High School P.E.
SierraFatToSkinny
Posts: 463 Member
This weekend I decided to (pre)start C25K. I've attempted running before and always was discouraged with how long I could last. I did some reading and decided that I should run slower. Which helps a lot.
I was alone on the trail and I was proud of how long I was able to run this time. And surprised!
I was thinking back a decade to when as a teen I would walk around the football field instead of run. How uncomfortable I was running with everyone. I was a curvy girl, busty and with a bottom and I just hated the idea of jiggling.
I wish I had been told to wear a sports bra, or had been taught to run slower. Or something.
Has anyone else thought back to their teen days in PE with regret?
I was alone on the trail and I was proud of how long I was able to run this time. And surprised!
I was thinking back a decade to when as a teen I would walk around the football field instead of run. How uncomfortable I was running with everyone. I was a curvy girl, busty and with a bottom and I just hated the idea of jiggling.
I wish I had been told to wear a sports bra, or had been taught to run slower. Or something.
Has anyone else thought back to their teen days in PE with regret?
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Replies
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I wish that there wasn't such an emphasis from the beginning on how fast someone can run. I also wish they had divided us up by ability. I was one of those that struggled with running (I still do) and it was incredibly discouraging to finish my first lap while the track stars and cross country runners finished their mile. I never got better at it either because there was no focus on improvement for the bottom of the class.7
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Kind of ... I was a really good volleyball player in junior high and high school. I was fairly thin then (5'9" and 135-140-ish lbs). But I quit before my senior year because a new coach came in and required the girls to be able to run a mile (which I couldn't) and to do 5 push-ups (which I couldn't). Rather than admit to the team why I quit - I knew I'd fail the tests - I said my mom made me get a PT job. Still makes me a little sad ...2
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I got a exception in middle school to take extra math classes instead of PE. My fitness declined and I never got it back on track.0
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Memories of being asked to sit out of a netball game in primary school as our opponents that week were younger and therefore shorter than me . I didnt stick it out long after that. With time I probably would have improved to be able to play with girls closer to my own age. Grading isnt suppose to be age based but in school it tends to work out that way, except for the kid who didnt get started as early as everyone else.
I'd given up by the time I got to highschool. Its true that theres little to no focus on the bottom half of the class. I do recall doing a ability test which was to identify what sort of sports you were suited to, this wasnt done till much later in high school. Done earlier it may have given some ideas about what I could have looked into doing. It did produce surprising results for some people who were thought to be excellent athletes but didnt perform well in some areas (cue the star hockey player crying over the fact she couldn't complete the sit up test while the non-athelete aka me could).0 -
I questioned what an A grade would be on the mile for a middle school kid. To get an A then need to run the mile in 6 minutes. Um, that's pretty fast. That's constantly at 10mph for the 6 minutes.
However unlike when I was in middle school, a lot of kids put a lack luster effort. To get an A in PE now, you basically just have to dress everyday and put in some sort of effort to whatever fitness program they are doing for that day.
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The PE experience put me off physical education.
I suppose it's like how assigned reading made some students dislike reading. Or having to color within the lines causes some kids to not want to draw.
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Yes. Totally. We had to run a mile with no preparation at all. It was brutal for me so I learned to be apathetic to deal with it. Now I am more active than ever at age 36. I wonder what kind of an athlete I could have been if I had been encouraged in school... and yeah, I wish I had been told about sports bras. That would have certainly helped my confidence level.3
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I was never a superstar athlete, but PE was always one of my favorite classes from elementary school onward. I had a lot of energy and PE gave me a chance to burn it off rather than sitting around in classrooms. In high school I played football, basketball and track, and when I went to college I always signed up for at least 1 or 2 PE classes a semester as a break from all the studying/class work. Some people totally hated high school - I loved it, and playing sports was the biggest reason.
A lot of schools are cutting PE and sports programs nowadays and I think it's absolutely criminal. Not only is it contributing to the obesity epidemic, it's also depriving kids of learning the fun of playing sports, the thrill of competition and the sportsmanship that should be taught as part of it. Often when I drive past our local high school, the most strenuous thing I see kids doing during PE is walking slowly around the track with their faces buried in their cell phones. Sad.3 -
I hated P.E. I got my first B in P.E. in 6th grade because I couldn't throw a football far enough. I was 5'11" tall by 7th grade and we all had to wear the same uniform and the shorts were super short on me. Combine that with my lack of knowledge of sports bras and I was so embarrassed before class started that I just didn't want to put forth much effort. All through junior high I got counted off for not doing things good enough. I couldn't run a mile without stopping, I was bad at softball, and they made us play dodge ball with the boys and all they wanted to do was throw the ball as hard as they could.
I surprised my teacher though because I was actually decent at volleyball and when we did gymnastics for a few weeks I was one of the best in my class, probably because I'd been taking ballet since I was 4. I actually briefly joined the volleyball team in high school but didn't make it through the first week of practice because of all the running. I was trying to keep up with all the girls who had been running for years and I just couldn't do it. I wish the coach had noticed me struggling and told me to slow down until I could build up to running faster.1 -
I was never a superstar athlete, but PE was always one of my favorite classes from elementary school onward. I had a lot of energy and PE gave me a chance to burn it off rather than sitting around in classrooms. In high school I played football, basketball and track, and when I went to college I always signed up for at least 1 or 2 PE classes a semester as a break from all the studying/class work. Some people totally hated high school - I loved it, and playing sports was the biggest reason.
A lot of schools are cutting PE and sports programs nowadays and I think it's absolutely criminal. Not only is it contributing to the obesity epidemic, it's also depriving kids of learning the fun of playing sports, the thrill of competition and the sportsmanship that should be taught as part of it. Often when I drive past our local high school, the most strenuous thing I see kids doing during PE is walking slowly around the track with their faces buried in their cell phones. Sad.
Minus the cell phone that was what my PE classes looked like. I hated it. It was such a waste of time. The most exciting thing we did was walk around the tennis and basketball courts instead of the track...
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I was overweight until I was a senior in high school, so I dreaded PE. I lost about 60 lbs and found out I really enjoyed working out, so I actually took an extra PE class my senior year. I ran "the mile" 3 times one day, and my teacher encouraged me to do a 5k race. I did one that summer, and then many many more over the next few years.
I also did 3 pull ups during our yearly fitness test, before this I could barely do the timed hang.
Another memory, we would go to the weight room maybe twice a year. Not enough to really accomplish anything, but I enjoyed this even when I was heavier. Probably never would have set foot in a weight room if it wasn't for PE class. I guess I would consider myself a powerlifter these days. I'm doing my 3rd competition in April.
I wish I'd gotten into fitness much sooner and realized it wasn't so bad, I probably would have enjoyed being on the cross country team, the team mates aspect would've been good for me. Now they have a program where they have lifting a few times a week for the kids who are in sports.2 -
I'm super uncoordinated so the sports we played in PE were not meant for me. I took a class in Grade 12 called Superfit because I didn't want to be without physical activity my senior year (PE was an elective by then) and we used the weight room but my teacher definitely encouraged the boys to lift more than the girls. We girls did ab exercises with the medicine ball and that was pretty much it. Poo.2
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I wish my P.E. lessons had been more focused on fitness and physical activity, and less on competitiveness.
I have terrible co-ordination, I'm clumsy and short sighted and as a shy teen I hated group activities so netball, hockey etc were my worst nightmare.
P.E. lessons basically taught me that I was a fat awkward lump and that sports are not for people like me, and I held on to that belief for years until for some reason I decided to start running and discovered that exercise can be fun.
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ugh, HS gyms was a joke- I am not athletic, I have no coordination, I admit it. The asshats in my school thought it would be funny to purposefully hit me in the face with the basket ball or volleyball or whatever. I told my gym teacher I would be score keeper and when she protested I asked her if she would be paying for my glasses when they broke because she couldn't keep her class under control. The other two teachers were nice, we did archery and fly fishing- not exactly good work outs!1
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i hated PE and refused to participate alot of the time, i hated that they would force you into playing sports, make me look like an idiot because i couldnt play worth a crap, i debated with my PE teacher and he let me run stairs instead, but i just walked them. I hate high school PE, i find it embarrassing for un-athletic kids1
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I hated running my entire life until, in my forties, I did C25K. Now I enjoy it. I often look back on my PE days. If someone had actually taught me to run, instead of just saying, "Get out there and run," my entire fitness journey could have been different. Also, if girls had been taught to lift weights (not just the guys on the football team), it would have made a huge difference in my life, as well.4
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I hated PE. Put me off sports until I was 45. I'm in better shape than I was when I was 12...1
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I absolutely hated gym class! My older sister was super athletic and everyone expected me to be just like her. I wasn't! I was short and fat and had no muscle strength. Then I had a growth spurt and ended up being 5'11" (much taller than my sister!) and thinned out but still seemed to have little to no muscle strength. Now in my 40's I finally realize that I was built with more slow-twitch muscle fibers than fast-twitch, which means that I am built for ENDURANCE rather than quick bursts of speed or strength. Even now in middle age I can outrun my athletic 20 year old son when it comes to distance! If I had only known this back then, I wouldn't have spent half my life feeling like such a weakling and hating exercise, but better late than never, because I love it now!1
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I was a thin, shy, bookish, tongue-tied, freckled, pale-skinned, red-headed, gangly (till age 16, ballet class and bosoms) girl, with no particular athletic talents or abilities, but I look back on every single one of my gym classes and teachers, from elementary school through sophomore year of high school, with joy, affection, and pleasure. And this was going to very big public schools. From the scooter races and parachute in elementary, to roller skating and volleyball and flag football in middle school, to softball, gymnastics, ping-pong, floor hockey, and racquetball in high school, we always had a blast, although at the time I may not have realized it. The older I get, the more I realized how blessed I have been by many of my teachers, including those forcing us to get our butts out there and try a run around the track.
"Adult PE" would be a great class concept for some gym to put together, complete with gym uniforms and knee-high socks.
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I loved PE...but I played a lot of sports.1
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I hated PE in school, I couldn't run fast I was uncoordinated, but I had stamina. I did run cross country one year for each school if only that teacher had continued to encourage me. After I left school I did no exercise apart from walk and as a non driver I walked my four kids everywhere. When I was 57 and my son announced his wedding date I very nervously set up an appointment with a trainer at a gym near where I work and 18 months later I am in the gym five days a week. I love it.0
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Like everything what matters most is the leader in charge. I didn't have the greatest time in gym. I was short and uncoordinated, but I wanted to be better because I had a coach who was passionate about fitness. He and his wife made it their goal to find a sport that each student could excel at. He was also my track coach and still holds all the records during his tenure. His methods were like boot camp - tear you down and build you back up.2
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What decided if I liked PE or not was if a few of my friends were in the class with me. I wasn't stellar at all, but I put in enough effort to get my grade. I even wore those freaking hockey skates when they forced us to, I held on to the wall the entire time, but I did it. PE never made me like working out/fitness. I found that years later when I found something that I actually liked doing.0
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I hated running my entire life until, in my forties, I did C25K. Now I enjoy it. I often look back on my PE days. If someone had actually taught me to run, instead of just saying, "Get out there and run," my entire fitness journey could have been different. Also, if girls had been taught to lift weights (not just the guys on the football team), it would have made a huge difference in my life, as well.
The only reason I even tried C25K at age 43 was because I had just lost over 80 pounds and wanted to see if just once in my life I could run an entire mile. Those PE fitness tests were still haunting me 20+ years later.
Turns out, I can run a mile. I can run 13.2 miles. I can run 20+miles a week... for FUN! I too, often wonder on those runs how things might have turned out differently if I had actually been taught to run. Or lift. Or play any of the team sports like basketball or volleyball that I had never played but it was assumed everyone knew the rules. Instead, I spent all that time miserably bumbling along hoping for it to be over and never feeling like I was remotely capable of anything athletic.2 -
I have no regrets quitting PE or school. The school board members kids and the teachers kids were always the "stars" even when they had no game. Everyone else was looked over and replaced by kids who's parents were either working for the school or parents who were rich enough to donate to the school. My sister was the BEST volley ball player in the school. She could win games single handedly. NEVER missed spiking it over the net and could aim that deadly thing anywhere. She usually aimed at the back line so the other schools team couldnt reciprocate. The coach told her she was definitely getting MVP that year. Surprise, she was looked over for a rich kid who 10 out of 10 score of spiking it into the bleachers. Another girl who came from a poor family was out best basketball player. The coach made sure Amy ALWAYS got the ball. She won many games. A benched member got MVP for basketball.
School is a joke. I do wish I had parents though that worried more about eating healthy.0 -
The irony of one scene from Mr. Holland's Opus struck me rather forcibly. The gym teacher has talented football player who needs to pass a class to stay on the team, and wants Mr. Holland to take him in hand despite his complete lack of musical talent. When Mr. Holland complains the kid is unteachable, the gym teach tells him, "Then you're a lousy teacher." So Mr. Holland rises to the challenge and successfully teaches the kid to play a bass drum.
What's ironic about this is that between two different high schools, both with multiple gym teachers on staff, I never once had one who was in the least bit interested in teaching students who had the slightest difficulty with their subject. They were happy to work with the physically talented. If you were a little bit slow physically, not so much.
I did much better in college and was a varsity athlete, a fencer with a winning record. So I'm reasonably sure it wasn't me.4 -
For the most part I hated gym class. I always danced (ballet, pointe, jazz, etc, etc) so that was always my 'sport', from 2nd grade on. I never got into the team sports, and I was very shy for most of school, so gym class was not a place where I thrived. One exception was one of my high school gym teachers, she was awesome! For one unit of gym class she had me teach my class ballet. Just a very supportive, motivating teacher!
And yeah, the running thing. I hated it. I thought I couldn't do it. The ONLY time we ever ran was when it was time for the annual physical fitness tests, and I sucked at it. It wasn't until many years later that I really gave actual running a chance and now I LOVE it. Have half marathon #s 2 and 3 coming up in May and June, and my first full marathon in November. But my experiences with running in gym class made me think it was something I'd never be able to do.1 -
I wish school hadn't made running look so hard. 1000m was such a big deal and you got points for your team just for finishing on Sports Day. Now I realise that I could easily have run 5k back then, and maybe I could have really enjoyed it like I do now.
Equally I agree that having lifted weights would have made all the other sports I did so much easier. Even after a few sessions that felt obvious to me. I really don't understand why PE hasn't changed to take advantage of people's love of running these days.0 -
Well, no I don't have strong regrets really. It would have been nice to have more solo activity options to explore.
They never suggested sports bras for the girls at that time.
High school PE was slightly better than previous grade levels in that we generally had some choice of activities at my school. I'm glad I tried tennis. I wish I had tried weights but no girls were.
I hated it when we were all forced to do dancing though even though I like dancing. It was square dancing and line dancing. I got sick of the 1 recording they had to play every day. They were trying I guess.
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Just thought I'd drop this history of sports bras here.
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/sports-bra-history1
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