Current State

    With todays advance in technology and science, athletes are becoming bigger, faster, and stronger. Thus making contact sports more and more dangerous. Technology has really boosted the efficiency of an athlete. Now a days an athletes every move can be analyzed to determine what wasted movement he/she has, getting rid of that wasted movement will maximize their abilities. Take a look at the technology used by many Major League Baseball teams as well as college. They take videos of you, and show you where the wasted effort you produce. Once pitchers and batters take away the wasted movement all their actions become more efficient enabling them to throw harder, hit harder, and run faster. The harder these athletes throw, the harder they hit the more there is for a chance of injury to a player who is less fortunate athletically.    
    Not only has technology improved to help athletes, but the way people train for their athletic events has improved as well. Performance enhancing drugs have become more and more of a problem in amateur levels of sports and professional sports. Some performance enhancing drugs such as Steroids, are illegal, but then drugs such as Creatine can be bought over the counter at your local GNE store. Then there are supplements that are used to aid you in your training for sports. Such as protein supplements. The protein supplements are there to help your muscles recover from the strenuous activity. The faster your muscles recover the faster you get back to your training regimen, thus helping the athlete train harder.
    With all the technology and new ground breaking ways to help your body recover from training, players are become dangerously big. Oppents are suffering from side effects of other players becoming “to big.” Todays superb high school athletes already look like grown men. These athletes being so big escalates the chance of injury to themselves or opponents. It causes injuries that can linger for the rest of their lives. Over two million high school athletes are injured each and every year (cdc.gov). Concussions have reportedly been on the rise in the last couple of years. An average of 136,000 high school athletes suffer from concussions each year (tbo.com).  Many of them are minor concussions showing little or no symptoms at all. But then the other small percentage of them are severe brain injuries. Many experts are adamant that concussions are not on the rise, but we are just more knowledge able about the brain and the symptoms of a potentially deadly injury.
    Not only is the new advances in sports a serious risk for other opponents, but also puts the athletes themselves who partake in the new supplements and training at risk. Athletes are willing to try anything to get and edge on the competition, to make themselves better. Such dangerous activity can lead them to make decisions blindly and could be a problem in the future. If an athlete takes steroids many side effects will affect them for the rest of their life's. An estimated 3 to 6 percent of high school students have at least tried Anabolic Steroids (New York Times). Once those 3 to 6 percent of high school students use the steroids they are going to have to live with the side effects of the illegal PED (performance enhancing drugs).  Acne, excess hair growth, and  deepening of the voice are all short term side effects. The long term side effects are more severe. Mood swings and the damaging of important muscles to the body including the heart. Basically steroids cause excess hormones to be produced which cause all the symptoms.
    As you can see, the more technology increases the more the high school athletes become “physical specimens.” This can lead to some problems for the opponents, and the athletes themselves. It can lead to injuries to opponents who aren’t quite as big, and it can lead to injuries to the athletes. They could make a decision blindly and make the wrong decision, not thinking about the future.

• Cindy. "Steroids | The Partnership at Drugfree.org." The Partnership at Drugfree.org | Support and Resources for Parents Dealing with Teen Drug and Alcohol Abuse. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2010. <http://www.drugfree.org/drug-guide/steroids>.
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  Grossfeld, Stan . "A sad and revealing tale of teen steroid use." New York Times 20 Feb. 2008: n. pag. Nytimes. Web. 14 Oct. 2010.
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  "HEADBANGERS: CONCUSSIONS POSE DANGER IN MANY SPORTS; MORE STEPS NOW TAKEN FOR ATHLETES' SAFETY." Reading Eagle 25 Aug. 2010: n. pag. Ebsco Host. Web. 14 Oct. 2010.
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  "It's no game: Head injuries in high school sports." Tampa Bay Online - breaking news headlines, weather & deals - Tampa newspapers & WFLA - TBO.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2010. <http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/aug/08/090748/its-no-game-head-injuries-high-school-sports/sports-prepsports/>.