tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post6130920583767192513..comments2024-03-28T07:16:39.621+00:00Comments on Lallands Peat Worrier: An anatomy of an Olympics Grinch...Lallands Peat Worrierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18276270498204697708noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-64428448772819888942012-08-11T11:48:34.559+01:002012-08-11T11:48:34.559+01:00Doug, Indy,
Interesting perspectives. I've n...<b>Doug, Indy,</b><br /><br />Interesting perspectives. I've no young relatives, so I don't know what folk are doing in schools these days, but a bit of rethinking might not go amiss. As a teenager, I was quite relieved to be neglected/treated with benevolent pity by the PE staff at school, but as you say Doug, these are missed opportunities. Not that it's a bad thing as an adult to revisit these ideas, try out new things, learn to enjoy exercise - but as with many other things in life, it seems a pity to oblige folk to take the roundabout, self-determined way to get there. Many folk might not bother treading. <br /><br />Although I've not done it for a while (note to self, pick up my mat), I took up ashtanga yoga a few years back myself. If I'd been able to do it in school? Brilliant.Lallands Peat Worrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238432265194046726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-81078235921099960062012-08-11T11:43:24.542+01:002012-08-11T11:43:24.542+01:00Anonymous,
In secondary school, certainly, I'...<b>Anonymous</b>,<br /><br />In secondary school, certainly, I'd guess we had access to better facilities than many other folk. Not that it availed me much.Lallands Peat Worrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238432265194046726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-53068987860900087212012-08-08T12:34:38.123+01:002012-08-08T12:34:38.123+01:00http://www.muirmatters.co.uk/
Heelan Cooncil Watc...http://www.muirmatters.co.uk/<br /><br />Heelan Cooncil WatchAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-71055918359434433372012-08-06T16:09:03.463+01:002012-08-06T16:09:03.463+01:00Excellent post IndyExcellent post IndyEdwin Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05317173893948248954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-61027557264555468512012-08-06T10:21:51.962+01:002012-08-06T10:21:51.962+01:00There is a serious point here which is not necessa...There is a serious point here which is not necessarily related to Olympic sports but is about the emphasis on competitive sport in schools. We are often told that there isn't enough competition in school sports but in my opinion there is far too much emphasis placed on the competitive element. In real life research shows that most people who exercise do so to feel good and to stay fit. It's really not about beating someone else or coming first for most people. <br /><br />So, along with competitive sports for those who are into that, schools should also offer other exercise programmes and workouts, maybe a bit of yoga, the kind of stuff people who aren't motivated by competition can enjoy doing because you can do it at your own pace. And listen to music at the same time - always an advantage. That would actually help to increase fitness levels far more than trying to force everyone to play competitive sport which is the equivalent of trying to bang a lot of square pegs into round holes.Indyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04383904151475839441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-4177346016808059732012-08-06T09:36:02.019+01:002012-08-06T09:36:02.019+01:00My dalliances with sport at school were similar to...My dalliances with sport at school were similar to yours, LPW. Being the person who was always picked second-last for anything (there was always SOMEONE worse, as I could at lest strike a football without scuffing it, and was prone to once-in-a-blue-moon outstanding performances where everything just seemed to <i>work</i>), P.E. was the one class that I found to be a chore, as the gym hall and playing fields were the only places I couldn't exercise my intellectual superiority over the other pupils in my class. I still enjoyed it when we played things like football and basketball (or any sport where my "hit the ball as hard as possible" approach could be utilised to a degree of effect), but when it came to running, jumping and any other feats that exist only to put brain boxes such as myself back in our place, it was the closest I got to corporal punishment at school. Indeed, being made to run 800m repeatedly until I finished it under a certain time felt tantamount to bullying, and if I could go back in time to change things, the first thing I would do is tell that teacher that I had more important things to do with my life than run 800m in some arbitrary timescale, so she should go fuck herself.<br /><br />To me, this represents a failure in how P.E. is taught in schools. I don't believe anyone is completely incapable of enjoying some sort of sport. In my situation, I feel P.E. teachers should have recognised that my small height, wide shoulders and low centre of gravity made me a perfect candidate for something like weightlifting. (If you told me 20 years ago that I would one day actually <i>choose</i> to go to the gym, I wouldn't have believed you, but there we are.) Doing so would have prevented me ending up becoming a bit of a chubster, and while it's hardly the school's fault that my mum is such an outstanding cook who gets an almost worrying amount of satisfaction from seeing people enjoying her food, I feel P.E. was the one subject where the teachers only gave a shit about the students who already excelled, and just left the rest of us behind. In maths, English and whatever, you were placed in different groups according to ability so that the slowest-witted pupils didn't get made to feel stupid because they couldn't do what the clever kids did; but no such attempts were made to help those of us who were physically less capable.<br /><br />I look at Olympic sports like weightlifting, judo and wrestling, and wonder how things could have turned out differently if schools made any sort of attempt to get pupils interested in such activities, rather than convincing you that being unable to run fast made you physically unsuitable for any sport.Doug Danielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15017218581660887134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-15273044632599618282012-08-06T03:52:42.082+01:002012-08-06T03:52:42.082+01:00but you were more placed than other to have the ch...but you were more placed than other to have the chance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com