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

[LuckyMum96]

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

Hated it. I'm just not an exercise person. Never was, never will be. People who say "you just need to find something you love" are talking out their backsides IME.

Things I have tried: running, yoga, pilates, climbing, swimming, cycling, the gym, HIIT classes, boxing

Some of them were better than others but I can't say I loved any of them and none of them became a habit.

I can't drive due a medical condition, so I walk everywhere. That's the only exercise I do.

Posted too soon. PE and school sports completions did beat any last modicum of competition out of me though.

Torture and humiliation. Hated it.

Took me till my mid 30s to start doing any exercise.

I hated PE I was constantly anxious about having to shower in a communal shower in front of class mates and teachers naked, when I think of it now I think how was it ok!! Also I remember forgetting my skirt and gym shorts and having to do PE in front of classmates of both sexes in my T-shirt and underwear (in high school) if one of my kids came home saying they'd been made to do that I'd be furious!!
I always found that the popular girls who didn't give a toss in usual lessons became really enthusiastic and quite aggressive in PE!
Yes I hated PE!

Torture

Torture. I have an illness that meant I couldn't participate in the schools chosen sports and the teacher refused to exempt me and would force me to stand out in the cold in full kit (tshirt and slip) in winter to watch.

It finally came to an end after 3 years when one of the healthcare professionals that supported my illness made an unexpected visit in school time that luckily fell on a Games day and found me shaking with the cold at the side of the yard.

Didn't do Games again.

But what a bitch that teacher was, and what she put me through for 3 years was bullying.

There was no humiliation or torture, we weren't forced to parade around in our knickers or watched in the showers (what the actual fuck), we had weather-appropriate clothing options and were never forced outside if it was grim. Everyone participated at their ability level and no one was pushed past their comfort zone.

We had a (optional) cross country club at lunchtime. I joined it because I was weird and liked cross country. One week it was freezing and about to snow.i put cycling shorts on and got sent back by the teacher, to put the regulation gym pants on ....for a lunchtime class!

Torture for me :( I did get into sport / exercise later in my 20s and so glad I did.

I hated PE, it was humiliating and absolute torture, I had asthma and hated being forced to run around and then having to deal with chest pains for the rest of the day. I also hated dealing with the popular athletic girls who always judged the rest of us and laughed at those who really struggled.
I used to write fake notes for every lesson, my dad would always back me up and say he wrote them! In the end they allowed me to spend the lesson time doing my art work instead.

Torture, put me off sport and exercise for life. I'm now doing a little running but it took parkrun to get me running

It promoted a lifelong hatred of PE teachers in me.

As ever, the Simpsons has it right. The p.e. teacher is a character barely bothering to make an excuse for hurling balls so hard he hurts the children. That is the only thing he ever does to them. The writers based that cliche on the knowledge it was universally recognisable.

An organisation called, ironically, Women Into Sport, once had funding to investigate, and found the word 'sport' put people off exercise for life. Schools made people fear and dislike physical activity, associating it with failure, humiliation, pain, cold, and nightmare bullying by the staff in charge.

Torture. It was all focused on team sports and no-one wanted to play with the nerdy fat kid. Hasn't put me off exercise in my adult years because I can run,swim or gym alone.

@Ohalrightthen

Ok, off the top of my head:

Cross country in torrential rain in the middle of winter.

Doing the same sodding hockey practice for three terms in a row.

Letting the school bullies be team captains at every opportunity as they were good at sport.

Being the last one chosen when choosing sides at basketball - yep the song doesn’t lie.

PE lessons that last 2 hours.

Vaulting over that gym horse thingy in front of about 40 other pupils and having everyone laugh at you and/or the teacher shout and make you do it again.

School bullies laughing and whispering about you in the shower.

So yeah, that’s just a start really.

I loved PE although preferred some activities over others. I also played in sports clubs after school etc. I wouldn't & haven't played team sports as an adult & I've always hated running but I still love dance.

There is an argument that sports day for example is for the sporty kids to shine, and that kids that might not be academic get to do something they are good at.
But it's so public. If you're not great at English or maths for example, they dont invite the whole school and parents to watch someone muck up a spelling test or solve a maths problem that they might not be very good at!

Oh I did hate swimming at school & still dislike it.

Torture.

DS1 and I were discussing it the other day how when you go and look round school on the open day they have all this really fun stuff going on.
In PE they say you can try all different kinds of sports and exercise, there's something for everyone, then from the first day of PE in year 7 it's boys-football, girls-netball with a bit of rounders and swimming chucked in or the bleep test if your really lucky.
It's the same in science, they wheel out the old van van de graaf generator and all these other cool experiments which never see the light of day any other time.

Ritual torture and humiliation
This, so much this! The only thing hockey gave me was a weapon with which to fight my brother. Years later I took up running, swimming, cycling, gym and qualified as a PT. During my first marathon I was mentally flicking the Vs to my old PE teacher

Torture which led to a hatred of exercise. Wasn't until my late 20s I realised I could exercise my own way and likw lifting weights and spin. .

Having to wear shorts and skirts that didn't fit and corned beef legs. Running until I was sick and many many notes. I think they just gave up asking.

I wonder if we would get similar responses if we asked the question about art and music. I suspect we would!

Ritual Torture. Hated everything about it. The one sport I was good at wasn't on offer so there was no respite from being crap at everything.
Dd's school have acknowledged that different children have different interests and have several types of PE so dd's super sporty, competitive friend does a different PE to another friend who dances and others do yoga.

Splodgetastic possibly but you can drop those subjects, don't have your inadequacies yelled in class and parents don't get invited in to watch Sophie desperately trying to play 'Three Blind Mice' on the glockenspiel whilst Olivia plays a sonata on the piano.

In the final couple of years of secondary school we were taught how to play volleyball and basketball - pretty sure we actually had a choice from a number of options. This was much better and it was actually enjoyable. We also did athletics - including javelin, hurdles, etc. I had loved hockey, but the teacher was only interested in the star players and an absolute cow to the rest of us. She put me off in the end.

Torture.

Worst was the beep test exercise (where everyone got to see you were the first one to drop out) or anything where not only were you picked last, but there would be open commissoration between captains if they were unlucky enough to have to take the last person.

Awful on another level was the fact that you never got enough time to change, communal changing with mean girls, etc.

Looking back i think it was technically poor, and none of it built fitness. E.g. for cross country there was no thought to assessing fitness first and grouping kids accordingly. They all set off together and invariably after trying to keep up with the fastest ones you'd be exhausted after about 10 minutes. As an adult who runs now, I think if we'd been grouped by speed, perhaps with slowest groups heading off first, and taught how to place ourselves, we might have got on ok. But in reality you'd be struggling after 10 minutes, have a horrible experience for the rest of the course.