I've been thinking a lot today about how much I used to hate P.E. class.
I used to attribute my disdain to the fact that I was a fat kid and got made fun of a lot in that class... they make you wear some horrible little flimsy outfit that hugs every curve and displays every jiggle. But there's a deeper problem that I am only now becoming aware of. It comes from my experiences teaching martial arts and being a personal trainer, working with individuals and groups and teaching complicated movement patterns. In both of these disciplines, there's a structure and a progression to what and how you teach people. When a client or a student comes to you for lessons, it's your responsibility to perform some sort of evaluation of their physical state. You see their strengths and their weaknesses and you develop a plan to build upon both. You learn how to challenge them, but not to the point where they endanger themselves by doing to much too fast. You give them a foundation of skills to work on and when they become adept at the basics they move on to more advanced skills. You essentially give them the tools to build themselves from the ground up.
This method is pretty much used across the board. When you are in a math class, you learn how to count before you learn how to add and subtract. You move on to multiplication and division with single numbers progressing on to more complicated equations and algebra and so on. In art you learn lines and shapes and color before you learn texture, shading, and foreshortening. Every advancement is built with more basic fundamentals. The only exception to this rule that I've seen, is your modern P.E. class.
Now this is completely anecdotal, but I've been to three different elementary schools, two middle schools, and three high schools and hardly have I seen a general P.E. class that is anything but non-instructed running, calisthenics, and sports. Now, in some of the specific P.E. classes, such as racket sports or weight lifting, I have actually been taught proper techniques and actually did develop some sort of physical aptitude. But this wasn't until I did my last two years at Auburn High. Every single other P.E. class I attended was very poorly structured, most heinously being my middle school classes. From 6th to 8th grade, I found myself in more horrible situations than any other span of time. Teachers would demand two or three mile runs without even touching on proper running form. Teachers would allow me to get under 135 lbs of weight without ever having touched a free weight bench press in my life. No instruction and no supervision. I would be asked to climb a rope, but not shown how to do it, and when I made a fool out of myself in front of all my fellow students, I was laughed at and berated.
More emphasis was put on teaching kids rules and objectives to games or sports, then just letting us run around trying to score points to win games. They encouraged competition over cooperation and taught us that winners were better than losers just before letting us sort ourselves into those categories. I remember the faces of multiple coaches that goaded me on and told me to hustle when I couldn't run more than two laps on the track due to my horrible running technique. They never said "Straighten up your posture Rob! Land on your mid foot and keep your legs under you. Just fall forward and let gravity do the work." They just told me to run faster and made it obvious they thought I was a lazy ass.
I thought all the hardship I went through was completely my fault and I used to hate myself for being so weak. It affected my self image, my social life, my eating habits, my sleep, my prospects on my future... everything. Thank god I joined martial arts and Mr. Thrush's weight training class so that way I could learn what it meant to have a decent instructor who gave a damn. Otherwise things would be far different for me now.
But that's not the point of this blurb. I want to illuminate how far down the drain our nations physical education system is right now. Kids are not learning how to move correctly, they're not being educated in physical fitness, they're being taught how to score points and compete against one another. I see it all the time in the kids I work with, they'll practically be verbally decapitating each other for shit like someone using their hands in soccer or double dribbling. They say horrible things to each other whether they win or lose, it's a fight and the blows are dealt in points and insults.
Kids are being taught that "Fitness and Exercise" is synonymous with "Torture and Punishment". Punishment for being fat or weak. They come to school hopped up on sugar from their coco puffs orange juice and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They eat more shit at lunch (being told that chocolate milk is healthy. Fucking healthy?) and then get put through the paces in the most degrading way possible. Then parents and teachers yell at them for playing rough or swinging on the monkey bars because they don't want them to get hurt, so when the kid has to do something challenging or scary, they freeze and give up because they're afraid of taking risks It's no wonder kids would rather sit in front of the television playing video games or watching T.V. They don't know how to go outside and use their bodies to express their innate natural freedom. .
If we could just change the way we look at physical education and nutrition, we would see the far reaching effects it has on building confidence, discipline, and character. If we had teachers that actually knew how to teach functional movement patterns and real practical physical skills, along with proper nutrition, how many kids would be more level headed down to earth people; less depressed and more exuberant than ever. I truly believe that every school in the nation needs to have a properly functioning natural movement curriculum for their kids. A program that teaches cooperation, not competition, efficient movement skills, not bullshit sports. I'd be willing to bet that if we did things right in this area, we would see improvements in all other aspects of schooling. Math, science, and reading scores would probably go up greatly with happier healthier kids. Student violence would see a significant decrease, while graduation rates would be on a steady rise.
I hope I can continue to learn from the great teachers that I am blessed to encounter, and I hope I can pass their knowledge on to the next generation because if we lose touch with our health, we give up control to the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies. I don't want to imagine my future kids popping ten different pills every morning, noon, and night just to function because they didn't learn how to take care of themselves. God knows there's more than enough people who live in that reality already.
I didn't really start making a difference in my own life until I joined the martial arts and began to learn how to properly use my body and mind. I began to understand my own energy and I found ways of expressing that energy through my movement. I learned little by little until I had become a personal trainer, I learned more and more until I got my black sash, and today I'm still learning as much as I can because every step I take is a link off of the chain that binds me. Every new movement I learn or ability I develop is a tool in my belt that I can use to truly be as free as a human can be. I think of it as though a bird is meant to fly, and can not feel free without the ability to fly. A human is meant to move, and can not feel free without the ability to move.
The effect has shone through in my relationship that became a marriage, my hobby which became a profession, and my existence which became a life. If it can do all this for me, then there are others who can benefit from it as well. I hope everyone reading this can look at their own training not just in terms of getting physically stronger or losing weight or becoming a better fighter... but rather in how it defines their character. How it is the process of turning your darkness into light and how you bring that light to the rest of the world.
I'll stop there, it's getting late and I have to cook up some grub before I hit the sack. Let me know what you think in the comments section or shoot me a message.
Till next time.
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