From the Paper
" Society rarely questions the value of youth participation in sports. Many parents force their children to play sports, believing that such activity instills positive values like teamwork, cooperation, and sportsmanship. Mandatory participation in sports is a part of the physical education curriculum in most elementary schools. Yet sports participation can contribute to lowered self-esteem and aggressive, antisocial behavior in some children.

Competitive sports reflect society's value system. Since the United States, for the greater part of its history, has not felt the menace of foreign aggression and has no universal system of military training, sports fulfill the need to develop in youth the principles of offensive and defensive ability. Competition is based on struggle, the survival of the fittest: "Youth sports.."

From the Paper
"Introduction

LA Gear competes in the athletic and casual footwear market, a market that is dominated by Nike. In the past several years, the company has encountered financial difficulties, a loss of focus in its marketing, and a shrinking market share. These factors have been exacerbated by several changes in management and the withdrawal of the company's single largest investor. This research considers the current state of the industry as a whole and LA Gear's position with the industry in particular.

Industry Analysis-Recent Performance

The domestic footwear market encountered four years of stagnation that ended in the mid-1990s. During that time, Nike adopted a strategic position of maintaining low inventory levels, with the result that the company kept low inventory costs and outperformed the rest of ..."

Abstract
To understand the sport of soccer is, in effect, to understand Brazil. In a nation that is facing economic disaster and an IMF bailout, the only emotional event that has affected the 165 million people of Brazil was losing the World Soccer Cup this year, an event tantamount to major disaster. In a wrap up story, the Associated Press quoted several South American newspapers that captured the mood:

From the Paper
"THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF SOCCER IN BRAZIL

To understand the sport of soccer is, in effect, to understand Brazil. In a nation that is facing economic disaster and an IMF bailout, the only emotional event that has affected the 165 million people of Brazil was losing the World Soccer Cup this year, an event tantamount to major disaster. In a wrap up story, the Associated Press quoted several South American newspapers that captured the mood:

"Brazil left all its talent, ability and creativity in the locker room," wrote Jose Trajano of the sports daily Afinal. In Argentina, Brazil's loss was banner headline news. "Brazil Weeps" and "Rio is an ocean of tears," said the Buenos Aires daily Cronica. Former Peruvian soccer great Teofilo Cubillas, in a column in the ..."

Abstract
Discusses the art's special features and what makes it unique. Compares it to other forms of martial arts. The paper presents the main ideas and philosophy of Tae Kwon Do and how these are practiced by those who follow the art in their daily life.

From the Paper
"Dozens of martial arts are practiced around the world but few are as popular as the Korean art of Tae Kwon Do. It is no surprise that Tae Kwon Do attracts hundreds of millions of students: it comprises the grace and flexibility training of yoga, the self defense potential of Judo, and the mental prowess of Aikido. But Tae Kwon Do surpasses all other martial arts in its attention to all facets of the human being. Tae Kwon Do affects the practitioner on the mental as well as the physical level. Tae Kwon Do is practiced by an estimated 30 million people in almost 150 nations around the world (World Taekwondo Federation, http://myhome.elim.net/taekwondo/wtf/ ). Up to 3 million Americans practice Tae Kwon Do for health and fitness (?History of Taekwondo and the United States Taeqwondo Won,? http://www.ustw.org/index.htm). Its presence in the Olympics testifies to its worldwide presence and acceptance as the best martial art form. Even Karate-do, also immensely popular, cannot match Tae Kwon Do's universal appeal. Contrary to popular belief, Tae Kwon Do can be practiced by anyone, even those in a weakened physical state. The martial art is extremely easy to learn and incorporate into daily life."

Tags:olympics, sport, karate, korea, exercise

From the Paper
"The purpose of this research is to discuss strategies in cognitive psychology relevant to sports psychology. These are strategies that motivate an athlete to achieve success in sports. Cognitive psychology is based on the discovery that certain kinds of thoughts, called automatic thoughts, lead to the production of many emotions. Some people refer to this as the ABCs of emotion. For example, an activating event will bring about a belief system, and this, in turn, will have an emotional consequence. Cognitive psychology seeks to recognize this automatic thought and find a more positive response, thus ending the negative belief system.


Once considered a form of psychic voodoo, sports psychology is rapidly becoming an integral part of nearly every elite athlete's normal training routine (Allman, 1992, p. 50). The new..."

Abstract
This paper discusses the sport of illegal street racing which, although seen by many as a dangerous and harmful activity is actually full of custom, tradition, and history. It shakes off the stereotype of street racing as just another juvenile crime group by showing that the majority of participants are in fact employed full-time, generally as mechanics, or in other trades such as carpentry, boiler making or shop fitting while others tend to be in full-time education, either at high school or ay local universities. It shows how although 18- to 25-year-olds make up the core the illegal street racing culture, the trend cuts across all races, as well as both genders and how it provides a drug-free and violence free society to compete in, while still earning respect from their peers.

From the Paper
"The street racing sub-culture draws its main interest, however, due to two elements which also exist in the mainstream culture, those of masculinity, and the symbol of the car. Various sociological and criminological authors have discussed this link. Australian sociologist Rob White, in his book No Space of Their Own, focuses on the way in which, for many men, "the car becomes indelibly stamped into their consciousness as a key symbol of masculinity" (1990, 124-25). Criminologist Chris Cunneen (1985, 85) claims that the relationship is one of power, arguing, ?There is a necessity in seeing the way cars and motorbikes are symbolic objects of masculine power."

Tags:race, employment, cars, society, danger

Abstract
This study considers understanding fan behavior by understanding their values and emotional levels regarding sports spectating. The results of one survey, distributed to ten randomly selected sports fans and one interview, distributed to an extreme sports fan, have been compared based on personal profiles, behavior patterns, satisfaction levels and social values, in an effort to learn how to improve fan behavior.

From the Paper
"The popularity of spectator sports in the United States has seen a huge increase over the past few decades. This enormous increase is shown in the increase of money spent on spectator sports, which increased from $3.7 billion in 1970 to $4.9 billion in 1994 (U. S. Census Bureau, 1996). With this increased popularity, spectator sports have also seen increases in the mass media, with more television and radio time, advertising and promotion being dedicated to sports."

Tags:sport, spectator, match, media, popularity, marketing, violence

Abstract
This paper presents and discusses each side of the drug testing argument, showing that each has its good and bad points. The argument to have no drug testing and the argument to have random drug testing are discussed only briefly, since the paper argues that there can be only one 'right' answer to the drug testing question. The writer claims that in a public high school setting it is the school's right to test for drugs in its athletes if the students have been notified and the date of testing is known.

From the Paper
"Recently, the debate over whether high school athletes could be tested for illegal drugs has gotten more heated. There are not two, but three sides to this tricky and complex argument. One side says that high school athletes should never be drug tested for any reason, one side says that high school athletes should be able to be drug tested at any time, based on the discretion of the teacher or coach, and one side says that scheduled drug testing of high school students should be acceptable but random testing should not be. Why the distinction between scheduled and random testing?"

Tags:random, selective, education, abuse, right, scheduled, court

Abstract
Examines how athletics help to develop leadership qualities. Importance of issue. Social context. Focus on team sports as illustrating relationship between leader & those he leads. Vital role of the coach. Importance of rules. Gives examples of specific coaches (Phil Jackson, Vince Lombardi) & players (Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal) with leadership qualities.

From the Paper
"This study will examine how athletics helps to develop leadership qualities. This issue is important because of the emphasis on sports in modern society, and, therefore, both young and older athletes learn many lessons about life and behavior from sports. It is also crucial to differentiate between the emphasis on winning that is so prevalent at every level of sports today, and the leadership which transcends victory or defeat. By "leadership," this study will refer to those qualities which drive an individual to excel himself or herself, but which also drives that individual to help and inspire others to reach their potential as well in a team-oriented, cooperative atmosphere. An excellent player will always want to excel, but an effective leader must practice and instill in others on the team the desire to excel as a team, not merely as a group of individuals. In..."

Abstract
Discusses move toward public funding for construction and or improvement of sports facilities for professional sports teams and franchises. Issue of who will pay for stadiums. Expanded business sales in stadium areas. Role of state governments. Pros and cons of taxpayer financing. Need for accountability and oversight to protect taxpayers.

From the Paper
"Sports Stadia: Taxpayer Funding Concerns
I. Identification of the Problem
Prior to 1953, only one major league baseball club played in a stadium funded by any government body and 75 percent of funding for all ballparks came from private sources. Excluding government-funded stadia built to attract the Olympics, American professional sports teams played in facilities that were funded with private investment capital (Public financing of?, 2001). Since then, bankers have come to estimate that about 20 percent of all professional American sports teams are somewhere in the process of building new stadiums, with franchises in all major sports leagues turning to government at the local and state level for a substantial portion of the costs associated with constructing these facilities (Garrity, 2000)."