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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Kids and PE
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
This was going to be a rant about idiot PE teachers but it's been done to death.
Boy #1 has table tennis in PE today. Teacher is showing them lots of different strokes but there's a problem.
He can't hit the ball. At all. He's being asked to use a specific stroke at a particular time when he can't even get the bat in the path of the ball. It's like trying to teach quadratic equations to someone who can't add up single digits.
How does he:
*explain to the teacher that he's going far too advanced;
*learn to actually connect with the ball.
At the moment he gets more exercise from chasing the ball around the room than from actually playing.
I can't help him because I can't hit a table tennis ball either, but at nearly 50 I take the view that I'm a lost cause.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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ThunderBunk
Stone cold idiot
# 15579
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Posted
PE teachers are supposed to be able to differentiate like any other teachers, but I've no idea what they are supposed to do with people with little or no hand-eye co-ordination - like me. If it's possible, developing it is a long and slow process that requires massive amounts of effort on all sides.
I never got beyond the "running around after the ball" stage with any sport that required me to hit the ball. The only time that felt OK was defending in hockey, when it's more or less what you're supposed to do anyway.
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Currently mostly furious, and occasionally foolish. Normal service may resume eventually. Or it may not. And remember children, "feiern ist wichtig".
Foolish, potentially deranged witterings
Posts: 2208 | From: Norwich | Registered: Apr 2010
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Puzzler
Apprentice
# 18908
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Posted
I don’t think he needs to explain anything to the teacher.
It should be obvious that he is not hitting the ball, ever.
With another 29 kids in the class the teacher isn’t going to be giving him individual attention for long, so he can just either keep trying, and keep under the radar, or mess about and get told off.
I used to try, in PE dance, gymnastics, etc until I realised I was never going to get anywhere, then I thereafter I just kept a low profile. It’s not worth the effort.
Posts: 27 | From: England | Registered: Jan 2018
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Stejjie
Shipmate
# 13941
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Posted
The only time I ever particularly enjoyed PE at secondary school was when we did volleyball and somehow I ended up on a team that kept winning, despite my being in it (with the added advantage that the girl in my class that I fancied was in it as well).
Other than that, I hated PE: yes, that's mainly because I was rubbish at it, but it was never one of those things I could bring myself to enjoy despite being no good. And the teachers, it seemed to me, were only really interested in the ones who were good at it; the whole thing seemed set up to favour those who enjoyed it and were good at it, rather than encouraging a love of sport and exercise in those who didn't have it.
(And the "boys=rugby, girls=netball" split didn't help, either: am I the only male who'd have done anything to do netball instead of rugby?).
Now, all this was more than 20 years ago and I might be being grossly unfair to PE teachers now. But from what you say, Karl, it doesn't sound like things have changed much; at least, not in all schools. Like Puzzler, I'm not sure there is a way for your son to explain this to the teacher; he either keeps trying or just keeps under the radar (which as long as he doesn't mess around, shouldn't be hard). But of course neither of those are particularly constructive possibilities.
Is there any chance of you being able to arrange to speak to the teacher in question?
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A not particularly-alt-worshippy, fairly mainstream, mildly evangelical, vaguely post-modern-ish Baptist
Posts: 1117 | From: Urmston, Manchester, UK | Registered: Jul 2008
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
I hated PE as a child. Hated and feared it with all of my heart. I am one of those people who have absolutely zero hand-eye coordination. I suspect I would be diagnosed as dyspraxic these days, but dyspraxia wasn’t invented when I was at school ( ![[Biased]](wink.gif) ) so I was just clumsy and bad at sports, and running around in the cold chasing after projectiles made me very, very unhappy.
The most frustrating element of this was stupid teachers who thought I just wasn’t trying hard enough. I’m fairly sure I was trying harder than anyone in the class because I wanted desperately not to humiliate myself by being crap at it, but I was still crap at it. Depending on the teacher, if you meet them at a parents’ evening, it might be worth pointing this out to them. The kids who are naturally gifted may well be making less effort than the people like me, who are getting no help from nature whatsoever.
If you want to reassure your child, here’s what I’ve learned with hindsight, and I wish someone had told me at the time: at the age of twelve, being crap at PE felt like the most important thing ever. As an adult I now realise that being able to throw and catch has literally *no* bearing on my capacity to live a happy and productive life. It is a skill I basically never need. A small number of people make a living by throwing and catching, but they’re very much in the minority (I once made this comment to a professional rugby player, and fortunately he thought it was hilarious – he’s bigger than me .) The whole thing has turned out to considerably less important than it seemed to be at the time.
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Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
Oh indeed, and it doesn't actually bother him that much. I just resent his having to waste two hours of every 25 hour school week which he could use more constructively. He struggles with handwriting (to the extent he's got an OT referral, yes I do worry he's got a general co-ordination/motor control issue) but given the choice I'd rather he be able to concentrate on that (or give up and be allowed to type everything like real people do in the real world, but that's a separate gripe)
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
Karl--
--Is the school aware of his general difficulties? If they are and take that seriously, maybe they could have a quick word with the teacher?
--You said he has an OT referral. Could you tell the teacher that? If the OT has already started, ask the therapist to write a simple note explaining your son's difficulties. Make several copies. Then give one to the school office, and one to the teacher.
--Is there anything like basic yoga?
--Is there an adaptive PE class? (For kids who can't manage the regular classes, due to disabilities, etc.) One possible downside: he could be mercilessly teased for needing a special class.
Good luck!
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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
The aspect of Games which I hated was hockey. It was terrifying, and we didn't in those far-off days have shin defenders. Was I glad to be able to abandon ball games as soon as possible!
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
I'm afraid I was rather sporty and ended up captain of the cricket XI amongst other things.
My blind spot was/is tennis: I can't do it.
But I was lucky in going to an establishment that covered a huge number of activities under the heading of PE, including fencing, ballroom dancing, trampolining, croquet and would even sanction brisk walking along a measured route to count as PE.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I kept an even lower profile and bunked off PE.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
I kept an even lower profile and bunked off PE.
It took my school a term to realise that I considered detention preferable to games and that my terminal forgetfulness regarding my kit wasn't entirely haphazard.
The school knows of the referral re. handwriting, but haven't linked it, as far as I know, with his poor showing in PE.
I'm not sure what I'm really wanting, truth be told, other than him avoiding the issues being utterly appalling at sports of all kinds had on me (and I do mean appalling, people talk about "learning to win and lose" but in individual sports I always - and I do mean always - lost, and in team games if my game won I would be mocked for celebrating my my teammates who would waste no time in explaining that we had won despite my presence, not because of it.)
They say there's a sport for everyone. I've not found mine in 50 years on this planet. Not a single one. I tried fencing for a while because I like swords, but after a few weeks, while everyone else who started when I did were starting to hold their own, I was realising the only chance I had of anything other than humiliating defeat was taking on the next patch of newbies. I lost interest.
So ISTM that the first thing is that PE teachers take the less talented students as seriously as their hopes for silverware in the cabinet. Which means helping people to actually connect with the ball, instead of just talking tactics to people to whom that came naturally. If they can't do that, he's wasting valuable time. But then I've always felt that PE is some bizarre belief we have that everyone should take part in sporty people's hobbies. It makes as much sense as making everyone collect stamps or play chess or be in the orchestra.
[ 02. February 2018, 13:00: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Stejjie:
(And the "boys=rugby, girls=netball" split didn't help, either: am I the only male who'd have done anything to do netball instead of rugby?).
In the States, (field) hockey is exclusively a girls game. I went to a school that was a hockey power, so they introduced it during co-ed PE, and I loved it. If there had been a boy’s team, I’d have played in an instant.
I had a PE teacher in middle school who made a brash remark about no one passing the class until they did a cartwheel. She clearly hadn’t anticipated someone like me, 6 foot by then and maybe 150 pounds, but zero core or arm strength. That guy ain’t doing a cartwheel.
It was stressful for me, but we eventually came to some common ground. I made a sincere go at it, and she ignored the less-than-adequate form. It ended up being a bit of a learning experience for both of us. It helped that it was a small class, so that we could actually talk it out.
So that’s the best I got for you, Karl. Sometimes the best you can do is show up and try, and hope that the teacher appreciates your efforts. It’s frustrating as it happens, but worst case scenario, it’ll be spring soon enough and you’ll move on to something else.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Caissa
Shipmate
# 16710
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Posted
I loved PE during junior high school. Everything except gymnastics. My height by grade nine, 5' 10", was ideal for basketball, volleyball, soccer and ball hockey.
Posts: 972 | From: Saint John, N.B. | Registered: Oct 2011
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Caissa:
I loved PE during junior high school. Everything except gymnastics. My height by grade nine, 5' 10", was ideal for basketball, volleyball, soccer and ball hockey.
That's nice. Now imagine that not only did you not like just gymnastics, but every other damned thing they made you do. And also imagine that you sucked so badly at all of them that you were pure comedy for everyone else to watch.
But you're forced to do it for two hours every week.
You don't want to be there. You get nothing from being there. The other kids don't want you there. The teachers don't want you there.
Why are you there?
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Caissa
Shipmate
# 16710
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Posted
You just described my wife's experience and attitude to PE. I empathize with being required to do activities that you are not successful at. Last week in class, I discussed the components of motivation with my students.
Posts: 972 | From: Saint John, N.B. | Registered: Oct 2011
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Stejjie:
The only time I ever particularly enjoyed PE at secondary school was when we did volleyball. <<snip>> And the teachers, it seemed to me, were only really interested in the ones who were good at it; the whole thing seemed set up to favour those who enjoyed it and were good at it.
I hated every moment of PE in school, except for one. That was the day the teacher brought the trampoline out. I loved the trampoline! But all the jocks hated it, and so we never saw it again after that day.
I couldn't do somersaults or cartwheels. I couldn't climb the rope. I couldn't hit a baseball or catch a football. I couldn't kick a soccer ball. I could hit a badminton birdie or a volleyball, but just barely.
I was always the last one picked for a team.
Talk about being humiliated in front of classmates, which is really what PE boils down to for us incapables.
Fortunately our high school gym teacher -- Mr. Farnum, his name was -- "Coach" Farnum -- would let you sit out class on the bleachers if that's what you really wanted and would still give you a grade of 65, which was borderline passing.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Fredegund
Shipmate
# 17952
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Posted
It's a good job we didn't have to achieve a specific grade in PE. Another one who was awful at gym, hockey, athletics, netball.
Tennis was just about bearable, but it never made up for the ritual humiliation in the other sports.
And I read this as "kids and partial exemption" - too much tax!
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Pax et bonum
Posts: 117 | From: Shakespeare's County | Registered: Jan 2014
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
I loathe and detest all forms of competitive games or sport (though I'm happy for others to enjoy same - isn't that kind of me?).
Fortunately, I was exempt from PE etc. at grammar school, on account of having problems with my feet which meant that I couldn't wear plimsolls, rugby boots etc.
O deep joy! I got extra maths instead (and I'm useless at that, too).
IJ
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
KLB "But you're forced to do it for two hours every week."
Try an hour each day Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Friday and, if you're not in a team and involved in a match, 2 hours on a Wednesday - and more matches on Saturday.
I like the idea of detention for missing kit: at our place sanctions for infractions meant it was usually extra prep for sporting types and compulsory running for swots.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
Yet another PE-hater here. I was useless at it, in all its forms. I was a member of the school folk dance team, so I did get some exercise there!
Like several here I think I probably have dyspraxia. Can't catch or hit a ball, ride a bike or do anything involving balance really.
Best scenario for PE was dance (which we did for half a term) - I had no grace but it was very much 'make it up as you go' and non-judgemental. Or trampoline because you only got two goes in an hour's lesson, the rest of the time you were stood round the edge 'spotting' for others!
Worst scenario was team games (I would drop the ball, cause the team to lose and they would all hate me for the rest of the day) or swimming (where I often came back to the changing rooms to find the bullies had dropped my clothes in a puddle of water, which made me late leaving so I missed the bus and had a 3 mile walk home, alone, in wet clothes. That happened quite a few times as there was no supervision in the changing rooms, and certain bullies managed to 'have a period' every week...)
After a while I volunteered to do various admin jobs for a teacher during PE sessions. She must have been talking to the PE teacher and they probably cooked it up between them, realising it was pointless torture for me to be there.
[ 02. February 2018, 15:34: Message edited by: Gill H ]
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
I think what I find hardest is PE teachers' apparent inability to understand that sport is their interest and is not shared by everyone, any more than everyone wants to keep tropical fish or play the trombone.
Sport is their life. It is just not a part of mine. I wanted to live and let live, but the buggers wouldn't let me. Boy #1 has a similar attitude. Other people do sports, he does Warhammer and Chess. He, and I, have no idea who is in the Premier League, and couldn't care less. I tried to watch a football match once but I got so bored I closed my eyes and started working on a good RPG fatigue system for wizards.
[ 02. February 2018, 16:18: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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ThunderBunk
Stone cold idiot
# 15579
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Posted
The other side of this is that we all have bodies and it is essential to find the things we like doing with/in our bodies. Climbing definitively into one's head for all forms of pleasure is really not a good idea. I've done it and it stinks.
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Currently mostly furious, and occasionally foolish. Normal service may resume eventually. Or it may not. And remember children, "feiern ist wichtig".
Foolish, potentially deranged witterings
Posts: 2208 | From: Norwich | Registered: Apr 2010
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ThunderBunk:
The other side of this is that we all have bodies and it is essential to find the things we like doing with/in our bodies. Climbing definitively into one's head for all forms of pleasure is really not a good idea. I've done it and it stinks.
Oh, aye, but none of the things I like doing with mine are sports.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
Anyway, we're drifting into the rant I didn't want to post...
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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ThunderBunk
Stone cold idiot
# 15579
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Posted
Sorry if I helped that. I was just thinking about the other side of the PE teacher's dilemma. Or your son's. Or mine. PE has to have a purpose other than setting future athletes off in the right direction; it must have some purpose for the rest of us, other than preparing us for boredom or frustration.
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Currently mostly furious, and occasionally foolish. Normal service may resume eventually. Or it may not. And remember children, "feiern ist wichtig".
Foolish, potentially deranged witterings
Posts: 2208 | From: Norwich | Registered: Apr 2010
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
I think that, at my alma mater, the idea of PE and sports was to make us tired, and stop us from chasing after gurls......
It didn't work.
![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
IJ
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
Going by results I'd say the function is to put most people off physical activity for life.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
I hated PE, loathed hockey, can't hit a ball or shuttlecock, loathed swimming - don't like water in my face. I managed to get out of games for over a year in the sixth form by doing O level music as an extra subject on top of my A level subjects, and managed to fit in with a class which just happened to be scheduled for the same time as my PE lessons. The teacher eventually noticed, unfortunately!
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"I say - are you a matelot?"
"Careful what you say sir, we're on board ship here"
From "New York Girls", Steeleye Span, Commoners Crown (Voiced by Peter Sellers)
Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
But Karl, you like cycling and walking/hiking, I remember because so do I.
I loathed team games at school, wasn't bad at gymnastics, circuit training, swimming, canoeing - yes I had canoeing lessons at school in 5th form, now year 11. We had Wednesday afternoons for sport and a river at the bottom of the school field. I also sailed at the weekend, plus anything other to do with water. Because I was good enough at gymnastics and swimming to be on the school team, attend gym club one lunchtime and willing to play with canoe bats in the swimming pool on Wednesday lunchtime to practise capsize drills in warm water, I got away with being useless at other games.
However, my daughter, who is writing her own response, dislocated joints in PE lessons and had physiotherapy letters listing all the things she wasn't allowed to do, which was most PE. I sent her with a weekly note, trees worth of notes, to no avail. She was made too sick to attend school in her year 10 and year 11 following being sent on an all day sponsored walk, when I had only sent her in as I was promised she could help at a check point. Which did not happen.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
Going by results I'd say the function is to put most people off physical activity for life.
This is the great tragedy. Regular physical activity is associated with better health and mental health, recovery from injury and surgery, stress management, sleeping better. Excess focus on competitive sports is wrong. Participation is key.
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Curious Kitten
Shipmate
# 11953
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Posted
I hated PE, I always needed opiates and physio after a lesson and various of my PE teachers reacted to me arriving with kit with "ooh, spare kit".
Despite bringing a new letter from the physio, consultant or GP every week I never got out of it or a consistently adapted curriculum I could do. According to one of my teachers, an adapted curriculum for anyone who was significantly struggling required another qualified teacher or coach in the class. Once a year we would have someone come in to do a sport she couldn't teach for four weeks and the people who needed and adapted curriculum would have our four weeks of PE we could do.
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Happiness is not having what we want but wanting what we have.
Posts: 107 | Registered: Oct 2006
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
But Karl, you like cycling and walking/hiking, I remember because so do I.
But I don't do sport cycling, and walking is not a sport unless you're doing one of those funny speed walk races.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
Going by results I'd say the function is to put most people off physical activity for life.
This is the great tragedy. Regular physical activity is associated with better health and mental health, recovery from injury and surgery, stress management, sleeping better. Excess focus on competitive sports is wrong. Participation is key.
Actually, I find regularly doing anything more than the lightest exertion can make my mental health worse.
I'm also pretty sure that this endorphin rush thing is a complete lie.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
Going by results I'd say the function is to put most people off physical activity for life.
This is the great tragedy. Regular physical activity is associated with better health and mental health, recovery from injury and surgery, stress management, sleeping better. Excess focus on competitive sports is wrong. Participation is key.
I guess I had the benefit of going to a school where they were keenly aware of the need to strike a balance between competition and lifetime fitness goals.
At my school, there were ample opportunities to be on competitive teams, to compete for state championships, and to try to get noticed by college recruiters, if that was what you were after.
There were also opportunities for kids who preferred to avoid competition to complete PE in a fairly non-threatening environment. We had a martial arts class, rock climbing, and "conditioning" with two groups- one for kids actually training for next season's sport, and another for kids who just needed the PE credit. You could also, with the proper supervision, get a credit for an independent sport- I knew one guy whose "independent sport" involved walking on a treadmill at home every day after school. It was also fairly easy to self-segregate into more or less friendly groups- a good friend who was far more interested in books and knitting than anything athletic found a good peer group of like-minded folks in the martial arts class, for instance.
"Excessive" focus on competition, I would agree, is unhealthy. At the same time, if you are talented and want to push yourself, you would be frustrated in a totally non-competitive environment.
But as I said, I was lucky to go to a school that seemed to appreciate that you need to offer different kinds of PE options. It's also much harder in primary levels, where everyone is in the same class by necessity. But it can be done.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
So ISTM that the first thing is that PE teachers take the less talented students as seriously as their hopes for silverware in the cabinet. Which means helping people to actually connect with the ball, instead of just talking tactics to people to whom that came naturally. If they can't do that, he's wasting valuable time. But then I've always felt that PE is some bizarre belief we have that everyone should take part in sporty people's hobbies. It makes as much sense as making everyone collect stamps or play chess or be in the orchestra.
When I was at school, the vast majority of our sporting activities were team practices, so effectively streamed (so you didn't get future county cricketers bowling at the kid who doesn't know which end of the bat to hold). This meant that the kids who were good at cricket got taught by the cricket experts, and those of us with more modest abilities got "taught" by an almost-retired history teacher who knew how to say "hold the bat straight" and "watch the ball" and not much else.
The generic whole-class PE lesson may not be quite as bad as trying to teach differential equations to half the class while some of the other kids are struggling with adding fractions, but it doesn't seem so terribly far away from it.
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Arethosemyfeet
Shipmate
# 17047
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Posted
I was never sporty (neither fit nor coordinated) but still had good fun running into people in hockey or rugby. Gymnastics and dance were a trial, as was rounders.
Posts: 2933 | From: Hebrides | Registered: Apr 2012
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
Ohhh, rounders. Shudder. For some reason no-one ever taught us the rules (or maybe I was away that day) and the version we did at school was slightly different from the one we played elsewhere. So I was never quite sure what to do once I'd inevitably missed the ball.
Then there was 'Danish longball' which involved sadistic little kids trying to hit you with hard balls while you ran. Ouch.
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
Another PE-hater checking in.
My excuse for being rubbish at ball/other-object-hitting games like tennis or badminton was that I had very poor eyesight - half the time I couldn't see the bloody thing, let alone hit it (or catch it, or whatever you were supposed to do). My classmates all knew this, so I was always last to be picked, and with good reason.
The only thing I ever got house points for was the sack race, which for some reason I could do (by sticking my feet in the corners and running). ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if the ones who were good at sports, and would end up playing for the county (i.e. the only ones the teachers gave a stuff about), but couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, ever felt that the music teachers only gave a stuff about those of us who were in the choir or orchestra?
I'm inclined to doubt it, as sport is something pursued and appreciated by a good deal more people than classical or choral music.
Karl, does your son have the same difficulty with other aspects of PE, such as track-and-field, gymnastics or trampolining, or is it just racquet/bat sports? Presumably they won't be doing table-tennis for the whole term, and in a couple of weeks' time, they might move on to something he can feel more comfortable with.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Gracious rebel
Rainbow warrior
# 3523
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Posted
But Gill that's the thing about rounders. Everybody seems to play by different rules. Which is one of the many reasons why I hated it. But not as much as I hated hockey, which meant running up and down the outside of a muddy field in cold damp windy English winter, wearing shorts, so freezing cold legs, and very rarely encountering the ball. And we had a sadistic games mistress who issued detentions to people who could draw an accurate diagram of where all the players had to stand for a penalty corner ... were we the only class to have had these 'hockey tests' on wet days when it was raining too hard for being outside?
[ 02. February 2018, 20:46: Message edited by: Gracious rebel ]
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Fancy a break beside the sea in Suffolk? Visit my website
Posts: 4413 | From: Suffolk UK | Registered: Nov 2002
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gracious rebel:
... we had a sadistic games mistress ...
Is there any other sort? ![[Devil]](graemlins/devil.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Arethosemyfeet
Shipmate
# 17047
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Posted
I don't think my PE teachers understood the idea of raining too hard to be outside.
Posts: 2933 | From: Hebrides | Registered: Apr 2012
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if the ones who were good at sports, and would end up playing for the county (i.e. the only ones the teachers gave a stuff about), but couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, ever felt that the music teachers only gave a stuff about those of us who were in the choir or orchestra?
I'm inclined to doubt it, as sport is something pursued and appreciated by a good deal more people than classical or choral music.
Again, at my school, they had a good system for this. If you were not keen on fine arts, there was a place for you in the 100-+-voices-strong general choir, which rehearsed two times a week. More interested or promising singers / artists / actors would pursue more intense and rewarding activities.
(My wife and I went to the same school, but didn't date until we were adults, in part because I didn't really talk in school, and she was kind of a big deal. Her best friend dated a guy who was captain of the soccer, basketball, and lacrosse teams, who was always careful to present himself as a goofy class clown. Recently, she let me know something about the boyfriend that I never would have known otherwise. Apparently he was harboring a deep secret that he didn't want anyone else at school to know- he was actually an extremely talented harp player, and probably had better prospects of getting a music scholarship than an athletics scholarship. You never know what a teenager is going to be embarrassed about.)
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gill H:
Ohhh, rounders. Shudder. For some reason no-one ever taught us the rules (or maybe I was away that day) and the version we did at school was slightly different from the one we played elsewhere. So I was never quite sure what to do once I'd inevitably missed the ball.
Then there was 'Danish longball' which involved sadistic little kids trying to hit you with hard balls while you ran. Ouch.
How anyone can hit a ball with a rounders bat is an utter mystery to me. Might as well ask me to fly.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
Another PE-hater checking in.
My excuse for being rubbish at ball/other-object-hitting games like tennis or badminton was that I had very poor eyesight - half the time I couldn't see the bloody thing, let alone hit it (or catch it, or whatever you were supposed to do). My classmates all knew this, so I was always last to be picked, and with good reason.
The only thing I ever got house points for was the sack race, which for some reason I could do (by sticking my feet in the corners and running).
Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if the ones who were good at sports, and would end up playing for the county (i.e. the only ones the teachers gave a stuff about), but couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, ever felt that the music teachers only gave a stuff about those of us who were in the choir or orchestra?
I'm inclined to doubt it, as sport is something pursued and appreciated by a good deal more people than classical or choral music.
Karl, does your son have the same difficulty with other aspects of PE, such as track-and-field, gymnastics or trampolining, or is it just racquet/bat sports? Presumably they won't be doing table-tennis for the whole term, and in a couple of weeks' time, they might move on to something he can feel more comfortable with.
He's exactly like I was. Absolutely appalling at all of them, except cricket at which he's merely crap.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
Hated PE anything that was played with a ball. I was hit by a stray baseball when I was about 7 so I always ran from not toward a ball of any type. In High School we had archery. No ball involved of course. I was brilliant. Won city wide awards. I am sure all kids have a talent for sports because they are so many different kinds. If the PE teacher has not the time or interest to be of help, go outside of the school and look for something he will enjoy. Swimming, sailing, archery, golf, fishing the list is endless.
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
I am nearly 50. I have yet to find one I like or am any use at. I don't believe this "there's a sport for everyone" guff. Why should there be? Why can't we non-sportsmen just be left alone? We don't run around insisting everyone find their musical instrument or board game. What makes sport so special it should be universal?
[ 02. February 2018, 23:18: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Pangolin Guerre
Shipmate
# 18686
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Posted
I hope that this might be cause for hope.
I hated PE. Ill coordinated, gangly (though not very tall - no easy feat), I was a mess. I also thought the PE teachers and other coaches were largely stupid. (In the cold glare of the rearview mirror, I'm pleased to say that my judgement has not much changed.) It was an invitation to misery, and ridicule was a regular feature, not least from my father. HOWEVER.... something happened when I hit puberty. Inexplicably, I developed some control over my limbs, and became, certainly not a jock, but quite sportif. I learned to enjoy physical activity when it was no longer a class that I had to take (age 15?), but got to choose what to do (which included nothing). In consequence I found what I liked and still do a few of them.
I agree with NP about the longterm value of physical activity from a young age, but clearly within realistic parameters, seemingly beyond the teacher in question.
So, Karl, just saying that your son may yet break the pattern, so long as he finds something passably fun. You sound patient and caring to get him through this. Best of luck.
Posts: 758 | From: 30 arpents de neige | Registered: Nov 2016
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
posted by KLB quote:
How anyone can hit a ball with a rounders bat is an utter mystery to me. Might as well ask me to fly.
Quite. Small grey ball to be hit with wooden milk-bottle - stupid. And baseball is just rounders with fancy uniforms, gum and crowds.
Cricket, on the other hand: nice big red ball, bat with flat surface - at least one has a fighting chance of being able to hit the ball.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
Going by results I'd say the function is to put most people off physical activity for life.
<raises hand>
I loathed PE. I was never very athletic, and PE was invented BY athletic people FOR athletic people. If they had taken us ugly ducklings off to one side in a small group and taught us things the other kids were born knowing, such as how to give a fuck about running around the entire schoolyard every day, or how to cause something held in the hand to meet a flying object hurtling toward it, we would have been better served. Mostly core strength training would have been great for me. But instead you had kids who already knew how to do things doing them, with kids like me getting in the way, getting yelled at, despised, and in general bullied, both by the other kids and the teachers. Leading one to think that only people who were bullies in school went on to become PE teachers.
It was shit.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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