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PE - did it promote a life long love of sport or was it ritual torture?

636 replies

LuckyMum96 · 18/10/2020 16:03

Just that really, for me it was mixed - too much PE was focussed on the school teams though and not enough on general exercise and activity

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K00kiEe · 18/10/2020 16:05

Ritual torture and humiliation.

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unmarkedbythat · 18/10/2020 16:06

Ritual torture for me but I still love watching sport and doing the types of exercise I actually enjoy. PE was just another example of education sucking the joy out of something generally quite good fun.

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BluebellsGreenbells · 18/10/2020 16:06

Torture

Schools still promote team sports and pick the best players

Still not enough personal sports

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OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea · 18/10/2020 16:06

Torture. Humiliating. I couldn't even do the one thing I was good at because I wasn't good at the other things.

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Bargebill19 · 18/10/2020 16:06

Torture and now a hatred of sport/exercise.

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UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername · 18/10/2020 16:07

Torture and humiliation every time.

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CaptainMyCaptain · 18/10/2020 16:08

Torture.

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StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 18/10/2020 16:09

Mixed. Hated PE teachers but quite enjoyed hockey and rounders.

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pineapplepalmtree · 18/10/2020 16:09

loved it, was the best part of school and i have continued to love sport through the rest of my life.

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SpeedofaSloth · 18/10/2020 16:10

Torture. I am astounded when DS and DD say they enjoy it.

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CraftyGin · 18/10/2020 16:10

I enjoyed PE - doing things like volleyball that weren’t part of competitive sports.

We also had Games, which were team sports. I loved lacrosse and tennis, but hated hockey.

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WendyJames19 · 18/10/2020 16:10

Torture.

I wasn't good at sport, & felt really self conscious trying.

I'm now much older, and enjoy fitness but still feel self conscious when I'm out running, or doing classes. Did an outdoor boot camp the other day and we had to run around a field. It took me right back to the horrors of cross country running at school...

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wherestheotherone · 18/10/2020 16:11

Humiliating and killed my confidence repeatedly. Team picking was just the beginning.

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Quincejam · 18/10/2020 16:11

Not sure I liked PE in terms of gym and climbing apparatus, that sort of stuff, but I loved playing sport, was good enough for school teams and am still playing it 40+ years later and love the friends I've made through it and the feelgood factor it gives you 😊

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doctorhamster · 18/10/2020 16:11

Utterly hideous. The public humiliation of gym knickers, being picked last for every game, communal showers with the teacher looking on. Dreadful. I used to feel sick before every lesson.

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SqidgeBum · 18/10/2020 16:11

For me, dreaded ritual torture and reinforcement of teenage hierarchy.

For my DH, an opportunity to generally show off and engage in competition .... so fun basically.

I have a feeling I would have hated him in school.

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TheSockMonster · 18/10/2020 16:11

Torture!

I read a brilliant study some years ago that found a strong correlation between children taught to enjoy the outdoors and those growing up to be healthy adults. No positive correlation was found for competitive sport. I wish I could remember who did the study.

For years I thought I hated exercise and sport, then realised it was just school sport I hated. Funnily enough I was a member of an out of school swim team which was very competitive and I loved. I could not tell you why I hated school PE so much. I think it was just really poorly done.

I now exercise almost daily and even enjoy a bit of recreational tennis and badminton.

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LuckyMum96 · 18/10/2020 16:11

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale

Mixed. Hated PE teachers but quite enjoyed hockey and rounders.

PE teachers can make or break it. If they are only interested in winning then it becomes torture for the majority who are not in the sports teams.

If, on the other had, they are more empathetic to the fact that not everyone wants to be in the netball team then they can make a huge difference to an active lifestyle at an early age.
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nancy75 · 18/10/2020 16:12

Torture. My school Pe field was out of the school and 5 mins down the main road. Memories of walking down that road in nylon pe Knickers & an tight t shirt don’t fill me with joy.
The horror of the pe teachers watching us undress and have a shower was not great either.
Freezing cold cross country (in afore mentioned pe knickers) yep, didn’t love that much.

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piglet81 · 18/10/2020 16:12

Pretty awful and definitely put me off. I was (still am) a good swimmer but hopeless at ball games so PE was hideous and the teachers conformed to the sadistic stereotype. To make it worse, my sister was hockey captain...

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hollyandkit · 18/10/2020 16:12

Bit of both. Didn't really put me off sports because we never seemed to do proper sport, just got out "The Apparatus", which still puts a chill up my spine. Steel equipment which you had to climb up and do various other pointless activities on. Showers were communal and a source of dread.

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Splodgetastic · 18/10/2020 16:13

Too much boring hockey, cross country and netball, but at least my school had the facilities and imagination to do other stuff, such as swimming, volleyball, badminton, fencing and occasionally at lunchtime aerobics (taught by one of the students whose life’s goal was to become a PE teacher - truly dedicated, as this meant she had to re-sit maths several times!). I enjoy sport now, but not team sport.

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Knittedfairies · 18/10/2020 16:13

Torture. I wish I could go back 50 years and tell my P.E. teachers that I will never have the need to climb a rope, so please stop shouting at me.

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ZippedyBooBah · 18/10/2020 16:13

Torture.

And as an adult I hate sport too. I don't mind going for a bike ride or even the odd run, but fuck ball games Grin

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savagebaggagemaster · 18/10/2020 16:14

I hated it mostly. Especially cross country.
I was doing PE in the team picking era. I was always left until last: "Oh we'll take her then."
I had one teacher who taught me how to swim and he was really kind and boosted my self esteem.
My kids go to a school where they do lots of PE / Games and the teachers are mostly very positive and encouraging. That said, team sports are very much at the forefront and neither of mine have been picked to play...
Luckily they're not bothered as they're not keen on those sports.
I've tried to encourage the whole family to take exercise and we walks together. I do classes and dh and I use the cross trainer every day.

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