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

[LuckyMum96]

@Movinghousewoes99

They shouldn’t make sports compulsory. It should be an option for teens. But exercise should be with swimming, dance, yoga featuring more heavily.

I agree about the dance, yoga bit - the sort of exercise most people are more likely to do as adults

[SimonJT]

I loved it, it was by far my favourite lesson and I did GCSE PE.

[OutrageousFlavourLikeFreesias]

Pure torture. I was shit at team sports, and PE was the only lesson where the teachers felt perfectly happy to yell at you if you were crap. (Imagine if Maths teachers yelled at less able students and told them they weren't trying and encouraged the rest of the class to laugh at them?)

My DS loves team sports and is good at them, so he's having a completely different experience.

I've thought for ages that PE needs to be two subjects - competitive and non-competitive sport. Then the kids like my DS can enjoy thriving in team games and competitions, and the kids like me and my DD can learn yoga, swimming, Pilates, step classes, gym training and all the other things you can enjoy as an individual.

[Strugglingtodomybest]

I loved the sports aspect of PE, I hated the PE knickers and the communal naked showers.

I'm still fit and still do sport at 48.

[ShatnersBaboon]

Neither really. I didn't enjoy it because I was so crap at most of it, but it didn't make me feel terrible. I still don't enjoy taking part in any group sport or exercise because I'm still terrible at most physical things, so I exercise in the privacy of my own home (rowing machine).

[1hamwich4]

Rubbish throughout really- taught me nothing useful about how or why to exercise, loads of aggro for being rubbish at everything (no one ever explained how to do stuff, or, you know, the rules or tactics or anything), horrible kit and showers. No warm ups so I permanently injured my knee (which I was pretty pleased about at the time cos it meant no more PE for ages).

I would have been up for climbing a rope because that struck me as a possibly useful thing to be able to do. Never managed it though because being shouted at to ‘get up there’ wasn’t particularly helpful in defying gravity.

I think things are a little better now (I work in a school) but I have noticed a tendency for PE teachers to lean towards the sarcastic/unsympathetic type still. Generally they are phenomenally good at making kids behave (threats of physical inconvenience tend to motivate quite well, I find) but this isn’t necessarily the same as teaching them stuff....

[ProperVexed]

Utter torture. My best event was holding the pole for the high jump.
I'm in my fifties and have yet to find a sport or exercise that I enjoy.

[user1497207191]

Torture and wonderful breeding ground for bullying. Far too much emphasis on team sports and bugger all on personal fitness.

[TheSchuylerSisters]

Ritual torture with the added humiliation of being forced to shower naked aged 11 with the teacher watching.
My friend works for Youth Sport Trust and says a large part of their job is undoing the damage and associated dislike of exercise done by P.E lessons.

[CaptainMyCaptain]

@derxa

This was normal in the 60s/70s. Not really

Well you must gave been lucky.

[CaptainMyCaptain]

Have

[Kidneybingo]

Not torture but not useful or enjoyable either. The PE teachers were always the worst for having favourites, and not even trying to hide it. I'm a teacher now, and I always think it's one subject you don't actually have to work that hard to make enjoyable for pupils, so why didn't they?

[catnoir1]

Torture but at least I didn't have to write anything for a couple hours a week.

[Fluffycloudland77]

It was torture, humiliation, another opportunity for the bullies to laugh at me & drive home the point that I wasn’t liked and killed all interest I had in sports stone dead by the end of the first term.

If there’s one subject they need to massively overhaul its PE.

It was the worst part of school. Oh, and one of the teachers was a massive pisshead. Thanks to my upbringing I could spot a drinker a mile off. Saw her in the pub 15 years ago & she’s still the colour of a beetroot.

They ought to just stop PE lessons because I think we can say it’s not working. Their spending time actually making people hate team sports and exercise. There’s a massive obesity problem in young people who’ve had a couple of hours PE a week all through school from 4 to 16.

[FreeAcorns]

I didn't enjoy it at all but nothing terrible happened - I wasn't bullied or tormented or forced to take communal showers so clearly it could have been worse! I did think (still do) that it was quite silly that the most useless/unfit (like me) spent more time sitting on benches/not participating while the good ones showed us how it was done. I used to idly wonder why they didn't at least make us do some jogging or aerobics or something to increase our fitness levels, even if we'd never quite get to grips with the finer points of netball or hockey. It seemed more about organising endless matches than actually encouraging us to keep fit, which I thought a shame.

Sports day on the other hand!! What a shitshow. I hated sports day. Everyone had to participate and we had to perform our events in front of the entire school! It was so embarrassing. I think I attended twice, in year 7 and 8, and every sports day after that I was "ill".

[ZombieFan]

Ritual torture, humiliation and a lot of bullying.

PE should be ditched at secondary or made optional. Allow children to go read a book in the library if they want. Even if the teacher is great many children find it an abusive experience.

[Seeline]

Hated it.

Bottle green pe knickers.
Asthma that PE teachers didn't acknowledge in the 80s. I couldn't breathe after the warm up if running round the hockey pitches twice, so the rest of the lesson was a nightmare. I was too short for netball, couldn't run or jump. Wasn't popular any way so was always picked last. Teachers took delight in spotting every mistake or disaster and telling about it across the pitch. I'm in my 40s now and have never found any form of exercise I enjoy because I always start with the knowledge that I will be crap. It's a shame because I love watching nearly all sports, I am sure there would've been something I would enjoy doing.

[Pipandmum]

Torture. In high school you could opt for modern dance, and other than the mortification of wearing a leotard it was much better as I enjoyed it.

[Lululemming]

Primary school was OK even though you had to do it in vest and knickers. High school awful, gym knickers when you had a bulky sanitary towel was just shameful, lining up naked to file through the showers with teachers watching. Hockey and netball in the winter for 5 years but nobody ever really telling us how to play. Athletics and tennis in the summer with a term of swimming in an unheated outdoor pool. No joy, just dread.

[FourTeaFallOut]

Hated it. Absolutely the worst part of school.

[Gingernaut]

Torture, humiliation and no interest in sports.

At all.

I'm unfit, with little stamina, not very strong and obese and I really need to find some exercise regime, but cannot.

[Viviennemary]

Total torture. I loathe all form of sport and exercise. Hockey in the freezing cold. No thanks. Horrific.

[fallfallfall]

Loved it! Tons of fun. Much better than history or algebra. Archery Trampoline, climbing ropes to the ceiling. Volleyball :).

[Fancycrackers]

Ritual torture and humiliation. Made to strip to knickers and vest in primary school. Secondary not much better as the old hag of a PE teacher used to come into the lockers and demand all the girls get in the shower together. She my knickers once and said get those off.

Other than that sort of abuse, I was grossly overweight as a child so was never going to enjoy it. Swimming lessons were a joy

[Chocoqueen]

Hated it and it put me off exercise for years. I was terrible at team sports and hated cross country. I hated the competitiveness too.

It's only since my mid-20's I started to look for and find exercise I enjoyed and now much prefer to exercise alone in my living room (HIIT, dancing, cardio, weights) than anywhere else.