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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

OP posts:
BogRollBOGOF · 18/10/2020 22:34

@ProfessorRadcliffeEmerson

It seems to be quite a common experience that PE teachers don’t actually do any teaching- the kids with natural aptitude get all the attention and everyone else is just left to flounder. I know I went to school in the Bad Old Days, but that wasn’t true in any other subject.
It would be like a maths teacher just anouncing "do a simultaneous equation" and letting the talented kids work it out and moaning at the others.

It took a mobile phone to teach me how to run. The PE teachers just told me to run and then moaned because I was crap and in pain with shin splints from my rubbish M&S trainers.

AgeLikeWine · 18/10/2020 22:37

School PE lessons are one of the main reasons why modern Britain is so fat.

Kids are shouted at, humiliated, forced to compete whether they want to or not, forced outside in the cold, wet and mud of a British winter then forced to shower naked in front of their peers.

And then they wonder why people grow up loathing exercise, and thinking sport isn’t for them.

If kids were given the option to do non-competitive, non-humiliating forms of indoor exercise and allowed to shower and change in comfort and privacy, we would be a healthier nation.

Nat3kids · 18/10/2020 22:39

Those silly navy hot pants that they made us wear were awful! I quite enjoyed some parts of PE though, despite not being very good!

Tinabn · 18/10/2020 22:43

Hated it. Stigmas in both eyes meant I could see a straight line, was cross dominant as well and probably dyspraxic, still can’t work out what to do with my elbows when doing push ups. None of this was known at the time and it has taken me 55 years to find that I enjoy exercise, none of it involves team or ball sports.

JohnMcCainsDeathStare · 18/10/2020 22:44

I learnt meditation and how to make daisy chains - not that I was taught either but games of rounders in summer where to me, practise for what being dead was like. I remember being annoyed whenever the ball came near me.

My teachers were not terrible and they tried to mix it up but the focus on team games was painful. Having AS, being unpopular and being very short meant teams were fighting over not to have me. I cared about my team mates every bit as much as they cared for me - not at all.
I was short sighted and like many AS people, clumsy and a late developer. Fortunately I walked/swam and did martial arts out of school. There was NO swimming provision for all of secondary school so the one thing I could be good at wasn't there.

One thing I did find wierd was I actually liked the 'girl' options of areobics and badminton - they were the only time I got sweaty and out of breath. I wanted to get sweaty because I am a physical person but most lessons were more lessons in queing.

Right on with other's observation that tuition was minimal and it was all very ablest - the 1.4m tall person is expected to clear the same size hurdle as the 1.7m tall person. You weren't shown how to set a pace when running or how to throw/hit things better.

I realised though that most school PE is about teaching orangoutans to burrow or a mole to climb a tree - there are so many ways of movement that you can do.
I would be unrecognisable to some of my peers since I open water swim, do OCRs and lift weights for fun these days.

It goes against my principles but I support my boys if they don't want to do Sports Day since to me it was actually like being dead given the lack of participation.

JohnMcCainsDeathStare · 18/10/2020 22:45

I don't do team or ball sports these days either. Closest thing I did to team sports was LARP.

ittooshallpass · 18/10/2020 22:46

The primary school I went to had a very relaxed approach to PE and we just played handball, a bit of football and generally had fun.

I wasn't taught how to play netball or hockey or any team sports so had no idea what the rules were.

Going to secondary school with no knowledge of how to play these sports was a nightmare! No one explained the rules, so I was constantly doing it wrong, which caused chaos! I was subsequently made to feel a fool and chosen last in team games.

That treatment, along with freezing cold communal showers, was enough to easily put me off for life.

VerbenaGirl · 18/10/2020 22:52

Torture and demoralisation, until we got to Y11 and they let us do Jane Fonda’s workout video in one of the common rooms. I’ve only ever enjoyed solitary exercise ever since.

tectonicplates · 18/10/2020 22:54

@Thermo

Hated PE

I now work in fitness Smile

@Thermo Would you mind telling us a bit more about this, if possible? I'm intrigued. Even when I've done exercises classes as an adult, I still perceive the instructors to be lifelong exercise fans, or professional dancers taking a side job. How do you get to a place of actually working in the fitness industry? Are you an instructor or do you do a fitness-related office jobs?
Janevaljane · 18/10/2020 22:56

Kids are shouted at, humiliated, forced to compete whether they want to or not, forced outside in the cold, wet and mud of a British winter then forced to shower naked in front of their peers

I have four sporty children and was sporty myself. None of us ever had to shower naked in front of our peers. And we all enjoy a bit of mud. I had dragonish pe teachers, theirs are young and supportive.

apumpkinaday · 18/10/2020 22:56

I hated it in primary and secondary school!.

RhinestoneCowgirl · 18/10/2020 23:02

Hated PE at school. I was tall and slim and looked like I might be 'sporty' but in reality was completely uncoordinated. Team sports were a nightmare, I couldn't throw or catch balls properly. In athletics I crashed into hurdles, had an ungainly running style, and on one memorable occasion ended up face down in a long jump pit.

Luckily I discovered exercise in my 30s and am now pretty fit. I've run 10k races, cycle and walk lots, plus plenty of yoga and Pilates.

NotYourDawg · 18/10/2020 23:07

I loathed most of PE. It was a popularity contest and so tedious. I was always picked last and the injustice really pissed me off because what the Mean Girls didn't know was that i was a Rower outside of school and did circuit training and running as part of my training. I was probably the fittest person in the class.

I loved swimming (still do) and was lucky that our comprehensive school had a leisure centre next door. I also really liked hockey and our teacher was an ex member of the women's GB team.

I no longer row and was heartened to learn that my old club now has links with all the local high schools and they run a be successful junior rowing program with one school actually including rowing as part of their PE choice. I'd have killed for the opportunity when I was at school.

ittooshallpass · 18/10/2020 23:09

None of us ever had to shower naked in front of our peers

You are very lucky then! My PE teacher used to stand with a clipboard ticking our names off a list as we went naked into the communal showers. She made a big show of who had their period and clearly enjoyed humiliating us all. This was in the 70s early 80s - there is no way this behaviour would be allowed now.

Funnily enough I hate sport now and would happily keep my daughter off school if she didn't want to go to sports day.

supersky · 18/10/2020 23:11

Torture, it made me really hate exercising. I thought I was terrible at it because I struggled in PE. Although it was the same old sports every lesson like netball or hokey and if you weren't very good people didn't bother to include you in the game. Our PE teachers were horrible too, I can't imagine any other teachers acting the way they did and getting away with it. It wasn't untill i got older and left school that I actually learnt I don't hate all exercise, I quite enjoy going to the gym or going on a run or for a swim.

Janevaljane · 18/10/2020 23:11

We had individual showers. State comp, late 70s.

SittingAround1 · 18/10/2020 23:12

Awful. Left me feeling I was useless when I'm reality I'm ok at some sports and enjoy fitness classes and yoga.
The worst aspects were:
Cross country no matter the weather with the pe teacher following us in the van to pick up the asthma sufferers when they couldn't carry on.
The beep test. Public humiliation.
Freezing cold.
Once we had to run around the field four times in the cold with no warm up. On the third go I pulled my calf muscle but the teacher still made me run the last lap. It was total agony.
I could never climb a rope

ViaFerrata · 18/10/2020 23:14

The worst torture was a punishment for talking in class or not doing homework- you had to change into PE kit and run round the sports pitch at break time. F%$k that. Took me bloody ages. Found out years later I have lung problems. Not bitter, much.

jessstan1 · 18/10/2020 23:16

@K00kiEe

Ritual torture and humiliation.
Me too.
bottlenose301 · 18/10/2020 23:21

Loved it!
Got to miss classes by participating in inter club sporting contests Grin
Also I've kept at it and I've been in my chosen sport for two decades now :)
My DD on the other hand...

WizWoz · 18/10/2020 23:21

I wasn’t good at sports and I’m still not. Picking teams was a popularity contest and I was always left till last. Then my team would whinge about how crap I was and nobody would pass me the ball. It was even worse if we worked in pairs because I was being inflicted on one person who would invariably be horrible because they were so resentful about being stuck with me. As others have said, nobody ever made any effort to teach me or improve my skills, i was just left to flounder at the back. Then I had to be smelly all day and get picked on because even that was better than being bullied for my naked body in the showers.

As an adult I do solitary exercise - riding a bike or lifting weights. I still can’t hit or kick a ball to save my life. I have no interest in team sports. But I’m fit. School PE never emphasised fitness - it was all about being a team player and I’m just not.

MummBraTheEverLeaking · 18/10/2020 23:40

Torture here. When I first started secondary school girls and boys were split. We had netball and hockey, was crap at both. Cross country runs, also crap, we used to walk most of it! We had mixed basketball, also crap, and a shortarse. The popular girls were all sporty and twig like, I had a lot of puppy fat and was very self conscious. Myself and my small group of mates were usually picked last.

Oh and I came last by a looooooong way in running at sports day once. Everyone clapped for me to keep going, and no it wasn't great and inspiring, it was shit. All I felt was that everyone was now watching me be rubbish and doing a pity clap.

Sport can do one for me sorry. I'm into workouts; bodypump, step and combat etc. No being picked last, no stupid ball to miss catching or hitting, no pity claps. Just me, working hard by myself at my pace, on my goals. Lovely.

nancy75 · 19/10/2020 00:37

@ittooshallpass

None of us ever had to shower naked in front of our peers

You are very lucky then! My PE teacher used to stand with a clipboard ticking our names off a list as we went naked into the communal showers. She made a big show of who had their period and clearly enjoyed humiliating us all. This was in the 70s early 80s - there is no way this behaviour would be allowed now.

Funnily enough I hate sport now and would happily keep my daughter off school if she didn't want to go to sports day.

Exactly the same, but in the late 80’s early 90’s We had a teacher at each end of the shower block watching from both ends to make sure you were fully undressed - can you imagine that now!
Defenbaker · 19/10/2020 01:06

I hated it with a passion. I could barely catch a ball and was often the last one to be picked when teams were chosen. It put me off competitive sport for life.

Older sister was the opposite in every way - naturally sporty and very popular. Older girls in the school laughed at me when they discovered who my sibling was, like they couldn't believe that such a loser could be related to someone so impressive. She still has no idea what it was like to be in her shadow.

I didn't mind the indoor sessions in the gym, where we just did exercises and somersaults. But mostly it was ritual humiliation, running about in skimpy PE knickers in the rain, playing games I didn't like and feeling like a useless loser. (Not bitter, much.)

jewel1968 · 19/10/2020 01:14

Loved it. Was taught basic skills for lots of sports - played one sport competitively for school.

What I have been forever grateful for is that now - many many years later - I still am active.

I agree the way PE is taught today is bizarre. Maybe my kids have a strange experience but they aren't really taught the basics of any game/sport. They are given the equipment (rackets etc...) and left to it. And why do they split the sexes in year 9? I played a mixed sport into my 30s. Some games lend themselves to mixing the sexes and benefit both.

Teach kids some skills and they might develop a love of one or two sports.