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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Compulsory games
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
According to the Western mail, the Welsh Assembly government is planning to capitalise on the interest in the Olympics by introducing two hous of compulsory PE and 3 hours of "supported" community sports into the school curriculum. Personally, as someone for whom the words "fun" and "run" have never gone together, I can't think of anything worse. But if the facilities had been available, I would like to have tried trampolining, or archery, or riding, or fencing.
What sort of sports would other shipmates have liked to try?
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Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
I didn't go to a boys public school so I missed out on the inter-house masturbation relay.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
Strengthening my limp wrists by turning the pages of an interesting book.
Seriously, I signed up for cross country running because I could be on my own. But I doubt that's an option for inner city state schools.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I hated hockey with the deep pure loathing that is conferred by standing with wind-whipped legs in a muddy field - sorry, did I say 'standing'? If only. You had to run about - pointlessly, since any time I got anywhere near the ball, somebody hit it miles away.
Tennis - I have the reaction time of a narcoleptic sloth and the hand-eye coordination of a stunned fish.
Judo, possibly. Or anything where height and strength were an advantage.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
Firenze: quote:
I hated hockey with the deep pure loathing that is conferred by standing with wind-whipped legs in a muddy field - sorry, did I say 'standing'? If only. You had to run about - pointlessly, since any time I got anywhere near the ball, somebody hit it miles away.
Amen, sister. At my high school, the girls got any part of the athletic fields the boys weren't using at the time of year. In the winter, these were the muddy, puddly baseball fields, er, girl's field hockey fields. Cold, clammy and disgusting. Compulsory. ![[Mad]](angryfire.gif)
What I did enjoy was synchronized swimming. Don't laugh! It is really harder than it looks. But it meant being cool and wet last period in the warm spring weather (after the boys swimming season was over). The only problem was that they added pool chemicals several times during the day, and by last period the water burned my eyes so badly, I could hardly see my way home. ![[Waterworks]](graemlins/bawling.gif)
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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
I detested PE. Basketball was supposed to be 'fun', and probably was to the sporty girls. I did enjoy archery, even though I stunk at it.
One sport I really would have liked to have learned is fencing. Maybe someday!
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
I never learned to swim, something I now regret, so I'd have liked to have that as an option in school. (Our PE classes were used by the teachers -- who were also coaches -- to sort out the elite athletes for the school sports teams. If you weren't an elite athlete you were treated like something distateful at the bottom of a shoe. Ironically, though, once the cherry-picked elite athletes were steered into second-year PE, they worked on personal fitness programs consistent with their sports but also intended for a future active lifestyle. To me this was totally bass-ackward; wouldn't it be smarter to get the non-athlete majority of kids into a habit of everyday fitness?)
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984
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Posted
I did learn fencing and it was fun. Though it is more tiring than it looks. However, this was extra-curricular rather than taught by the school. We were made to play lacrosse, which I loatheanddetest.
There's seems to be a lack of understanding that you will never be good at field sports if you have poor spatial awareness.
Whereas javelin and martial arts I rather enjoyed. Running I hated, and oddly they never taught us how to do it. If you learn as an adult there are all these programs how you build up over time and run walk run. We never did any of that- they just threw you at the 1500 metres and wondered why you coughed a lot and hated it. (Or tried to get you to do a sprint - I was crap at that too.)
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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell
Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005
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sebby
Shipmate
# 15147
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Posted
I could never understand why they played the same game twice. Football might be mildly interesting ONCE, but then surely they could graduate to egg and spoon or musical chairs or bumps.
Seeing a game more than once - or playing it - is so intellectually unfulfilling. Like watching The Sound of Music incessantly, unrelentingly, every Saturday afternoon, week in week out, for a life time - except without the songs and nice costumes.
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sebhyatt
Posts: 1340 | From: yorks | Registered: Sep 2009
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
Thank you sebby. That made me giggle.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by sebby:
I could never understand why they played the same game twice.
It might be the same sport, but it's never the same game.
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
I hated PE too, and team sports generally - I avoided being anywhere near the netball ball if at all possible. Couldn't cope with things like high jump or hurdles, but I could climb up a rope and jump over the horse in Gym.
One year they tried out new sports , and I did fencing, which was (as someone upthread said) very tiring, but fun. I had signed up for archery but it was oversubscribed, and fencing was my 2nd choice. A couple of years ago I did a beginner's archery course, and may go back to it if I get the chance.
I would also liked to have tried martial arts, but of course there wasn't that choice. I would have liked too to have been taught swimming *properly*, rather than been left with the other non-swimmers down the shallow end.
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
Frivolous reply:
Consolidate what we're good at: 2 hours dressage every week for every primary school.
Serious reply:
quote:
Originally posted by Pine Marten:
I would have liked too to have been taught swimming *properly*, rather than been left with the other non-swimmers down the shallow end.
Quite.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Bob Two-Owls
Shipmate
# 9680
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
It might be the same sport, but it's never the same game.
The only sports are hunting, shooting and fishing, the rest are mere games as any fule kno.
Curiously I did learn how to fish at school. Shooting and hunting would have been great!
Posts: 1262 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I hated hockey with the deep pure loathing that is conferred by standing with wind-whipped legs in a muddy field - sorry, did I say 'standing'? If only. You had to run about - pointlessly, since any time I got anywhere near the ball, somebody hit it miles away.
The only team member who does not have to run up and down the field is the goalie. That's why I chose that position.
Moo
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Lord Jestocost
Shipmate
# 12909
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
The only team member who does not have to run up and down the field is the goalie. That's why I chose that position.
Moo
On the down side, part of the job description is that from time to time people will whack small, hard balls at you with great force.
Posts: 761 | From: The Instrumentality of Man | Registered: Aug 2007
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
On the other hand, I played on the wing. Not often having much interaction with any one else, but risking my newly prescribed glasses.
DIL played goalie in A-grade hockey here for some years., Her height was a great advantage in reaching to prevent goals through the side, but she collected some amazing bruises, despite all her protective gear.
[ 14. August 2012, 11:48: Message edited by: Lothlorien ]
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Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Bob Two-Owls:
quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
It might be the same sport, but it's never the same game.
The only sports are hunting, shooting and fishing, the rest are mere games as any fule kno.
Curiously I did learn how to fish at school. Shooting and hunting would have been great!
Some, such as golf, are only pastimes and the Olympic equestrian events are no more than practice for hunting ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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chive
Ship's nude
# 208
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Posted
When I was an unbearable 13 year old I told my PE teacher I wasn't going to do PE anymore. When asked why, I replied, 'because I'm an intellectual.' Surprisingly I didn't recieve the well deserved slap. I never did PE again, instead I went down to the canal, ate a chip buttie and smoked.
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'Edward was the kind of man who thought there was no such thing as a lesbian, just a woman who hadn't done one-to-one Bible study with him.' Catherine Fox, Love to the Lost
Posts: 3542 | From: the cupboard under the stairs | Registered: May 2001
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leo
Shipmate
# 1458
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Posted
I did archery for a while and really enjoyed it.
In our enlightened 6th form we could do snooker and table tennis.
I also signed up for weights at the last minute, when i knew nobody else wanted to do it - and i had a little room in the sports hall all to myself. I read a book in there most of the time, listening out for footsteps approaching the room in case it was one of the masters.
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My Jewish-positive lectionary blog is at http://recognisingjewishrootsinthelectionary.wordpress.com/
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Posts: 23198 | From: Bristol | Registered: Oct 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
In our enlightened 6th form we could do snooker and table tennis.
What have snooker and table tennis to do with sport? There is skill in these, as there is in darts, but they too are pastimes.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
Hockey was OK, but I really wanted to play Lacrosse, like those 'gels' from Malory Towers, etc. Sadly, although fencing was available as an extra-curricular activity, I never tried it.
We had lessons in the Sports Centre while the school hall was used for exams and really enjoyed the trampolining - what a pity exams were only once a year in those days.
My sport of choice in the VI form was table tennis, down in the basement, the best way to avoid doing any exercise except tongue-wagging, except when we got a severe dressing-down by the games mistress who occasionally used to hunt us out.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Enigma
Enigma
# 16158
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by chive:
When I was an unbearable 13 year old I told my PE teacher I wasn't going to do PE anymore. When asked why, I replied, 'because I'm an intellectual.' Surprisingly I didn't recieve the well deserved slap. I never did PE again, instead I went down to the canal, ate a chip buttie and smoked.
You were lucky! I wasn't able to do PE because I had a complcated body that didn't (and doesn't) lend itself to sport. I would have loved to have been allowed to eat chip butties instead but instead was sent on errands round the school. I swear I got more exercise doing that than those doing the PE!! And probably most of the errands were made up ones too judging by the confused looks on the faces of some of the recipients of whatever the news of the day was! ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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Who knows? Only God!
Posts: 856 | From: Wales | Registered: Jan 2011
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
For an emerging gay teenager, though we still called it queer in those days which is now back in vogue again, in an all boys school in the early 1960s the best bit was the eye candy in the showers afterwards.
My eyes are/were too weak and my coordination too crap for any real sports but I sort of enjoyed cross country - head off down to the riverside and have a smoke then amble back again.
It's only since I left school that I have realised there is only one REAL sport - and that is CRICKET! I can't play it but I watch it and follow it [almost obsessively].
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Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Sighthound
Shipmate
# 15185
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Posted
I must admit, I hate *anything* to be compulsory, and PE and 'Games' were the root cause of my misery in secondary education, which led to my opting out for many days, spending the time in Central Library instead!
I don't believe Sport 'teaches' half the alleged things it is supposed to do, but it's a great arena for thugs and bullies to flourish.
Oddly, if Sport had been non-compulsory, or better still, banned altogether, I'd probably have been keen to do it. It was the compulsion that made me hate it. I still hate Sport (apart from watching cricket and football) and did not watch one single minute of the Olympics. May God be thanked for digital TV!
[ 14. August 2012, 16:52: Message edited by: Sighthound ]
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Posts: 168 | From: England | Registered: Sep 2009
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Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
In our enlightened 6th form we could do snooker and table tennis.
What have snooker and table tennis to do with sport? There is skill in these, as there is in darts, but they too are pastimes.
Indeed. I think the guiding principle is that if you can drink beer and smoke while doing it, it's not a sport, it's a pastime.
I loathed PE, partly because I wasn't much good at any of the sports we did (I did fencing outside of school and loved it, but for some reason only the girls did fencing in school). But mainly it was because of the barely-concealed sadism of the gym teachers, who loved nothing more than sending us outside in shorts and T-shirts to play flag football in 45 degree (Fahrenheit) drizzle. Or making us run the mile in late May when temperatures were in the 80s, with threats of Serious Consequences™ for anyone who dared to walk. I remember when Jim Grenier dealt with that by skipping the entire mile, which was much more pleasant than running, so several of us imitated him. Mr. Andersen was fuming, but he'd never said no skipping, and we weren't walking...
However, given the epidemic of child obesity and the fact that so many kids seem to have no referent for the word "play" that doesn't include a video screen, I am reconsidering my position.
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When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
- C. P. Snow
Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
One thing I would not recommend, going by my daughter's experience, is kayaking. She was made to kayak on the Thames in the middle of January, no less, in freezing cold water. She fell in on two occasions, and was so pissed off with it that she stomped ashore. The teacher told her to retrieve the kayak, and she utterly refused to go anywhere near it.
It was just as well that she could swim, although she was aghast at what floated past her!
Fortunately I seem to recall that it only lasted for half a term, but it struck me as pretty daft to do that kind of 'sport' in the middle of winter.
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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sebby
Shipmate
# 15147
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
For an emerging gay teenager, though we still called it queer in those days which is now back in vogue again, in an all boys school in the early 1960s the best bit was the eye candy in the showers afterwards.
My eyes are/were too weak and my coordination too crap for any real sports but I sort of enjoyed cross country - head off down to the riverside and have a smoke then amble back again.
It's only since I left school that I have realised there is only one REAL sport - and that is CRICKET! I can't play it but I watch it and follow it [almost obsessively].
That's very good. But it must have been a little obvious to have to fumble with one's glasses and peer around in the shower in them. It must have made all the other ghastliness worthwhile.
I'm not so sure about cricket. 'Organised loafing' William Temple called it. I like the costume - espcially white tousers - but am horrified to see players somtimes not wear it, so I just don't see the point.
Like my theology I suppose: it is all about the costume.
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sebhyatt
Posts: 1340 | From: yorks | Registered: Sep 2009
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Jahlove
Tied to the mast
# 10290
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Posted
Some chancer from some recently-set-up chancer company called my archery club secretary this morning, saying that in the wake of the Olympics, they were organizing local events for people wanting to take part in various sporting activities and would we be able to accommodate them?
They wanted us to pay them £90.
We declined.
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“Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like its heaven on earth.” - Mark Twain
Posts: 6477 | From: Alice's Restaurant (UK Franchise) | Registered: Sep 2005
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Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984
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Posted
I had to play lacrosse and hated it, not only that - I was made to be a goal keeper in the school team when ours went off sick for a term with anorexia.
I vividly remember a game we lost 24 / 9 - and I had save 12 shots on goal - one off my unprotected throat. I protested that we at least ought to have a mask that had a throat bib.
Because we were 'gels' it was assumed that for us lacrosse was not a contact sport. So men *all* play with protective gear including masks. With us you got to have someone throw a hard cricket sized ball from a catapult at head level to bounce off your eye without the benefit of such gear. All this and we weren't allowed to play football on the grounds, and I shit you not, that the ball might hit you in the womb and make you infertile.
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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell
Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005
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sebby
Shipmate
# 15147
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Doublethink:
I had to play lacrosse and hated it, not only that - I was made to be a goal keeper in the school team when ours went off sick for a term with anorexia.
I vividly remember a game we lost 24 / 9 - and I had save 12 shots on goal - one off my unprotected throat. I protested that we at least ought to have a mask that had a throat bib.
Because we were 'gels' it was assumed that for us lacrosse was not a contact sport. So men *all* play with protective gear including masks. With us you got to have someone throw a hard cricket sized ball from a catapult at head level to bounce off your eye without the benefit of such gear. All this and we weren't allowed to play football on the grounds, and I shit you not, that the ball might hit you in the womb and make you infertile.
Reading this, I can only assume that I went through the system considerably more recently than you.
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sebhyatt
Posts: 1340 | From: yorks | Registered: Sep 2009
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Jahlove
Tied to the mast
# 10290
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Posted
at mi skule, they made it a rule that you had to show up for 3 hockey games in order to qualify for one riding lesson. Amanda, spiteful bitch, lied about my 3rd hockey attendance so I didn't get to go riding. I never turned up for anything after that.
In fact, that put me off everything really - although I went to a 3rd-rate grammar school with pretensions to public school, there were actually some good things on offer in the sport department - tennis, football, well equipped gym, esp. ropes and trampoline which were my favourites - but they made you do track and field (which, apart from discus, I hated) before you got the occasional *reward* of being allowed to do something you liked (stupid system). Everyone got to go swimming tho' - which I loved tho' I could swim from about age 6 so it was just a fun time, rather than learning, for me.
Shame about Lying Amanda - wasn't until very recently that I took up a sporting pastime.
Only time School Sport interested me since age 13 was when House Captain and Senior Prefect Jamie (aged 18 in the sixth form) ran off with the married Games Mistress. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
[edited to remove surnames]
[ 15. August 2012, 06:16: Message edited by: Alan Cresswell ]
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“Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like its heaven on earth.” - Mark Twain
Posts: 6477 | From: Alice's Restaurant (UK Franchise) | Registered: Sep 2005
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Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by sebby:
Reading this, I can only assume that I went through the system considerably more recently than you.
I started secondary school in 1987.
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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell
Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005
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sebby
Shipmate
# 15147
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Posted
A little after me. You mean a senior school - Pub;c School - at 13 1/2?
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sebhyatt
Posts: 1340 | From: yorks | Registered: Sep 2009
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Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984
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Posted
I started in the upper third, the school went through to upper sixth though I didn't stay at that place for sixth form.
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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell
Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I hated hockey with the deep pure loathing that is conferred by standing with wind-whipped legs in a muddy field - sorry, did I say 'standing'? If only. You had to run about - pointlessly, since any time I got anywhere near the ball, somebody hit it miles away.
When I was in the 6th grade (age 11-12), our PE class was a feeder for the competitive sports we played from 7th grade through graduation. Every few weeks, it was the entire class playing on co-ed teams in round robin tournaments of a different sport. Field hockey was my absolute favorite. Unfortunately, only women play it competitively in the States, so that one two-week session was the only chance I ever got to play. (The Queen of Bashan would be with you, though. She played five years of hockey because it was what the cool girls did, and hated it. She was saved from a sixth by a shattered ankle she suffered after stepping on the ball in the pre-season of her last year in High School.)
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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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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pine Marten:
I would also liked to have tried martial arts, but of course there wasn't that choice.
I wanted to do that, too, but there was no such thing at my school. So I started when I was 29 or 30! That turned out to be 'my' sport, long after my youthful teen-aged body had aged and fluffed. It was one of my better decisions.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Vulpior
Foxier than Thou
# 12744
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Posted
There has to be something wrong with the way that schools do sport/games/PE that gives it such a bad rap and leaves awful memories for so many people.
I was reflecting and thinking that many of us may have appreciated more structured, skills-based activity: learning to kick and catch, for example. Nothing in anything I did at school, except for some swimming, seemed designed to encourage those of us who were not sport-inclined.
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I've started blogging. I don't promise you'll find anything to interest you at uncleconrad
Posts: 946 | From: Mount Fairy, NSW | Registered: Jun 2007
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
Jahlove
If you wish to call identified people a "spiteful bitch" then go and do so in Hell. I've edited your post to remove identifiying surnames, it isn't as though we need to know who you're talking about to understand your post.
Alan
Ship of Fools Admin
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
I learned to ride a horse at age eight, but it was at summer camp, not school. I would have liked to do the pole vault when I was in high school, but the track coach wouldn't let me. It was likely because I was on the (American) football team and maybe the pole could not support someone who weighed 180 pounds (13 stone). My dad ran track when he was in school, but then he was lanky compared to me. Furthermore, I was not a fast runner.
I also would have liked to drive a go-kart at venues other than Disneyland...
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Pyx_e
Quixotic Tilter
# 57
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Posted
Wales. Endless Rugby (no football at all). Spent most of my teens muddy, damp, bruised and cold. One way or another.
Funny from nearly 50 it seems like it was all fun. How daft.
AtB Pyx_e
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It is better to be Kind than right.
Posts: 9778 | From: The Dark Tower | Registered: May 2001
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Surfing Madness
Shipmate
# 11087
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Posted
I was useless at P.E at school, luckily at high school, I was in a whole class (bar one girl) who were hopeless at sport. It also helped that we had lovely P.E teachers, who saw with our class that enthusiasm was (mainly) more important that skill. They still made us go outside in the frezzeing cold though!
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I now blog about all my crafting! http://inspiredbybroadway.blogspot.co.uk
Posts: 1542 | From: searching for the jam | Registered: Feb 2006
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
The greatest torture was cross country running, but a small group of us sortt of got around that.
We would run the first bit until we were out of sight from the teachers, at which point the cigarettes would come out and we'd walk the rest of the way, usually taking a short cut.
A short distance from the end of the route, we'd find a puddle and splash ourselves to make it look as tough we'd worked up a sweat and then ran the last 100 yards or so. As we'd been smoking, we didn't need to pretend to be out of breath.
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
My favourite term of sports playing was the one where I'd got some painful warts (some kind of verrucca I supppose) on my foot which needed treatment at outpatients. I was forbidden to do PE by the hospital and spent each PE lesson sitting at the side looking after everyone's coats and bags, like a smug St Paul. That was fun
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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Morlader
Shipmate
# 16040
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Posted
No skiving (at least, not like that, Spike) at my school.
Cross country was overseen by the cadet force. The wireless section were deployed around the route and reported names of runners passing each point back to base. I was the 'wireless sergeant' so I manned the base station receiver: no running ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Mind you, I did have to ensure all the kit worked before each Wednesday...
[ 15. August 2012, 09:50: Message edited by: Morlader ]
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.. to utmost west.
Posts: 858 | From: Not England | Registered: Nov 2010
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leo
Shipmate
# 1458
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
In our enlightened 6th form we could do snooker and table tennis.
What have snooker and table tennis to do with sport? There is skill in these, as there is in darts, but they too are pastimes.
I thought table tennis was an olympic sport - they are promoting it in this city, with tables in lots of parks and other public places.
Irony - the tories have just announced new plans to make it even easier to sell off school playing fields than it was before. Incompetents.
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My Jewish-positive lectionary blog is at http://recognisingjewishrootsinthelectionary.wordpress.com/
My reviews at http://layreadersbookreviews.wordpress.com
Posts: 23198 | From: Bristol | Registered: Oct 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
My dad ran track when he was in school, but then he was lanky compared to me. Furthermore, I was not a fast runner.
Believe it or not fast running, certainly much improved sprinting, can be taught! I was a tall, lanky, unco-ordinated plodder until a decent athletics coach showed me how to start, use my arms, keep up a cadence and all the rest. Result: from one of those who was dumped in the second-row of the scrum for lack of pace and agility I became able to play in the backs.
I reckon it's a good basic skill, like swimming. Even now you never know when someone will need help fast and you haven't a mobile.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
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Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
In our enlightened 6th form we could do snooker and table tennis.
What have snooker and table tennis to do with sport? There is skill in these, as there is in darts, but they too are pastimes.
I thought table tennis was an olympic sport - they are promoting it in this city, with tables in lots of parks and other public places.
Irony - the tories have just announced new plans to make it even easier to sell off school playing fields than it was before. Incompetents.
The inclusion of table tennis in the Olympic Games does not make it a sport. Golf is in at Rio, goodness knows why, as that is an exercise in social climbing and status (except in Scotland).
With you about the playing fields. Still, I must have played 99% of my team sport outside school.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
Table tennis is an indoor sport, as is swimming, basketball, badminton and trampolining. Because you are taking physical exercise. I don't rate snooker as a sport because the exercise component isn't there - snooker is similar to darts in this respect.
Indoor sports are perfect for those who don't want to get wet and muddy as well as working up a sweat.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
My dad ran track when he was in school, but then he was lanky compared to me. Furthermore, I was not a fast runner.
Believe it or not fast running, certainly much improved sprinting, can be taught! I was a tall, lanky, unco-ordinated plodder until a decent athletics coach showed me how to start, use my arms, keep up a cadence and all the rest. Result: from one of those who was dumped in the second-row of the scrum for lack of pace and agility I became able to play in the backs.
I reckon it's a good basic skill, like swimming. Even now you never know when someone will need help fast and you haven't a mobile.
My one season of Rugby saw me doing time in the second row as well. Actually, it mostly saw me doing time on the bench, but if there were enough people on each team for a 15 minute b side scrimmage after the actual match, that was where I was. (The one time we were short and I had to start was hilarious. On a throw in, I was handed the ball, and was so terrified that I literally threw it at the next closest player on my team. He was a little surprised.)
My cross country times drastically improved when we got a coach who had us do speed drills, not just because my form improved, but because it helped mental toughness. The trick to running 5000 meters is to just go like hell and know that you are going to be done in 20 minutes, which takes a lot of mental discipline.
Sir Kevin: I did the "Olympic Body Double" test from the BBC, and all of my matches were pole vaulters. I am six foot three and 185 pounds, so that weight is actually perfect for pole vaulting, apparently. We didn't have a track team at my school, so I never got the chance to try it. Given that I routinely trip on invisible cracks in the sidewalk while walking my geriatric mutt around the block, it might be for the better.
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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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