The Zone

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The Zone

Whether it is Lebron James flying through the air for a dunk, or Randy Moss making an impressive one handed catch, athletes often leave fans and reporters in awe with athletic plays that defy perceived physical limitations.

Even more astounding than the physical barriers they breach is their ability to play at a high level while hurt or injured. One of the more memorable NBA playoff moments is Rajon Rondo playing an entire game and a quarter with a badly dislocated elbow and still playing great basketball despite the serious ailment.

There have been cases where athletes have played an entire game and did not know they were injured until after the game. It is seemingly preposterous for someone to not only know they were injured and still play, but it is a common occurrence in the sports world that the public often is not aware of.

The question is how? How are athletes able to accomplish such a feat?

The answer is simple for athletes. The zone.

Athletes sometimes attribute a great play or breaking a record to it. It appears the zone is not only limited to great athletic performances, but also to overcoming pain.

Several athletes who attended the University of Wisconsin share their experiences of overcoming pain and all of them attribute it to being in a zone.

What is the zone and how does one access it?

“It feels like you have total control over your body. Everything is instinctive. You’re ready to hit and get it. It’s a total body experience and once that helmet comes on I’m in the zone,” says former Badger linebacker James Kamoku.

Just as every person is different, the zone is different for every player as well.

For Shane Connelly, former UW-men’s hockey goalie, when you’re in the zone the mind is clear. “Nothing bothers me, I can see where the puck is going before it is there, I can anticipate better and react without hesitation,” he says.

But there are two constants that never vary—focus and less sensitivity to pain.

“ My senior year of college hockey, I suffered a third degree separation in the first game of the season and I was able to play uninhibited the whole season on a badly separated shoulder. Whenever I got on the ice though, I was so focused on what I had to do that I was in a zone and I didn’t feel my shoulder hurting anymore,” says former UW Men’s hockey defenseman   Josh Engel.

 

An entire season played on a badly separated shoulder. Athletes have countless stories of overcoming pain in their repertoire, but maybe the most amazing story was by James Kamoku.

Kamoku, who is no stranger to pain and injuries, credits the zone for the ability to play through pain.  He has played through various injuries ranging from sprained ankles to hyper-extended elbows. But the most impressive and improbable is that he played with a partially torn Achilles tendon and walked off the field with a ruptured Achilles tendon.

It was while Kamoku was practicing rushing the passer during training camp for his senior season. Everything was going well. He was having a great camp and he was feeling unbeatable. He was completely in the zone. Total control over his body and then it happened—a slight twinge in his lower right leg.

Kamoku thinks nothing of the minor pain in his leg and maintains his zone focus. The very next play there is no slight pain just a pop.  A pop that reverberates across the practice field and everyone’s attention is diverted to Kamoku.

Being the person that Kamoku is, he tries to get back up and keep playing but the trainers urge him to stay down so they can check him.  He then adheres to the trainers only to learn the severity of what happened. His entire Achilles tendon is ruptured.

“ I was in the zone doing drills and then all of a sudden I lost control of my leg. There wasn’t any pain. It was like my leg wasn’t there anymore.”

The trainers tried to have Kamoku carted off the field while the rest of the team watched from a distance.  Kamoku would have nothing of this.

“I was not being carted off the field my senior year. I still have my helmet on, so I’m still in the zone I feel no pain.  They told me I needed to be carted off the field and said I am walking off this field and I walked 50 yards to the trainer’s room. “

He walked on a ruptured Achilles tendon 50 yards, a remarkable and seemingly impossible feat.   How was he able to do it? Doctor Dane Cook at the University of Wisconsin in the kinesiology department offers an explanation.

He admits there is no knowledge based on experiment to explain why or how athletes can get in a zone, but there is growing data that might explain how athletes can play through pain.

“We do know that contact athletes are more pain tolerant than non- athletes and those who are physically active than those who are sedentary,” says Dr. Cook.

There are many factors that could be responsible for this phenomenon according to Dr. Cook.  It could be the social stigma that surrounds athletes or exposure to pain during training that allows them to have a higher pain tolerance. Dr. Cook believes, however, that it is important to distinguish the difference between pain and injury when attempting to understand how athletes play through pain.

To understand how the pain is blocked it must first be understood how pain is transmitted to the brain. Dr. Cook explains that signals are transmitted from skeletal muscle through fibers along the blood vessels to the spinal cord where the signals are relayed to the brain.

The brain then interprets the signal as pain.  Dr. Cook states that it is possible that athletes can release a biochemical signal from the cortex to the midbrain.  This is where the periaqueductal gray is stimulated and then sends a signal to the spinal cord to stop sending pain signals to the brain. Cook referred to scientific experiments that showed that the periaqueductal gray is crucial in this step. When the periaqueductal gray is stimulated electrically in experiments, it blocks all the pain signals sent from the spinal cord in animals.  According to Dr. Cook, the descending inhibitory control to pain system is a plausible explanation for how athletes can deal with pain while playing.

“What we do know is that there is a descending inhibitory control to pain. You can cognitively control your pain.  If you engage this system you can send signals down to the spinal cord to block pain messages from coming from the muscle.  Injuries though, are a special situation, but that doesn’t mean that this system is not involved in the modulation of pain from injury.”

This is one of many explanations of how athletes are able to play at a high level while in pain. Other theories exist but lack conclusive evidence to support them.

Athletes themselves cannot even begin to explain how they are able to overcome pain. All they know is that the zone is what keeps them going.

“When you’re in that zone nothing can hurt you, its your world,” says Kamoku

Why Now?

Steroids have been a hot topic in baseball for the past five years. What seems so shocking to me is that with every person that test positive for steroid use, the media pundits seemed so shocked that this player could be on steroids! It seems to me if several high profile players have been caught taking steroids over the past five years that the topic of steroids would loose its luster. But conversely it seems to still be a hot topic along with how does this tarnish baseball. With Alex Rodriguez and most recently Manny Ramirez that rhetoric has exploded to new feats. Now, I dont want to give the wrong impression, because there are health concerns with taking steroids, but  why does baseball continue to make a big deal about this now.

Lets go back in time when baseball lost its popularity due to the strike in World Series strike in 94. Baseball was hanging on by a thread and it was saved by Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire race to hit the most home-runs in a season. There was no mention of steroids remotely in the baseball world even though there were people who were clearly on steroids like Jose Conseco and others, but there was no mention because baseball wanted to regain its popularity. Now, baseball has steroids running lose in the league and wants to make a big deal about it now, but I am forced to pose the question why wasn’t this done before now in the mid to late 90′s?

Scouts are partly to blame for NFL bust

eVERY YEAR NFL SCOUTS SCOWER THE COMBINE FOR THE NEXT GREAT PLAYER, THROUGH INTENSE SCRUTINY OF EVERY COLLEGE PLAYER INVITED.  IN THE THEORY It SOUNDS LIKE A FLAWLESS APROACH, BUT IN ACTUALLITY IT COULD NOT BE MORE FLAWED.

 

scouts obsess over how far a quarterback can throw a BALL, how fast a receiver can run in the 40 yard dash or how many times a linebacker can bench press 225.

 

But none of these physical tests determine how PLAYERS will play in a real game situation. STILL NFL TEAMS DRAFT OR DIE BY HOW WELL THE PLAYERS PERFORMS IN EACH PHYSICAL TEST.

 

NOW, THAT IS NOT TO SAY THAT THE PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES DOES NOT HELP A PLAYER BECOME GREAT, BUT IT IS NOT THE END ALL SIGN THAT A PLAYERS WILL BE GREAT. THERE ARE NUMEROUS OTHER FACTORS THAT PLAY A PART IN A PERSON’S GREATNESS. 

 

THE ONLY THING THAT THE PHYSICAL TEST CAN GAGE IS IF HE CAN BE ON PAR WITH THE ELITE PLAYERS IN THE NFL PHYSICALLY. SCOUTS HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO GUAGE TECHNIQUE BECAUSE TECHNIQUE CAN BEAT PHYSICAL ABILITY OR ATLEAST MAKE UP FOR LACK OF PHYSICAL ABILITY.

 

THIS OBESSION WITH ATHLETICISM HAS BEEN THE REASON FOR MANY SO CALLED BUST IN THE DRAFT.

 

PRIME EXAMPLE IS KYLE BOLLER, WHO WOWED SCOUTS BECAUSE HE COULD THROW A FOOTBALL 50 YARDS ON ONE KNEE. THE SCOUTS, HOWEVER, THEY FORGOT THE TEST IF HE COULD READ DEFENSES, DOES HE KEEP HIS THROWING TECHNIGUE WHEN PRESSURED BY DEFENDERS.

 

ALL OF WHICH COULD BE SOMEWHAT DETERMINED BY STUDYING FILM OF HIM AND QUIZING HIM ON RECOGNIZING BLITZ PACKAGES.

 

SO, UNTIL SCOUTS SHIFT THERE FROM PRIMARILY JUDGING ATHLETICISM, THERE WILL CONITINUE TO BE MORE BUST IN THE NFL.

The NFL Combine a Pointless Event

It happens every March. The dust from the previous NFL season has not even settled before ESPN starts analyzing draft prospects for the upcoming year.  Now, that is a perfect natural  media outlet tactic that serves a purpose, because first it gives the broadcasters a relevant topic  to discuss and secondly it enhances the audience’s information about the players who are entering the draft. That makes perfect sense to me and the rest of the world.

Now, when it comes to coverage of the combine I am at a total loss to explain its purpose.  Every year it is grossly over hyped and over-analyzed by the NFL. First, lets  discuss the combine for those , who don’t know what it is. The combine is a glorified workout session for (what the NFL  considers) the top collegiate football players in the nation. These top players are ask to benchpress 225 as much as they can, run the 40-yard dash and various position drills that test each players agility.  While the players are working out they are evaluated  by  scouts from all 32  NFL teams.

It must be stated by me at least that the entire combine is pointless, because none of the athletes are wearing pads while they are doing position drills, there is no hitting and most of importantly there is nothing test them in a game situation. All the combine is good for is seeing how athletic and how fast the college players are, oh without pads on  of course!!!

But, listen to the scouts and the analyst they make it seem that this the only way see if they are players they are on tape. If a player misses the combine or is injured then all of a sudden the accolades that they accomplished are some how tarnished because the scouts didnt get to see them run without pads  and lift weights!!! No where in the combine does it test a players ability to tackle, read defenses and offenses, block opposing players, catch a ball while being covered by a defensive back, nothing. The combine is just players running around and lifting weights in under armor paraphernalia!

I cannot begin to understand how the scouts and analyst can put so much emphasis on the importance of doing well at the combine.  But, here is the most shocking thing of all if you run fast(without pads again) at the combine and can lift a lot weights then your draft stock rises and the player(s) could be catapulted to the top rounds of the draft based on everything but playing the actual game of football.

To further add evidence to my claim please check the link to the NFL  combine website, where the analyst  state that there is a lot of uncertainty for the perceived top picks in the draft because they did not work out.  View the link and decide for yourself.

The second link furthers my point because it is a clip of the proposed top offensive tackle in the draft, but he does is lift weights, runs and position drills all without pads.

http://www.nfl.com/combine/videos/nfltotalaccess#video:09000d5d80eebfc7

http://www.nfl.com/combine/videos/nfltotalaccess#page:1/video:09000d5d80eeec36

Another facet of Lacking Diversity in the Media

I was reading articles on race and the media and one really resonated with entitled  “Yellow Face” in the theatre and movie industry. It is true that “Black Face” gets most of the historical attention but there are many other ethnic groups that have been portrayed and misrepresented by whites on screen and onstage. 

Having studied media in many of my  classes I was aware of “Yellow Face” and other ethnic groups played by white people.  But this article was very informative because many people do not know anything outside of “Black Face”, but there are many other ethnic groups that have been portrayed on screen or onstage just as bad as African Americans. 

The most shocking thing about the article is the fact that early in American history white actors played Asians and they played better Asians than did actual Asians! That was just astounding to me because at that time many people did not really have any experience interacting with Asians, so all the populace had to go on is the white actors portrayal of Asians in a stereotypical manner.  So in essence the Asian community was at a disadvantage when they came to America because there were stereotypes already in place before they ever stepped on American soil. 

That is just appalling to me, because before a person enters a country a stereotype precedes him or her and they are suppose to fit in a mold that is inaccurate but expected. The directors and producers give the excuse that there are not enough qualified Asian actors to receive the lead Asian roles, but the only way to get the appropriate qualifications is to act! Now, this maybe just my sentiment towards the issue, but I would rather have an unqualified but accurate ethnic background play an Asian role than to have a white person play the role or have the wrong Asian ethnicity play the role, such was the case in Memoirs of a Geisha. Not only is it an insult to the particular ethnic group that is portrayed in the movie but it perpetuates the stereotypes that Asians are all the same and look alike and its time we as a society break that age old stereotype and give respect to all Asian countries.

Diversity in the Media Stagnant

 

After having a debate with my friend about diversity in the media I decided to write about the reason for the lack of diversity in the media world. First, it must be noted that there has been significant improvement in the media industry in terms of diversity over the years.  That said there is still a lengthy road to travel before things are close to what they should be.

As mentioned earlier the multimedia industry has come along way since its inception. In the early stages of television and radio many of the faces and voices where white, but slowly and surely that began to change. It is important to note that because, through the slow change the populace was able to developed a comfort level with seeing only white faces that has handcuffed both the media and the sponsors.  People often times do not welcome change in something they have been accustom to for most of their lives.

 This aversion to change has severely handicapped the media world, because overall the multimedia industry is still pretty much all white.  This is because writers for television shows and movies do not want to shy away from what has worked over decades—a cast that is predominately white character because it is what the public is used to.  Recently there has been a minimal shift from a predominately all white cast to a more diverse cast but the main character is still white, which is a sign of change but it is not much of one. Having a diverse cast is fine and well but by having a white main character sends different and wrong messages to the public that perpetuate the stereotype that media has to be centered around white people.  As long as a movie or show is centered on a white person the public will be accepting of the show and that mindset has stymied the industry. It is a rare occasion when a person of color is the main character and it is most often a sports, gang, dance or crime movie, which perpetuate other stereotypes in society that reinforce the notion that whites need to be center stage to keep everything under control and lead the way.

 They are however, some shows and movies that have had a minority in the lead role, so it is not that it never happens. The problem is the regularity and the status of the actor in the lead role. Often times for the main character to be a minority he or she has to be iconic. For example Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Queen Latifah, Oprah, Halle Berry can all receive lead roles, but if it is a lesser known actor or just starting out it then it is extremely rare for a minority lead role to be cast. What does that say about the culture of America, that it is only ok to have a lead role when the public has seen him or her enough times to be deemed safe enough to be in the lead role? 

If the cinema world is to make a leap forward it has to start deviating from the central white character and having a person of color in the lead role who is not an iconic figure with more regularity.  Will the industry actually make this initiative a front concern is a question that only time can answer. Right now it seems highly unlikely because the cinema world is driven by money and if the initiative were to take place money would be lost and sponsors would never let that happen, so for now diversity will have to be put on the back burner; there is always the future to look forward to.

Growing Dilemma

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Growing Dilemma

By Eldridge Bell

Madison, Wisconsin

The current economic status has proven to have far reaching effects on the American population. Graduating seniors’ nation wide are faced with the conundrum to enter a shrinking job market or stay in school to further education in the hopes to obtain a better job. Even with the recent election of president Obama there is a sentiment of realism about the economy’s future.

“The economy is in a downward spiral and I think it is going to take serious time for it to get better,” says University of Wisconsin journalism master’s student Nina Gehan on the economy.

In light of the economic situation the perception is that students are opting more and more to continue their education to make themselves more desirable to the job market.

“I mean that is why I went back to college, because the job market was so horrendous and I did not want to continue working at Starbucks. I feel many other students are doing the same, because just having a bachelor’s degree is not enough anymore. You at least have to have a master’s degree to have a good job now.”

Although this notion of continuing one’s education appears to be a “no brainer”, it is not an option for every college student. Graduating UW-senior Jake Tauber is of the mindset that students cannot delay their entrance to the job market forever and there are still numerous options available to graduating seniors despite the current perception of the market.

“I majored in Japanese and I would like to teach English in Japan, but if I don’t get that job, there other options available to me that I did not even realize. For instance, I saw a job listing looking for a translator to translate video games for the Wii and I know people are going to be playing the Wii for the next eight years, so that is always an option. Now, that is just my opinion right now, I could be in a very different situation if I get denied by the jobs I applied to.”

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) employers are expected to hire 1.3 percent more graduating seniors in 2009 in comparison to the 2008 class in poll issued in August. Though, the market might slightly be more amenable to seniors indicated by the poll there is still growing uncertainty about the job market. Some students are leaving nothing to chance and are applying to jobs and graduate schools. Maya Kamath, a senior majoring in management human resources and economics is entering the job industry and applying to law school, suggest that those who major in a particular field may have a better chance in the job market after graduation than others.

“It might be easier for a person to find a job after college, who majored in business, engineering and especially computer science, since we are in the digital age; there will always be a job for them.”

Though, it appears that students are relegated to a dichotomy that is either to stay in school or go into the job market, it is clear that it is not an easy decision either way for students. Many students do not have the money to support going back to school and others do not want to work fast-food jobs for five to six years to make ends meet until they find a job that suits their educational background. One thing is certain though, seniors will have to take careful time deliberating on what is the best option for his or herself.

Sources

Nina Gehan…ndgehan@wisc.edu

Jake Tauber…. Tauber@wisc.edu

Maya Kamath… Kamath@wisc.edu

http://jobsearchnews.com/entry-level-job-market-for-college-seniors-remains-flat/ for the figures on how much jobs expect to hire graduating seniors.

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