I wonder if.......

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Chris56
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by Chris56 »

ncutler wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 9:33pm You can have no idea how much I appreciate discovering a group of people who are as disinterested in football as I am.
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Mike Sales
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by Mike Sales »

I did not need several winters of compulsory rugby to be introduced to it.
Likewise the other ballgames etc. I was made to suffer in order to find out I was no good at them and did not enjoy them.
I was hopeless at school sports.
Since then I have got involved in three outdoor sports (non competitive ones) and become more than usually active.
I would guess that most of those who are cheering Engerland do not actually play football at any level more than occasionally kicking a ball on beach.
In spite of school sports I have had an active sporting life, and gained health and pleasure from the outdoors.
I have noticed that my dislike of and ineptitude at games is common to many actve adult cyclists and climbers.
Physical activity in eeducation is a good idea, but seems to fail in its aims at the moment.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
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al_yrpal
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by al_yrpal »

Load of millionaires kicking an inflated pigs bladder about. Yaaaawn.

I think many Dads brainwash their kids with it. I made sure my kids enjoyed more worthwhile pursuits.

Went in a woodcarvers hut in Africa plastered with Man U stuff. The bloke said don't go in the next hut he's a Chelsea supporter! Uh! Doh!

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djnotts
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by djnotts »

Chris56 wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 10:27pm
ncutler wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 9:33pm You can have no idea how much I appreciate discovering a group of people who are as disinterested in football as I am.
+1. My faith in humanity is restored
Just so.
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Paulatic
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by Paulatic »

Mike Sales wrote: 14 Jun 2021, 7:17am Physical activity in eeducation is a good idea, but seems to fail in its aims at the moment.
I think it definitely failed for me back in the sixties ending up loathing any Physical activity. When the Peleton advert shows I always end it by telling her to Foxtrot Off.
Maybe physical education should be more about introducing you to the many activities you can do for pleasurable exercise and stop trying to force us to excel at it? I was fortunate to attend a school with squash courts and later in life, seeking exercise, took up the game again in my forties and enjoyed playing it right up until Covid.
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Mike Sales
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by Mike Sales »

Paulatic wrote: 14 Jun 2021, 9:03am
Mike Sales wrote: 14 Jun 2021, 7:17am Physical activity in eeducation is a good idea, but seems to fail in its aims at the moment.
I think it definitely failed for me back in the sixties ending up loathing any Physical activity. When the Peleton advert shows I always end it by telling her to Foxtrot Off.
Maybe physical education should be more about introducing you to the many activities you can do for pleasurable exercise and stop trying to force us to excel at it? I was fortunate to attend a school with squash courts and later in life, seeking exercise, took up the game again in my forties and enjoyed playing it right up until Covid.
The sporting pursuits to which I was not introduced at school, but which have delighted me all my life since are not competitive (formally at least!). I wonder if the emphasis on winning and hence losing is the problem?
My headmaster's dislike of mountaineering was another encouragement to take it up. I asked for Alan Blackshaw's Mountaineering as a school prize.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
Jdsk
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by Jdsk »

Mike Sales wrote: 14 Jun 2021, 9:39amThe sporting pursuits to which I was not introduced at school, but which have delighted me all my life since are not competitive (formally at least!). I wonder if the emphasis on winning and hence losing is the problem?
When Arthur Ashe knew that he was dying he wrote a letter to his daughter describing the difference between competitive sports that were then common in schools and lifetime sports that were so important to health. I'd never seen it described so clearly before. Brilliant and moving.

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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Likewise I disliked sports particularly at school, But maybe it wasn't a question of this dislike in sports but more a question of disliking the globbyness of football!
Me and my mates used to cycle to school and I used to cycle in all weathers,
I had a paper round and there was no such thing by then of any pocket money at all.
In actual fact I liked gym work, also outdoor athletics apart from running, but maybe this was more a novelty than anything else.
One day a week had to cross country which was basically just running down the lanes, I don't know why but I always used to make excuses for not bringing my kit which was basically just your football or rugby kit and walk around with the other nerds.
I don't ever remember having any type of shoes to running probably have plimsolls that I used to use in the gym.
there were tennis courts available but we weren't allowed to use them?
The only other thing was that I joined an orienteering club at school which is just a bunch of nerds, I didn't know then went on to be called Ten Tors.
I think it was more about something to do rather than anything else.
In leaving school I had to cycle everywhere, and I was still moor walking to, Then one day day I decided to enter marathon Couldn't even run half a mile without stopping, the muscles are use are somewhat different and need a bit of work.
These aren't big muscles they just muscles that stabilise your legs from bending in.
In about eight months I was running 15 miles in less than an hour and 25 Min.
Swimming was also high on the agenda but it wasn't pool swimming it was sub Aqua, me and my mates well not me but my mates were heavy into fishing so they regarded this as an extension of fishing.
I never regarded myself as sporty despite the fact that I did cycling moor walking After leaving school running marathons.
The trouble is that even today, The media like the BBC say here is the sports news, then it's 70-100 % of the time is spent talking about football!

Almost certainly sports and school education needs a dramatic overall I think it even today, I would imagine that all these expensive Academy etc have all the equipment and all the coaches.
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ncutler
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by ncutler »

Ben@Forest wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 10:26pm So you'd deny it ever opens up opportunties to everyone else?
Ben, I'm not saying that at all: simply recounting one event at one school with one pupil.

But I'll give you another personal example. Cricket. I was as useless at cricket as I was at everything else: the 'remainder B' team, in to bat - out first ball - sit about for an hour bored in the long grass. Fielding: never caught anything, bored in the field. I learned that I was useless at cricket.

Years later, messing about with a family game I remembered the 'keep your eye on the ball' exhortation and discovered that I could hit the thing quite hard and quite often. If someone at school had said "Look Nick, I know you think you can't do this, but everyone needs a bit of coaching, come and spend an hour in the nets ...... " things might have been different, although I would probably have managed to avoid doing it as I knew I couldn't play cricket. I'm not unhappy about this: if I had been good at ball sports ( stop sniggering at the back ! ) I might not have discovered sailing, or gliding or bicycle touring, or fetched up trying to help moderate this thing.
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CliveyT
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by CliveyT »

This thread's interesting for me because I am very competitive and when playing a competitive sport I want to win and I hate losing. I used to play rugby to quite a high standard (until I discovered you can get a knee to articulate 360 degrees and that was the end of that). Nowadays the only competitive sport I play is petanque but I still have that will to win. Even at work as a scientist I enjoy the competitive part of it (after all who remembers the second person to describe the theory of relativity etc.).
When it comes to cycling I deliberately steer away from the competitive side- even after 10 years away from rugby I'm still 90kg with a lot of upper body development and that's a lot to haul up a hill. I don't even do strava or anything to even compete against myself, I'm happy to just use it as exercize and wonder around doing my own thing.
When it comes to watching sports I love watching sports I've played in. I can watch rugby at any level and I enjoy all the bits that people say puts them off watching. I really can't be bothered watching football, mostly because I don't really know what's going on.
thirdcrank
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by thirdcrank »

Hurray. This thread's given me another reason to read Fowler on disinterested -vs- uninterested.
Ben@Forest
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by Ben@Forest »

ncutler wrote: 14 Jun 2021, 11:02am
Ben@Forest wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 10:26pm So you'd deny it ever opens up opportunties to everyone else?
Ben, I'm not saying that at all: simply recounting one event at one school with one pupil.

But I'll give you another personal example. Cricket. I was as useless at cricket as I was at everything else: the 'remainder B' team, in to bat - out first ball - sit about for an hour bored in the long grass. Fielding: never caught anything, bored in the field. I learned that I was useless at cricket.

Years later, messing about with a family game I remembered the 'keep your eye on the ball' exhortation and discovered that I could hit the thing quite hard and quite often. If someone at school had said "Look Nick, I know you think you can't do this, but everyone needs a bit of coaching, come and spend an hour in the nets ...... " things might have been different, although I would probably have managed to avoid doing it as I knew I couldn't play cricket. I'm not unhappy about this: if I have been good at ball sports ( stop sniggering at the back ! ) I might not have discovered sailing, or gliding or bicycle touring, or fetched up trying to help moderate this thing.
I just don't see a way round doing sports at school though. I wasn't great at team sports and as said in my post the PE teachers were far more interested in the 15 - 20 boys (from around 130 in my year) who did play well in any particular sport - and it was grim of course that some boys were good at all the sports - so it's possible the teachers lavished 90% of their attention on just 20% of the boys (there were 130-odd girls with female PE teachers too of course and I bet that rigid gender divide has lessened somewhat).

So I didn't 'like' it but some boys and girls (who may have struggled with academic prowess) will have had their sporting horizons and confidence broadened by it. And though I wasn't good at football (I wasn't in the 2nd XI) would I have taken up five-a-side later if I'd never played it all at school?

Mostly though God knows we need young kids to do more exercise. I was in sunny Newcastle yesterday. Loads of kids, teenagers, shorts and T-shirts. And so many are overweight or obese already.
Last edited by Ben@Forest on 14 Jun 2021, 11:39am, edited 1 time in total.
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Mick F
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by Mick F »

I'm uninterested in sport of all descriptions.
If people want to get involved with sport, and follow it avidly, that's their affair.
I couldn't care less about it, and let them get on with it.
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661-Pete
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by 661-Pete »

ncutler wrote: 14 Jun 2021, 11:02am But I'll give you another personal example. Cricket. I was as useless at cricket as I was at everything else: the 'remainder B' team, in to bat - out first ball - sit about for an hour bored in the long grass. Fielding: never caught anything, bored in the field. I learned that I was useless at cricket.

Years later, messing about with a family game I remembered the 'keep your eye on the ball' exhortation and discovered that I could hit the thing quite hard and quite often. If someone at school had said "Look Nick, I know you think you can't do this, but everyone needs a bit of coaching, come and spend an hour in the nets ...... " things might have been different....
Interesting you should say that... brings back memories of my own experiences at school cricket. Seem to have been similar to yours - except for the bit about learning to play afterwards. I definitely remember being out first ball, the last three occasions I went in to bat. Clean bowled the first two times, so, whilst waiting during the last match, I sought advice from a friendly team-mate and yes: he coached me on sighting the ball, just as you say! I reached a point where I could just about strike every ball he bowled me. Then a wicket fell and I was next in. I thanked my 'trainer' and went to the crease, determined to show off my new-found skills! And so it turned out: I middled the bat and fetched the ball a tremendous whack. Alas! It soared up into the air and a fielder was in the way..... :(

After that I went to the housemaster and pleaded with him: "no more cricket please, I'm only spoiling it for the others." He acquiesced.
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Re: I wonder if.......

Post by slowster »

Ben@Forest wrote: 13 Jun 2021, 10:26pm So you'd deny it ever opens up opportunties to everyone else?
Too many sports teachers couldn't. By that I mean they could not teach and encourage their pupils how to enjoy a sport or physical activity. Far too many of them were only interested in pupils who already enjoyed sport, were already good at it, and were already of above average fitness. But those pupils were mostly only like that because someone else had taught and encouraged them. Those teachers didn't teach, they just played at being teachers.

It was those teachers who had opportunities and wasted them, because of the often significant numbers of children and teenagers who passed through their hands during formative years and were left as a result of their actions with an abiding dislike of sport or exercise.

The reason why the clip below resonated with so many people, was because it did reflect the experience of far too many children of games and PE lessons at school.

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