British school sports in the winter

Status
Not open for further replies.

talktidy

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
896
Reaction score
86
Location
Fabulous Sweyn's Eye
Oh, God, this topic is bringing back horrible memories.

I live in S Wales, any outdoor sport comes with lashing of rain and sodden earth. I loathed hockey, because the bloody ball would get caught on divots and never go where you directed it. I still shudder, when I catch a whiff of the right combination of mud and trampled grass.

A teacher in my primary school took us to a field - not a proper grass covered field, mind you, but one full of a sort of cinder material - dished out hockey sticks and a ball, but gave us no instructions on how to play the game. 'Twas a wonder no one emerged with a black eye.

I also loathed netball. All those rules about where you as a particular player were and weren't allowed to move on a court.

The only game I had any time for, mostly because we played it indoors, was dodgeball. This was in a state school. An all girls school, with an intake from 13 onwards. I don't know how other schools played it, but ours fashioned an impromptu court out of gym benches, with a bench divider in the middle. The class was split between the courts, and our gym teacher chucked in a ball into each court and left us to get on with it. We're talking about a period back in the dawn of time, but I seem to remember that there were nominated players given the job of hitting the opposing team in their court. They occupied the bench in the middle and were fed the ball, when the opposing team missed. Those who got hit were out. After a while our teacher stopped our fun, by banning headshots and insisting we hit below hip height.

I seem to remember the more tactically astute waited until their team had both balls and then double-teamed their prey. I'm actually a bit hazy on the rules, but I think that is because our teacher would change things up to keep us on our toes.

As I said a long time ago, so I don't know whether kids play the same sort of game today. Obsessions with health and safety makes me think maybe not.
 

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 24, 2011
Messages
23,083
Reaction score
10,777
Location
Where faults collide
Website
doggedlywriting.blogspot.com
My impression is that they are far less inclined to be weather wusses in the UK than in many parts of the US. The times I've been there, I've seen people out playing football, rugby, running, riding horses etc. in weather that would have US school kids inside (in the gym) playing dodge ball, volleyball or basketball. I grew up in CA, and our riding instructor would blanch and have us and pull the saddles off the horses, then cancel our lessons when it rained more than a few drops, because "water ruins leather." It doesn't appear to ruin saddle leather in the UK--maybe they make more liberal use of saddle soap there. Nor does playing soccer in the rain "ruin" the grass in the UK as everyone seems to think it will do here in CA.

Actually, come to think of it, I don't even know what indoor sports they play (in gymnasiums) across the pond. Basketball and volleyball are popular in the US. Do they play basketball and volleyball much in the UK?

Maybe that's why they move kids' PE classes inside in the winter in the US. Because we have popular games that can be played indoors. It's al;so true that in some parts of the US the winters do a lot more than rain or snow lightly--they have persistent drifts of snow that partially melt then refreeze to make a horrible crust on top.
 

frimble3

Heckuva good sport
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
11,574
Reaction score
6,396
Location
west coast, canada
Nor does playing soccer in the rain "ruin" the grass in the UK as everyone seems to think it will do here in CA.
All I know about soccer I learned from the guys at work, British and European guys, one an amateur ref. Vancouver is probably a lot wetter than most of California, but the guys same things about rain and soccer fields. Apparently it's not that the rain is bad for the grass, grass likes rain. It's when you get a heavy rain and it soaks the ground, making mud and loosening roots - grass does not like being mashed.
Then when the players run across it, the ground gets muddier, the grass gets looser, and when the players skid, they make long grooves in the turf, in addition to the general trampling of the grass into the mud.
The field has to have the mud smoothed out and the grass re-grown before the field can be used safely again.
There is nothing sadder than two lines of gloomy men, in their shorts and long socks, after their game has been cancelled.
To make themselves feel better requires a lot of beer and some grousing about the shortcomings of artificial turf.
 
Last edited:

Bolero

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 2, 2013
Messages
1,080
Reaction score
106
Location
UK
Indoor games - depends if the school has a gym or a full on sports centre - the latter being larger with courts
In wet weather/PE lesson have variously done:

Tag - where one person starts out chasing and touching the others - or pulling a band off them (usually tucked into shorts) and you gradually build a team and wipe out the other other side - one way chasing. Can avoid by climbing bars up the wall etc.

Movement to music - not for the artistically challenged and bloody annoying as far as I am concerned

Doing proper gym - as in somersaults on mats, jumping over vaulting horses

Circuit training - short sprints, jumping on and off gym benches, squat thrusts, star jumps, jogging on the spot

Or if you have a sports centre, playing badminton, or sprinting the length, or even five a side football on small pitches - but games like 5 a side, or badminton, take up more space so can only be done with smaller classes.

Not ever encountered basketball in the UK. I've once played volleyball, I think it was at school and hated it for the way it jarred my wrists. Wasn't commonly played way back when.

All the gyms I encountered had ropes from the ceiling that you had to set up by pulling them across - on a very strong curtain rail up at the ceiling. Bars on the walls - that could be climbed fixed to the wall, or pulled out from the wall like opening a door and parquet floors.
More modern school buildings probably have something different and some sort of different floor.
 
Last edited:

waylander

Who's going for a beer?
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 24, 2005
Messages
8,278
Reaction score
1,566
Age
65
Location
London, UK
I agree, depends on how much space they've got but 5-a-side soccer would be my first call.
 

neandermagnon

Nolite timere, consilium callidum habeo!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Messages
7,271
Reaction score
9,335
Location
Dorset, UK
Dodgeball question:

My 9 year old plays dodgeball in school PE and also they sometimes run a dodgeball club during the half term holiday (one week off mid term) which my kid's gone along to before. They play indoors in the hall* with a foam ball and school PE benches. There are several different games they play with the same equipment, not just dodgeball. I watched my kid at dodgeball club, one of the games involved a prison area where kids are captured and put in the "prison" and they have to be released by kids on their other teams throwing balls. I couldn't follow the rules.

I've heard of a game similar to dodgeball being played in secondary schools too but it was run as part of a lesson on netball so specifically geared to improving netball skills - it wasn't so much that you try to hit players with the ball - you have to throw the ball so it can be caught by one of your own players not one of the other team's players. It was played with netballs not foam balls.

*in most primary schools they'll have one school hall that's for assembly, PE and lunches with furniture/equipment that can easily be put out and put away.
 

neandermagnon

Nolite timere, consilium callidum habeo!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Messages
7,271
Reaction score
9,335
Location
Dorset, UK
Not ever encountered basketball in the UK. I've once played volleyball, I think it was at school and hated it for the way it jarred my wrists. Wasn't commonly played way back when.

PE's changed a fair bit in recent decades. When I was a kid it was just football, rugby and cricket for the boys and netball, hockey and rounders for the girls. I hated it (though hockey was okay) and wanted to be playing rugby with the boys. Indoor PE I did pretty similar stuff to what you described.

These days both boys and girls play all the sports and they also include sports like basketball quite often. My oldest plays basketball at secondary school.

All the gyms I encountered had ropes from the ceiling that you had to set up by pulling them across - on a very strong curtain rail up at the ceiling. Bars on the walls - that could be climbed fixed to the wall, or pulled out from the wall like opening a door and parquet floors.
More modern school buildings probably have something different and some sort of different floor.

I was thinking of the same thing - wasn't sure how to describe it. The schools I went to and my kids' primary school (can't remember about the secondary school I think they have a dedicated PE hall) had bars like this on the wall that got pulled out for PE if we were doing actual gym and left where they were for other types of PE lessons or when the hall was being used for lunch, assembly etc. I also remember when we had to sit on benches by the bars in PE (e.g. while waiting your turn to do the activity) some of the kids used to climb up the bars and get shouted at by the PE teacher, lol.
 

neandermagnon

Nolite timere, consilium callidum habeo!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Messages
7,271
Reaction score
9,335
Location
Dorset, UK
My impression is that they are far less inclined to be weather wusses in the UK than in many parts of the US. The times I've been there, I've seen people out playing football, rugby, running, riding horses etc. in weather that would have US school kids inside (in the gym) playing dodge ball, volleyball or basketball. I grew up in CA, and our riding instructor would blanch and have us and pull the saddles off the horses, then cancel our lessons when it rained more than a few drops, because "water ruins leather." It doesn't appear to ruin saddle leather in the UK--maybe they make more liberal use of saddle soap there. Nor does playing soccer in the rain "ruin" the grass in the UK as everyone seems to think it will do here in CA.

Actually, come to think of it, I don't even know what indoor sports they play (in gymnasiums) across the pond. Basketball and volleyball are popular in the US. Do they play basketball and volleyball much in the UK?

Maybe that's why they move kids' PE classes inside in the winter in the US. Because we have popular games that can be played indoors. It's al;so true that in some parts of the US the winters do a lot more than rain or snow lightly--they have persistent drifts of snow that partially melt then refreeze to make a horrible crust on top.

It depends on a lot of things. In secondary school it will depend on timetabling, i.e. it may not be possible to change the location of an outdoor PE class to indoors if there's already another class in the hall. Though if there's gale force winds they will reschedule. A little bit of rain isn't much of a health and safety hazard but strong winds are. Also, there are legal issues with showers (stricter child protection and showers involve being naked) so they won't want kids getting too wet/muddy. I just asked my kid who's at secondary school - they don't even have showers any more ("there used to be but now it's a PE cupboard"). Also, temperature isn't a factor - rain or snow would be the issue, albeit snow shuts down the whole country so it's likely if it's snowing that much they won't be at school. Note: snow that doesn't settle won't close places down.

There's quite a big difference between school PE and activities that people choose to do of their own accord - I've done rugby training at my local club during a storm that was strong enough to have a name* (I've forgotten the name of the storm) but we were all there because we chose to be. School PE is compulsory so not all the kids will want to be there in the first place, never mind outdoors in horrible weather.

*they're named the way hurricanes are named but they're just called "storm Barry" or whatever, rather than hurricane

In primary schools they usually do change outdoor PE to indoor PE due to bad weather because they don't have the same facilities for changing and they won't want wet, muddy children in the classroom for the rest of the day.

Regarding pitches and rain damage, it depends on the soil type and also how high up the pitch is. Drainage is a major factor in some places.
 
Last edited:

Bolero

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 2, 2013
Messages
1,080
Reaction score
106
Location
UK
Good point on moving outdoor classes indoors. I remember one occasion (just the one) where we finished up sitting in a class room and were handed pen and paper and told to write out the rules of various sports from memory.
 

t0dd

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
2,014
Reaction score
896
Thanks for the comments. I've decided to use some sort of dodgeball-type game, since it fits the needs of the scene the best.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.