High School P.E.

Lesley2603

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.

CSARdiver

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.

jdhcm2006

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.

JenHuedy

yayamom3 wrote: »

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.

Reaverie

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.

ccsernica

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.

KatieJane83

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.

Oishii

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.

Lounmoun

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.

Lounmoun

Just thought I'd drop this history of sports bras here.
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/sports-bra-history