Does anyone else remember doing PE in the snow?

[ShrinkingIngrate]

I'm 52 and we definitely did PE with snow on the ground.

I'm our aertex tops granny pants (brown 😭) abd gym skirt!

DS's rugby yes rugby tournament has been cancelled this afternoon because of the severe weather predicted. We're West Midlands;there's nary a flake.

Yes! Exactly like that except our pants were green. As a huge concession we were alloed to wear our uniform jumpers when it was cold. We had tennis shoes and ordinary socks on our feet, so they got cold and wet. No tracksuits, of course. It was the 1970s so the wraparound PE skirt reached mid-thigh at best. Flimsy material, blew open in the wind. I vividly remember doing the annual cross-country run in this attire with snow underfoot. Leeds, which got vey cold in winter.

I remember doing PE in the snow.

I do remember rugby and hockey being cancelled because of frozen pitches as well though.

Same with us, but I left school in 1984!! I'm 56 now and remember the misery of it well.

Definitely did PE in the snow here as well (45) - I remember playing lacross in those canvas studded hockey boots with snow on the ground and my fingers half falling off even with gloves on.

DD was supposed to have interhouse sport this morning but it's been postponed. I would have called it character building!

Many of our PE lessons were awful. No interest in fostering a love of exercise or understanding of the health benefits. If you were no good at it, e.g. me, teachers were largely uninterested and sometimes outright nasty. One in particular I remember as an outright bully. I was put off sport for life. It's taken parkrun to change my attitude a bit.

It was an utterly miserable experience and one of many reasons why I and others like me hated school PE so very much. It was abusive in the way it was taught

Yup, standing on a freezing cold hockey pitch in an aertex shirt and shorts plus school jumper. Hated hockey with a passion. Netball wasn't so bad, at least we were running and jumping and could keep warm.

Life was far crueller, abuse was allowed. In that situation you have no choice but to suck it up.

Humans were not hardier per se, just used to bd treatment.

DDs Rugby club had to cancel matches in December due to frozen pitches.... everything from Mens first team down to U10s. Heavy rain too as it damages the pitch.

As for PE in snow... I grew up in London. I barely remember having snow!! I did Club cross country and definitely did that in the wilds of Kent in the snow.

Yes, although rugby was sometimes cancelled, if the teacher couldn't dig his studs into the pitch. Cross country, hah! Round the bloody terraces it was, for several miles, hoping you didn't tread in a concealed dog poo, or on a broken bottle.

Once we got back, the boys were made to go in the (unheated) swimming pool. If it was frozen, the ones who'd annoyed the teacher had to go in and break the ice up. Once, a lad refused, so the teacher ordered some other boys to give him a leg and a wing.

Up above head height he wen and landed on the ice, which shuddered and didn't even crack. The teacher walked off laughing, as the poor lad wailed on the ice.

Yes - cross country and hockey. We also had swimming in an outdoor unheated pool from September to December and then April to July!!!! (They put heating in 2 or 3 years before I left 🤣 )

As for PE now... DDs school has reminded them they need their thermal underlayer. Officially its navy, but actually they don't care if they can't see it under the jumper.

Still in blazer and shirt moving around school grounds though, they don't have a uniform jumper.

Yep! Netball, in a short skirt and tshirt. Aged 8. We weren’t allowed to put a cardigan on. Our teacher was inside, with a coat, gloves and cup of tea, shouting through the staff room window! I staged a sit down protest and got into loads of trouble, but I still think I was in the right.

Yep I remember that. Aetex top and bottle green granny pants. Outside we were allowed to wear gym skirts for hockey and netball though

Both I think!

And yes to swimming in the open air pool in winter. The steam would rise off the surface of the pool and it was a joy to jump in to get out of the cold!!

Yes, hockey in PE skirt with the snow actually falling around us. Blue legs, blue fingers, freezing cold and utterly miserable. Put me off forever. Although I now quite like running and have winter kit I find it almost impossible to drag myself out in cold weather, because the memory is just of being so, so depressed and cold. I never enjoyed any of those cold lessons for one minute. Tennis in the sunshine maybe but anything in winter I just detested.

Same here! I am early fifties so this would have been in the early to mid 80s.

Yes am also in my 50's and remember cross country runs when it was snow and ice! Sliding everywhere trying not to break a ankle or face plant.

I grew up in north Scotland so if we hadn't gone out when it was snowing we wouldn't have done outdoor PE for about 3 months of the year and yes I remember the teachers wearing big quilted jackets while we were in T-shirt and shorts.

We had one nice younger PE teacher and one sadistic older brutal bullying one (both males). Very different teaching styles and obvious they didn't get on personally.

Yes, my PE teacher would always decide that snow/frost/sleet/ice made for marvellous conditions for a 'bracing' cross country run along muddy tracks in the woods near our school. Sadistic cow 😄

We used to do games in incredibly cold weather. We had those divided shorts, vertex shirts and jumpers, plus long socks. Not allowed tights. But then the school itself was bloody cold, it had a prehistoric heating system that was totally inadequate.

When I look back, I do wonder why the hell my parents paid fees for that.

I do cross country out of choice now, so maybe I'm not quite right in the head!

Yep. PE in the snow in 1985. They painted the hockey ball black so we could see it. We were in trainers and it was deep snow up north. Little skirts. Teacher in sheepskin coat

Haha seems like the winter cross country runs were actually a thing in a lot of schools, thought it was just mine! We never got to do them in spring or summer when it might actually have been (relatively!) pleasant

@HyacinthineMacaw yes. I'm 51 now.
We were the school years that had communal showers too- with the pe teacher watching.

I remember being sent out to do cross country on a freezing cold day when it snowed and sleeted, wearing totally unsuitable footwear (indoor trainers I seem to recall with no decent grip), a PE skirt and pants, and a cotton rugby shirt. It was an utterly miserable, demoralising experience and it put me off running for years. The school headmaster came and stood out to ‘encourage’ us on, dressed up like a polar explorer under an umbrella. We were all frozen and miserable, and there weren’t even any hot showers when we got back to warm up as the school changing rooms were being done up, so we all had to put our uniform back on over our frozen, filthy, muddy selves and spent the rest of the day stinking. It was awful.

A couple of years ago I ran part of the same route in decent kit with trail shoes and a sports bra that fitted, gloves, a proper technical top and leggings, and loved it. I love running in pretty much any weather now because I have the right kit and I’m the one choosing to do it.

Given that it’s unreasonable to expect parents to fund specialist kit to cover PE lessons in all weathers, it’s absolutely right that PE should be called off or moved indoors when the weather is unsuitable for the standard kit. I lost years of pleasure and health benefits because PE lessons were shite and put me off exercise massively.