Fitness in schools

[housesparrow]

I started a threat in Bitbots yesterday that no-one has responded to (nothing new). Anyway, I heard David Cameron complaining that only two in five children play a competitive sport at school; my question was whether this matters.

Then what do I find in the news today but this:


Leading sports doctors have strongly criticised the way PE is being taught in English schools.

Experts say many children do not get a proper workout which helps them develop coordination, strength and agility.

The British Association of Sports and Exercise Medicine wants all schools to use a short exercise routine called "five-in-five".

But the government said PE was a matter for individual schools.

Specialists in sports and exercise medicine say that too often PE lessons focus on developing sports skills rather than encouraging flexibility and movement.



Which goes to show you can't please all the people all the time! But perhaps there is something in it, because until recently we had a 15 year old boy in our yoga class, trying to get more flexibility for karate. He has now moved up to the advance level, which I will never aspire to, especially as I never practice.

More time on the yoga mat, less at Stub Crouch?

[jean]

In my day, sports (including PE) was very competitive, and as I was never prepared to compete at anything I wasn't going to win at, I did my best to get out of all of it.

But I thought that schools had begun to introduce things like yoga and dance, which increase flexibility and general fitness and are less competitive than the traditional stuff.

If they haven't, they should.

The thing is that PE is trying to do two different things - produce world-class athletes so we can cease to be a laughing-stock when we take part in onternational competitions, and improve the level of fitness of those who will never compete at any level.

[riotgrrl]

Housey, we would all fare better if we spent more time on the mat and less time online. The psychological and physical benefits of yoga are so instantly felt as to be undeniable.

They should do it in schools.

I don't really have much to say about school PE. Like all girls (apart from weirdos) I dogged it whenever I could, claimed 'my period' 3 weeks out of 4 (only worked if it was a male teacher taking the lesson; they got instantly embarassed if a girl said she was on her period. The female PE teachers didn't buy it.), etc.

So, I don't know if they do yoga or not - both my daughters inherited the anti-PE gene from me and I'm not sure either of them ever went much when they were at school - but they SHOULD teach the kids yoga. Especially the young thuggish boys.

[housesparrow]

So what about competitive sport? David Cameron seems to think it is important and certainly I know parents who feel the same - my next door neighbours had their children lined up for the local RC primary, but decided to take them elsewhere when they discovered that the school eschewed team games.

As my neighbur said, life is about winning and losing, get used to it.

[Alpha Hooligan]

Nov 26, 2010 17:04:58 GMT housesparrow said:

So what about competitive sport? David Cameron seems to think it is important and certainly I know parents who feel the same - my next door neighbours had their children lined up for the local RC primary, but decided to take them elsewhere when they discovered that the school eschewed team games.

As my neighbur said, life is about winning and losing, get used to it.

Wot she said.

As for getting a bunch of rough-ass lads to do yoga...good luck with that. ;D


AH

[tarzanontarmazepam]

In my day PE was about being sent on a cross country run and buying 10 Lambert and Butler and getting off with girls in the woods.

'you show me yours and I'll show you mine'....words I still use today and which have caused some of my mother's more aged and mentally brittle friends some great distress.

[Alpha Hooligan]

I must confess to prefering smoking to PE in school, I only used to turn up when we were playing a bit of footy, rounders or badminton....if it was rugby or running I'd always develop some kind of injury or "forget my PE kit" and be unable to participate in the joyous muddy brutality. ;D


AH

[riotgrrl]

Nov 26, 2010 17:04:58 GMT housesparrow said:

So what about competitive sport? David Cameron seems to think it is important and certainly I know parents who feel the same - my next door neighbours had their children lined up for the local RC primary, but decided to take them elsewhere when they discovered that the school eschewed team games.

As my neighbur said, life is about winning and losing, get used to it.

Mmm. I am not good at sport (so far as I know; I haven't done anything competitively since school, but as I was usually last there I doubt I've developed new abilities since).

I resented competitive sport at school because the people who were not good at sport were seen to fail, seen to come last, seen to be the last one picked for the team.

We didn't do that with like, being good at English. We didn't get to do that in a public arena competitively. I didn't get to pick who I wanted on my team (leaving the retards - some of whom were good at sport - to last).

I don't mind sport at all when it's about personal fitness and personal goals - e.g. yoga, working out, walking, etc. But I very much resent being forced to race or play competitively.

So OK, let's have competitive sport at school, but let's make it fair. The whole school gets to see who's the worst at running races, so let's have some kind of similar arena so that we can point and laugh at the people who're not good at History or French or whatever.



Alpha - I think, in all seriousness, that it's a real shame that yoga has this tree-hugging womanly image in the UK. I agree it would be hard to persuade the young neds to take part in yoga, and Alpha, they would really benefit from it. Even athletes benefit from yoga because it increases stamina and suppleness and makes muscles lean, not just big. It also calms and focusses the mind.

We need a sufficiently macho role model for yoga. Not in lycra. Big and tough type doing it in combat gear. That's what we need. You volunteering?

[riotgrrl]

Housey, incidentally, what exactly did you start on Bitbot?

A threat? Against whom? (Not that some of them don't deserve a bit of threatening.)

[Alpha Hooligan]

I'm just not the yoga type, RG, you'd have better luck trying convince young lads to do Tai Chi (they'd see it as a sort of slo-mo kung fu).

To be honest, getting kids to do ANY sport they have an interest in should be the priority, so long as it is practical and involves them actually doing some physical activity I'm all for it.

Like I said earlier, I avoided certain sports like the plague, others I enjoyed...if there had been an option for me to always do the sports I enjoyed, I probably would have taken part in every PE session (unless it was cold and rainy of course) and smoked less....if you'd had a yoga option, you may have smoked less and had far fewer weekly periods.


AH

[Alpha Hooligan]

Nov 26, 2010 17:46:57 GMT @riotgrrl said:

Housey, incidentally, what exactly did you start on Bitbot?

A threat? Against whom? (Not that some of them don't deserve a bit of threatening.)

So, Housey is getting all dark-side and threatening folk eh? Cool.


AH

[jean]

Nov 26, 2010 17:04:58 GMT housesparrow said:

So what about competitive sport?

You should be able to do both sorts of physical activity - that's what the quote in your OP suggests.

No-one is saying that yoga is for everyone.

As my neighbour said, life is about winning and losing, get used to it.

Thus completely missing the point.

When it's physical fitness that's at stake, winning and losing has nothing to do with it.

(I wrote this before I read Riot's above. She's absolutely right.)

[everso]

I hate the whole keep fit lark. I tried it and went a few times, but I detest having to remember choreographed moves. I always got in a right state.

However, Riot has 95% persuaded me that I should take up Yoga. I wish we lived a bit nearer to each other Riot, then I could go with you and I wouldn't feel a twerp being a newbie. Still, I think I should look into this. I did try Yoga about 10 years ago and I don't know why I stopped going really. Probably got lazy and bored.

I hated the whole PE thing at school and, like Riot, did my best to dodge it. I was useless at most things too, although I quite liked the trampoline and swimming (our school had a lovely indoor pool). One thing I could do, that most people say they had trouble with, was shimmy up the rope in the gym, no problem. Right to the top. I doubt I could even get both feet off the floor now.

[Alpha Hooligan]

You obviously posessed good upper body strength Mrs E (or you were really dinky and light).


AH

[everso]

Nov 26, 2010 18:42:41 GMT Alpha Hooligan said:

You obviously posessed good upper body strength Mrs E (or you were really dinky and light).


AH

At that time, Alph, I wasn't that tall (I'm talking about age 14 or so) and I was vair vair skinny, so, yes, I didn't have much weight to pull up. I was so crap at sports that shimmying up the rope was a kind of star turn for me.

[housesparrow]

Nov 26, 2010 17:46:57 GMT @riotgrrl said:

Housey, incidentally, what exactly did you start on Bitbot?

A threat? Against whom? (Not that some of them don't deserve a bit of threatening.)

;D

Tsk. Spellchecks are no use at times like this. D and T aren't even next door on the kyeboard so I have no real excuse

[riotgrrl]

Nov 26, 2010 19:34:19 GMT housesparrow said:

Nov 26, 2010 17:46:57 GMT @riotgrrl said:

Housey, incidentally, what exactly did you start on Bitbot?

A threat? Against whom? (Not that some of them don't deserve a bit of threatening.)

;D

Tsk. Spellchecks are no use at times like this. D and T aren't even next door on the kyeboard so I have no real excuse

Sometimes I subscribe to the theory that there is no such thing as a typo . . just your sub-conscious at work.

[Patrick]

It's been reported that Gove and his ilk want to get the country back to sadistic P.E Teachers and let the bullies run riot. Gove himself looks like the sort who was either bullied himself or was one. The Radio Times had a picture of him from his school days - all Goggly glasses and nerdy haircut.

At one of my schools we actually had an Annual Cross Country race! We were all coached out to Friston Forest in the depths of the Sussex Downs. There was no point in secreting Ciggies about your person because they searched for those - but you could probably get away with a packet of mints. (Though even those were taken off me once.) Friston Forest is partly man made - and the trees run down in lovely rows. So having got the lay of the land one year, and worked out where the teachers were standing - we raced down through the trees taking a short cut - If they knew about it they didn't bother about it! It was usually about March and usually bloomin' freezing.

[everso]

My pet hate was the Hockey field (I was always Right Inner in case you're interested). I never wore my glasses and so wasn't much use. The changing rooms were always stone cold and smelt of feet.

Awful, awful, awful.

[housesparrow]

I hated all games; had no eye to ball co-ordination and felt sick if made to go upside down in the gym. Team sport was worse because I was always picked last, and ended up in one of those defence positions where you just stand around hoping the ball doesn't come your way. Not the best way to keep fit.