Sport is no stranger to any human, it is one of the areas in our society with a lot of attention. It involves all kind of activities, as it is a source of entertainment for some, it is also considered means of earning a living and making profit for others. I have never been a fan of sporty activities, unless I find myself watching a game when I'm idle, while there are others who go to great heights to watch a game or participate in sporty activities. Everyone is free to make the decision that is best for them but while we enjoy the sports we so much admire we also need to consider that not all sports are safe, in fact most of the popular sports are not free from occupational Hazard such as injuries.
I'm not really a big fan of football and the likes of it but there are times I come across news about a player on injury which would prevent him or her from playing for weeks or months. For most people it doesn't seem to be a big deal, the players eventually comes back and play like nothing ever happened. It makes you wonder if there is something that could have been done to prevent that. To the best of my knowledge I'm quite aware that there are rules and regulations in every sporty events which reduces the rate of injuries among players but this injuries still occur. Is it that the regulations are not enough or there is something wrong with the sport?
At least injuries in sport like football is still a little bit minimal compared to sport like MMA, boxing, wrestling or kick boxing. In sport like this injuries are inevitable, it involves how much a player can pound on another player till they pass out. It is kind of always difficult for me rap my head around, I mean why do people get engaged in sports that involves acquiring injuries that might result to a disfigured face. I once watched a video on tiktok involving a professional MMA fighter, in the video she was giving a victory speech after a very hectic battle.
She kept mentioning how honoured she felt to emerged the winner but I kept looking at her face, she doesn't look like a winner to me because all her face was bruised and she could barely open her eyes. I couldn't stop feeling pity for her, it doesn't really look like a sport to me. It is so obvious that she must be going through a lot of pain but then it is something she is used to. MMA is a full contact fighting sport which means there are lesser rules and regulations compared to boxing. The possibility of getting injured is high or should I say getting injured is inevitable. However for sport like that they claim there are rules and regulations to ensure it is a fair fight, I guess their definition of injuries is different from mine.
When you search online about contact sport or full contact fighting sport, one of the obvious characteristic is injuries. Which means no matter how they regulate the conduct of contact sport there will surely be injuries but then it is not a career forced upon anyone, they chose that specific career path because they believe they can handle the consequences that comes after. The reality is most retired contact sport players especially full contact sport, they all have something in common, they end up spending the rest of their life suffering from an injury or from past injuries. Since it is a choice they made for themselves and the so called organisers of these sporty events are quite aware of the consequences, since they are the professionals and they see nothing wrong with it, I guess it is all good then.
Should it be regulated? Well it is already being regulated, like I said earlier that there is no contact sport without rules and regulations to make it safe for the players but despite that we still have injuries. It is obvious that no amount of regulations could eradicate players from acquiring injuries, the organisers will always come up with ways to make it look appealing to the viewers and pay less attention to the consequences of the sport to the players, more regulations wouldn't make much difference and sadly I can't really say it is better as it is right now.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Contact sport" in hive learners community.
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