What are your Memories of Sport at School?

[mikebird]

Mine was a proper bootcamp school where we had to walk for miles from school all the way along a scary busy road with hardly any solid ground to walk on, on the way to the land with fields for rugby, football, cricket, and a full-size running track.

I remember having to search for my wellies and rugby boots in tiny wooden huts with no lighting, the floor awash with a mess, at each end of the journey, resulting in missing footwear, which someone else was probably wearing. Other footwear wouldn't fit. We all had the same problems... Teachers were hard! Early '80s! Oi! Hurry up! Where's your boots? Come on!! What are you doing? I'm not going to go and find them for you! Catch up! I reckon that's a classic challenge for any 7-year old! Ending up running around in socks, or one or the other on the journey, or in the game. Left boots on each foot, etc. Proper lessons - hilarious.

Wish I never changed school - all due to my parents moving house. That would have been perfect education for me, but how could I ever compare it? I could have been a rugby star.

After that switch, some doctor spotted my immune system problems and prevented me from playing contact sports, including cricket! I think that was the root of my social ineptitude, as I stayed in the computer room during sport afternoons! If I was there now, I'd have carried on playing as normal.

 

[Aletheia]

I used to wake up on sports days praying for rain.

 

[nosferatu]

I tried out for football my freshmen year of high school. I only joined because my best friend wanted to. At that time we did everything together - just like every heterosexual male friends at that age. All I remember is a huge Samoan guy slapping my ass any chance he got. In the lockers - "hey, man, good luck out there" *slap*. Out in the field - "good job, man" *slap*. After practice - "See you tomorrow, bro" *slap*. I didn't think much of it at the time, and I still don't. After all, I see it all the time on TV.

Percy Harvin Slaps Urban Meyer's Butt in 2008 BCS National Championship Game - YouTubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cwdrv_LDE0

To make a long story short, I quitted after my friend quitted.

 

[SeniorRedrings]

Taking part in potato sack races.
Trying to run while balancing an egg on a spoon.
Being the slow one in the two legged race pair up.
My first seven years of sports education took place in a school with an all female staff,so it was mostly taking part in colour coded bean bag routines and orderly skipping in circles whilst holding a 3/4 size hula hoop out in front of me with bent elbows,or waving ribbons in time to the jingle of a bell.
The next four years was a mix of Scottish country dancing and forgetting my PE kit.

 

[SM1010]

I loved sports. Gym class was always my favorite class. I'm fairly big and fairly athletic, so sports actually probably helped me in the social anxiety department.

 

[DotFromOz]

I dreaded sports and phys-ed at school. I was always terribly self-conscious and afraid I would be laughed at. I was afraid that I would forget the rules and objectives of games and worried that I would do the wrong thing, and I was afraid of getting physically hurt. I much prefer non-contact sports/games.

 

[Lord_Spotface]

Being picked last, skipping sports days, and when I was unable to skip purposely screwing up in school sports events to annoy the sports junkies in my house team (they hated it. People take crap like throwing a discus way too seriously)
Being a lot better than I thought I was at rugby especially for a midget like me.
Good times.

 

[Niteowl]

My friends and me didn't take part in group sports. It was simple: we just stood around chatting, haha. The teachers didn't care, they were only interested in the popular, athletic lads. The only downside was that the teachers for this particular subject seemed to assume that we were hopeless in the more academic classes too. In year 11 we started going out of school for physical education; that couldn't have been better, my friends and me used the gym each week, while the popular people played their sports. It's not just that I don't like sports; even if I tried, I wasn't any good at any of them, so it just gave the popular kids a chance to push me around a bit without getting told off. :[

 

[twiggle]

Getting my sleeve caught in my brace during netball and having to stalk out of the court to Reception to get some scissors.
Sports weren't for me back then. I tried, I wanted to be good at it, but I was always just a clumsy, fumbling mess.

 

[gustavofring]

Schools seem to have a really borderline fascist and survival of the fittest kind of approach with sports. The "it's good for you later in life" excuse, where people have to worry about being a loser and trying to be a winner, while some people are just simply born more physically gifted then others, and the other talents and gifts of the less sportive people are overlooked. No wonder so many people end up either being anxious and self-concious, or over-confident a-holes.

In my country it was all a little bit more loose and individualistic, but still you had to do stuff you don't like. I am not very acrobatic, and more stiff so a lot of equipment frightened me. Also wasn't motorically capable enough (maybe psychologically) to handle fancy stuff with hoola hoops, and unicycles so that bothered me a lot and I tried to skip as much as possible (lots of fake doctor notes).

Fortunately I was also a bit of a joker in class, so I got away with a lot of stuff without being bullied. I liked playing team sports such as basketball and football (soccer) though, and I feel like, even though I didn't excell in those or anything, I still really enjoyed them.

Also I have a relatively large mole on my leg and I was always very self concious about it (pulling socks up high etc.). Kids in elementary and highschool were very cruel. So in later phases, I always wore training pants instead of shorts, and nobody even knew I had it. Still don't feel comfortable wearing shorts in summer. When going to the pool and stuff I still sometimes feel people staring, but I don't really care about it anymore.

 

[Silatuyok]

I went to a small parochial school and we would have recess all the way up through highschool. All I wanted to do was sit around and talk to my friends or read a book during recess, but everyone else was obsessed with playing kickball...I hate kickball. Other than that, we had no sports whatsoever. I would have liked to play tennis or soccer or something, but it wasn't available.

 

[Nala]

Shunned and picked last, as usual. I wasn't athletic, and being bullied by my class only made it worse.
I liked dodgeball and volleyball, though, and thought it was fun.

 

[Kiwong]

Bullying destroyed my self esteem, and I gave up on people, and sport for a few years, at least my favourite sport of running. Something I resent now.

 

[Invisibleman]

I actually love sports,theyre my life, but im honestly not good at them. I actually dreaded gym class because all of the top athletes were always in my class,they would always be on the team opposite of mine so we would get steam rolled.

One year in middle school i built up the courage to join the schools hockey team,there were no try outs or anything so I got on automatically which was a disaster. I was the only one on the team that didnt play triple A so I was horrible. They put me on for 2 shifts the entire season. I left with my head hung pretty low...

 

[coyote]

I actually love sports,theyre my life, but im honestly not good at them. I actually dreaded gym class because all of the top athletes were always in my class,they would always be on the team opposite of mine so we would get steam rolled.

One year in middle school i built up the courage to join the schools hockey team,there were no try outs or anything so I got on automatically which was a disaster. I was the only one on the team that didnt play triple A so I was horrible. They put me on for 2 shifts the entire season. I left with my head hung pretty low...

sounds like my school

we had a number of guys go on to play professional football and baseball

i played little league, but by junior high, i was no longer competitive

 

[Phoenixx]

Sports at school were the worst for me. Phys. ed. was one of my least favorite classes, if not the worst class I've ever taken. Nearly all the years through high school I had the same douchebag of a teacher. He was the type that loved you if you were athletic and gave you A's, even if you weren't doing anything. Oh, but if you weren't in sports, weren't good at them, and even if you did try, he would give you a crappy grade anyway. The only times you could actually bring up your grade (and I figured this out on my own) is if you aced the written quizzes and tests he gave out. Yeah, written quizzes and tests in a gym class, pretty ridiculous, but they pretty much saved my butt.

My teacher was also the type to single people out, tease them and whatnot. He purposely called me by my last name, pronounced wrong, and would always mock how "dangerous" I am, just because I'm quiet. You know how it goes. Stupid. And of course all the athletic kids would have to join in because they were his favorites and they loved him.

The only time I actually liked gym class was when we played hockey. Hockey is pretty much the only sport I'm really naturally good at. It was the only time where I could actually beat the athletic kids at their own game, and had fun doing so.

 

[Predacon]

Well all the schools I went to had pretty good facilities, plenty of grass for outside and a pretty big gym for when it rained. Still PE was my least favourite class, I used to take a fake note at least once a month so I could take a break from it. Most of it was harmless probably the worst times was when played tackle rugby, cross-country that thing left me shattered every year and when they let the students pick the teams. It's never great being one of the last left.

 

[Kiwong]

Team sports weren't for me. I should have stuck with athletics.

 

[vj288]

I loved sports, one of if not my favorite part of high school. I played three sports, Soccer, indoor track and outdoor track. Indoor and outdoor were basically the same, with outdoor having a more events (Discus inside is tricky ) Loved gym class too, never had to say a word and got to play sports the whole time.

Soccer was fun, but my quietness and indecisiveness hurt me on the field. I lost playing time because I wasn't vocal enough, I was okay with it. I was always so nervous about making a mistake out there, it was as stressful as it was thrilling. I scored a goal once, it was in a blow out game but so perfect. Ball came to me from outside the box, put it in the upper left hand corner (I played defense btw) I was called "Mike the snipe" for the rest of the season ::

Track grew on me over the year, and turned into a passion by my senior year. It's not your normal team sport, I was able to practice and improve by myself which I loved. I'd always be the last one at practice, just throwing the discus until I got it right (Or more often until my arm told me I had to stop ) I was so excited every time I improved just a little more, when I felt my form was nearing a little more toward perfect. I really put myself into it, when I did well I had an irremovable smile, and when not I was hiding somewhere.

One meet I was looking forward I did really poorly at and I was absolutely devastated. I went to sit on these bleachers way away from everyone until it started to rain. I then found my way to a shed, abandoned with some broken chairs in it. Ironically for all the sulking I did at the end of the day I was the only one still dry.

My most memorable sporting moment wasn't really all the much about the sport itself. It was the final meet of the season, States. I was ranked like 50 something, so I had no chance of making the the next meet. So I do my warm ups and everything, really get myself ready. I throw, first one is okay but could've been better. I have a cheering crowd, not really paying attention to most. My second throw, wow, broke my personal best by 5 feet, and puts me in contention for the finals. I had a while to wait before finals, they go in order or rank so about 50 more people had to throw. So I go to sit and wait, and this girl comes and sits with me. And she sits with me for two hours while I wait, it was great. She also threw discus but didn't do so great that day (Broke the school record earlier in the year though). I had been building up a rapport with her all year, and this was the "look at how far you've come" moment. It was something I never imagined, and parallels my sport in so many ways.

I ended up getting 9th that meet, one spot out of making the finals. It was okay, you still couldn't remove the smile from my face if you tried. Nothing could have that day. I got most improved that year, which I extend past my improvements in the discus circle.

 

[Flowers-Of-Bloom]

Hated it.
Being clumsy and unfit (no fat), also dreading the social elements of sport such as playing in teams and possibly letting the team down. I was a good sprinter though, even better than the guys.