6 ms·

I find it extremely weird when people complain that athletes should stop their sport because "it's bad for them". So is office work. 8 hours of sitting, back pa

I find it extremely weird when people complain that athletes should stop their sport because "it's bad for them". So is office work. 8 hours of sitting, back pain and the repetitive stress on hands causing arthritis issues isn't that much better. I'd say it's just as physically bad for people, except office work is a life unfulfilled and boring. Office work isn't exactly something you can brag about. I'd rather have bad knees being a competitive runner than having bad knees because I sit too much. There's inherent risk in simply living. If people want to have fulfilled lives by pushing their body's to the limit, that's their choice and to be honest, a choice we should all be encouraged to try in our lives to some capacity. Also, to pretend they're unaware of the risk is ridiculous. It's not like the Olympics is the only competitive arena for these disciplines.

fermienrico 6y ago
Agreed, we should not sympathize on behalf of them where they're free to choose to do something else if they wanted. This is a concious choice and it is in the same vein as people would support legalization of recreational drugs - let people make their own decisions. Wanna rock climb and take the risk? We should allow it just like we allow sky diving, climbing the Everest and sailing. This kind of thinking leads to degradation of the society where no one will be allowed to take risks.
- HappyDreamer 6y ago
  > Wanna rock climb and take the risk? We should allow it That's different from broadcasting a free soloing climbing tournament across the world, and giving rewards to the winners (survivors) "Allowing" need not meen "encouraging"
  - fermienrico 6y ago
    Fair enough, that's an important distinction and I concede. I think it makes sense to prevent glorifying deadly sports and still allow them to be conducted.
  - NoOneNew 6y ago
    So, ban all competitions in general? That sounds like a fantastic idea... gonna solve lots of problems with that one. Football, both kinds, have lots of permanent injuries throughout the body and brain. If you want to talk about rewarding people for pushing themselves to the extreme, those are far better examples than free soloing. It's interesting when people are fine with stopping passion sports like climbing, skateboarding and now sledding, but they're too scared to say the same about the 800-pound guerrilla, money making machine sports with a lot more TBIs and deaths. Especially since a lot of people go for football more for the reward than for the actual passion. Again, it's not like anyone participating in any of these sports are unaware of the risk. An argument might exist for 20-30 years ago. But not today. That takes flat-earther mental gymnastics to think they aren't putting themselves at risk. But at the end, if you're complaining that, "These people push their body's too far", that's not you caring about their well being. That's you seeing your own weakness, laziness and cowardliness to attempt the same feat. These folks are going to push themselves some way, some how, because they want to not die wondering "what if". No one is ever safe from "mental demons" and it's terrible when someone takes their own life, no matter what the category root cause was. But I know very well that choosing to achieve nothing due to fear is a bigger open door for those issues.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - HappyDreamer 6y ago
      > So, ban all competitions I wrote "not encouraging", that's different from "ban all". Why did you reply to "ban all" instead? I like MMA and UFC, however, the fighters get brain scanned to find out about underlying problems, and if you get knocked out, you cannot compete again for a long while (because of TBI risk). Whilst the sledding sports seem to ignore brain injuries.
HappyDreamer 6y ago
> [office chair back pain, finger injuries] isn't that much better But this generally doesn't case suicide And can be treated, by going to the gym. (I had back, knee, elbow pain myself, from office work — and the gym, made it disappear. In my particular case) > bad knees Agreed, I'd be ok with bad knees. But when it's the brain, it's ... to some extent, the end.
- Delk 6y ago
  That's true, but I don't think GP was referring to those special cases where the risk is to the brain, even though those are the what the linked article of course discusses. As their parent comment said, any sport that compels you to reach for the extremes of physical human performance carries a risk of injury and wear that's obviously greater than just exercising for health and casual fitness. In most cases that's to something else in your body than your brain. But that reaching for the limits is also what makes those sports enjoyable to some people, and nothing else might quite equal the experience.
watwut 6y ago
Pointing out how it damages body should be as acceptable as pointing out too much sugar is bad for you. There is absolutely nothing weird about saying so. And also, office work is less damaging to body then top sport. Second, general public knowing that top sport damages body influences parents, teachers and coaches decisions. When we make that topic taboo, people are more likely to push kids toward maximum performance in sport. To teach them set of values that pushes it. When we know serious clubs can damage them, we are more likely to pick less serious clubs (which prevents future top engagement).

fermienrico 6y ago

Agreed, we should not sympathize on behalf of them where they're free to choose to do something else if they wanted. This is a concious choice and it is in the same vein as people would support legalization of recreational drugs - let people make their own decisions. Wanna rock climb and take the risk? We should allow it just like we allow sky diving, climbing the Everest and sailing. This kind of thinking leads to degradation of the society where no one will be allowed to take risks.

HappyDreamer 6y ago
> Wanna rock climb and take the risk? We should allow it That's different from broadcasting a free soloing climbing tournament across the world, and giving rewards to the winners (survivors) "Allowing" need not meen "encouraging"
- fermienrico 6y ago
  Fair enough, that's an important distinction and I concede. I think it makes sense to prevent glorifying deadly sports and still allow them to be conducted.
- NoOneNew 6y ago
  So, ban all competitions in general? That sounds like a fantastic idea... gonna solve lots of problems with that one. Football, both kinds, have lots of permanent injuries throughout the body and brain. If you want to talk about rewarding people for pushing themselves to the extreme, those are far better examples than free soloing. It's interesting when people are fine with stopping passion sports like climbing, skateboarding and now sledding, but they're too scared to say the same about the 800-pound guerrilla, money making machine sports with a lot more TBIs and deaths. Especially since a lot of people go for football more for the reward than for the actual passion. Again, it's not like anyone participating in any of these sports are unaware of the risk. An argument might exist for 20-30 years ago. But not today. That takes flat-earther mental gymnastics to think they aren't putting themselves at risk. But at the end, if you're complaining that, "These people push their body's too far", that's not you caring about their well being. That's you seeing your own weakness, laziness and cowardliness to attempt the same feat. These folks are going to push themselves some way, some how, because they want to not die wondering "what if". No one is ever safe from "mental demons" and it's terrible when someone takes their own life, no matter what the category root cause was. But I know very well that choosing to achieve nothing due to fear is a bigger open door for those issues.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - HappyDreamer 6y ago
    > So, ban all competitions I wrote "not encouraging", that's different from "ban all". Why did you reply to "ban all" instead? I like MMA and UFC, however, the fighters get brain scanned to find out about underlying problems, and if you get knocked out, you cannot compete again for a long while (because of TBI risk). Whilst the sledding sports seem to ignore brain injuries.

HappyDreamer 6y ago

> [office chair back pain, finger injuries] isn't that much better But this generally doesn't case suicide And can be treated, by going to the gym. (I had back, knee, elbow pain myself, from office work — and the gym, made it disappear. In my particular case) > bad knees Agreed, I'd be ok with bad knees. But when it's the brain, it's ... to some extent, the end.

Delk 6y ago
That's true, but I don't think GP was referring to those special cases where the risk is to the brain, even though those are the what the linked article of course discusses. As their parent comment said, any sport that compels you to reach for the extremes of physical human performance carries a risk of injury and wear that's obviously greater than just exercising for health and casual fitness. In most cases that's to something else in your body than your brain. But that reaching for the limits is also what makes those sports enjoyable to some people, and nothing else might quite equal the experience.

watwut 6y ago

Pointing out how it damages body should be as acceptable as pointing out too much sugar is bad for you. There is absolutely nothing weird about saying so. And also, office work is less damaging to body then top sport. Second, general public knowing that top sport damages body influences parents, teachers and coaches decisions. When we make that topic taboo, people are more likely to push kids toward maximum performance in sport. To teach them set of values that pushes it. When we know serious clubs can damage them, we are more likely to pick less serious clubs (which prevents future top engagement).