injuries. You hear complaints about how someone on your teams shoulders or knees are hurting. This is from swimming the stroke wrong or from a lot of long practices. Its the constant action of pulling with your shoulders that makes the problems. While you’re swimming your shoulders are pulling you along which is a lot of stress on the shoulder. Breaststroke is a cause of  knee injuries because of the awkward looking and uncomfortable kick you do can irritate your knees! Other kicks such as the kicks you do during butterfly and the flutter kick you do during backstroke and freestyle may irritate your knees too. Too many stressful and long  practices can result in these injuries.These injuries could potentially keep you out of the pool.

You would think that since your lighter in the pool, swimming would be easy. But swimmers put constant pressure on their shoulders and knees. Everything they do involves their shoulders and their knees. I know that swim practices are longer than the average sports practice, sometimes I have practice for 2 hours and 45 minutes! Thats a long time to be moving your body around. So as you can see there are swimming injuries even though swimming is not a contact sport!

-Julia Waldron

RED

Recently Taylor Swift came out with a new album “Red”. Each week until the album came out a new song would be released and reach the top of the charts on iTunes. Within one day Swift’s album reached #1 in every genre on iTunes and more than 4 million copies had been purchased. But the question is, is Taylor Swift still writing country? Ever since the first single, “We are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” came out fans had that question.

In my opinion, Taylor Swift has never been the biggest country singer. In iTunes her songs genre is country but she doesn’t seem much of a country singer. Her songs are more upbeat and catchy than much of the country style. Yes, Swift’s songs do seem a little bit different on this album but I don’t think she’s purposely trying to change her songs to pop music. Every artist always changes their tempo sometime and now it’s Swift’s turn.

~Jacqueline Allard

Think Before you Drink

2 million. The number of drunk drivers at any given time. Most people enjoy a little drink from time to time and there is nothing wrong with this. But, did you know that almost one in seven of all deaths on the road involve drivers who are over the current legal limit? The more you drink, the higher the risk to be involved in a road accident. Alcohol influences your driving even if it’s ingested in small quantities.  In fact, if you drink and drive (with a blood alcohol level over 80mg per 100ml) you are three times more likely to be involved in a crash than a sober driver. There are things people miss on the road because they are not paying full attention, there are stop signs missed causing accidents, and many drivers are unlikely to be able to act quickly in intense situations such as swerving to avoid a collision. Alcohol is also a depressant, which can cause drowsiness, leading to higher risk for accidents. If people want to avoid accidents, it looks like people have to choose: drinking or driving?!

MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) is an association to raise awareness about drunk driving.  “The mission of Mothers Against Drunk Driving is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking.” They stress that people should always take caution when on the road because many lives can be risked. Many people help continue this organization by raising fundraisers and just spreading the word. My uncle was a victim of a drunk driver, making it even more of a reason that I should spread awareness.

~Saige Bingman