Techno Ball: Technology in Sports (Reader Response)

Athletes, coaches, and other sports representatives all from around the world are always looking to gain some type of a competitive edge. Some look for an edge using from performing enhancement drugs, some look for an edge by pumping crowd noise into a stadium during the game, and some even look for advantages from videotaping other teams practice. What is the one thing that all of those methods include? Technology! Performing Enhancement Drugs, better known as (PED’s) are substances used to improve any form of activity performance in humans. In sports, the phrase performance-enhancing drugs is generally used in place to anabolic steroids or their precursors (hence the informal term "steroids"), anti-doping organizations apply the term broadly. An example of an athlete using PED’s would be former Oklahoma University (OU) and Seattle Seahawks linebacker Brian Bosworth better known as “The Boz”. The Boz was and outstanding All-American linebacker in college. The way that he performed, it would seem as if he was bigger than everyone, stronger than everyone, and faster than everyone that he played against. Bosworth was six feet two inches tall and 238 pounds. He was the fiercest and most dominating player of his era, here was much speculation about Boswoth using steroids and the speculation was constantly reoccurring about the situation until something happened that secured it all. In 1986 Bosworth was banned from playing NCAA football because he admitted to using steroids to give himself a competitive edge. Another example of a team using technology in sports, would be the 2007 New England Patriots team. They were another team aiming to get a competitive edge, they were caught videotaping the New York Jets’ practice the day before their game against one another. Another example of technology in sports, would be the 2014 Atlanta Falcons football team. They were found guilty of pumping fake crowd noise into the stadium to make it harder for their opponents to hear. Despite many of the negative connotations of technology in sports that appear prevalent like those discussed above, improved technology also offers many advantages. There has been new special padding in helmets created for the prevention of head trauma and concussions. Rehabilitation/healing pools have been created with the help of technology to speed up recovery time for athletes and make there recovery more efficient. Another example of this is the invention of the metal baseball bat, has made baseball safer in a variety of ways. When there were only wooden baseball bats, a powerful batter could hit the ball and snap the bat in half, sending half of the bat flying towards the pitcher or possibly striking the catcher or umpire. All of these examples, negative or positive, have one common attribute: technology. Whether the outcomes of the use of technology in sports are good or bad, ultimately, technology does much more good than bad in sports.

While my research has shown that technology has improved sports much more than it has hurt sports, many people believe the exact opposite. In the article “How Technology is Affecting Sports”, writer Lewis Howes states that, “Many athletes are taking advantage of the latest and greatest trends in technology as well” (Howes 2). When he makes this statement, he is referring to many different things about the involvement of technology in sports. He uses competitive ice skating as an example. He feels that all ice skaters should be using similar if not the same skates but they do not. They use many different kinds of skates which sometimes can make the playing field uneven. Some skaters are steering towards creating their own skates. They are aiming to make it easier for the skaters to perform on their icy surface by creating skates that are lighter, and could have a better grip to the surface. This is just one of many articles and authors that disagree with technology’s positive connection to sports.

In the article, “Is Technology Ruining Sports”, author Joe Roberts tells why he thinks technology is bad for sports. He states that, “Technology is moving on and influencing everyone's life, but I believe there is no place for it in sport,” which is pretty clear cut on how he feels. He feels that technology is slowing the game down, is not always accurate, and is sometimes a little too accurate. When he says he feels that technology slows the game down, he is referring to the review system and how it can make the make the game slower and take momentum from a team: Robert states, “Review systems also slow the game down, in Cricket it can take two or more minutes for a third umpire to make a decision, and this adds to an already long game” (Roberts 1). When he says that it is not accurate enough he is talking about how the referees can make mistakes in a game that could cost a team a championship. When he says a little too accurate, he is pointing out the fact that it would make the game less interesting because many fans show a lot of different emotions when there is a bit of controversy in a sporting event. Roberts states, “Personally, I like a bit of controversy in Football, it adds excitement and sparks debate” (Roberts 1). That quote shows the feelings from the perspective of a fan of sport. This is another article that goes against technology in sports and I respectfully disagree with it.

I would disagree with both of these writers for many reasons. One would be the fact that technology is the reason that some of the world’s most popular sports are the way that they are today. Technology has made the sports much more safe, more efficient, and has made sports exciting to watch. Technology improved nearly everything in sports from the equipment used in sports, to the stadiums and arenas that are used for events, to the athletes attributes that play the sports. Would football be as fun as it is now if it didn’t have the six foot four, two hundred fifty pound athletes that can run forty yards in 4.3 seconds? Would football be safe if we still used plastic helmets from the 50’s and 60’s? Would baseball be as exciting as it is now if the metal bat had not been invented and there weren’t as many homeruns as there are today? I answer all of these questions with an emphatic NO and I am pretty sure that there are plenty of others like me that feel exactly the same way.

Technology is a major part of the sporting world. I feel that technology is good for the advancement in sports. The work technology does for sports range from helping athletes train to the viewing experience of fans. Technology can make sporting equipment better and safer. That is shown by the new information found by researchers looking for more ways to prevent injury to the players. Athletes can become better at their craft due to the equipment advancement in sport. Each year, there is some new sort of equipment created with the help of technology that is used to make an athlete bigger, stronger, or faster. There is some new protein made year in and year out that helps muscles heal faster and become more bulky. There will always be another running shoe to come out every season that are lighter and more stylish than the ones previously. Technology can enhance the viewing experience of sports. For fans that sit in far back seats, looking at a TV placed in the middle of the stadium helps improve the visual of the game. Also, technology plays a role in scouting athletes. Due to the help of technology, scouting athletes have become much easier than it was in previous years. There has been a variety of new ways discovered to help find out things such as the true speed of an athlete, how explosive an athlete is, or even how much body fat an athlete carries on him or her. There is so much good that technology does for sports. Just the same as everything else in the world, sports evolve over time. Science and technology fuel these alterations, given that ever-better equipment made with superior materials, better information about nutrition and training, and developments in information generation and analysis that help drive the limits of athletic capability. The future of sports could hold things that we never thought we would have seen before. There could be things from visors in football helmets that tell players the plays the coach want them to run to chips in baseball bats that tells how much energy the batter exerted to hit the ball as far as he did. There is a limitless number advancements in technology that can be applied in sports just waiting to be realized. Most of the ideas seem pretty far-fetched, but at the same time, who knew there would be computers about 100 years ago? Who knew there would be iPhones, tablets, flat screen TV’s 50 years ago? No one thought those things would exist. Sports have come a long way because of technology and still have a long way to go. As technology advances, so will sports.

I feel as if I have stated more than enough reasons that show why technology is good for sports. I have given many examples and I am pretty sure the good that technology did would outweigh the bad. Technology has done so much good for sports, I find it hard to find a reason to say technology is bad for sports. I hope that I was able to persuade any naysayers that disagree with my claim to consider taking a deeper look into the positive role technology plays in sports

Works Cited

Miah, Andy. " Rethinking Enhancement in Sport." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1093.1 (2006): 301-320. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 July 2015.

Loland, Sigmund. "Technology in Sport: Three Ideal-Typical Views and Their Implications." European Journal of Sport Science 2.1 (2002): 1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 July 2015.

Gao, Siyue, and Xiao Liu. "Analysis and Research of Sports Network Teaching System Module." Journal of Chemical & Pharmaceutical Research 6.11 (2014): 757-763. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 July 2015.

Caine, Mike, Kim Blair, and Mike Vasquez. "Materials and Technology in Sport." Nature Materials 11.8 (2012): 655-658. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 July 2015.

Loland, Sigmund. "The Ethics of Performance-Enhancing Technology in Sport." Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 36.2 (2009): 152-161. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 July 2015.

Jingjing, Song. "Construction of Community Sports Service's Informationization." Journal of Chemical & Pharmaceutical Research 6.6 (2014): 2278-2282. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 July 2015.