P.E.
 

I don't know about you, but I HATED P.E. almost universally. In addition, when I think about it now, I get really angry at the way physical education was presented and taught. Mostly group calisthenics, running, and team sports.

YUK!

Yeah, so, I was never athletic. I could never pass even the most rudimentary "president's physical fitness" tests. I was always picked last, and hated every.fucking.second of any team sport. I could not run. I have never been able to run any length.

Now here's the thing: I love to exercise. But I never knew it until I was around 40 or so. If only they had let me do my thing: Do calisthenics at my own pace, instead of other people's. Walk, instead of run. Work out by myself, under supervision. I like to swim, and dance, and those were offered, but only at limited times. And no goddamn field hockey.

grrrrrr.

I hear ya. Yet somehow we've managed to churn out three swimmer/soccer types and two figure skaters. and we only have 3 sprogs. (Beest wasn't exactly the jock type, either)
They'd do more if there was time -dance, karate....
Living life vicariously through one's kids? :lol:

Mind, they haven't reached high school yet......

i loved gym class. especially volley ball season. and archery was the bomb.

I was a jock, never hated PE, was faster than most of the boys, could climb the rope and the peg board etc... Was always involved in at least 1 team sport until HS when I started working instead. Didn't get much exercise thru my 20's, and until we moved near a state park and the kids and I started taking long walks several times a week. I guess kayaking counts too...
We joined the gym 9 mos ago and I freakin love it. I may eventually do some group activities, but for now am content to just play on all the machines and splash in the pool.

I'm just a slug, I guess then.

I thought you just said you were exercising and enjoying it?

oh sure, but that doesn't translate into being a jock. No team sports! And slow and gentle is the norm. still can't run, either.

I don't run either, running hurts. I walk up hill or up stairs.

no, can't do up, either. flat is my speed. I will not die falling off a mountain.

well, don't die choking on a ham sandwich, either. start where you are. if a flight of stairs takes the wind out of you, then do it twice. and again tomorrow. etcetera. it does get easier. even if you still eat wrong, regular exercise makes such a huge difference.

the point is not that I exercise, the point is I would have exercised more my whole life if I hadn't had it ruined for me early on with ham-handed (HA!) instruction.

well . . . a little more. I was always the kid who wanted to stay inside and read while everyone else was outside riding bikes or something. Drove my family crazy.

I still am that kid, but at least I have found active things I like now, even if it did take me 40 years.

plus, treadmills and the like have book rests ;)

I'm with you, Cloud. I like being active, but in a strength-oriented way, not in an aerobic way. My high school was really good about offering a wide variety of P.E. classes, but unfortunately, one of the state requirements at the time was that every P.E. class, no matter the subject, had to have at least one six weeks of running. Just running.

Tennis, weight lifting, gymnastics... all of them were great--except for the stupid running segment. The irony is I got no meaningful exercise during those parts of the year because I just walked, no matter how much I got yelled at. I even played lacrosse for a short time on a completely extracurricular basis--but I was the goalie. No running. :)

good lord, when I saw the title of this thread I thought someone had a pulmonary embolism! what a relief!

LOL! my gym is my living room, and a treadmill would take up my entire living room. would be nice tho. I prefer working out at home, alone. Par for the course. I have my weights, my big and little balls (which I luuuuuve), my mini tramp, and my music. 'sall I need.

Why didn't my fancy school have personal trainers?

. . . oh yeah. That was before personal trainers! :)

Sounds more like you had impersonal trainers.

As far as I can remember school PE wasn't meant to be like a high end gym with personal trainers developing specific plans for each individual. It is a cookie cutter approach to getting at least some exercise squeezed into our sedentary lifestyles as children so that maybe we'll see the value and continue through life.

I wasn't a jock, but I loved the team sports.

yeah, that cookie cutter approach nearly turned me off exercise for life.

Team sports to me means: standing in the outfield in the hot sun. Tennis: running around in the hot sun (did I mention I hate being out in the sun?). Field hockey: incomprehensible tedium. Basketball: running.

Guess I'm just not a cookie cutter person.

the point of the class was to force people like yourself to experience those things because they know you wouldn't do it on your own. chances are the people that excelled and enjoyed those activities also did them in their free time so for them it was just icing on the cake. for the others that prefer to be inside and not hot, or sweating, or moving quickly, or whatever it is an attempt to get them moving and try to introduce a couple of healthy ideas into their lives.

that sure wasn't the point of my p.e. class. Even if it was, it backfired.

and I'm sure that was fine for most people. I'm just not most people, and it really damaged me rather than benefitted me.

I loved P.E. in school, even in spite of our evil, scary teacher in jr. high. The only sport I didn't like then was gymnastics. We had to spend an inordinate amount of time perfecting routines on the balance beam and uneven bars, and kids were always falling off of them. Worse, one girl went and broke her ankle when she fell off the balance beam.

In high school, I took P.E. as my electives--one year, I had it for three classes. No gymnastics thank god, but lots of tennis, basketball, aerobics, and weightlifting. Plenty of track running too, which I'm not the biggest fan of either...but at least it wasn't freaking gymnastics.

Now...I walk quite a bit, but I haven't played a sport (except for maybe golf) or gone to a health club in a really long time. I kind of hate health clubs, actually. To me, part of the fun of physical activity is a group social-interactive aspect, which is what P.E. had, and health clubs don't seem to.

I took Golf as an athletic credit in high school.

PE was ok. I lettered in swimming and water polo in high school. Those sports let me use my physical attributes to good advantage, namely height/length/reach and, shall we say, buoyancy. I *hated* running, and still do. I appreciate the cardiopulmonary benefits, but it sucks for me. Pounding and wheezing and burning up. I was much much happier working just as hard in the pool.

I college there were fun sports (intramurals) but not much organized PE. I did continue my water based activites in college. I earned my WSI (water safety instructor certification) which let me teach swimming, and coach competitive swimming. I parleyed that into a lifeguard gig and that into the pool manager position. Getting paid to tan is really really the way to go in college in Southern California.

I've always been built for comfort, not for speed. I'm still not that fast, but my endurance has continued to increase with age. I can hike forever. The hills are ok, as long as there's no race to the top or the bottom, and I can shoulder a heavy pack. I just don't like to be in a hurry.

until you have to deal with skin cancer later in life, which is exactly what my boss is doing now, due to his lifeguarding. Hope that doesn't happen to you! Sunscreen!

I am with you in this thread, Cloud. I HATED p.e. class. Hated it with every cell in my body. I hated being the last to be picked, being pitted against stronger, faster people for the sake of 'getting to the end of the gym first', hated playing a dumb game I didn't care about. Hated it. I liked that in high school I got to choose to some degree. I chose weight lifting, which I liked. No competition for competition's sake. No dumb games that I didn't care about.

glad I'm not alone, here. I do see your point, too, Lookout. Sort of. And, after all, schools are required to provide physical education, and they may be operating under all sorts of constraints. And I went to a very small school.

But I do wish there had been a bit more emphasis on encouraging young people to find out what type of physical activity they enjoy, rather than forcing them to endure . . . anything. I'm just contrary--don't like to be made to do stuff.

I had a love hate relationship with PE. In elementary school, I was fairly good at most sports, so I enjoyed playing whatever game we were required to play that day.

As I got older, I turned into more and more of a whimp. I didn't like gymnastics because I have this fear of being upside down and falling. I loathed volleyball because I thought (and still think) it was lame.

I did like pickle ball, floor hockey and playing with parachutes. I also liked square dancing because it was so hokie.

In high school, I moved to Illinois where state law requires PE every day. I took "Total Body Fitness" which was a girls class where we did aerobics, weight lifting, and unfortunately ran a lot outside, up to 3 miles sometimes. Me and running do not get along. As I got older, I began to loathe gym because it was 50 minutes that I would have rather focused on academics than doing step aerobics.

Now that I'm older, I generally like to work out. I prefer fitness classes over just going on a treadmill, but will do what I can to preserve the ol' bod.

Like shower, dress, and get to the next class in 4 minutes... then sit quietly, still damp and sweating, for the next period.

Or maybe an hour in liquid chlorine for the first period Friday morning, then spend the rest of the day smelling the chlorine you couldn't possibly get off and still get to your next class on time.

No, I wouldn't do it on my own.

Showering nekkid with other dudes!

I wouldn't do it on my own

Probably one of those middle of the road peoples. I liked high school track and field,tennis,horseback riding at home. Hated grade school p.e. and the fact girls got the huge softball I couldn't throw and the boys got the nice sleek small fast hardball.

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good luck!:p

P.E was just another word for fucking Torture as far as I was concerned. Hated it. Who in their right mind gives a bunch of vicious teenaged girls wooden sticks and says have at it on the hockey field?

Nope, hated it. Hated it. Hated the changing rooms, hated pratting about in stupid little gym skirts (or worse P.E knickers for some exercises) showing my legs (made worse by fact I had very bad eczema: when you have bad eczema as a kid you really want to reduce the amount of skin that's visible!). hated the smell of sweat and feet in the P.E hall when doing floor exercises. hated running and jumping and having to 'perform' in front of a bunch of laughing bitches. hated the whole 'team choosing' exercise that always left one or two kids unchosen and assigned to a team who were grudging at best in their acceptance of them. hated the teachers who thought everyone should be as enthusiastic as them about running about in the freezing cold in little skirts and t-shirts.

Have I adequately conveyed how much I hated P.E and Games?

Occassionally we got to do something fun, like trampolining, javelin or shotputt. But I'd say out of my entire schoollife I probably enjoyed maybe five or six sessions in total.

we got to choose what we wanted to do from a selection that changed every 8 weeks. Loved it. Typical choices:

Tennis
Racqetball
Wresting
Gymnastics (hurt like hell)
Aerobics (harder than it looks)
Square dancing (was so stupidly ridiculous that it resulted in a great time just laughing at eachother)
Climbing
Circuit training
Running
Weights
Football
Soccer
Baseball
Basketball
Volleyball
Swimming
Pickleball
Dodgeball

No I didn't enjoy having 5 minutes to shower and dress, but so what? With most of the sports you didn't sweat unless you wanted to so showers were optional. I had fun.

I'm with you Flint, I was (still am) a klutz and I took golf, archery, badminton and every other fringe class for PE in high school

Oh we got to choose from a list of options every so many weeks.....but unfortunately they all involved the same kids :P also it was skewed so that you eventually ended up doing everything at least once.

I took "fringe" P.E. when I could, but I went to a very small school and options were limited. Mostly modern dance, which I liked. I also took fencing a couple of times. Was lousy at it, really.

No choices for us.

(Field) Hockey, Cross country and gymnastics in the winter; tennis, cross country and athletics in the summer.