The Differences between Popular and Scientific Articles of Landing in Volleyball

The importance of landing in the sport of volleyball is crucial. Athletes have to jump and land properly in order to prevent injuries. There were major differences between the scientific and popular articles that I researched. The scientific article was more challenging to understand because it had graphs, charts, and was more methodical. The popular article contained visual exercises through videos and pictures making it easier to comprehend. In this paper, I will compare and contrast the language, facts, and modes of persuasion between popular and scientific articles. I think that the job for the popular article is to make life easier for those people who do not know or are not informed about how important the problem of landing is for players.

There are many ways to write and transmit a main point. Everything will depend on the genre you use for writing, so as a proof I read two sources about the same topic. The website that I used to research is called Stack. There, I found a popular article called "Why the Landing Is Critical for the Volleyball Vertical Jump" by Jason Arnold and the scientific article called “Plyometric Training in Female Athletes Decreased Impact Forces and Increased Hamstring Torques” by Hewett, Stroupe, etc. The writing of both articles is totally different. Stack's popular article is written by one author, casual, easy to read, the language is understandable and very short. The article is short because they go directly to the problem and the landing solution. So much that in a single sentence they explained that the landing technique will not improve your height jump, it will only help you prevent injuries. While in the scientific article explained the information in graphs and in numbers that are not understandable such as "3702 ± 800 N". Also, it was written as informative, where they use examples of exercises and videos of how to improve the landing. The scientific one is written by more than one author, and is very formal, so sometimes I did not understand the words. They use too many numbers, tables, and methods to carry out their experiment, which sometimes we "the non-scientists" do not understand. This article is written for other scientists. As you read and compare the genre of both articles you determine the type of language the articles use.

After you read the popular article called "Why the Landing Is Critical for the Volleyball Vertical Jump", you begin to realize that the statements are very obvious, the title is direct and clear about what they will talk about it, which makes it more interesting because it attracts the attention of the reader. Instead when you see and read the scientific source "Plyometric Training in Female Athletes Decreased Impact Forces and Increased Hamstring Torques" by Timothy E. Hewett, you learn that it is not so dramatic and not as clear as the popular. To know what the article is about it, you have to really go through the reading because the title does not explain what will be discussed in the article. This difference occurs because of the way the authors accommodate the information collected. Because I am from Puerto Rico, it is already challenging enough for me to read extensive, detailed articles. Personally, it was much easier for me to read the popular article because they showed specific exercises through videos and pictures. Because I am a visual learner, it was much easier for me to comprehend the popular article as well.

The language between the two articles is different, as stated before. The scientific article was much more detailed including tables and graphs with a multitude of numbers and programs. They explained their jump-training program on a table. All exercises were divided into three phases: Technique, fundamentals, and performance, also divided the exercises per week, which were 6. At first intention when you look at the tables you get confused because there are many exercises which are not understandable by the names, does not specify exactly to do how many reps you have to do on each exercise, they only tell you how many seconds are for each. Also, they do not explain how to have success in the program, they do not give you any ideas of how you have to do it, that is why people like me can not do the exercises that they did because at the end you will not know if you are doing it right or wrong.  Here is an example of the table:

The popular article uses words and visual exercises, which make it easier for a person like me who does not have extensive background in this area to understand. In this case the way they explained the exercises to improve the landing technique was more understandable and easy to do it in anywhere. They divided the exercises for the landing and for the ankle mobility, which was added since in the scientific article they did not explain it. As an explanation they used a video of a person executing the exercises, so people like me can see, analyze the training and do it in the right way.       The scientific article uses ethos as an ethical appeal to show knowledge about how to remain injury free stating, “this training may have a significant effect on knee stabilization and prevention of serious knee injury among female athletes” (p.765). The article is basically stating that in order to prevent knee injuries while landing after jumping, an athlete needs to strengthen their quadriceps and hamstring muscles. Below you will see an example of how to have a successful training:

Many of the popular articles are based on the original information from the scientific article, interviews with qualified people or other research on landing in volleyball. This shows that the author had to search more on the topic in order to bring a good and understandable article to people like me. This is why the author of Stack supported his article with the scientific article of Hewett, writing that a physical training could be best way to prevent injuries is strengthening the hamstrings and quadriceps muscles, and also improving the landing technique. That way people like me will believe the information they are reading about how important the landing technique is when it comes to playing volleyball or another sport. But if this information comes from a person who is not specialized or has no studies will not be credible. This is why the author always makes sure that the scientific article is cited, and because it is important to give them the merit.

Many people think that the landing can be the way it is and it will not affect their body but the reality is that the landing is what hurts you and leads to knee surgery as I said because the impact that one as an athlete receives on the knees is very strong. For example in this video you will see how important is the technique of landing:

     

On the other hand the scientific article only tries to approve their studies using people, who in this case were players, but they used many materials that are not easy to get. In my opinion the popular article are more valuable because anyone can understand them, also because they can search information about other scientific articles to support their information, be more specific and help those people who are struggling with it. For example in "Why the Landing Is Crucial for Volleyball Vertical Jump" used from other articles videos and added short exercises to improve the landing. While in "Plyometric Training in Female Athletes Decreased Impact Forces and Increased Hamstring Torques" used a jump- training program for 6 weeks where the exercises were divided by three phases and you had to have all the materials to perform them.

In conclusion as it can be seen, the difference between a scientific article and a popular article is substantial. The job for the popular article were to make life easier for people who do not know or are not informed about how important the problem of landing is for players. It is important to understand and being able to differentiate one another, but also to know how to use each, as well as recognize the different circumstances that are being applied.

Works Cited

Arnold, Jason. "Why the Landing Is Critical for the Volleyball Vertical Jump." STACK. N.p., 30 Apr. 2014. Web. 01 July 2017.

Hewett, T.E., Stroupe, A.L., Nance, T.A. and Noyes, F.R. (1996) "Plyometric training in female athletes: Decreased impact forces and increased hamstring torques." American Journal of Sports Medicine, 24(6), 765-773.