Did you enjoy PE at school?

[BeRubyReader]

No

Loved it, excellent teachers. Seasonal variety and kind classmates. Graduated in the early 70’s if that matters.

Loved it, especially track.

I could pick out three or four days where p.e. was tolerable.

Absolutely hated it. I was slow, the sporty kids used to hate it if I was put on their team so I just purposely didn’t participate. I’d literally watch the ball roll past me and someone else would have to chase it. Now I’m averse to going to the gym because I have an irrational fear of people seeing me exercise and I’m fat. It’s something I need to deal with myself, I know, but I really think PE in school traumatised me! My teachers were horrible too and used to be all pally (and bitchy) alongside the sporty girls.

Nope, the whole thing was grim. We weren't taught anything so you were being set up to fail when you inevitably did something wrong. Just a breeding ground for bullying by teachers and pupils if you weren't sporty. And communal showers watched by some old pervy teacher was awful.

It was a revelation when I took up sports in my 20s - golf lessons, squash lessons, swimming lessons and proper training/lessons when I joined a gym. I discovered I wasn't crap at sporty things after all, when I got proper teaching and a supportive and nurturing environment rather than being bullied and ridiculed!

Loved netball in primary, then hockey in secondary. Though could get cold in the winter in as just short front pleated skirts were allowed. The showers, which everyone else on here seemed to dislike, were welcome for thawing us out ! Also bucking the trend, I liked the various PE staff - they were fun and energetic.

My games mistress lined us all up in the changing room and measured our vital statistics with a tape measure. We were congratulated or criticised depending how close to 36-24-36 we were. Grim.

Hated it. Skived off where possible.

I sometimes wonder if any of the old school PE teachers of the 60s, 70s and 80s (and some later ones too) ever see threads such as this one on this or any other site?

Do they then realise just how much damage their shitty "teaching methods" actually did, and do they even care?

No. I didn't hate it to start with but rapidly went off it as the quality of teaching was poor and if you weren't naturally sporty and into team games you were left floundering. I did enjoy the country dancing we did with the older PE teacher.

I found my sporting interests outside of school - eg badminton, skating, walking. And much later on I even trained as a T'ai Chi instructor.

Sadly I think school PE can put you off for life which is such a shame, not just from the health aspect but also the sheer enjoyment of exercise.

If I hadn't managed to drop PE once I had made my O Level choices (demonstrating my age there) then I planned to start bunking off from it.

I did manage to drop it though, thankfully. It was supposed to remain on the timetable, but it didn't appear on mine and I didn't bother saying anything. The school only realised that mistake just as we were about to go on exam study leave for O Levels. Cue a lot of surprise from them, but I couldn't have given a shit.

I did a fair bit of skiving and getting excusing letters from my parents. But in the fourth year, we started going to a swimming pool at another school, should have been for just a half term on rotation, but I asked the games teacher (the one and only good one in the school who was our teacher in 4th year) if I could go swimming every half term and she agreed! What a result! I could just go and do my own thing, no "team" games pressure and ridicule.

That's how it should be - pupils should be free to choose what they do, not have things forced on them.

The stupid thing was that the school had a huge store room of all kinds of equipment, but it was only ever used for the school teams, i.e. archery, badminton, tennis, fencing, etc.,- no one else ever got a sniff of it. Likewise with the school gym - I think in the five years I was there, I only ever saw it set up as a gym once - the rest of the time, all the equipment was folded back to the walls and all the horses/benches etc were piled at one end - all so the gym hall itself was clear and empty for us to play volleyball which was the lazy default for the games/PE teachers.

Luckily for me, I did stage lighting, so for several weeks per year, I had a genuine/valid excuse to be excused from lessons so I could go into the hall to set up the spot lights, lighting control board, etc., and funnily enough, I always chose the games/PE lessons to be the times I "had to" go into the hall to do it! Funny that!

I’m O level old as well 😂

No. Hated every second of it. Took an extra O level to get out of it. Delivered by witches who, I can see looking back, were rubbish teachers who thought shouting Kick kick kick was the way to teach a (dyspraxic, blind as a bat, terminally uninterested and bullied by bastards/bitches who were sporty) kid how to swim.

If it had had a better curriculum that incorporated diet, education, understanding of anatomy and biomechanics, and a chance to try things that weren't just hockey, netball, swimming and cross country running I might not have hated it, or the so called teachers, quite as much.

But that would have required the instructors to actually have some education and actual teaching ability.

Bitter? Oh yes. In later years luckily I found Yoga and Pilates and styles of dance where what mattered was enjoying it, not how dexterous you were.

I hope all those horrible teachers and their horrible devoted hangers on get their comeuppance later in life or at least come to understand that not everyone finds physical movement easy.

God no I hated PE. I couldn't run, jump, throw or catch. Useless at team sports too. Dreaded the summer term when "athletics" came in.

The only sports I was good at were tennis and badminton but didn't discover this until years later. Also, strangely excelled at martial arts in my 20s.

I'm freakishly strong (like Monica) 😂

Yes - played netball, hockey and tennis at school, and then have played tennis and squash as an adult and now added golf. Can’t imagine a life without playing sport as I’ve made so many friends through it.

I loathed it. It caused me so much anxiety. I was constantly forging notes from my mum to say I couldn't do it. I can still remember thar feel8ng of anxiety on a day I had PE. It was humiliating.

I loved it in primary and secondary.

But I HATED the communal non negotiable showers at secondary school. They were awful.

I liked the sport but hated doing pe with the other morons in my class. My 16 year old feels the same and she's doing gcse! She also planning to do a level, she loves sport but hates being forced to do core pe with the plastics!

Sometimes. Bloody hated hockey though which is what most of our PE seemed to be. Or maybe that’s just how I remember it 😂.