Discussions
Your Horrors from Gym Class
Posted by ThriftShopRomantic • 10/07/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: childhood, gym class, pe, physical education, squaredancing
I don't think this topic has come up before, and thought it might be a fun discussion.
Most of us have at least something from school gym class we dreaded. So what was yours?
I wrote about mine today-- and it involved fiddles and do-si-does... 
If you'd care to share in MY funny past trauma, it's here:
cabbages-n-kings.blogspot.com/2008/10/freshman-gym-class-ho-down.html
Tell us what you had to endure in Phys Ed, or if you LOVED PE, I hope you'll tell us about that!
User Comments
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I hated PE. In 9th grade, it seemed we played dodge ball every day. We didn't use particularly soft balls either and people would throw them about 500 mph. No fun at all.-
Dodge, dip, dive, duck and dodge!
Yes, I remember those days well.
They used dodgeball, I think, as a way to get out any residual frustrations they might have had about you in a 100% school-condoned way.
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In P.E., they always seemed to think that we never ran out of stamina. After running plenty of times around all four basketball courts, I thought I was going to pass out ... and the guy would tell us to keep going. The sun didn't help, either.-
And was your PE teacher in shape? Because usually they're not.
In my elementary school our one PE teacher brought in a big La-z-boy recliner onto the court, to sit in while he watched us run.
The irony didn't escape us at the time. -
Yeah, he was. Former college basketball player, very tall and all. At least the other ones (one of which was in his late '60s, well-renowned and all) had enough sense to not push us too hard.
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So at least there was SOME mercy.
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Two words Jenn: Crab Soccer. -
How is crab soccer different from, er, soccer soccer? Crustaceans are involved?
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Gahh, I've been trying to blank that from my memory. I hated soccer, the fact that i was scuttling about on all fours didn't improve my opinion. -
THAT was crab soccer? Good gad, that's just CRUEL!
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And, of course, it was that you were sort of on your back. So you couldn't really tell who was kicking you.
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That story is hilarious....had to leave a comment. I never had those weird co-ed moments during high school because I went to an all girls school. Gym class was a combo free period filled with useless convo about clothes, hair, make-up etc and the girl jocks playing basketball.-
Faith- Thanks much for the comment-- you gave me a laugh because I hadn't known cooties had a time-limit on it. We just usually sprayed invisible disinfectant to combat it. Perhaps your area's cooties was a different strain.
I think I could have supported your kind of gym class. Co-ed gym, though, wasn't usually a problem until... well... the stuff in my post. -
@TSR I figure cooties only have a shelf life of about a day give or take an hr or two.
What I do remember about gym, you know when the teachers were actually engaging us girls in some type of physical activity besides yapping jawls was jumping the hurdles and in the Spring we did learn how to play tennis...which just made me think of a line from Clueless. -
Actually, that scene is sort of what it sounds like. Cher's gym class.
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Good post TSR.
We used to have to climb a giant rope that hung from the ceiling.
I remember having rope burn in very sensitive spots.-
Oh, I remember the boys having to do that. I always felt bad for them.
You could see the less athletic kids getting panicky and looking ill when this part of the class would come around. -
Gym shorts offered little or no protection from the rope fibers.
Was that rope made of real hemp? -
And I don't know about you guys, but gym shorts were the only things we were allowed to wear.
And it got PLENTY cold in fall running track outside.
Or as you say, sliding down barelegged on fibrous ropes!
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After a hand stand against the wall went horribly wrong I ended up with my back in right angles and a close encounter with auto-fellation.
Damn you Mr Thomson, I told you couldn't do hand stands-
Traumatized and injured right in your prime! The cad!
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I heard a couple of years later that that sadistic shite had to teach creative dance to first years, I wish i could have snuck in to watch him demonstrating how to be a tree blowing in the wind.
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Ha... The image is terrific.
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I always dreaded those stupid checks for scoliosis where everyone had to stand around topless in the gym.
My other story is just too traumatic to post in this discussion thread. lol-
?!? Did that really happen? what the hell is scoliosis
edit-were there trained health care professional there or just a perved up gym teacher -
Are you serious.....why did everyone have to go topless.....I remember getting this done by the school nurse and I'm almost positive I had on clothes.
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We were allowed to keep our clothes on, but the gym teacher was involved. It was never anything we looked forward to, though.
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'Kay- I'm off to commute home, but I'll check in should other folks feel like sharing.
I always get a kick out of these discussions-- you have some great stories. -
I hated P.E and I confess I used to get really bad marks....so one year I hid in the toilets for every lesson and read.
I got the best report that I had ever had for the subject
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You were probably the first person I've heard of who was really productive while hiding out in the bathroom. That's hysterical! Good for you.
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I was always too bitchy to have an actual horror story. The first day of volleyball freshman year didn't go well for me. I didn't take well to being shouted at, so after about the first half an hour, I folded my arms and kept them folded...for nine weeks.-
Heh, I'm sure that made a lasting impression on your teacher. What kind of grade did you get out of it?
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Oddly enough, I got pretty much the same grades as when I made an effort. That either says something serious about my athletic prowess or about the priorities of my gym teachers.
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After the first year in high school I refused to do PE, I hated it with a passion.-
How did you just... refuse? Lots of absence time? Mysterious illness? Picketing?
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All the above
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I went to high school before PE became coed. I hated PE and in particular I hated team sports, especially if they involved a ball hurtling towards some part of my anatomy. I was graceful and coordinated...did well in gymnastics and dance...but do not ask me to catch or throw a ball! I did well in archery and tennis...but do not ask me to kick a ball or whack it with a little curved stick! I am just not coordinated THAT way.
At any given time in high school I was wearing bandages or splints. I wracked out my left knee in PE when I was 14 and still have trouble with it; I have sprained every finger on both of my hands...some of them more than once...playing volleyball. Knots on my head from baseballs hitting me, bruises from hockey sticks connecting with my shins...PE was a never-ending misery.
And then there were the group showers with that pervy PE teacher who we were all convinced was a man in drag checking us off her clipboard as we exited...wet and without out towels...to go back to our lockers...
PE, as far as I am concerned, should be an elective, just like art or choir. Some of us can't draw, some of us can't sing, and some of us can't catch or throw a ball to save our lives!-
Oh gosh, the showers. We dreaded that we might have to take showers in gym class, but they ended up shortening the amount of time we could have between classes, so they ended up forgoing the showering.
We were likely to stink anyway, as a collective, so I guess it didn't matter much.
You sound like you endured much!
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Great post. I absolutely hated PE. I was a chubby gal and didn't like to do anything physical. We lived in a small town and our field was about 3 blocks from our school. So when the weather turned nice we had to run downhill to the field for PE. And then of course when we were tired, we had to run UPHILL back to the school.
Then we had a lesbian teacher that to make sure we showered, would stand on the edge of the shower and put a mark next to our name. Imagine ignorant young girls in the 70's and how they would feel about that.-
Well, we were all taught to trust our teachers. I think people are more skeptical about proper teacher conduct now.
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Was that teacher named Peterson? Same experience for me, but in the early 60s.
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I was odd...I actualy liked gym class and enjoyed showing off in front of the girls (is that really that surprising?).
My biggest embarrasment was that...umm...those gym shorts didn't really hide what was happening to you if something caught your attention - if you catch my drift. -
Well, horses should enjoy the exercise. The gym shorts, however... that issue is a horse of a different color.
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To the shock of the Alpha Betas I ruled at gym class. Ogf course I lettered in a few sports in HS besides playing D&D on the weekends. So its not like I was a total loser like you hosers.
Important safety tip - always be on my team in dodge ball. I play to win and win big.-
Well, sounds like based on the D&D you'd probably rolled the dice for extra dexterity power or something.
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My High school had just built a huge west wing for physical ed
and we were having a ball with basketball, football and track & field.
I ran Track & Field for my High School every year hoping to receive a scholarship
for college but instead there was private favortism and a girl that should never of received
that scholarship got it, after all she was sleeping with the teacher and principal at the time.
She was competitive in other ways.
I stopped running track & field for the school, stopped basketball
(I was center) and they were mad at me cause without me they lost. hahahaha
I was mad a hell and I plotted my revenge on that high school, teacher and student
and got away with it too. To top it all off, I graduated with full top honors
when they thought I wasn't even going to make honor roll. FOOLS ALL FOOLS.-
@jeunelle.....it's good to see you don't carry a grudge!
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Who Me? lmao
I kept tabs with that girl to see if she actually went to college.
She cashed in the scholarship for a brand new car.
I knew I should of blown up that school with the Chemistry Class gas burner. -
Simmer simmer no need to go all domestic terrorist on us....do you smile at night knowing you turned out better in the end than she did?
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Says Who?
Well I suppose I did. After all I didn't have to do the whole school.
But she did. -
That really sucks. Have you been spying on her on Facebook? *Joins the vendetta.* -
/Me, suddenly worried Jeunelle's gonna go all "Carrie" on us...
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"Carrie"...loved the movie
As far as spying on her at Facebook....
Nah Jeunelle did what she had to do and moved on.
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The thing I hated most about PE class was having to stay behind afterwards and shower with Mr Hughes. I mean I was 14! I could wash myself!-
Well, aardvarks are known to spread terrible disease. Who could blame him? He had to prevent the spread of plague.
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Well that's true but why did I have to soap him up as well??? That was the part I didn't like, he was a very hairy man and it was like shampooing a moaning shag pile carpet.
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Very traumatising. I was never that good at sports, not that I didn't have ability in it (I learned way after gym) but because nobody had ever taken time to teach me techniques or encouraged me in keeping fit. My family was never that into sports, so you could easily tell which kids parents were.
We always played volley ball, and shared the gym class with about a half of the Finnish Championship team of the age group. Of course when you pick players, it's not fun for the less talented, and this repeated EVERY week. Except for one, when a friend of mine got to pick a team and it threw the whole structure off balance. We played basket ball for once, and as we got to play as friends against the good kids, we beat them. UNBELIEVABLE but that was so sweet I'll never forget it.
One class of triumph hardly wipes out the bad things though, and it took me a year after gym classes ended to even consider doing anything physical, and I'm sure I was fast at that.
Of course, the two things I was good at, swimming and dodge ball was hardly ever in the agenda. (But I think we had different dodge ball rules than in US, judging from the movie.)-
I think it's fascinating how kids in various countries tell similar gym class tales. The same sorts of pain and triumphs and getting picked last. It's universal.
And, um, don't use anything Ben Stiller as a barometer for U.S. rules. Our school didn't go by the "American Dodgeball Association of America." -
How about South Park then? They seemed to have the same rules. In our version, all kids but one stand in a set area, while the one outside tries to burn the others. Once burned you would join the burner until everyone was burned. I had a strategy that always got me to be the last kid in. Yey! (Never flock, as you will have no room to move and the burners will always try to burn from a big group as it has a bigger success rate.)
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I don't recall it quite that way, but then my memory might not be so good from taking too many dodgeballs to the head.
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I personally liked it. People had pretty low expectations of me, they called me the goth girl and they'd be like "hit the ball to the goth girl, she wont catch it" Little did they know I was an avid baseball fan/player and after I caught that I was picked top 5 on every team. It was also my excuse for not going to a gym with my friends, I already worked out 3 days a week so why bother
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That would be satisfying-- their looks of surprise must have been terrific.
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oh it was soo funny. Some people just stood there like wait, what?
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Pretty much everything--it was basically about glorifying the jocks and humiliating the kids who weren't so athletic.
I hear people talk about how phys ed is important to help deal with the obesity epidemic. I'd say that if it's taught the way it was when I was in school, it actually contributes to obesity, as kids who aren't good at sports basically learn to see themselves as hopeless and hate anything at all athletic.-
Well said drjay. In my daughters class (8th grade) they do fun things like wall climbing, rollerblading and other activities that aren't competitive. They are trying to focus more on being active and staying healthy. For once she actually likes PE.
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kden,
That's really cool! I felt like I got cheated because my gym class was all about competition, and not about enjoying physical activities! -
We got to do more individual things in gym class around junior year in high school-- and it made a HUGE difference in how much we all enjoyed the class.
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Boy, can I relate to that!
Wouldn't it be nice if kids were encouraged to do what they were good at, to develop those talents/skills, instead of being forced to do things that they have no talent for? Certainly my experiences in PE did nothing to inspire an enjoyment of sports, either as a participant or a spectator. If sports suddenly went away today, I would not miss it at all!
I went into a Planet Fitness gym a few years back. As I was being ignored by the receptionist, I could hear a spinning class going on and the person directing it sounded like my high school gym teachers, rudely screaming at the people in the class. I left. I've never been back. Ain't gonna go again, either. -
It certainly didn't do much for the ol' self esteem at the time.
I finally ended up learning how to play kickball only because another kid took the time to explain it to me and coach me.
The reason I was so lousy at it was, no one really bothered to explain how the game actually worked. They all assumed we knew it, and had us dive right in.
A lot of kids were completely lost, and as a result, didn't care for the game.
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I just remember playing volleyball every day in gym class. To this day, it's not my favorite sport to play! I also remember the most dreaded part of gym class was when people would be picked for teams and never wanting the stigma of being picked last!
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Volleyball was big in our school, too. It took up a good portion of the year for us.
Being picked last, too, for these things tended to be perpetual. Once, you can deal with, but when it's every class... -
Being picked last is not as bad as not being picked at all. I was umpire or referee a lot.
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camone,pe is the best class i've had.
everyday i couldn't way for it
but god i hated portuguese (i'm from portugal)
stupid literature-
What about the literature was particularly painful?
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Those God, awful, ugly blue gym outfits us girs had to wear with elastic in the legs that cut off you circulation and tube socks GAG!-
Ah you're so right-- I forgot the tube socks.... The REQUIRED tube socks.
How I miss them. -
We had white shirts with snaps up the front and black shorts with a white stripe up one side. We had to wear white sneakers, ankle socks, and we could wear a gray pullover sweatshirt (no hoodies or pockets). And no sweat pants, no matter how cold it got. The playing fields backed up to a bay, so you can believe winter PE classes were just plain miserable (in Southern California you had to do PE outdoors unless it was raining).
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I remember in high school, we had an army recruiter come into our gym class. He made us work out much more than our normal teacher and he yelled at us in the generic Sargent Slaughter tone. This was suppose to entice us to join the military. Ugh.-
What, you mean you guys weren't all jazzed about the taste of basic training you got?
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Did anyone actually consider joining (before or) after that?
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For some reason, all we ever did was play basketball. It grew old VERY quick!-
I hear you. We did a lot of basketball too.
I always felt my best friend must have had some basketball homing device in her head...
Any basketball bouncing wild in the vicinity would head straight for her cranium.
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My boy Tim got hit in the balls with a softball while standing at home plate. The ball came from centerfield, and it was the last time I ever saw him. You can read the story here. www.charliewrites.com/strike-two/
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Loved PE, not only was I a runner but I had a crush on my gym teacher.-
Oh wow, Lotus-- you have the happiest PE story going, I think!
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it was a particularly poorly aimed towel snapping incident that gave me cause to do an oral report in the class following seven octaves higher than what it called for, substantially increasing my already high ridicule index for the month.
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Ah, the towel-induced soprano oral report... Hopefully your grades went off on a high note, as well?
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Oh, my childhood drama! I hated everything from gym ever since I was 8 (I have bad ball and body coordination and my arms were thin powerless sticks). In the end it led up to an anti-climax at 16 when I refused to go any longer (the teacher was VERY bitchy) and almost was expelled from school! In the end they solved it by promising me a sweeter teacher. It helped a bit.
Now I imagine all the heroes from my class sitting in their cars where I cycle at least an hour every day... My arm muscles have developed quite a bit from that too -
Hey, Kobus- How have you been? Nice to see you! I'm surprised and impressed they actually took your protest seriously enough that they at least switched you.
And now, do your ring your bicycle bell and wave at your classmates as you speed by?
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I have a couple of T-shirts I got from my gym from their annual "commit to get fit" program-
Ah yes-- when everybody thinks they're a designer, eh?
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3rd grade. jumping over a hurdle and doing a face plant in front of the whole class. priceless.-
Awww. I bet you can still FEEL that one.
My one English teacher-- who was a tall lanky guy-- talked about how when he was in high school, he jumped over the pommel horse, fell flat on his face, and broke his nose.
His gym teacher's response? "Clean up that blood!"
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I miss gym. Of course, I grew up being a gym rat. Only downside was we never had the peep hole on the wall looking into the girl's shower room.-
Well-- as far as the stories here go, you probably would have just seen the female gym teacher lurking in there, anyway.
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TSR, don't ruin my fantasy from puberty!
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Heh, sorry. Wasn't trying to quash your dreams.
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It's ok...I just sneak into the shower at home when my wife is showering.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! -
Ah, you are your own Animal House film, eh?
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Yep!!!
I'll wear the toga attire...just keep the drugs away...lol -
You know, if you're modeling togas, we want to see pictures.
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scoleosis exams-
It does make you wonder why it was a gym class thing and not a nurses office thing, doesn't you? It seems misplaced.
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Did they check you during gym class too?
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Yup, the whole class. Someone else above was saying that was one of their least favorite things about gym, too.
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Well, 1st of all I never was down with the communal showering thing. So when i was a kid, I'd never shower after gym class and would have to walk around all gross and smelly the rest of the day! Finally got a doctor's note saying I had tendonitis so I could just sit and get a tan while everyone else ran!-
Did you actually have tendonitis, or did your doctor just take pity on you and write you a note?
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