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Original poster

PE Memories

117 replies

amygarden · 27/05/2019 19:50

DD has confided that she is starting to hate sports because of her secondary PE lessons.

What are people's own memories or experiences - did PE inspire you to love sports and exercise or promote fear and loathing?

OP posts:
rainbowlou · 27/05/2019 21:03

Absolutely hated it due to having to shower after and the PE teacher watching, holding our towels and not giving them back until she thought we had washed properly..Sad

Iwantacookie · 27/05/2019 21:03

At primary school great.
Secondary hell. Standing outside in winter in gym skirts and t-shirts while the teacher is nice and cosy in trackies and fleece.
Everyone taking the piss as your getting changed.
Never being picked for teams.
Put me off exercise for life.

toffee1000 · 27/05/2019 21:03

Hated it in the early years. When we got to year 10 and above and could pick what we wanted to do it wasn’t so bad.
I didn’t mind swimming or gymnastics much. Everyone was about equally crap at gymnastics, there were two girls who were good/on the squad but they weren’t mean about it. Similar with swimming, too.
Hockey, netball, rounders, athletics... all shit.

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General education
CheesecakeAddict · 27/05/2019 21:04

Girls were only allowed to do cheerleading or dance. Only boys were allowed to do real sports 🙄. I was made to feel unathletic because that wasn't my area. Turns out, I love distance running!

Buffymum · 27/05/2019 21:04

Loved Pe & Games my school did daily Pe and games once a week alwYs outside .
I can still remember the ‘yes’ feeling when the Apparatus / ropes out .
Best was Pirates - usually me And a couple of boys left . Think it was banned !
Dodgeball , athletics , hockey , netball , volleyball rounders . Loved them all through till 6th form . Most of my friends enjoyed pe too . Fortunately never had pushy / weird pe teachers . Would love to have done Gcse /A level pe !!

SimonJT · 27/05/2019 21:05

I loved PE at school, it was by far my favourite lesson, the only sport I didn’t enjoy was cricket.

freshstartnewme · 27/05/2019 21:06

Omg the apparatus Grin

Disfordarkchocolate · 27/05/2019 21:07

Loved PE until I started secondary school. Too much hockey and netball which I was no good at and not enough athletics which I enjoyed. I couldn't catch or throw so netball was torture, always picked last.

We had a trampoline, I only got to use it once. It felt like fun was actively discouraged.

Is there an out of school sport she could try to boost her confidence?

JurassicGirl · 27/05/2019 21:16

Hated it! I arrived late every week during the last year of school just to avoid it.

Awful skimpy uniform, cold changing rooms with no privacy. Nasty PE teachers who seem to be on a mission to embarrass anyone who isn't sporty or competitive.

My dc are all still primary school age but I'm encouraging them to try different sports so that they're not as awful as I was when they start secondary school.

cheeseandcrackers · 27/05/2019 21:19

Being forced to strip and have a communal shower with all the other girls and the PE teacher watching to make sure we washed..

Otterses · 27/05/2019 21:19

I remember telling my P.E teacher I needed to go to the toilet as I'd suddenly come on (undiagnosed PCOS and endo made them really erratic I assume) and was told no, I'd only had a period two weeks ago.

I was forced to do circuits with blood running down my legs and into my shoes. I was endlessly bullied for the rest of primary school. I was also forced to change for it in a communal (boys and girls) changing room, which also led to bullying as I was erm, a rather developed 10 year old who had people commenting on my bra and body hair Blush destroyed my confidence entirely, which meant I actively avoided using changing rooms in secondary.

So I'd say, put off PE from the age of 10. I stopped participating and would bunk off to avoid it. It's a shame, because before that I really loved gymnastics. However, despite PE being shit, it did inspire a love of horse riding which became a weekend activity for me.

Badabingbadabum · 27/05/2019 21:20

Hated it and it put me off exercise and definitely sport. In winter we were allowed to wear jogging bottoms but still had to wear gym skirts over the topfor some reason.

I'm trying to instil a love of sport into dds mostly so they dont have to hate part of their school week.

RachelRobson · 27/05/2019 22:39

Reading through this really does bring back some memories.

Cross country in the pouring rain
Hockey which seemed to consist of stronger girls whacking a ball at me
Dance, standing in a freezing hall in our bare feet

I could go on!

DramaAlpaca · 27/05/2019 22:44

The humiliation of the communal showers at my all girls school in the 1970s is etched upon my brain forever. That, and being last to be picked for every team sport. At least I was OK at cross country running & high jump.

Hadenoughofitall441 · 27/05/2019 22:46

I used to hate sports except rollerblading before secondary school. My tutor was my pe teacher too so we would get roped in to doing extra curricular. I loved it after year 7 the only thing I hated was cross country. So me and my other friend would fall over pretend to hurt our ankles and then tell the teacher we were talking so weren’t concentrating but we would miss the hardest bit.... he fell for it every time 😂😂

MountainDweller · 27/05/2019 22:48

Hated it. My main memory from secondary school is running up and down the netball court not being sure where I was allowed to go and never touching the ball. I swear no one ever explained the rules and there was no internet then!

That and the smell in the changing rooms and always being late to the next lesson because the sports facilities were a long way from the classrooms and we were never given enough time to change.

It's a shame because it put me off for life and I'm now fat - I was actually quite sporty in primary school, always doing cartwheels and handstands and winning running races!

harrypotterfan1604 · 27/05/2019 22:49

Absolutely hated! Forged myself a note saying I couldn’t do it one day because I had a sprained ankle and the teacher didn’t take it off me so I used this same note week after week to get out of until she eventually clicked and my punishment was.....banned from doing PE for 3 weeks 😂 teacher wasn’t so bright!

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 27/05/2019 22:56

Oh I despised it. I used to try every trick in the book to get out of it.
I remember one time. I accidentally on forgot my trainees. I 'knew' I'd get flayed alive but better thAt than running around like a prick. Anyway.
The teacher just said "Oh Don't worry Spider. I'll find you a pair. So She comes back with these awful kicked out trainers. You know the type that talk to you and white turned black freyed laces. Everyone was saying.
Spider You're trabs are gorgeous.
Mortified doesn't even begin to cover it.BlushGrin

AlunWynsKnee · 27/05/2019 23:00

I hated every moment of it. I was great at one sport but we didn't do it at our school. I was rubbish at the ones we did do. It was public humiliation every week and the PE teachers seemed to have no understanding that you were not learning a thing. Or any memory of how excruciating puberty is.

UrsulaPandress · 27/05/2019 23:04

Being picked last for teams. Every bloody time. My best mate was actually worse than me but would get picked just before me because she was funny.

What fucking humiliation.

SpinsterOfArts · 27/05/2019 23:16

I hated it. Netball skirts and gym knickers, swimming in the middle of winter and then having to go around with wet hair all day, being the worst at every single sport and not actually being taught how to improve.

From PE I learnt that I was completely rubbish at any sort of physical activity, and as soon as it was no longer compulsory, I stopped doing any sort of exercise. I was over 30 and had a health scare before I realised I needed to do something about it, and now I love going to the gym. Nobody tells me what to wear or compares my abilities to other people's, and I've had personal training sessions which were great - both encouraging me despite the fact that I'm not very good, and telling me specific things I can do to improve.

It makes me wince when people argue that more school PE will solve the obesity issue. The sporty young people will be active regardless, and as this thread proves, PE is counterproductive for the rest.

toffee1000 · 27/05/2019 23:19

I never tried to get out of PE. I never even thought of it. If I had I would’ve been afraid about getting caught.
I do remember one of my reports saying that I rarely involved myself in match play (netball I think). Err yeah, because I was shit. I was always assigned wing defence which was easily the most boring position.

Julie1988 · 28/05/2019 01:06

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managedmis · 28/05/2019 01:50

Anyone else wear those awful knicker shorts?

I mean, Wtaf

I just remember standing in the middle of a field, knicker shorts on and those thin polo shirts, the wind howling a gale, lashing it down, freezing my ass off and thinking, I want to move abroad

managedmis · 28/05/2019 01:50

We didn't have sadistic PE teachers surpsingly