What is one rule you would change in any sport?

Published: 
Young WangHilary Lo
Listen to this article
Young WangHilary Lo |
Published: 
Comment

Latest Articles

Australia’s ‘earless dragon’ faces extinction due to climate change

WHO Europe report says 16% of all adolescents were cyberbullied in 2022

Hong Kong’s MTR Corp to hike ticket prices by 3% this year

Conflict through a writer’s eyes: 5 books set during war

Hong Kong’s Central harbourfront gets splash of colour for ‘Art March’

Hong Kong household happiness at lowest in six years

Every Wednesday we ask our Brain Game contestants one interesting, thought-provoking or just plain quirky question. Their answers will be published anonymously in Young Post. Then readers can vote for their FAVOURITE answer. We will eliminate the contestant with the LEAST votes every week until we have a winner.

The ultimate Brain Game winner will have the chance to encounter animals with their best friend at Ocean Park, a prize worth HK$3,236.

Votes close at midnight on Sunday.

The contestants

Contestant 1

I would change something in the Multistage Fitness Test (aka the Beep test/death of me in PE). I guess this counts as a sport, since it’s a type of running. This endurance test has been banned in some countries as a form of child abuse, because you have to keep on running until you are fully out of breath and your soul is ripping out of your body and you literally die on the inside.

Basically you have to run back and forth crossing the “finish line” before the beep sounds, and then they keep increasing the number of times you have to run before each beep. But I think they should change it so that the number of times you run decreases every time. This would help us a lot, especially if the runner is not physically fit enough for such hard work. This test has injured some people, and sport is meant to be fun, not painful.

So, if you don’t want your future leaders (us) to become damaged by this test and literally die gasping for breath and food, change this rule and help our lovely generation who are lazy people who just love eating (admit it). Oops. I rant too much about the beep test. But who wouldn’t? I have died every day doing the beep test ... for a thousand years ... (thanks Twilight/Christina Perri). Ugh.

Contestant 2

Please, stop the timer every time a football match comes to a halt!

A match is supposed to last 90 minutes, but that includes stoppage time for any rule violations, such as offsides. It’s absurd! Why should it count as game time if no one is playing on the field! If the action stops, the timer should, too.

Think about how many times a referee blows his whistle for offside during a game and you will realise how many minutes are wasted in each match. It makes no sense to strip all the players of time when one player breaks the rules. It has also been shown that referees often call three times more offsides than the actual number committed.

On top of that, it’s not very fair. Whenever a team scores a goal, they celebrate. The flips and cartwheels waste a lot of time, which means the other team has less time to score. There are also time-wasting tactics like a substitution in the 89th minute.

This rule simply has to be changed. If there’s only 60 minutes of real playing time in a game, why not change the rules so that a match only lasts 60 minutes, excluding all the stoppages? Then every match would be the same length and the game would be far fairer and more exciting!

Contestant 3

In basketball, the rim is very high and that makes it extremely difficult to score points – especially if you are not very tall. That’s why I would change the rule so that you didn’t have to actually get the ball inside the basket to score points; you could score just by putting the ball on the floor under the basket or anywhere nearby! Of course if the ball goes inside the basket, that’s great because you would still get the points. I would just make basketball a little bit easier. However, players would also have to be smarter and more skilful since their opponents would be able to score points much more easily.

This new rule could also be applied to other sports such as football or golf. In football, as long as the ball goes anywhere near the goal – even if it doesn’t go all the way in – it would be considered a goal! This way, playing sports would be much more fun and relaxing, and players would actually be able to enjoy their games. As a basketball fan myself, I would love playing it a lot more if this new rule existed.

<a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/9754166/">Which answer do you like BEST?</a>

*In case of dispute, Young Post reserves the right to decide the result.

Sign up for the YP Teachers Newsletter
Get updates for teachers sent directly to your inbox
By registering, you agree to our T&C and Privacy Policy
Comment