Argument206[已自改]

紫陌纤尘o0UID: 2745492

TOPIC: ARGUMENT206 - The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Parkville Daily Newspaper.

"Throughout the country last year, as more and more children below the age of nine participated in youth-league softball and soccer, over 80,000 of these young players suffered injuries. When interviewed for a recent study, youth-league softball players in several major cities also reported psychological pressure from coaches and parents to win games. Furthermore, education experts say that long practice sessions for these sports take away time that could be used for academic activities. Since the disadvantages apparently outweigh any advantages, we in Parkville should discontinue organized athletic competition for children under nine."
WORDS: 319
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2010/2/16 12:03:45

Based on a study of conditions of some young softball and soccer player last year and a interview for some youth-league softball players, combining with the education experts' advise, the speaker comes out that the disadvantages of sports activities is outweigh the advantages and suggests that Parkville should discontinue athletic competition for children under nine. However, the speaker neglects some significant aspects during the analysis of studies, and maybe that is where the rub is.

Firstly, the speaker unjustly enlarges the bound of the study and does not consider the benefits of the sports. The study in last year is just focus on young players of softball and soccer, and children in these intense physical activities are easy to get hurt. There are no statistics about the other activities and some slight moved sports are less likely to have any hidden dangers. Thus it is not reasonable to discontinue organized athletic competition. Besides, the study not provides any information about the advantages of these sports, such as they could improve the ability of cooperation which is a valuable quality. And also, merely according to the statistics could not indict that more children had hurt, perhaps the former years had a higher number of players suffered injuries or maybe the percentage of
children who get hurt during the competition is still the same, as the increase of participates the hurt rate raise either. In this case, the claim that the disadvantages apparently outweigh any advantages might sound far-fetched to some.

Secondly, the speaker also neglects some basic information about the young athletes which maybe lead to a quilt different result. The recent study have not provided the age of the youth-league softball players, perhaps children under nine would not care the win or loss and nor does their parents and coaches, they just play for fun. And the interviewer maybe on some elder players who are likely care more about the result, and they would have the feeling of responsibility, and thus would probably suffer the psychological pressure. Furthermore, no more information about the details of interviewers, perhaps the ones who had be interviewed perform not that well in the team and they loses their self-confidence, so they would think much of the pressure. They may not be the representation of the entire players. If so, the study would not be a compelling argument for the assertion that physical exercises have much more disadvantages.

Finally, the speaker probably subjectively comprehends the education experts’ claim. The experts merely said that the long practice sessions for those sports take away academic study time, it’s not to say that they object to the athletic competition, perhaps the experts aim to advise to take some methods to reduce some of the practice time. Granted that the experts hold an opposite point about the physical competition, the mostly likely reason is that they had not comprehensively think out the issue, generally, sufficient relaxation would contribute to better academic performance.

In conclusion, the premise that the disadvantages of taking sports apparently overweigh any advantages lacks sufficient information to be supported. And the finial suggestion is unreasonable. More details should be provided and all-around aspects should be taken into consideration to support this advice.