Ted Talks and Talks and Talks -- Dear John

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Date Posted: 13:39:10 05/05/06 Fri
Author: Mark A.
Author Host/IP: 67.130.119.210
Subject: Ted Talks and Talks and Talks

Now that Ted is between sports, he must have some extra wind he needs to get rid of. That's the reason for the marathon post.

Author:
Ted
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Date Posted: 14:26:12 05/04/06 Thu
In reply to: Chris 's message, "Sports and Smoking" on 11:01:03 05/04/06 Thu

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Well Chris, let me say this. When the Rugers women beat TCU by 34 points in the NCAA, a cute little reserve player turned her head up from the moving cheering huddle and put 2 fingers up to her mouth as if to smoke. That's the way it is in college.
I think it starts in high school and could start in middle school.
It's not that hard to find but one player who made it to the WNBA said �It wasn�t like I smoked every day. We just snuck them out, my sisters and I. That�s why it�s important to get the word out to kids, because no one told me. I saw everyone I knew doing it, so I just thought it was normal."
I won't identify this player but say she is very good looking. She lost a grandmother to lung cancer.
�Smoking is an appetite suppressant,� this player said. �My grandmother was 80 lbs. But when I was younger, girls started as a social thing. They�d get hooked. Friends of mine from college would look at it as something they would do just in college. Now they�re three years out of college and they are still smoking. It�s very addictive and people underestimate that. People might say, 'Oh, I can stop whenever I want,� but that�s not necessarily true.
�I stopped in eighth grade when I really got into sports,� she said. �Track, volleyball, basketball, it was a year-round thing. Sports is the one reason why I stopped. It�s not conducive to being an athlete.
�It is addictive and I noticed that right away. But it wasn�t something I did every day. Had I not been playing sports and been busy all the time, I probably would have gotten more addicted to it. It would be a different story for me today.
�The thing that aggravated me the most was my grandmother quit smoking the minute she got diagnosed. She went cold turkey, and she had been smoking since she was 15. I didn�t understand, if she could quit that easily, why didn�t she do it before. Smoking is something I like to speak out on very strongly. A lot of people don�t understand exactly how harmful it is. People also don�t look at how it affects other people in their life and not just themselves.
The pro athlete when the story was done 2 years ago added another thing that may happen more than known.
"My mom smoked for several years and we didn�t know. She hid it from us. My dad never smoked. They were open about the fact smoking was bad. I finally just started listening to my parents.
�There�s so many different ways you can get help to stop smoking. And if your family is important to you, like it was for her, then I would say you have to think about things in a larger sense.�
A teammate admited "she tried it once and says it was a one-time mistake that most definitely won�t happen again."
This teammate also said smoking is very common among French basketball players.
�When I was in France, that�s all they did,� she said about her teammates� smoking. �They smoked before the game; they smoked at halftime; they smoked after the game. There�d be 10 cigarettes at dinner. What does that do for you? That�s their lifestyle. That�s how they went about things.�
A head coach who reflected on her days �hiding behind the shed,� realizes that it wasn�t all that it was cracked up to be.
�It tastes really bad and it�s chronic for you. As an athlete, it�s not good for your body. It�s proven that it�s not healthy and that it�s not a good thing to do. I can see with the older generation how hard a habit it is to break. For people who take it up today, it�s just not a smart thing to do."
In the same article, another player had a different opinion as to why teen females start smoking.
�To deepen their voice,� she says. �That�s a huge thing. People smoke because they think their voices are too high, and it�ll drop their voice a little bit. I just think that�s insecurity. You have to be strong, confident and your self-esteem has to be higher than your friends� next to you. You just have to have a positive outlook on life.�
When it comes to smoking, another player said that �as an athlete you just can�t do it. There is no way to play at the highest level and do that.� Non-athletes don�t benefit from the habit either."
This is a slice of life that made it to the net. I think they tell us the college athlete is not perfect but does the cigarettes, drinking and drugs about half as much as the normal population.
If these girls and boys want to be better, they should not smoke, drink or do drugs.
I can't wait until my lovely Wilma gets off work so I can see her smoking. At some point, we will sit in the smoking area with many other lovely women, several of them in athletics.

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