Did you hate gym class?

[Kalinychta]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard an autistic person say that he/she liked gym class. Most seem to have hated it.

Did you like or dislike gym class? And why? (Obviously present tense do for the kids on the forum.)

 

[Crossbreed]

Each year was a different gym class.
I did not like it when it was team sports like baseball, basketball & (American) football, though I did like soccer and I was pretty fair at dodgeball in elementary school.
I liked PE when it was archery, track (low hurdles) & wrestling.

I was on the cross-country team, but our high school did not have a cycling team.

 

[Luca]

I'm actually very athletic and sporty so I might have a slightly different answer than what you expected from everyone, lol.
For me, it depended on the sport. I liked soccer, archery, floor hockey, tennis, volleyball, capture the flag, frisbee, and track.

I did not like swimming, baseball/softball, basketball, American football, golf, or dodgeball.

I didn't like swimming because I can't swim. I didn't like baseball because I was afraid of being hit by the ball, lol.

I would have loved it if my school had rugby or ice hockey, though. And I played varsity soccer the whole time I was in high school and I was the team captain a couple of times. I was also a gymnast, and a figure skater.

One time, when we were playing volleyball in gym class, I bent down to pick up the ball and everyone could see down my bra. All the girls laughed at me, and the boys were all acting like perverts. That was the worst experience I had in gym class, other than changing in the locker rooms and all the other girls making fun of my "thunder thighs"/"cottage cheese legs"

 

[Crossbreed]

...frisbee,...

I finally had a chance to try out disc golf a couple of years ago...

 

[Luca]

I finally had a chance to try out disc golf a couple of years ago...

It's fun, isn't it? I would never be able to do it as a competitive sport, but it's fun to play with my friends (or my dogs lol)

 

[Metalhead]

My motor skills were deliberately reduced by all of the Lithium the doctors pumped me with when I was in third grade, and I hated gym class ever since then.

 

[megacomic]

I had a weird relationship with it because I was the fastest kid in class but I was terrible at every other sport.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Generally, gym bored me, especially team sports. But, I excelled in volleyball. I could bump, set and spike. Plus I had a wicked overhand serve that I could put spin on. People disliked having me on the team because if some kid played by trying to return the ball directly, on my next serve they would get a powerful serve straight to the head. In other games i had no interest in, like basketball, I'd get slammed for the way I played, so in the sport I was good at I was uncompromising. My brother was on the wrestling team and we would practice. I liked when that came up in gym, but I hated when kids in my weight class would fish out. My brother taught me the moves to lock their arms behind their backs and skid them on their face out of bounds. My sadism was showing.

Much later I got into personal sports and got instruction where I could. Canoeing and Kayaking up to Class IV, XC Skiing (I still can't skate ski well), Cycling, Scuba Diving. I've done canoe marathons and once came in fourth in our division when my spouse and I were treating it as a pleasure outing. We learned a long time ago that if you do not argue in a canoe, people think you are better paddlers than you may be. Plus, with me in the bow of a tandem canoe (which is where you want your power), we can really move. When we taught lessons as ACA instructors, frequently we would need to break up couples. One thing that we would teach is to tip the canoe until a gunwale is in the water, take in a cup, then return it upright in a controlled manner using high and low braces. Guys often thought that just because you are male you are born knowing how to canoe. I had a hard time teaching the guys this, with a few failures, but my spouse with the women picked it up very well.

Personal sports were far more rewarding than all the gym classes I've had.

 

[Magna]

I don't know what gym class is like now, but in the 1980s swimming was mandatory. It was co-ed swimming and suits were worn of course. In my dad's generation, swimming for gym class was not co-ed and the boys were required to swim...naked. True story. When I was in gym it was just naked showers that were mandatory.

I think back in those days one reason for the mandatory public display of nudity was to see whose body was most developed. That's how schools, peers and the community at large knew which boy/young man had the biggest penis. Of course word of that kind of thing would make it around as gossip to girls. I think it was a sick practice in my opinion. I know some high school guys got off of being naked in the locker room because a few of them would stand around or have a leg up on a bench, totally naked and carry on some conversation with others. Not my thing.

 

[Misery]

I can go further than just "hated it".

I just outright refused to do any of it. I didnt like, care about, or understand sports, I didnt want to get sweaty, and also, I hated all the other kids.

Eventually the teacher just gave up trying to get me to do anything, and they settled for having me just walk along the track by myself the whole time while the rest of the class did some dumb sports thing. Also on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'd get on the bus to go hit golf balls while that class was happening (driving range was close to the school). Bonus, I got to carry a golf club everywhere at all times.

So, a win-win, as far as I'm concerned.

I think back in those days one reason for the mandatory public display of nudity was to see whose body was most developed. That's how schools, peers and the community at large knew which boy/young man had the biggest penis.

what.

 

[madisen622]

gym has never been a great experience for me. team sports were THE WORST, i always got picked last because i wasn't good at the sports we were playing: kickball, flag football, volleyball. i didn't like running around on the track as well, the heat in my state (florida) is awful. grade school was all in all a rough experience, i was generally depressed most of the time and had to take summer school. i also remember dropping one of my elective classes in my last year of high school, i don't wish i could go back for the experience i only want to go back for the "childhood" aspect. i felt the most supported back then.

 

[Aspychata]

Gym was gym. But l loved baseball. Running was fun. Basketball was a rush. But l hated dodgeball in junior high were l was slammed by balls from pervy inmature boys.

 

[Crossbreed]

But, I excelled in volleyball.

I liked volleyball, too, but I only played it in church youth group.

 

[Sherlock77]

One memory is imprinted in my mind, from my elementary years... Playing badminton with myself in a small corner right next to the gym, apparently because I had trouble hitting the birdy... And I was also one of the last people chosen for team sports

I did enjoy the 12 minute run though, probably my best sport

 

[velociraptor]

I did enjoy the 12 minute run though, probably my best sport

I was only ever able to walk for the twelve minutes and I took a lot of abuse from classmates over it. I was born with a serious heart defect that prevents me from running, ever. Kids can be cruel to those with disabilities, including the better hidden ones. It was my mosted hated class.

I ran into my junior high PE teacher a few years ago. He asked how I was and I pointed out that his trying to get me to run in class back in the day probably contributed to the additional heart damage I have now. I don't think he enjoyed the conversation.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I hated it. I was so embarrassed by my ineptness. And being chosen last in team sports. By middle school we were required to take naked showers. Hated that too.

 

[Judge]

I hated the culture of PE class and all the coaches. Where it seemed that unless you were a bonafide "jock", you had no chance of getting a decent grade in PE. How you scored on the physical agility tests was everything. Where you wore gold for the highest scores, then white, then red. Everyone else wore blue.

Made it easy for the coaches to grade you based on the color of your gym shorts.

All the way up to my last year in High School when a new teacher unimpressed by the institutional status quo judged students on effort alone. I got my first "A". It felt good. Maybe he was just color blind.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

My swimming class was done in the nude. That was back in 1962.

 

[Darkkin]

Gym was only required through 7th grade in my hometown. Organized sports weren't the order of the day. We played a lot of dodge ball, softball (I was fine out in left field), gymnastics, climbing (both of which I loved because of the sensory input), and kickball.

It didn't suck, and I was weirdly effective in dodge ball, usually the last one left one my side. I can't throw worth a darn, so I just dodged until time ran out.

 

[Magna]

I don't know where you're from, but at no time in the history of The State of California, did they require you to be naked at school.

This happened in northern Minnesota to a co-worker of mine. He attended high school in the 1950s. I just googled about the topic and it seems compulsory nude swimming was mandatory for boys in most places in the U.S. until as late as the early 1960s.