Why is school sport always about competition ?

[sean@mastodon.me.uk]

Why is school sport always about competition ?

Adults do sport for their health, to be sociable, and just as a fun thing to do.

Very few adults compete in sport - and even then it's mostly just for fun.

#sport

[afewbugs@social.coop]

@sean It's a very good point. I absolutely hated sport at school, it was only after I left that I realised I actually enjoyed exercise, it was the pressure of the competitive part that I hated

[vapaad@wandering.shop]

@afewbugs @sean I loved doing cross country because of this! There were those of us who were there for the competition and then the larger majority that were there to either train for another sport, just have a sport on their college application, or truly just for fun.

The coaches didn't make anyone feel bad about what they were there for as long as they showed up and put in some effort.

[afewbugs@social.coop]

@Lilysea @sean it was also the only thing taught by assuming you were already good at it and shaming those who weren't, rather than helping them improve

[mason@partychickens.net]

@Lilysea @afewbugs @sean That matches my experience. I got sun poisoning during a field day. It was miserable. School days! I can at least say I survived them.

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@Lilysea @afewbugs @sean

I hated competitive sport and PE / games in school, but as soon as I got hold of any bicycle in my teens or young adulthood could cycle 40-50km or more a day with ease, so clearly can't have been that unfit or unwilling to exercise

[natalyad@disabled.social]

@afewbugs

So very much this about the already good at and shaming.

I'm very visibly physically disabled and despite my parents liaising directly with the PE teachers, they were still constantly stupid about forcing me to do painful stuff.

They also did stupid stuff like reward the fastest runner of 1 race with 100 merits (the max merits usually expected in a year) as if this would motivate us (I refused to collect or log merits which pissed school off).

@Lilysea @sean

[maker_of_things@cupoftea.social]

@afewbugs @Lilysea @sean
Yep.
School, back in the 70's 80s never taught any sports, except swimming. The assumption was that given a ball we could play rounders, football, basketball, cricket, and table tennis.

School found I was the fastest runner, as when I ran away from school due to bullying, no one could catch me.

They entered me, and one of the bullies, into the interschool athletics competition, 100m, 200m, and long jump.

No training, no coaching, just run around a lot in the school playground in advance of the competition.
It was awful. We had gym shoes vs studded running shoes, and no one told me long jump wasn't the same as jumping a gap to get away from bullies.
What's with the hop, skip, swing your arms around a bit before jumping thing?

[mikefromlfe@cupoftea.social]

@vfrmedia @Lilysea @afewbugs @sean
And that's pretty much how I got into cycling as well.

[sean@mastodon.me.uk]

@Lilysea @afewbugs I often say school put people off sport, maths, and cabbage

Sport was all about competition instead of fun

Maths - I mean I loved maths - but I get how most people didn't (how do we have a core subject that 40% of people "fail" at)

and cabbage - so overcooked!

[sean@mastodon.me.uk]

Why is competition seen as more character building than co-operation ???

What kind of character are they building?

Give me co-operative colleagues any day of the week - and doubly so on any day I'm paddling on the sea.

[emily_s@mastodon.me.uk]

@Maker_of_Things @afewbugs @Lilysea @sean "what do you mean you don't know how to play football? It's just like on the telly" that was in the 90s

[sean@mastodon.me.uk]

@emily_s @Maker_of_Things @afewbugs @Lilysea

... people who say they love sport - but mean they like watching other people do it on TV ...

.. TV watching is not a sport!

[sean@mastodon.me.uk]

I'm very lucky that my son is better at sport than I ever was - and actually enjoys PE at school.

I still think it odd that they are missing out on doing the kind of sports grown ups do voluntarily - for fun - on the weekend.

[afewbugs@social.coop]

@sean @emily_s @Maker_of_Things @Lilysea I mean I love watching Bake Off, doesn't mean I could bake a showstopper

[emilyvanartist@mastodon.social]

@sean I totally agree (and think the competitive nature of education in general is a deeply harmful abomination), but sport isn't *always*... Lots of schools are taking up Ultimate, which is less competitive.

[swaldman@mendeddrum.org]

@Lilysea @afewbugs @sean oh boy, I remember this. I especially remember the ex-army PE teacher who felt that if you couldn't run 3 miles you weren't really trying, and that he could fix this by running alongside and shouting at you.

I started refusing to go to school on days with PE. And put me off gyms etc for life.

[tubemeister@mstdn.social]

@NatalyaD @afewbugs @Lilysea @sean *nods in asthma*

PE teachers of the 80s/90s are what the saying "the shouting will continue until morale improves" was invented for.

(I know the original saying is "beatings", that was before my time.)

[benjamineskola@hachyderm.io]

@afewbugs @Lilysea @sean yeah that was my experience too.

Cross-country running was just ‘run around the park while we time you’. Then repeat every week for one term a year. Zero advice on how to do better. (Even compared to football or rugby or something, where there were at least training exercises, even if I never got particularly better at those either.)

It was only as an adult that I found that there are ways to get better at it over time and that it’s quite enjoyable then.

[phlash@mastodon.me.uk]

@emilyvanartist @sean ^^ this. It's a pile of perverse incentives driving schools to "achieve" in sport as elsewhere... the rot of competition is everywhere