20 and dead unfit

'They f**k you up, your Mum and Dad,
they may not mean to but they do...'

- This Be The Verse, by Philip Larkin

I found that the trouble with PE teachers was that they didn't actually TEACH you sport. If you were good at it, you got to practice doing what you could already do, and if you weren't good they just sighed and ignored you. In one instance a PE teacher called me a "spastic" which to this day I find incredible.

I was hopeless at football and rugby at school, and as a result was unfit because nobody wanted me to play. But nobody took the trouble to show me how to play. It's a viscious circle.

When I started running (I can't remember why I started. To exercise the dog I think.) I discovered it was good to be fit and was actually quite sporty at University (rowing mostly and a bit of social cricket) which would probably have stunned my PE teacher back then. I did well at rowing because it wasn't just assumed that everyone would know how to do it and we were actually coached.

To all those politicians who mutter about sports in our schools - stop trying to make champions. Don't concentrate all your effort on trying to find the next David Beckham/Paula Radcliffe etc. There are thousands of kids who would actually enjoy their sport, and who'd get up from their playstations/books and run around a bit, if only the teachers would stop concentrating on the kids with natural talent and spend a bit of time on the "spastics" to give them enough skill at sport to have fun and keep fit.

Okay I'm off the hobby horse now.

Welcome to the world of those who were despised by PE teachers, but now love sport.
Since being written off as a softie who can't play anything I have become a successful cricket coach after a successful 15 yrs playing at a good level, acheived a black belt in martial arts, run a marathon and completed qualifications in sports psychology. If my PE teacher was on fire, would I cross the street to put the fire out?
What do you think?
I was never coached, never encourgaed, never made to believe I was anything other than crap.
What was on my mind the moment I completed FLM.?
This will show the B*****d.
Scum.
Rant over

I'm nice really!

You have your moments!

Just touchede a nerve there folks.
I'm fine

Thanks

You're list of achievements make me look like the southern woose(sic!) I am. If you leave that one thread alone (and you know which one I'm talking about) I might even get to wax lyrical about you.

PS if they're on fire you could always do what you did in that blokes drive!