athletics

Showing 30 posts tagged athletics

Exercise Helps Kids Cope with Stress Researchers discovered sedentary children have surges of cortisol — a hormone linked to stress — when they are exposed to everyday stressors. However, the most active children had little or no increase in their cortisol levels in similar situations. “The findings suggest physical activity plays a role in mental health by buffering children from the effects of daily stressors, such as public speaking,” said the study’s lead author, Silja Martikainen, M.A., of the University of Helsinki, Finland. photo via flickr:CC | Neighborhood Centers

Exercise Helps Kids Cope with Stress

Researchers discovered sedentary children have surges of cortisol — a hormone linked to stress — when they are exposed to everyday stressors.

However, the most active children had little or no increase in their cortisol levels in similar situations.

“The findings suggest physical activity plays a role in mental health by buffering children from the effects of daily stressors, such as public speaking,” said the study’s lead author, Silja Martikainen, M.A., of the University of Helsinki, Finland.

photo via flickr:CC | Neighborhood Centers

What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About Special-Ed Sports The new guidance makes clear that schools should work together to ensure that, if there is sufficient interest among disabled students in a district, these students are provided opportunities to participate in alternative sports, such as wheelchair tennis or, yes, wheelchair basketball. More fundamentally, given the relatively small scale of what we’re talking about here, parents and others worried about the dilution of dollars for school athletics should simply pause and ask themselves: what if the children we’re talking about were yours? photo via flickr:CC | Adam Scotti

What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About Special-Ed Sports

The new guidance makes clear that schools should work together to ensure that, if there is sufficient interest among disabled students in a district, these students are provided opportunities to participate in alternative sports, such as wheelchair tennis or, yes, wheelchair basketball.

More fundamentally, given the relatively small scale of what we’re talking about here, parents and others worried about the dilution of dollars for school athletics should simply pause and ask themselves: what if the children we’re talking about were yours?

photo via flickr:CC | Adam Scotti

What It Really Takes to Get Kids Moving One easy solution would seem to be limiting screen time. After all, if your kid isn’t glued to the TV, then he or she is more likely to be running around outside, right? Wrong, says a new study. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control surveyed more than 1,200 kids ages 6 to 11, and found that the likelihood that a child gets regular exercise doesn’t really depend on how much time he or she spends watching TV and playing video games. “I don’t think it’s as simple as, if a child is not watching television, then by default that child will be physically active,” said the study’s lead author, Tala Fakhouri, Ph.D. So what can work? Bringing physical education (P.E.) back into schools, according to another new study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The researchers examined 85 studies to project how certain policy changes would affect the amount of exercise children get each day. photo via flickr:CC | Ikhlasul Amal

What It Really Takes to Get Kids Moving

One easy solution would seem to be limiting screen time. After all, if your kid isn’t glued to the TV, then he or she is more likely to be running around outside, right? Wrong, says a new study.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control surveyed more than 1,200 kids ages 6 to 11, and found that the likelihood that a child gets regular exercise doesn’t really depend on how much time he or she spends watching TV and playing video games. “I don’t think it’s as simple as, if a child is not watching television, then by default that child will be physically active,” said the study’s lead author, Tala Fakhouri, Ph.D.

So what can work? Bringing physical education (P.E.) back into schools, according to another new study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The researchers examined 85 studies to project how certain policy changes would affect the amount of exercise children get each day.

photo via flickr:CC | Ikhlasul Amal

Middle Schools Add a Team Rule: Get a Drug Test It is difficult to gauge how many middle schools conduct drug tests on students. States with middle schools that conduct drug testing include Florida, Alabama, Missouri, West Virginia, Arkansas, Ohio, New Jersey and Texas. Some coaches, teachers and school administrators said drug-testing programs served as a deterrent for middle school students encountering drugs of all kinds, including steroids, marijuana and alcohol.

Middle Schools Add a Team Rule: Get a Drug Test

It is difficult to gauge how many middle schools conduct drug tests on students. States with middle schools that conduct drug testing include Florida, Alabama, Missouri, West Virginia, Arkansas, Ohio, New Jersey and Texas.

Some coaches, teachers and school administrators said drug-testing programs served as a deterrent for middle school students encountering drugs of all kinds, including steroids, marijuana and alcohol.

Why teens should have their music and sports lessons in the evening While you sleep your brain learns. Research with rats has shown how they rehearse maze-routes in their brains whilst they’re dozing. And human research has demonstrated that learned material is better recalled after a sound sleep as opposed to a disturbed night. But what hasn’t been looked at before now is the optimum time to leave between learning and sleeping. photo via flickr:CC | angela7dreams

Why teens should have their music and sports lessons in the evening

While you sleep your brain learns. Research with rats has shown how they rehearse maze-routes in their brains whilst they’re dozing. And human research has demonstrated that learned material is better recalled after a sound sleep as opposed to a disturbed night. But what hasn’t been looked at before now is the optimum time to leave between learning and sleeping.

photo via flickr:CC | angela7dreams

pbsarts:

Are the Olympics A Model for Creating Geniuses?

Everyone is obsessed with the Olympics right now, watching these geniuses push the boundaries of their field. Wait, did we say GENUISES? Yes! We normally associate the word “genius” with intellectual accomplishments, but athletes are geniuses at pushing their bodies to new heights, making the impossibly difficult seem easy and effortless. While it might not seem like it, genius of any kind requires financial and cultural support. In a world where athletes are developed and celebrated, more so than scientists or artists, it makes sense that we turn to the Olympics as a model for fostering genius. 

Let us know what sorts of crazy ideas you have, about this episode and otherwise:
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Poor Nutrition and Female Athlete Triad Do you remember the food you ate in high school and college? In college, maybe you remember the dining hall food you tried to *avoid*. And in high school, sometimes it’s hard to find time to eat at all between classes and papers and activities. But research is now showing that poor nutrition - especially at the high school level and especially among girls - is having significant health consequences. And many girls are unaware of the risks. The work actually came out of a unique partnership between a researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a student at DSHA - Divine Savior Holy Angels high school, an all-girls school on the northwest side of Milwaukee. Melissa Jonardi is a senior at DSHA who will study biomedical science at Marquette University next fall. Doctor Kate Temme is one of the sports medicine physicians at the Sports Medicine Center at the Medical College, where she and other researchers study a phenomenon known as the female athlete triad. photo via flickr:CC | Susan von Struense

Poor Nutrition and Female Athlete Triad

Do you remember the food you ate in high school and college? In college, maybe you remember the dining hall food you tried to *avoid*. And in high school, sometimes it’s hard to find time to eat at all between classes and papers and activities. But research is now showing that poor nutrition - especially at the high school level and especially among girls - is having significant health consequences. And many girls are unaware of the risks.

The work actually came out of a unique partnership between a researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a student at DSHA - Divine Savior Holy Angels high school, an all-girls school on the northwest side of Milwaukee. Melissa Jonardi is a senior at DSHA who will study biomedical science at Marquette University next fall. Doctor Kate Temme is one of the sports medicine physicians at the Sports Medicine Center at the Medical College, where she and other researchers study a phenomenon known as the female athlete triad.

photo via flickr:CC | Susan von Struense

College Athletics and Graduation Rates

With the college football championship games coming up, Dmitriy T.M. thought it was a good time to highlight the NCAA’s database that provides detailed information on graduation rates of college athletes. For each school, you can select particular sports and years.

So how are student athletes doing? According to the NCAA’s analysis, if we look at the  more restrictive FGR for students who began college in 2004, student athletes actually have higher graduation rates in general, especially for African Americans.

DSHA Golf

The Dasher golf team will be competing at the WIAA State Tournament today and tomorrow.  You can follow along by going to www.golfstatresults.com. On the left hand side of page (under live scoring), click on Junior Golf; the first event should be Wisconsin Girls State Championship.

The system will include scoring updates after every three holes.  Team scores and individual scores will be posted on the Golfstat website throughout the tournament.

Coaches, players, parents, and spectators will all be able to monitor scores during the two-day event.  A monitor at University Ridge will be provided in the clubhouse allowing spectators at the State Meet to remain current on team and individual scores.  Anyone with internet access will also be able to view scores.

Good Luck DSHA Golf!