This is so much like my relationship with fitness/PE, unsurprisingly, us going to the same school. I am hoping Miss Roberts and her fucking pink shorts have gained some karmic retribution. My pal Ella did an incredible Edinburgh show a few years back on the same topic and I wish you could have seen it, a great summary/interview about it here https://harpymagazine.com/home-1/2018/8/3/ella-woods-wing-defence
I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, but otherwise your childhood (and youthful experience with exercise) sounds very much like mine. In 7th grade, I got to ride on the PE instructor’s golf cart during our school’s Heartbreak Run because she thought I was having an asthma attack; I had actually just worked myself up into a panic about how miserable the run was going to be (so dramatic). ANYWAY, fast forward to adulthood, when I discovered run/walk and the whole idea that exercise should feel good, and, well somehow I’ve been a slow-ass distance runner for the past 15 years and can’t imagine going back. Yay for rewriting childhood narratives.
For me the PE humiliation started at age 5 so by the time I got to senior school, I already hated being forced to take part in any physical activity. Now 0ver 60 years later, having also lost 9 1/2 stone, I now desperately want to start being more active simply because I can. But now, I have a mental block because of all the flabby skin wobbling about. How can I go to the local leisure centre which is overrun by sports students from the well renowned sports university just down the road, the future olympic hopefuls, those running the bearing off the walking machines, when I hobble at a slow speed aware that my arthritis is already playing up!!!
I loathed PE, and even went as far as an 11 year old to lie to my teachers that my parents couldn’t afford trainers as I thought my sob story would mean never having to take part. Genius! Until the school phoned my Mum of course... My school was incredibly sport focused and my brother was the superstar, county level cricket, England basketball, and then there was me, the lumpen sister who hated any sport. Apparently my old school now offers a huge range of different sports for people so you don’t HAVE to do hockey in winter and tennis in summer, which might go a little way to changing attitudes. Although I’ll never forget the teacher who told me how heavy my footsteps were when we were just starting a dance class. Cue me envisaging an elephant thudding about during a routine to China in your hand by T’Pau.
This is so much like my relationship with fitness/PE, unsurprisingly, us going to the same school. I am hoping Miss Roberts and her fucking pink shorts have gained some karmic retribution. My pal Ella did an incredible Edinburgh show a few years back on the same topic and I wish you could have seen it, a great summary/interview about it here https://harpymagazine.com/home-1/2018/8/3/ella-woods-wing-defence
Bloody loved this Isabel. Not that I can be arsed to be a teacher, but if I was, I’d be a PE teacher and do everything differently to my experience. X
I wish you were my PE teacher!
I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, but otherwise your childhood (and youthful experience with exercise) sounds very much like mine. In 7th grade, I got to ride on the PE instructor’s golf cart during our school’s Heartbreak Run because she thought I was having an asthma attack; I had actually just worked myself up into a panic about how miserable the run was going to be (so dramatic). ANYWAY, fast forward to adulthood, when I discovered run/walk and the whole idea that exercise should feel good, and, well somehow I’ve been a slow-ass distance runner for the past 15 years and can’t imagine going back. Yay for rewriting childhood narratives.
For me the PE humiliation started at age 5 so by the time I got to senior school, I already hated being forced to take part in any physical activity. Now 0ver 60 years later, having also lost 9 1/2 stone, I now desperately want to start being more active simply because I can. But now, I have a mental block because of all the flabby skin wobbling about. How can I go to the local leisure centre which is overrun by sports students from the well renowned sports university just down the road, the future olympic hopefuls, those running the bearing off the walking machines, when I hobble at a slow speed aware that my arthritis is already playing up!!!
I loathed PE, and even went as far as an 11 year old to lie to my teachers that my parents couldn’t afford trainers as I thought my sob story would mean never having to take part. Genius! Until the school phoned my Mum of course... My school was incredibly sport focused and my brother was the superstar, county level cricket, England basketball, and then there was me, the lumpen sister who hated any sport. Apparently my old school now offers a huge range of different sports for people so you don’t HAVE to do hockey in winter and tennis in summer, which might go a little way to changing attitudes. Although I’ll never forget the teacher who told me how heavy my footsteps were when we were just starting a dance class. Cue me envisaging an elephant thudding about during a routine to China in your hand by T’Pau.