School and college sports

[Ticklishchap]

I would not like to go to a school reunion, it's too long ago now.

Yes we too had corporal punishment from some of the masters, also the prefects could award detentions and or making you have to write out large quantities of lines. Different times. !

I remember several times having to write out lines for my Geography master for misbehaving in his class - and once having to run around the Rugger fields for same reason. Something about that subject and that master brought out the worst in me.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Speaking of sports and punishment...our baseball coach in high school would make us "run the fence". This consisted of starting at one corner of the outfield fence and sprinting to the first post along the chain-link fence, then sprinting back to the start...then sprinting to the second post, then sprinting back...then to the third post...and on and on until we reached the other corner. It was absolute hell. Guys would regularly have to stop and throw up.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Speaking of sports and punishment...our baseball coach in high school would make us "run the fence". This consisted of starting at one corner of the outfield fence and sprinting to the first post along the chain-link fence, then sprinting back to the start...then sprinting to the second post, then sprinting back...then to the third post...and on and on until we reached the other corner. It was absolute hell. Guys would regularly have to stop and throw up.

Sounds hellish indeed! Sprinting was a frequent part of our training and not my favourite activity. As for throwing up, I remember coming close to that several times in Rugger practices in the cold at the start of term - after several weeks of sitting around being lazy during the holidays! I also remember the shock of being 'back on eccer' after several weeks off with a minor leg injury.

 

[Ticklishchap]

One other somewhat esoteric aspect of all this was the 'friendly' matches that took place every do often between masters and boys. The atmosphere of these games was burlesque and anarchic. I remember tackling my form master and bringing him crashing to the ground. He was ex-Navy and supposedly very fit. At the match tea afterwards, he whispered in my ear "this means war". The masters' team won however!

 

[2jakes]

During P.E. in school.
The coach had the entire class run the track.
It was the size of a football field.
There was about 30 of us.
After half an hour it was only two of us.
I went into 2nd drive and beyond pain
and won.
When I finished, I stopped too soon & felt like a thousand needles
had been shot into my legs.
I kept moving & eventually the pain went away.

I was just a kid in school, had no idea what I was doing,
except I liked to run.

 

[Ticklishchap]

During P.E. in school.
The coach had the entire class run the track.
It was the size of a football field.
There was about 30 of us.
After half an hour it was only two of us.
I went into 2nd drive and beyond pain
and won.
When I finished, I stopped too soon & felt like a thousand needles
had been shot into my legs.
I kept moving & eventually the pain went away.

I was just a kid in school, had no idea what I was doing,
except I liked to run.

Congratulations. It was a sign of great things to come.

 

[HudsonHawk]

One other somewhat esoteric aspect of all this was the 'friendly' matches that took place every do often between masters and boys. The atmosphere of these games was burlesque and anarchic. I remember tackling my form master and bringing him crashing to the ground. He was ex-Navy and supposedly very fit. At the match tea afterwards, he whispered in my ear "this means war". The masters' team won however!

I can't help but be reminded of the masters/students rugby match scene in Monty Python's Meaning of Life:

 

[Ticklishchap]

I can't help but be reminded of the masters/students rugby match scene in Monty Python's Meaning of Life:

Most of the Monty Python team went to this type of school and this inspired a lot of their humour. It's funny because it's a (slightly!) exaggerated version of the truth.

 

[Ticklishchap]

I can't help but be reminded of the masters/students rugby match scene in Monty Python's Meaning of Life:

Thanks for reminding me just how good that sketch is. I remember being cheered on by my House master and sometimes my form master from the touch line and it really added to the pressure.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

I remember several times having to write out lines for my Geography master for misbehaving in his class - and once having to run around the Rugger fields for same reason. Something about that subject and that master brought out the worst in me.

Sometimes for no apparent reason a school master and pupil just could not get on.

Seeing most recent posts reminds me that we too sometimes had to run right aound the edge of the playing field several times, I loathed having to do that. We had a very large playing field.!

 

[Ticklishchap]

Sometimes for no apparent reason a school master and pupil just could not get on.

Seeing most recent posts reminds me that we too sometimes had to run right aound the edge of the playing field several times, I loathed having to do that. We had a very large playing field.!

It wasn't so much that we didn't get on but I just stretched the boundaries a bit in his classes and was cheeky!
Running round the fields as a warm up was doubtless healthy but it could be gruelling.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

I remember several times having to write out lines for my Geography master for misbehaving in his class - and once having to run around the Rugger fields for same reason. Something about that subject and that master brought out the worst in me.

I Do remember being given 100 lines at secondary school, when I had handed them in to the master, he took one look at them and my bad handwriting and decided that I needed writing practice and gave me a further 200 lines! I think the most I was given was about 350 which was lucky as sometimes 500 or 1000 were given out. (Many years on, my handwriting is still bad.!)

Getting back to the sports aspect of this thread, one ironic thing that happened to me, is that although I loathed the subject, because I was good runner and had completed a number of tasks in the PT/Gym lessons, I was given a certificate by the AAA. This caused amusement to me, at home and the PT Master himself. (Nice though.)

 

[Ticklishchap]

Getting back to the sports aspect of this thread, one ironic thing that happened to me, is that although I loathed the subject, because I was good runner and had completed a number of tasks in the PT/Gym lessons, I was given a certificate by the AAA. This caused amusement to me, at home and the PT Master himself. (Nice though.)

Congratulations! I remember getting a couple of school awards for cross country running and a most improved player prize for Rugby when I was quite junior in the school, around 14. One of the things I recall is that sporting achievements were in many ways more highly prized than academic achievements. When our House Rugger team won, we always were invited to tea by my Housemaster. I also remember on one occasion when I was in the sixth form (my year before A Levels), my form master invited me for a drink afterwards simply for 'playing well' but barely mentioned the essay prize I had won at roughly the same time.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Re. attitudes to sport at college: in my first year at university I had two tutors, one (the older man) was extremely pro-sport, the other very anti and thought it was a 'complete waste of time'.

 

[Ticklishchap]

It's the sort of afternoon here - damp, grey, drizzle - when we would hope a Rugger match would be rained off but almost invariably wasn't! We often had to continue in pouring rain. ...

 

[2jakes]

It's been damp & drizzling as well.
But very fortunate that for the most part the weather is mostly sunny.
Which allows me to pursue my passion.

"Foot-Fault!"

 

[Ticklishchap]

I admire you for being so fit at your age - an inspiration to us all.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Sometimes for no apparent reason a school master and pupil just could not get on

As I said in my previous post, it wasn't that we didn't get along. It was just that he was quite formal, exact and literal-minded in his approach and this made me more inclined to be cheeky. He was relatively young and had the same sartorial taste as me: he usually wore corduroy trousers and a Navy Guernsey sweater beneath a Tweed jacket. He was a conscientious but unimaginative teacher. I was a guest at his house for tea several times and he was a courteous but always very 'correct' host.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

It's the sort of afternoon here - damp, grey, drizzle - when we would hope a Rugger match would be rained off but almost invariably wasn't! We often had to continue in pouring rain. ...

Yes they would not have called off a games lesson at my school even if it was really pouring with rain or even a bit of snow, then we had to have showers afterwards which were quite cold too.

 

[Edward]

Yes they would not have called off a games lesson at my school even if it was really pouring with rain or even a bit of snow, then we had to have showers afterwards which were quite cold too.

That sounds familiar. The sadists and bullies remployed as Games "teachers" in our school would never have let us off easily. I gues it was character buildsing in that they didn't break me (the opne time a games teacher tried to take me on in a battled of wills, he lost - in front of the entire class), but it was a collosal waste of my time. My not only total disinterest but outright contempt for sport as a passtime is directly linked to these "lessons".