quote:

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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.

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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.

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.
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
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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Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
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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Posted by Doublethink (# 1984) on :
 
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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Posted by sebby (# 15147) on :
 
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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Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :
 
Thank you sebby. That made me giggle.
 

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Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by sebby:
I could never understand why they played the same game twice.

---

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.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
It might be the same sport, but it's never the same game.

---

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.

---

quote:

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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

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quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Two-Owls:

quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
It might be the same sport, but it's never the same game.

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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!

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Some, such as golf, are only pastimes and the Olympic equestrian events are no more than practice for hunting
 

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Posted by chive (# 208) on :
 
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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Posted by leo (# 1458) on :
 
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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Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by leo:


In our enlightened 6th form we could do snooker and table tennis.

---

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!
 

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 
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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Posted by Sighthound (# 15185) on :
 
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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Posted by Timothy the Obscure (# 292) on :
 

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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Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on :
 
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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Posted by sebby (# 15147) on :
 

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].

---

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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Posted by Jahlove (# 10290) on :
 
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.

[edited to remove surnames]

[ 15. August 2012, 06:16: Message edited by: Alan Cresswell ]
 

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Posted by Doublethink (# 1984) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by sebby:
Reading this, I can only assume that I went through the system considerably more recently than you.

---

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.

---

quote:

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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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Posted by Vulpior (# 12744) on :
 
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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Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :
 
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
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
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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Posted by Pyx_e (# 57) on :
 
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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Posted by Surfing Madness (# 11087) on :
 
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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Posted by Spike (# 36) on :
 
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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Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on :
 
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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Posted by Morlader (# 16040) on :
 
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

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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Posted by leo (# 1458) on :
 

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Pyx_e:
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

---

Still is - never played, never wanted to, always enjoyed. WAYL-ES, WAYL-ES, or WAY-LES WAY-LES WAY-LES. (Depending where you come from).
 

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Posted by Ceannaideach (# 12007) on :
 
Surprisingly for someone of my weight I actually enjoyed P.E. Especially the team games - hockey, netball, rounders. Going so far as to join the house matches in year 10.

For my height I was fairly competent at Basketball, hated gymnastics and track athletics, especially as the track was over on the boys half of the field and we had to run past them. Oh the joys.

Couldn't do high jump for the life of me - in fact the few times we were forced to do it I turned it into a limbo contest. Wouldn't have minded long jump if the locals cats hadn't used the sand as their litter box. Javelin and shot put I loved. Discus was difficult as I couldn't fit my hand over the disc, so would generally try to frisbee the thing if the teacher wasn't looking. (Didn't work as well as I thought it would.)

The one sport that I loved above all was fencing. It was a lunchtime extra curricular activity but I was there every week. Represented the school a few times so got colours to wear on my blazer. And that provided my younger self with much smug satisfaction - to be a tubby kid with a number of sporting colours greater or equal to the skinnier, sportier kids.
 

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Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

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.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Aggie:
There were one or two "sadistic" P.E teachers who used to ask their 2 favourite/star pupils to pick teams from the rest of the class.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Aggie:
I was always chosen last, and in fact the the 2 team leaders used to argue over who had me in their team (I.e., neither wanted me at all!)

---

Yes. Just l;ike our school. It was almost always the same kids chosen last each time. First the good at sport were chosen. Then the merely keen. Then the normally fit but didn't like sport (or didn't like this sport). Then the halt and the lame and the blind. I was severely asthmatic and (believe it or not to look at me now) very skinny and weedy. I was usually somewhere between third and fifth from bottom.

The very last one or two would be those who were most unpopular, who no-one wanted to be with, the social rejects. Not neccessarily the very worst at sport (though never particularly good at it, as being good at sport was enough to make you popular) but the current fashionable victim of bullying. There is almost always at least one in a school year, someone who is chosen by the majority to be bullied, and who its social death to befriend. Often but not always they are a socially inadequate, inarticulate, nerdy, sort of person, but it can happen to pretty much anyone.

The aocially defined victim role does swap around a bit. It was sometimes me, but there were another two or three who got it even worse than I did. To my shame I can only remember one of their names (someone who did becaome a friend of mine) - but I know perfectly well there were others who I can;t remember. Even if you weren't an active bully (and I guess at least half of the kids weren't) you still didn't pay attention to those people. Even if - especially if - you were at risk of being one of them yourself. They became socially invisible.

So school sport functioned as a sort of score card of the pecking order. The very visible, very public, repeated rankings in order, mixing sporting ability with popularity - not that they were distinct categories - made it clear who was in and who was out.
 

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Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :
 
I hated, hated, hated games at school. As it was a grammar school with pretensions above its station that meant rugby and cricket. (Tennis seemed to be an option for favoured sixth formers). I hated them because I was useless at them, nor could I see the point, and still can't. I can see the point of physical fitness but games, if you don't enjoy them, seem a very inefficient way to get fit.
What I did quite like was cross country running. I was never any good at that either, but I think that is because running was seen as the soft option and the way the school dealt with the fatties and the skivers, so that the peer pressure was on you to walk around the course rather than run. If I'd had the moral courage (or the physical stamina) to break away from the pack and run, I might have become quite good and even fit.
Being made to (keep the) score at cricket was no consolation; it kept me off the pitch but revealed my second greatest weakness: maths.
 

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Posted by Darllenwr (# 14520) on :
 
I arrived in a Midland boys Grammar School aged 11 in 1972. At the time, I weighed just under 4 stone (56 pounds or about 20kg, if that helps) and was severely short-sighted. It isn't the best specification for playing Rugby ...

It is difficult to convey the depth of my loathing for Rugby, from the perspective of a player, other than by observing that I could never see the attraction of being ground, face-down, into 2 inches of marginally above freezing mud, then having to regain one's feet in half a gale of wind fresh from the local gas works. Our playing field had been sited with a very profound concern for our physical well-being, as the corporation gas works was quite literally next-door, and we were down-wind on the prevailing wind side.

In spite of being, after a fashion, inner-city, we were sent on 'cross-country' runs. These included running across the fringes of the local open-cast colliery (some very interesting smells there), along the tow path of the Stourbridge Canal (more interesting smells, and a remarkable mud) and down Brettle Lane (where every lamp-post was thick with industrial soot). It was interesting to reflect upon what we were breathing in. Oddly enough, I usually managed to come in around the 30 out of 90 mark on these outings, but I won't claim to have enjoyed running - it was just infinitely preferable to Rugby.

Sports I liked? Very few. I was keen on sailing, but seldom had the chance (long and very bitter story attached to that; PM me if interested) and Badminton was OK. Otherwise, I settled for the School's idea of golf (which was essentially pitch-and-putt) as it got me out of the view of the games master and won me a couple of hours of relative peace and quiet.

I should add that the possibility of any game other than Rugby in the winter and Cricket/Athletics in the summer only arose in the 6th form.

Oddly enough, I became quite proficient at cricket scoring - it saved me from having to face a small, hard, very fast, ball that I couldn't actually see until it was about to hit me ...
 

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Posted by Stejjie (# 13941) on :
 
I empathise completely with your loathing of rugby, Darllenwr. I was a complete wuss at school and hated, hated rugby, especially as the huge, "isn't he 18"-type lad was always on the opposition team to me. In fact, I'm sure I shot more than a few envious glances towards the girls playing netball - that looked a lot safer... (Rugby and netball were they only sports we were divided into boys and girls for at secondary school).

I didn't enjoy PE much at all, in fact, which is probably what makes me react so negatively to the government's proposals. When we did football, I was always stuck in goal despite my complete aversion to having to put my un-gloved hands up to save a wet, heavy leather ball.

The only time I definitely remember enjoying PE was when we did volleyball one year. We weren't being taught new skills or the rules, we just spent each of the 6 or however may weeks we were doing it playing mini-matches. And I was on a team that actually won nearly all of our games (even with me on it!). Better than that, the girl in my class who I fancied was on it as well. And, best of all, they let us keep that team every week. So, I got to be on a good team and be on the same team as my then sweetheart (sadly, it was unrequited). It was fab!

The rest of the time, it was pretty miserable. Surely the point of PE at school should be to encourage children to find a type of exercise and physical activity that suits them, not force them into the "competitive games" mold. That way, surely they'd find fitness levels increasing and more people doing exercise. Or am I just being daft?
 

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Posted by Matariki (# 14380) on :
 
Though I was a good swimmer I generally hated P.E. loathed team games, despised the P.E. teachers who were bullies and a school culture which rewarded boys who were as thick as pigshit but knew what to do with a football. Later came to realise its not the sport but the boorishness which it is so often packaged in that I really find objectionable.
Now I live in New Zealand where Rugby is almost a religion and I have learned to feign interest. Once made the mistake of saying "it's only a game" after an All Black loss!!!!

[ 15. August 2012, 18:08: Message edited by: Matariki ]
 

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Posted by WhateverTheySay (# 16598) on :
 
I hated PE. Sport just isn't my thing at all. I'm not social, and I don't have a competitive bone in my body.

Plus there was the horror of the communal changing rooms. I remember it taking so long to actually change clothes because all I wanted was to stay covered.

To be honest I think I would have preferred to spend the time learning to play the drums, or some other fun way to get out frustration and energy (which at school I had none of because I didn't ever get enough sleep, I'm a night owl and always have been).

I didn't mind badminton so much when I only played for fun, but I even hated that when it got competitive.

I also hated sports day. Competing for 'houses' to which I had zero attachment was even worse than competing for myself. And they made it compulsory that everyone had to take part. To reduce the misery as much as possible, I always volunteered for the throwing events. To me the only possible advantage of sports day was if I managed to miss French.
 

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Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :
 
I never minded PE at junior school much - but when I got to secondary school, I deliberately failed my hockey test. I had no intention of going out in a field with all those girls who really meant it when they aimed for your shins with their sticks!
I would have loved to have done javelin or discus, which were available, but only for the girls who were good at games already (obviously not me - I always chickened out of jumping the hurdles, because it hurt when you knocked them over). I would have liked to have tried ping pong (not available until the fifth year) or tennis (ditto - by which time most of the girls who chose the tennis option spent the afternoons sunbathing out of view of the PE mistress, while I banged away with the ball on the wall of the gym.). We had fencing equipment in the school, left over from when we had a sixth form - that, and archery, would have been wonderful. I'd wanted to be Errol Flynn since I was about six!
 

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Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by WhateverTheySay:
Plus there was the horror of the communal changing rooms. I remember it taking so long to actually change clothes because all I wanted was to stay covered.

---

When my daughters were in school we lived in New Hampshire, where the winters are very cold. My older daughter was slim and did not have the layer of insulating fat that most people have.

When she was in elementary school she always wore undershirts; when she needed new ones she told me. When she got to junior high school she had to change for gym, and she didn't want anyone to see her in an undershirt.

After a few months of cold weather and no undershirt, she started getting bronchitis. She had attacks of bronchitis for the rest of her school years in New Hampshire.

Moo
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
I had asthma and grass allergy when I was in school, doing PE 5 days a week. So naturally they made me run over freshly cut grass.

It alarmed the teacher when I turned purple, but not enough for her to call anyone for help. Or for them to let me off PE either.

And naturally I took over twice as long in the running as anyone else (the shame!)

Did I mention the twisted leg (present from birth) and the joint disorder?

I am SO FREAKING GLAD to be out of PE.

[ 16. August 2012, 00:37: Message edited by: Lamb Chopped ]
 

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Posted by Edith (# 16978) on :
 
I loathed it too. At my convent grammar school in the 50s my best friend and I used to disappear into the local park to avoid hockey, even the dirty old men we met from time to time (and learned how to run away from) were better that that. Happily both my children had a much better experience at their comprehensive in the 90s. My daughter memorably came third in the inter schools cross country, and when congratulated said 'Oh I might have done better, but I met a lovely collie dog on the way and I stopped to stroke her'. That's my girl.

Interesting that so many people on this thread disliked sport. Does it go with an interest in religious matters?
 

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Posted by Spike (# 36) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Edith:
Interesting that so many people on this thread disliked sport. Does it go with an interest in religious matters?

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I think it's more to do with the fact that those of us who dislike sport have the ability to read and write
 

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Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Spike:
I think it's more to do with the fact that those of us who dislike sport have the ability to read and write

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quote:

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Originally posted by Spike:
I think it's more to do with the fact that those of us who dislike sport have the ability to read and write

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quote:

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a new P.E teacher was employed at my school, who made the options more flexible, whereby those of us who hated competitive games could opt to to do aerobics, swimming, canoeing or dance instead.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:


Marvin
School Colours in two different sports AND good GCSE/A-Level results

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It was easier for you - lower gravity on Mars. We had to struggle just to get up in the mornings.
 

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Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by WhateverTheySay:

I also hated sports day. Competing for 'houses' to which I had zero attachment was even worse than competing for myself. And they made it compulsory that everyone had to take part. To reduce the misery as much as possible, I always volunteered for the throwing events. To me the only possible advantage of sports day was if I managed to miss French.

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Although I hated sports I actually quite liked sports day. I always managed to lose at whatever sport I'd put in for in the run-up, so come sports day I wasn't put into any of the events . Instead I and my like-minded friends lounged on the grass in the sun watching the other poor suckers sweat around the track... ah! the memories
 

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Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Pine Marten:

quote:

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Originally posted by WhateverTheySay:

I also hated sports day. Competing for 'houses' to which I had zero attachment was even worse than competing for myself. And they made it compulsory that everyone had to take part. To reduce the misery as much as possible, I always volunteered for the throwing events. To me the only possible advantage of sports day was if I managed to miss French.

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Although I hated sports I actually quite liked sports day. I always managed to lose at whatever sport I'd put in for in the run-up, so come sports day I wasn't put into any of the events . Instead I and my like-minded friends lounged on the grass in the sun watching the other poor suckers sweat around the track... ah! the memories

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If you absolutely have to compete then the discus and most especially the shot put, are the best. If you are crap at those, just show up, lob the thing three times and the rest of the day is your own.

The javelin is another matter: dodgy shoulder anyone? Looks really good if someone can throw it properly though!
 

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Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :
 
Participation in Sports Day was mandetory at my Grammar school, but in my last year I managed to avoid it by volunteering to help with the score keeping. I got to spend the afternoon sitting at a table in the middle of the sports field under the sghade od a parasol writing down numbers. I got to wear normal clothes and sunglasses and, because it was a warm day, people kept bringing me cooling drinks. Best Sports Day ever
 

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Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:

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Originally posted by Spike:
I think it's more to do with the fact that those of us who dislike sport have the ability to read and write

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It's not an either/or thing, you know.

Marvin
School Colours in two different sports AND good GCSE/A-Level results

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sighthound:
It saddens me that in the early 21st Century we are still forcing children and young people to indulge in these pointless 'sports' against their will, just because Someone thinks it's a good idea.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:

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Originally posted by Sighthound:
It saddens me that in the early 21st Century we are still forcing children and young people to indulge in these pointless 'sports' against their will, just because Someone thinks it's a good idea.

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Well, we force them to learn a bunch of pointless shit about other subjects against their will. What's one more?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sighthound:
In Maths you may be put in a remedial class and helped to do the hard sums. In the world of sport, no such concept exists.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ken:

quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:

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Originally posted by Sighthound:
It saddens me that in the early 21st Century we are still forcing children and young people to indulge in these pointless 'sports' against their will, just because Someone thinks it's a good idea.

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Well, we force them to learn a bunch of pointless shit about other subjects against their will. What's one more?

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But we don't force them to line up against a wall and get insulted or mocked by their classmates and teadchers if they aren't good enough at those other subjects.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ken:

quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:

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Originally posted by Sighthound:
It saddens me that in the early 21st Century we are still forcing children and young people to indulge in these pointless 'sports' against their will, just because Someone thinks it's a good idea.

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Well, we force them to learn a bunch of pointless shit about other subjects against their will. What's one more?

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But we don't force them to line up against a wall and get insulted or mocked by their classmates and teadchers if they aren't good enough at those other subjects.

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
The only PE lessons I liked were the last ones of term when we played Pirates. This has now been forbidden by the elfin safety bods, but I used to provide something similar when I was teaching. It used the "get all the apparatus out and arrange it round the gym" element, and suggested that the children found the most interesting way of visiting all the stuff without putting their feet on the floor (mats provided at difficult places).

For those not familiar with the game, the apparatus was used for a chase game, in which players were either captured, or got themselves out by putting feet on the floor.

It was something I was good at, despite not finding rope swinging all that easy, because I could think my way around, and escape being caught, and then trap people when I was chasing. (Unless this was all a delusion, and they were letting me become the pirate so I didn't catch them and they had more time on the apparatus. Never mind, I enjoyed it.)
 

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Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
They range from the Premiership (Manchester United et al) right down to the Mid-Sussex Football League Division 11 (home of the mighty Hassocks Hornets) - a full 24 "streams" that players can fit into.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sighthound:
In Maths you may be put in a remedial class and helped to do the hard sums. In the world of sport, no such concept exists. You're either good at it, or you're not a worthwhile human being but an object of ridicule.

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quote:

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Originally posted by sebby:
...and their silly competitiveness.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ken:
That last league is actually lower down the Sussex leagues than some teams that are, or were until recently, made up largely of people who were at school with me and are now in their fifties.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Angloid:
I can understand the need for compulsory PE (provided that sort of 'remedial' attention is given). Team games should be voluntary

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quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:

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Originally posted by Angloid:
I can understand the need for compulsory PE (provided that sort of 'remedial' attention is given). Team games should be voluntary

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If team games are voluntary, how are you going to find out which kids need 'remedial' attention?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:

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Originally posted by sebby:
...and their silly competitiveness.

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What's wrong with competitiveness?

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quote:

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I really wanted to play Lacrosse, like those 'gels' from Malory Towers,

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quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:

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Originally posted by sebby:
...and their silly competitiveness.

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What's wrong with competitiveness?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sioni Sais:

There's plenty of scope for co-operative working within the rest of the curriculum, but stragely those who emphasize team games often denigrate group learning!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:

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Originally posted by sebby:
[qb]...and their silly competitiveness.

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What's wrong with competitiveness?

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