What are your worst PE memories?

[OneUmberJoker]

Breaking my arm playing football

Same as others re naked showers, being picked last for teams etc.
Hockey was terrible. My main memory of that was the endless muddiness of it all.
Netball I was absolute rubbish at.
Rounders-a friend and I would stand as far as possible from 'the action' whilst fielding and have a good chat. The PE teacher would sometimes tell us off, other times they couldn't be bothered. Don't remember ever actually hitting a ball whilst batting in rounders!
Tennis- an equally inept friend and I once lost a tennis ball due to our inability to keep it on the court. PE teacher went mad at us and said it had to be replaced! (But we never did).
I was lucky in that my mum had hated PE at school so would often write notes excusing me!

the showers had metal rails and
posts holding cheap plastic curtains for privacy. The whole thing collapsed when one girl swung on them like monkey bars and we all got detention for not saying who it was

The communal showers, the only way to be excused them was to say period rather than yes miss when the register was called. That meant though that it was noted down and you couldn’t get away with it too often.

A teacher shouting at me that I was running like a pregnant bear while playing netball. That was in 1981 and I’ve never forgot how embarrassed she made me feel in front of everyone.

Having to walk along a bus route wearing only our navy knickers for about 400 yards to get to the field and tennis courts.

Being shouted at because I couldn't do a backstroke in swimming. I couldn't swim anyway! The stroke made no difference. I then got shouted at again when I suggested she got in the pool and showed me! I was 40 when I finally learnt to swim.

Cross country! One of the teachers was just plain horrid and said if we were seen walking we’d be made to do it again every day until we ran all of it. Also said we were all unfit and that bad period pain was ‘no excuse’. Balls to her, I run half marathons now and absolutely love running for my mental and physical health, but I bet she ruined it for a lot of girls who might have gone on to try it further

Oh yes. Every bloody time. It was a regular ritual humiliation. I hated my PE teachers for actively enabling this bullying in plain sight.

Climbing bloody ropes in the gymnasium. How the fuck are you supposed to do that? Other people seemed able to shin up them with no trouble at all. It was like I'd missed out on the lesson on how to actually do it, and the teachers took great pleasure in berating you for your uselessness instead of helping you.

As for cross-country running... sheer hell.

Oh the country dancing we also had ballroom ,boys on one side girls on the other.
Hated it and funnily enough I've never done the dashing white sergeant or the fox trot in my life.
Not much call for it on the Northern soul scene.

The showers and being inspected by pe teacher to see if you were wet and being naked in the communal shower ..just horrible.

There were no showers at my school (70s/early 80s) and we felt very hard done by because of it, but I can now see the advantages. Our games teachers weren't as awful as some but they still gave all their attention to the girls who were good and nothing to the rest of us. I vividly remember tennis "rallies" where one of us would hit the ball, the other one couldn't return it, rinse and repeat and an utter waste of time.

All of these posts are heartbreaking really - so many of us experienced the same kind of shit 😢 It always makes me laugh when sports organisations commission research (usually carried out by sporty women) into how to encourage more women and girls into sports - like it's some big mystery 🤷‍♀️

Every minute of it.
Being picked last.
Being bullied in communal changing rooms.
Other girls refusing to throw the ball to me in stupid netball.

I used to skive it in the end, literally no point in it.

I argued with my kids schools that the PE department should be graded on the progress of the least able and non sporty kids. When they aren't allowed to rely on Max who plays at county level in rugby, Lara who plays netball to national level to boost the teams they might actually teach PE.

I was an academic swotty kid and totally disinterested in sport. I hated games like hockey and netball. I used to just run around a bit at the side and hope the sports teacher would not notice. One day when I was 14 the following conversation took place:

Teacher: your not interested in sport are you Friendly?

Me: No Miss, Im no good at it and I dont see the point

Teacher: You cant go through life just avoiding the things you dont like

Me: Look Miss, Im top of the class in 5 subjects and its those things I will be putting on my CV when I look for a job. Ill be going into the civil service or one of the professions. Im not aiming to be a sports teacher.

Teacher: Your a cheeky girl Friendly

Me: No Miss, you asked me a question and I answered you.

No wonder I was never chosen as a prefect.

Being last to be picked because I wore glasses and was clever even though I was quite good at sport.

Being forced to dive into the swimming pool although I didn't know how to, doing the most awful belly flop and everybody laughing at me. 1976 and I've never attempted to dive since.

At least we didn't have to have showers after PE.

Doing PE at infant school in underwear and being really embarrassed that one time I forgot my vest, so I was just in my knickers. That must have been at least 35 years ago and I can still remember it. Why on earth did we ever think kids doing PE in just underwear was a good idea?????

Embarrassment In the changing room, not having underwear, we were poor & i never had any underwear until i was 15 years old.

So many of these comments ring true for me. I took me until my late 20's to realise that it was PE I hated, not actual exercise!

Everything about it. Everything everyone else has already mentioned.

I'll also add:

Hockey and netball in the snow ❄️ ❄️ wearing just shorts and t-shirts. Same for cross country too. No tracksuits allowed. Teachers would be standing there wearing their own tracksuits and a large coat each.

Communal showers where you were made to strip naked in front of all of your year group were horrific, as was being given just a couple of minutes to complete shower and getting changed before the next lesson bell. You were chucked out of the changing room in just your underwear if you hadn't managed it in time.

Being forced to do team sports was awful. Apparently though, there is/was no other type of sport or exercise! 🤔😠

The period register was really creepy and would probably be termed abuse now. They would literally look into your pants if you claimed to be having a period to check whether you were wearing a sanitary towel and bleeding onto it. Horrendous.

PE at school was for me a ritual of humiliation and school sanctioned bullying. It was all kinds of shit and not remotely enjoyable.

I was so glad that I managed to drop PE when I did my options for O Level (showing my pre-GCSE age there). I would have bunked off if I had had to continue it.

We were actually supposed to continue doing some form of PE each week even if not for exams. It never appeared on my timetable though and I wasn't going to say anything or complain about that. 😃🤣 They did suddenly notice the error two years later just as we were about to go on study leave but it was far too late by then. I never did PE again and didn't miss it at all.

Hated it all. Not very sporty so last to be picked. Communal showers under watch of teacher, period checks, gym knickers ‘ tiny gym skirts. Primary school PE in knickers & vests. Awful

I am sure this plays a part in the levels of obesity we have in the UK, even though there are other contributors.

Oh and other girls realising you didn't have bra etc, and the humiliation when they found out that your school uniform had actually belonged to one of them (like a previous poster my family had no money for new and it all came from jumble sales etc)

Yes. This.

Every time we were to play netball or hockey the two best (and teacher's favourite) girls of the year were set the task of being team captains and selecting their teams from the rest of us. That was humiliation on steroids. Along with one other girl, I was always last to be picked. We both wore glasses but always had to remove them for PE so no chance of seeing or catching the ball. The captain's would then publicly and loudly argue between themselves about which of us was better or worse and who should have who. Every time.

Who the fuck ever thought that was a suitable teaching method when training PE teachers?? Seriously.

Having to strip off after cross country, for a shower, as the only fully developed 11 year old in my class.
Thank goodness they don't force young kids to do this anymore.

My PE teacher slapped me because I could swim better than everyone else in my class.

Having to take off ur clothes, walk through showers snd then get dressed again. Never really wanted to put dirty knickers back on, but didn't want to put new ones on and carry the dirty ones in school bag🙄