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 😢

800m is not a sprint though, and requires much less power from your body

🍿

I wonder how many of those the OP observed live less than a mile from school and come by car, the parent then going back home in the morning? Easily could get up ten minutes earlier and walk.

Our school brought back the daily mile! All schools should do it.

@LondonQueen how long was it taking the children?

Surely anyone able bodied can run 200m? Nothing has been said about speed. It’s the barest of bare minimums and below the level that even very unfit people would be suggested to start at? I say this as someone who has been very unfit and very unwell and trained back to reasonable fitness starting with extremely gentle training. It’s way below what couch to 5k would have you do on your very first outing and that’s been done by thousands of low fitness/returning from injury/overweight people with great success. I cannot believe there are able bodied people who cannot do 200m.

I was just at my dds sports day and I don't recognise this at all, I was actually shocked at how fast they all were. It ended 20 minutes before it was supposed to because they got through the races so quickly.

Dds school has the daily mile for all years, there's quite a large zone around the school where cars aren't allowed between certain times to discourage driving to school, PE is twice a week and there are free or very cheap sports clubs every day after school for all years.

Looks like I'm really lucky my kids attend this school going by what other posters are saying. I'll never moan about the place again.

There is a difference between not sporty and not being able to run 200m. Unless a child has an illness or disability they should be able to do it without walking.

You can be fit but not suited to running.

My DC are really active, good at cycling decent distances, strong swimmers for their age, will happily walk miles.

They are not good runners. Im not either. I worked to improve my running in my 20s and had to put in so much more effort than my friend to achieve similar results. Im just slower and despite having trained enough to run a half marathon i never get to the stage where it feels good. I have to make myself go for every run and i dread it.

Swimming however i love. I find it easy, i can keep going for miles and swim faster than lots of friends

Not everyone is suited to the same forms of exercise. Sports day is very geared towards runners

My DD’s school is all about having them participate in sport. She ended up in a&e more than once before she learned to say no to her teachers when they were pushing her too hard. She has severe asthma and medication can only do so much.

last year she ended up with a broken bone.

schools do a horrible job of adapting physical education to individual students. I’m so glad she has finally aged out of physical education requirements at school.

I don’t think having schools take an active role in physical fitness is a great idea because the risk of harm is so high. Time and time again the teachers showed us that they had no idea how to deal with a medically fragile, uncoordinated, child. Yet, we have been able privately to find her sport that she can do safely and that can keep her fit within her medical parameters. All the school did was make her afraid.

200m is not long

But bear in mind op lots of children struggle with running a distance because they don't understand the need to pace themselves. They set off at top speed then stop!

I'm not at all surprised. Our year one children struggled on a half mile walk to the local park and back!

Was it a hot day? Been pretty warm where I am - could that explain it maybe?
Otherwise it is pretty poor!

Both my dc are fit and get loads of exercise and time outside, but it’s because we live a lifestyle that most people do not. Our dc are always home with one or both of us every day after school, not in ASC, not having to be shut in bedrooms with a device while we both work. We have loads of outdoor space, big garden, fields to ride bikes in, trees to climb, we even have an indoor climbing wall. Most kids I know have a small garden enough for some pot plants and a paddling pool in summer and limited play spaces in walking distance. With parents working, they are limited to indoors or that tiny back garden, except on weekends.

Yes, as a child, I roamed around everywhere, ride my bike for miles with friends, but I definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable with my dc doing that now in a public space.

We have lots of wild spaces on our doorstep, but for most people, unless you get in the car and drive, there aren’t hills to climb or rivers to swim in, sports clubs and leisure centres cost money. Obviously you can just walk around town or whatever with your dc, or kick a ball around at the park, but it’s so much easier when you both aren’t working FT and you have the space for it and the money to make it enjoyable.

but they should be.
kids at primary age should regularly run that much (and it really isn't much at all) just in the playground during breaks.

DS has his sports day next week but last week in PE they had try-outs for running sprints and long distance and only those who met a certain time are able to participate in these events on sports day.

I know they are a 3-form entry and it would take forever if most wanted to do these events, but something felt a bit off to me. Like being discouraging to those who aren’t fast runners, so they aren’t allowed to even bother trying. This is primary school so I would understand if it was secondary level, but with this method of weeding out the slower kids it might be demoralising for some. DS is stuck doing events like egg & spoon and throw the Howler which are hardly sports.

That seems strange op .can only say about dd and all her friends..they can outrun us....they active children... Midlands area

Some people just aren't good at running.

As a teenager I was pretty fit and did various sports in my spare time. However, I could run for shit. Long distance running was an absolute nightmare for me.

It’s fucking child abuse if an able bodied child cannot run 200m.
Monkey see monkey do.
Between us DH and I cycle, run, lift weight and train in martial arts. Our kids are sporty. It’s not rocket science.

Surely it’s a combo of factors, more people driving to school as parents are time poor, less dc walking unattended due to safety worries, less playing out, fewer PE classes, families have smaller houses & gardens. My dc do lots of sports but I think they are less fit then I was at their age because overall they probably move less.

You can be fit but not suited to running.

Yes but OP said they couldnt even manage 200m. If that's the case it's more than not being suited to running.

it is a real worry - but 200m is a long sprint, and will require anaerobic respiration, which children may not be used to

Isn't that OP's point - that they aren't used to it?

Some people just aren't good at running.

As a teenager I was pretty fit and did various sports in my spare time. However, I could run for shit. Long distance running was an absolute nightmare for me.

This is true, I could do hours of dancing, 100m etc but hated long distance. I hate running/jogging as an adult & don’t really do it.

I don't know actually. We've just had sports day, ds in y5. He is not a runner at all! Really struggled with it all. But he kayaks twice weekly, we have ponies so occasionally rides, an allotment he is on all day Sunday, has been doing gardening club and hockey club after school.

Sports day is horrible for a lot of kids. I've always told my dcs that sports day is brilliant for some kids because it's their time to shine if they are sporty rather than academic. However, parents aren't invited to watch mental maths testa or reading etc. And some kids just aren't good at 'standard' sports. But good at other stuff.

I leathed PE as a kid. But ride 6 days a week, love running, fitness classes etc. School pe is pretty dire tbf.

My DDs school is very sporty and active, lots of encouragement from teachers, but that dosnt mean all the kids are healthy. There is a huge and obvious difference between the children whose families can afford clubs and do activities with their children and those whose parents don’t.

One girl in Yr6 plays sport for a national team in her field, she’s one of 2 children in the year that are sporty. She didn’t even put much effort in to win everything, it was clear she was holding back. The same with the sporty boy, family very athletic. What I noticed with his races were that every other children were so over weight compared to him. I hadn’t noticed it even though I see these kids most days, it was only obvious when I saw them lined up to race.

The other year groups were a mix but it was definitely noticeable in the older year groups who the fit children were, not as obvious in the younger years.

My older dd is sporty, my younger ones aren’t, but I can send them to gymnastics and swimming lessons, we go out as a family walking, they have a trampoline, scooters, go rollerblading. So although not sporty, they are active and it shows compared to some of their school friends.

I don’t recognise this at all - and we’re in a big inner city, 4 form entry school. I don’t see many obese kids at the gate, and they seem as lively and spry as any kids when I was growing up. (Except the boy who asked me for a cup of ketchup to drink at the school fete one year, who was a very notable exception).