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Original poster

Did you enjoy PE at school?

145 replies

BeRubyReader · 02/04/2025 16:09

No

OP posts:
verycloakanddaggers · 02/04/2025 17:19

No. School PE was no fun and remains pretty off-putting.

The whole approach needs an overhaul.

BobbyBiscuits · 02/04/2025 17:21

No way. It was shite. There was one class where they'd get out a big trampoline, and only one person could go on it at a time. So you only actually had to do exercise for about two minutes of the class. So that was OK.
The worst was long distance running. They made me do that in year 7 and I thought I was going to die!

Mielikki · 02/04/2025 17:22

Only for the couple of weeks in summer when we got to do athletics. I have no interest in team sports (except relay) - loved track and cross country but most British schools don’t really care about individual sports, it’s all about the team sports.

WonderingWanda · 02/04/2025 17:24

Hated it. Low income family so didn't do any sports outside school. Lacked coordination so always put in bottom set. The kit and changing rooms where humiliating.....white nylon hot pants for teenage girls who were just starting their periods, communal changing rooms with a compulsory cold shower - well not even a shower, more run through it and not allowed to use soap so totally pointless. Always put in bottom set. As I was tall was always put as goal keeper n netball which was often quite dull, always made to do the longest runs on sports day due to long legs (no actual running ability). No one ever suggested a sports bra either.

nonmerci99 · 02/04/2025 17:25

Hated it. Felt it was torture. Love fitness as an adult!

Travelodge · 02/04/2025 17:26

Hated it. The PE teachers were only really interested in the ones who were good at it, which I wasn’t. I have awful memories of standing in a freezing hockey field in a skimpy little skirt, frequently getting my shins bashed with hockey sticks by nasty rough girls. Netball was a bit better, but still not enjoyable because I didn’t get the ball very often. Gym was horrible because I was useless at it - but not as useless as a very fat little girl in my class when I was about seven. I remember the teacher smacking her because she was so bad at it. Disgusting. Joanna Grogan, I’ve never forgotten you and hope you went on to have a happy life!

purplecorkheart · 02/04/2025 17:26

No, I have no coordination when it came to sports and am not fast. The teachers were awful to people like me. Gave it up as soon as I could. I am about 20 years past my last year of PE classes. They were held first thing on a Wednesday morning and still often get a pang of dread on a Wednesday morning.

dizzydizzydizzy · 02/04/2025 17:26

No! My school PE teachers were only interested in team sports because they were the only things that the school competed in.

I am actually a natural athlete but due to various issues associated with autism, I'm very bad at team games.

I can always remember once doing cross country. I did it very quickly- far quicker than everyone else. You would have thought they would have encouraged me to join a running club. Of course not

As an adult, I found the sports I was good at and enjoyed and competed. Shame it didn't happen in my youth because I might have been really good.

ChaToilLeam · 02/04/2025 17:27

Hated it, hated it, hated it. I still hate team games and won’t watch sport, I was very profoundly put off exercise by the whole miserable experience. I was a short, fat, bespectacled kid with hypermobility and I was also an early developer, which made PE an absolute nightmare. At the age of 14 I just point blank refused to do it any more.

These days I like to walk, weight train and do yoga. So I found something I liked in the end, but I’m very much a lone wolf when it comes to exercise. Group classes are still an absolute no-go.

Mielikki · 02/04/2025 17:28

Goldbar · 02/04/2025 16:55

I'm pretty sure that the number of teenagers school PE puts off of exercises is greater than the number it encourages. Which is a real shame.

They should replace it with a couple of afternoons off a week and vouchers to access sports facilities and clubs in the local area imo. A lot of schools don't have sufficiently good facilities for PE to serve any useful purpose.

Not sure how this would work as youth coaches tend to be volunteers - all the sports clubs I know of have after work/school and weekend sessions because that’s the only time you are going to have coaches available - also they frequently use school facilities.

Interesting talking to work colleagues from countries where school sports simply isn’t a thing - they have a bit of PE at school but if you want to do any sort of organised sport it’s always done by clubs rather than schools.

EveryKneeShallBow · 02/04/2025 17:30

Absolutely hated it. Communal showers and teachers took your towel off you and made you walk through and collect it. I got so many detentions for refusing to shower. The mean girls would stand waiting for you to come back from the sports field and shout bullying comments about how shit you were.

BumbleBeegu · 02/04/2025 17:31

No I hated it!! But my PE days were in the late 60s and 70s…it was brutal!

Meadowfinch · 02/04/2025 17:32

No, I hated every miserable humiliating second of it.

I binned my trainers on the last day of term when I was18 and didn't do anything until I was 48, by which time I was feeling a bit stodgy and took up solitary running.

I'm in my 60s now and still running peacefully on my own 😁

Travelodge · 02/04/2025 17:34

ginasevern · 02/04/2025 17:09

I bloody hated every minute of it. I've got no natural talent whatsoever for launching myself over 6ft high equipment, shimmying up ropes like a monkey or catching a ball. I found it utterly degrading. I guess you feel more "exposed" than in any other subject if you're not good at it because, for a start, you're semi naked (we used to wear navy blue knickers). You're also highly likely to get seriously whacked in the face or shin, which is even more excrutiating on a freezing cold playing field. There is no other subject where the potential for humiliation is so profound and the license to bully so easily acquired.

I agree. And school Sports Days where every child has to compete in something, in the name of inclusion, are still a nightmare for some children. We don’t make children who are poor readers read aloud in front of crowds of other children and parents!

stayathomer · 02/04/2025 17:35

Weirdly yes, I hated the picking of teams part- I was slow and unpopular, but I tried my best and felt pumped when things went well and afterwards. Our pe teacher in general was known as being a bit cranky and mean (sarcastic as hell!) but I think she appreciated that I tried and laid off me too much

yomellamoHelly · 02/04/2025 17:39

Hated it. Was bad at it. Always team-based. And always got picked last for the teams as I was so bad at it.
Late teens / early 20s I discovered aerobics, yoga etc (basically a whole heap of stuff I could do by myself). Have done regular exercise ever since.

Oldandcobwebby · 02/04/2025 17:46

Absolutely hated it and the bastards who taught it. I used to dread the lessons and feel physically sick when the bell went. It was all about ritual humiliation of anyone who wasn't good at it. We had a PE teacher who would hang around the boys' showers with an obvious semi, too. Totally vile.

For the boys, they had an obsession with rugby, which must be the world's most tedious "sport". Who the hell wants to run around in the cold and wet getting muddy? If you got the ball, then you just got piled upon and hurt. F*cking stupid game.

Suffice to say, it put me off sports and exercise for life.

Lengokengo · 02/04/2025 17:47

I liked it, but I was always very sporty anyway. We moved house a lot, so I was constantly a new girl at school. Sports was the one thing that I could immediately get into a school club or system. I needed that sense of belonging. Also I really remember a boy in my class who wasn’t academic at all but was great at sport, and this helped his confidence and his standing in school.

A variety of subjects help different pupils in different ways. Sports and PE helped me.

Bookaholic73 · 02/04/2025 17:48

I hated it with a passion. It’s ironic, because these days I go to the gym 5-6 days a week and love exercise 😂

Judellie · 02/04/2025 17:48

No. I did discover I was good at hurdles but we only ever did them ONCE. Loved to climb tho, pity I didn't discover Go Ape til I was in my fifties!

GiddyUpJingleHorse · 02/04/2025 17:49

I loved it. Basketball, netball, hockey, tennis, athletics- all of it. I still love sports today and coach RugbyTots

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 02/04/2025 17:53

iggleoggle · 02/04/2025 16:18

Hated it. Massively put me off exercise. All the faff around changing I and out and awful communal showers that we were checked in and out of. Then out into the cold with skimpy clothes but no real education as to why PE was a good thing. And teachers who were frankly frequently horrible.

I wish it had been presented as exercise ought to be: moving your body and getting your heart going is great for you, and we’re going to introduce you to a range of stuff, and it’s ok to hate some of it but try and find something you can build into your lifestyles

I mostly hated it too. I honestly don't think that any amount of telling me why it's a good thing would have made me hate it any less though! Netball and rounders were ok and I actively liked badminton. Loathed hockey, was shit at tennis and the very worst was cross-country.

Wolfpa · 02/04/2025 17:54

I loved it, I got to try out something new every 3 months. I would never have been able to do some of the activities like trampolining or judo without it.

AgeingDoc · 02/04/2025 17:55

Goldbar · 02/04/2025 16:55

I'm pretty sure that the number of teenagers school PE puts off of exercises is greater than the number it encourages. Which is a real shame.

They should replace it with a couple of afternoons off a week and vouchers to access sports facilities and clubs in the local area imo. A lot of schools don't have sufficiently good facilities for PE to serve any useful purpose.

Nice idea, but I think most schools have a couple of hours a week to fit PE in, not a couple of afternoons. It probably goes down to an hour in many schools once you get into KS4 except for pupils taking PE GCSE. That wouldn't really allow for travel to anywhere else and it would be a nightmare from a Safeguarding perspective. How would all these kids get to and from these alternative facilities and who would be responsible for them whilst they're off site? Plus the school would surely have to at least check the qualifications and DBS status of all the instructors. Sounds like a good idea in theory but I can't see it working in practice. Maybe for a small group of A level PE students or something, but they probably the ones who'd least need it.

Darkclothes · 02/04/2025 17:56

My mum is in her 70's- she hated PE too.

1 entire school term she learnt archery. All about the types of bows, strings, feathers, distance, targets etc etc in great detail. At the end of the term- they never, ever, got to actually fire an arrow! It was ALL theory! 😕