Waffles Waffles Waffles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rEI40uAfpA&feature=youtu.be

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix  (via katherinesometimes)

Oh hi November.

Quidditch is a fictional game created by J.K. Rowling from the Children’s book series, Harry Potter. 

Quidditch is a competitive sport in the wizarding realm of the Harry Potter universe, featured in the series of novels and movies. It is an extremely rough but very popular semi-contact sport, played by wizards and witches. Matches are played between two teams of seven players riding flying broomsticks, using three balls, the Quaffle, Bludgers, and the Golden Snitch. There are six elevated ring-shaped goals, three on each side of the Quidditch pitch. In the Harry Potter universe, Quidditch holds a fervent following similar to the position that association football holds as a globally popular sport.

via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quidditch

Quiddich has been adapted from the films and novels into a competitive sport in the real world.  Teams are formed Internationally and they play against each other. It is especially popular in colleges. Think I’m kidding? http://iqaquidditch.com/

I think playing Quidditch puts players in unnecessary danger and should not be played in the real world. 

Below are just a few of many examples of known injury from playing Quidditch:

Example #1: I have a friend who was headed towards the hoops to score and he was tackled by an opposing player.  He hit the ground and broke his scapula.  He has been in a sling for the past month and still has 2-3 weeks to go.  After he can rotate his shoulder again, he can get x-rays to see if there is any other damage done to surrounding areas.  Because of the limited use of his shoulder, his muscles have started to deform and he will have to do 6 months of physical therapy. 

Example #2:  Another young man was in the middle of a game and because he fell on an opposing player’s knee, he broke three of his front teeth.  To fix this cosmetically and to avoid further medial complications, he will need surgery.

Example #3: As my friend mentioned in Example #1 was talking to medical professionals about how he acquired his injury, they said the most dangerous part of the games is the brooms.  The brooms are ideal for impaling oneself or another player from running into each other or falling on the broom.  

These examples have greatly effected the lives of the players involved and creating unnecessary obstacles for them to overcome in their everyday lives, as well as introducing financial needs on top of the initial cost of attending a college.  These players acquired these injuries during college tournaments.  These tournaments are not sponsored by the NCAA or any other official college associations.  Students are putting up their own money to play these games and putting themselves at risk. 

Yes, through this activity they can meet new people and travel, but is it worth the risk of severe injury?  College students are often told “You’re a student first,” meaning that they are at college to study and earn a degree and that should be put before anything else.  These injuries conflict with this statement and make it difficult to be a student because of the everyday activities they interrupt. 

Also, this is a game created for fictional characters from a fictional world in which magic exists.  The dangers characters such as Harry Potter are subsided by the introduction of magical healing processes.  For example, broken bones in the world of Harry Potter can be mended with a wave of a wand.  Broken bones in the real world take weeks to heal.  

Quidditch is a full contact sport, though, like any sport, there are rules regarding what forms of contact may be used and the level of aggression involved.

The idea that a sport should not be played because players can get injured is an absurd notion. When you agree to participate in a physical activity, you are also agreeing to take on any risks associated with that activity, such as injury.

Professional or college level football players are aware that playing their sport can shorten their life significantly, but they continue to participate because that is a risk they are willing to take for their sport. Quidditch is no different.

New this year at the IQA, official IQA players who have paid their $50 membership fee now automatically receive an accidental insurance plan. This means that if they are injured at an IQA event in the United States or Canada, they can make a claim up to $25,000 with only a $250 deductible. There is cosmetic dental repair and even life insurance (although no one has ever died playing muggle quidditch). You can read more about the insurance policy here.

Quidditch brooms are no more dangerous than a lacrosse stick, field hockey stick, or skiing pole. They are a handicap granted to the sport (like being required to dribble in basketball) that is necessary for playing. Innovation regarding styles of brooms is on the rise, including the amazing new Fleet brooms that will be used at the Western Regional Championships in less than a month. These new brooms are designed to be safer for the person using them in that they are less likely to break or splinter than PVC pipes or wooden brooms and are shaped to have a “comfortable yet snug fit along the sit bones and point-of-contact in pelvises of all genders.”

Everyone involved in quidditch understands that this is not a magical world with magical healing. There’s a reason that the bludgers are not iron as they are in the books. There are very strict rules in quidditch to ensure that injury does not occur and all 4-8 of the referees involved in a game strictly enforce these rules.

I know that it is completely worth the risk for me because it is an exciting and fast paced game that is becoming more popular all the time because it is fantastic. Just because people can get hurt playing a game doesn’t mean that that game should not exist. It just means that those too scared of getting hurt should not play.

So this is a powerpoint I told my co-captain to make because this guy is being super flaky about being on our team…and we need him. The slideshow also featured a fair amount of quincest and other awesomeness, but I think this gets the point across.

So this is a powerpoint I told my co-captain to make because this guy is being super flaky about being on our team…and we need him. The slideshow also featured a fair amount of quincest and other awesomeness, but I think this gets the point across.