Its three years till the London Olympics begin. The stadium is coming together, the trains are getting sorted out, we're on budget, we're on time. So lets start moaning about legacy.
The BBC have just thrown out the stats that people are not taking up sports like swimming and gymnastics, but they are taking up table tennis.
Can I throw out a thought: in my years of teaching/ young people's work I've noticed that young people don't like doing sports that mean they have to get their bodies out. There is something about school PE which makes this worse, the struggling into kit at the very moments when your body is least in control of itself. Its only natural then that people are less keen to take up the sports which mean you have to do that daily.
The way round it: I don't fully know. Better changing facilities in schools. Sportswear manufacturers making good kit for bigger people (thats a whole other point but I think thats important). Maybe assuring people that they are good, that a tiny bit of flab or hair or cellulite doesn't mean they can't do sports..
The BBC have just thrown out the stats that people are not taking up sports like swimming and gymnastics, but they are taking up table tennis.
Can I throw out a thought: in my years of teaching/ young people's work I've noticed that young people don't like doing sports that mean they have to get their bodies out. There is something about school PE which makes this worse, the struggling into kit at the very moments when your body is least in control of itself. Its only natural then that people are less keen to take up the sports which mean you have to do that daily.
The way round it: I don't fully know. Better changing facilities in schools. Sportswear manufacturers making good kit for bigger people (thats a whole other point but I think thats important). Maybe assuring people that they are good, that a tiny bit of flab or hair or cellulite doesn't mean they can't do sports..
Comments
me until year 11 when I leanrt not to care what others thought.
Denbigh did things pretty well I think, a very covered up pe kit, and any sport that required less clothes (ie swimming) was totally sex seperated.
They obviously had their reasons for doing it that way but I think it helped foster a better image of sport. :-)
At school I hated changing in front of other people, over 10 years on, I'm perfectly happy changing communally because I'm grown up enough to realise that no one else cares!
The other problem with PE is the amount of time pupils are forced to do sports they hate or are no good at. If you'd told me at age 14 that I'd be going to the gym willingly 3 times a week, I wouldn't have believed you! But on my own terms I'm perfectly happy with it!
Liz x (an infrequent lurker!)