Sports day shock

[Mrslarge24]

My children have recently had their sports days.
I have one very sporty child, and one that gets very anxious about anything sport-related and dreads sports day! Much like myself as a kid.
One sports day was for y3&y4, the other was for Y5 & y6.
I was amazed at the lack of general fitness in so many of the kids.
They had to do a "long-distance run" which was about 200m. A huge amount of them couldn't run it all and some didn't even make it half way before walking and panting.
My non-sporty one managed it fine, because although he doesn't enjoy much sport we do go for long walks, he plays in the garden alot and loves swimming with us so has a basic fitness level. Much like myself, I'm no fitness fanatic!
AIBU to think this is shocking to see children of this age not be able to run/jog 200m?!
i guess it's computers/iPads etc but at what point does a parent start to feel ashamed to have let their children get so unfit?!
Made me feel quite sad 😢

Why? How?

DH is a PE teacher and he sees his classes one hour per week. He can’t combat a poor lifestyle in that time.

It doesn’t shock me about fitness. I teach children who don’t wear the school uniform as it only goes up to size 18 and we have students larger.

Its obvious health is linked with wealth. DS is in wraparound from 7.30-5 4 x a week (and DD was until she went to high school). Both play sports in the evening (training) and weekends (training and fixtures) but we’re lucky that 1. we can afford that and 2. DH and I will divide the time up between us (I’m sitting by the side of a 3G pitch at moment!).

tbh, I don’t know what the solution is!

It doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

I'm a supply teacher in primary schools, and have been teaching for nearly 20 years. I've definitely noticed a decrease in fitness levels in kids over that time.

But the quality of teaching has also decreased I'd say.

A lot of schools now out-source their PE teaching to external companies, and it's completely luck of the draw who you get. But most seem to be young-ish men in their early to mid 20s. Some are really good, really inclusive, try to get everyone involved. But a lot are really poor, and many don't care a jot about those "not very sporty" kids one bit.

Yesterday, I supervised in a Year 5 diamond cricket game with one of these coaches. He started by putting 2 sporty boys at the front to pick the teams one at a time - a horribly outdated practice.
Then the sporty boys raced to get to the 4 cricket bats at the same time, leaving all the girls, and less keen boys to have to simply queue up and wait for one of them to get struck out. None of them did. 20 minutes in and it was the 4 original boys still batting. I had to step in and get them off the pitch to let other kids have a turn. They all marched off full of indignation about how dare I? They weren't out! etc etc. Clearly they are used to dominating.

They switched bowlers every 6 balls... 5 boys in a row took a turn before I had to call out, "Next bowler needs to be a girl!" At which point this "coach" pipes up, "Oh yes, next one is a girl everyone!"

And 3 other kids just opted out of the entire game completely! I attempted to cajole them into it, but no success. They spent the entire hour just sitting out on the grass chatting. The coach didn't speak to them a single time.

It was really sad to see this "lesson" to be honest, and I left the field feeling quite angry. I'm considering emailing the Head some feedback.

@zingally that's awful and sad, please do complain! My son is not actually very good at his sport, but he loves it and plays with a lot of enthusiasm and it's a huge part of his life. His coaches make him feel valued and a key player, I think for little kids that is a coaches job!

You're right. I would send in constructive feedback. As you say these coaches aren't really "teachers". It's possibly their first job and the pay is rubbish. I think it would be useful for the coach in question to understand how to make the lesson better. They won't know unless they're told.

Why do you take it that someone doesn't work just because they are available to walk their children to school for before 9.00 some mornings? Do you understand that people work all kinds of shift patterns? When my kids were primary age I worked full time I just didn't work the standard 9 to 5 Monday to Friday. Bit rude to suggest that someone doesn't work from one sentence on a thread.

That's what I was thinking. I was at school in the 70s and by no means sporty or fit, but I am fairly sure 400m was the one that me and those like me dreaded. 200m was ok.

They really don't. The only people that should be taking responsibility are the parents.

You just have to look at the threads that come up in here ever year when the schools do height and weight checks on children. You will get a poster coming on complaining that they have been told their child is overweight. Often they will post a picture of said child who is indeed very overweight sometimes obese. These threads end up full of people saying it's puppy fat, don't you listen to them hun, there's nothing wrong with them, they will grow out of it bla bla bla. These comments are not helpful in the slightest as the parent will just toddle off and continue to feed their kids crap and leave them sat on screens rather than bother to get them active and feed them a healthy diet.

You have to remember most children are driven from their doorstep to the school gate. They don't walk anywhere anymore.

And so many families live in flats and don’t have gardens, nor can they afford for their child to go swimming. Yes, they can all go on a family walk if time allows but for many families, it just doesn’t. I don’t think the parents of non sporty children should be judged. Also the little dig about Ipad/tablets did not go unnoticed OP

You mean blame other people? I really think lazy parents need to stop driving their little darlings from the doorstep to the school gate and let them bloody walk, as almost all will be more than capable of doing. Not all will live too far. Not all will need to cross dangerous roads. Not all will be too young. Many a perfectly capable of walking but just don't bother. The demographic is even worse with private schools, I mean if you can afford private education then your kids are less likely to be using public transport to get to school.

So none of the parents should be judged? Not even a single one who probably could be doing a heck of a lot more? Just none? Ever? Because it's never the parents fault? Ever? Come on. Almost all parents could find time and make more effort. They just don't. We didn't even have pushchairs or cars as kids. We walked because we had no choice and that's today's problem - too much choice. We are raising a generation of snowflakes who won't walk anywhere. Judge the hell out of a lot of them I say.

I'm not sure that running 200m really means much at all in terms of how fit (or unfit) someone is.

I have issues with my hips that means the impact of running is too painful for me, but I happily walk for 4-5 hours everyday at work (dog walker) with no problem. I also horse ride and can happily hack for hours. It's not my fitness that lets me down with running, it's my joint pain. So yes, I could run 200m without a problem but I would suffer for it pain-wise afterwards!

DH on the other hand could easily run 200m and is great on a bike, but he struggles with an all-day hike and would never be able to ride a horse. Different people just have different strengths in terms of their fitness and abilities.

@fieldsofbutterflies you'd expect primary age children to be able to run 200m though, unless they have an illness or disability.

There won't be as many children age 11 and under who have hip/ joint issues so it's not really a comparison.

UPF’s are made with addiction in mind. They contain ‘ingredients’ that are added in to ensure that consumers become hooked to them. It’s actually pretty terrifying when you look at the stuff added to the food we find every day on supermarket shelves and many of these products are considered healthy options by the average shopper. Add to this the fact that fresh food and veg take up a relatively small area in supermarkets and the vast majority of shelf space is given over to UPFs and it’s a literal recipe for disaster.

Medical professionals understand this and so increasingly recognise that it’s not the case that overweight adults and children are simply lazy or lacking in self control. Millions of people have fallen victim to the intended consequence of food manufacturers adding shed loads of sugar and chemicals to our food. It’s overly simplistic to say kids are unfit due to screens, neglectful parents and we need to go back to the good old days when they played outdoors and ran around all the time. Children are being served up harmful food everyday at home and school by unsuspecting parents and carers because the nature of food itself has changed and you can’t outrun that kind of diet.

Obesity levels in this country would be cut at a stroke if awful organisations like Nestle (who actually add sugar to products aimed at babies) were taken to task. Billions are spent on miracle fat busting drugs which simply act as sticking plasters and do not address this underlying problem. But these companies have politicians in their pockets so we will never see the changes we need.

I just don't think whether someone can run 200m (or not) is indicative of anything other than how good they are at running 200m.

There are lots of ways to be fit and active that don't involve being able to run. It's only one of hundreds of sports and activities that involve physical fitness.

We aren't talking about adults though. We are talking about young children. 200m is less than the distance from the cloakrooms to the grass pitch at our local primary school. Children out playing at break times are running that distance back and forward multiple times with their friends just in general play.

How do you account for countries like Japan where huge numbers of the population live in what are really quite small apartments without garden space but have one of the lowest obesity rates in the world. Let's get real here. People in this country want to shove the responsibility of parenting to schools, the NHS, scouts, guides you name it, anyone but themselves. We even have schools brushing their bloody teeth from age 3 un Scotland.
This is coupled with the fact that everyone jumps on shouting that we can't fat shame and must not talk about weight etc for fear of upsetting someone.

Er, how old are you? My parents, who were born just after WWII reached school age in the early 50s, and already by that time 20% of families owned a car. The majority of UK households have owned a car since the early 1970s.

As for prams, people have used those for even longer.

A large part of the reason why there is so little outdoor exercise among children is because adults around them insist on driving ever-huger cars for an ever rising number of journeys.

In my experience, the kind of people who are most prone to describing anyone younger than themselves as “snowflakes” tend to be the exact same people who explode with rage when governments and city authorities do ANYTHING, even the tiniest, timidest measures, to restrict car use and make streets safer.

You know, low traffic neighborhoods, tighter speed limits, restricting car use in town centers (or removing parking spaces there).

I see it all the time on my local FB group and similar social media, whenever local governments try to do this kind of thing. Cue screams of rage and burst blood vessels from all the exact same people who moan and groan about “young people” being pathetic snowflakes and all that…

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42182497

Yes, I know we are - but all these adults who struggle with running (but are good at other forms of exercise) were children once too.

Surely it stands to reason that if we accept some adults struggle with it, then some children will too?

I live in Japan. There is a better culture around food, including smaller portions and a lot less sweet drinks. People also walk and bike a lot more, especially in cities. Cities are denser, public transport is very good unless you are in the countryside, and there are a lot of restrictions on car ownership, usage and parking, resulting in safe back streets which have little traffic.

The UK could have the same, but it requires understanding and being patient about trade offs. See my previous post about people who snarl about “snowflakes” but have hysterics about the idea that they might not be able to drive their blinking car absolutely everywhere and have subsidized parking.

By the way, average floorspace in Japan is about the same as the UK these days.

My grandsons PE at school only on a Tuesday. Luckily they have swimming on Thursday, rugby practice on Friday, match on Sunday and cricket practice on a Monday. Add in family bike rides and paddle boarding/surfing. They're getting plenty of exercise.

I don't think it's the schools responsibility to keep your kids fit, or monitor their weight/diet. Even though they do try their best. It was healthy eating week two weeks ago here.

Exactly! I work 9.30 till 5 so walk my kid to school then go into work. My husband works 7-2 so walks to pick him up.

Absolutely ridiculous to automatically assume only people who don't work can walk to school.

Also, some of the pe stories don't surprise me at all. I'm 35 and pe was a waste of time at school for alot of kids. If you were not naturally sporty you were ignored at best and ridiculed (by the teachers!) at worst. Kids with asthma being screamed at for not running fast enough etc.

I'd say imagine getting a child with severe dyslexia to read in front of the whole class then shouting at them when they struggled, but that happened to my friend too. In year 5.

I hated school.

On the actual subject matter though... I agree kids probably don't get as much exercise as before. A mix of increased traffic, longer working hours for parents, difference in quality of after school clubs, affordability of activities. How much activity they get to do at school vs sitting and doing grammar etc in an over stuffed curriculum. And yes, lazy parenting in some cases too.

@fieldsofbutterflies no one is talking about people being good or not at running, they're talking about young children not being able to finish a 200m without walking or panting.

All primary school age children who don't have an illness or disability should be able to run 200m without stopping, whether that's super fast or slow.