Your recounting of gym class was while not exactly my experience ( the hockey thing...whoa) but your dread?  My exact feelings.  In high school they use to make us run the track...I would hide behind a hay stack for 2 laps and then jump up and run the last one...every single time.  I hated it!  And like you I love to move...I hike nearly every day, I love to cross country ski, swim, and kayak.  But team sports? No way.  As a kid I LOVED horse back riding. Oh and my Dad taught me how to dive..wasn't bad at that.

So sports and kids.  Well I must say I was not a model mother in this regard. In my defense my dd was coordinated but not a risk taker.  She could throw a ball like no tomorrow.  You know those Fair pitches for stuffed animals? She always nailed them.  But as far as being competitive and rushing to get to a ball? Pathetic.  She'd get there first and then notice the rush of kids around her and literally back up.  You can imagine that soccer was not a success with this kid.  And for me?  I. absolutely. hated. going. to. soccer. matches. So I stopped going, just couldn't fake it.

What did we do then?  I offered up dance, she did ice skating until they wanted to put her in ropes to improve the height of her jumps( no way, she said no), she learned to downhill ski and is very good. Finally she joined cross country and track in HS.

DD sometimes chides me on the soccer deal, but in my heart of hearts, I knew my kid and me as well.  It was not to be.

Good Luck.  As long as they are physcially active, great.  And if your DH is into team sports, well won't that be nice for ...HIM :)

I hate team sports and hated gym.  I especially hated dodge ball, which for some inexplicable reason we always called soakem.  I would always just walk straight up to the dividing line and catch the eye of someone on the other team, who would throw a ball lightly at me so I could go sit down.  This always worked, with the exception of hyper-competitive Merideth Lonseth, who threw a ball at me as hard as she could so I had to dodge it.  

I think it depends on the teacher, though.  In elementary school, I had a great teacher.  I didn't appreciate him, but I would love to have him for fitness now.  We did a mix of team sports, circusy things, dance and all sorts of things.  We never had team captains pick teams; we just counted off.  I don't know where he is, but he should be teaching gym teachers now.  I think the problem is, some people are drawn to teaching because they love teaching, and some are drawn to it because they couldn't make it at what they really wanted to do.  Those are the teachers who fail at two careers, their original one and teaching.

I think it's the teacher who makes the difference.  Simone took itty bitty basketball recently, and the teacher was a dream.  I was quite disappointed to hear on Wednesday that he left the Y for a job that actually pays him.  But he deserves it.

in a sports family. Everyone played tennis. My brother especially was a sports star and he got a lot of attention from my parents because of it. I went along with it and didn't mind really. I played sports all through high school - tennis, volleyball, and lacrosse. It was social and fun and I'm a pretty good athlete so I did well. But since I went to college, I don't think I've picked up a tennis racket more than a handful of times. I discovered that I loved hiking and yoga and running. Now I go to the gym regularly to get exercise.

I'm glad that my parents modeled having active interests. They are both fit and healthy. I want my kids to grow up viewing exercise as both fun and important for your health.

I never got much out of gym class. In fact, I barely remember it. I remember being in the locker room a lot more vividly, having to change in front of my friends which was something I didn't always love so much.

And my psychiatrist is out sick.  Oh, the humanity!

I love team sports.  I got in a great deal of trouble with the nuns in Thailand, because girls weren't supposed to play soccer.  I played every damn year since I was seven, until college and baby and now I'm old and fat and really should find an old fat person soccer league before I have heart attack.  (Or at least do more fencing.  Which can be done alone in tournaments or with thousands of your closest friends at WAAAAR!  Ahem.  Is it Estrella yet?)

But gym class was awful, because team sports are only the least bit enjoyable when the people involved want to be there.  Otherwise, ugh.  Ugh!

I kind of do think kids should play a team sport for while.  There are ton of valuable skills to be learned thus.  Of course, there's variation in the levels of teamwork and contact.  Baseball is like half team, half individual.  You can be on the tennis or wrestling team but not playing as a team.  Personally I hate individual sports.  Too much self-conciousness, and the ability to screw up publicly, with no teammates to help you out.

(I guess I should say I hate individual sports that aren't martial arts.  I was kind of humiliated to lose my one public sparring contest without landing a blow, but since then I've really managed to channel my agressiveness more effectively.  Swordfighting is great outlet after a stressful week.)

Well here's the good news.  PE classes like that are going out of style.  The trend is more toward individual fitness and creating experiences where kids don't feel left out.

I did well with community softball even though as the unpopular kid I was always picked last in gym class.  It drove the "captains" crazy at the end of the year when I could hit homeruns once we finally got around to softball after the mean girls had pegged me as unathletic.  I'm frustrated over the experience because it turned me off to anything athletic and I may have actually done well as the main thing holding me back was the social dynamics.

Fortunately I had nice PE teachers in elem school and high school but the middle school experience ruined a lot for me.

Note to any phys ed teachers out there: if a child fails the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, putting them in remedial gym class and making them run a mile every morning at 7:30 am ... in January ... will not instill a lifelong love of exercise. (Nor will giving them a C for the marking period due to aforementioned test failure ... thereby killing their hithertofore excellent chances at being valedictorian. Yes, I'm still bitter 12 years later.) It will also not help them to run the mile any faster, let alone do more push-ups or sit-ups or V-sit-and-reach-es.

Only once did I ever not get picked last for a team, and that was through an odd series of circumstances that meant after half the class had been chosen, I was the only one left in the room that the team captain knew, so he picked me rather than someone random (two schools had merged, all the captains had previously attended School A, I was from School B but had friends who had friends from School A). (Unfortunately, it was actually for a volleyball rotation ... and volleyball is easily my worst sport. That or softball.)

My high school actually had some dance rotations (square, ballroom, and line) and I was pretty good at that. Or at least not completely hopeless. And I did actually play on my school's bowling team my last two years (even made it to individual conference championships my senior year). But volleyball, softball, kickball,... won't go near those with a 10' pole.

By the way, I used to think that people were lying when they said that exercising gave them energy, because it always made me more tired. Turns out that's one of the major red flags for a sleep disorder (since your body can't properly clear out lactic acid) and now that my sleep disorder's being treated, it actually is true, and I enjoy exercising a heck of a lot more than I used to. But I still won't do it in front of other people—I do Pilates DVDs and hand weights at home, and walk and hike, but that's it.

The lawyer's answer to any question.

In grade school, we had a terrible gym teacher who barked orders at us (former Marine who regaled us with stories of his time min Lebanon . . .) and did the whole team-picking thing. I even asked him (in the 5th grade!) why he ordered team-picking when someone ended up getting their feelings hurt. His response? Most kids like to pick teams. Hmmm. Debatable.

I had an awesome junior high school gym teacher and enjoyed class a lot. Ditto high school.

I don't think it's necessary for every kid to like a team sport, or even any sport, so long as they "get" the joy of physical movement and well-being.

But since you'll never know what you like until to you try, and childhood is a great time for trying things, I think every kid needs to try.

and I was a brainiac, so you'd think no, but I did. I loved getting up in the middle of the day and moving around and changing and all that stuff, regardless of what it was I could do or not do. I couldn't do a pull up to save my life. I would just hang there like a big old lump. I still can't touch my toes (freakish long legs and t-rex sized arms). Gymnastics? I'd rather have wrestled. But I knew I couldn't do those things, so you know, who gives a fig? I used to walk the mile because I do not believe in running unless you're being chased. But I still had fun being mediocre at different sports, and gym class is the place where you can have a good time doing sports and you're not being overly-competitive and all that jazz.

What I wouldn't give for an adult version of that crazy ass football game we used to play with the big poles with the holes in them and you couldn't walk more than three feet without passing the football crazy nonsense game that was. I loved that game. And you didn't like the scooters? They were the bomb.  

Here's my thing- there is going to be things in life you don't like doing, and a decent enough attitude about them is going to make it better. I haaaaaaaaate listening to my in laws do the "gym class was the WORST" routine when they recount their high school days. "It's unfair, it's boring, people get chosen last, i was never coordinated so it was awful..."- if you don't care all that much about sports, what did it matter if you were good or not? Most gym teachers in my experience just wanted a modicum of effort. As far as my in-laws go, truth is they are a sedentary bunch and I think any person who told them to get up and move would have been the devil. And not to nitpick, but why should a teacher be respectful to a kid who is smart if they give off shitty attitudes in gym class? There were a lot of kids in my honors classes that would bitch about our gym teachers non-stop and I felt like saying, dude, if you talked to your English teacher the way you talk to your Gym teacher, like you're "so above" the subject, your English teacher would flunk you too.

I suppose it's exactly what Erin said upthread- gym can be like any class you're not particularly good at, if your teacher is in-your-face bitchy about stuff, it's not going to be a good time. But what I will try to do is teach my kids to TRY anything, do your best, take advantage of the limited amount of time you get to spend out from behind a desk and go for the C, if that's the best you can do. But respect the idea of the class, that there ARE things to learn from gym (health skills as well as working with people who don't necessarily share your academic standing) and it's worth learning.

is what we used to call it, rather than gym.  It was a mixed bag.  There definitely are some PE teachers out there who are pretty sadistic - I remember one whose punishment (luckily never inflicted upon me) was to make kids stare toward the sun for minutes on end.  He was a bit of a weirdo.

But the one I had in high school was great - she was really about fitness and getting everybody involved in a way that would be beneficial.  It was "life sports" so we did badminton, golf, roller skating, etc.  PE by that time was sex-segregated and I think that was a good thing too, at least for girls.  It may have been lousy for the boys who were not athletic, though.  The male PE teacher for the boys was more along the stereotypical jock line so he probably wasn't so good.

We never had any scooters!

Ofcourse I hated gym class.  Looking back, I now know that I had early stage autonomic dysfunction even when I was young.  There was a reason I couldn't physically keep up with the other kids.  There were some activities that worked better for me than others, and I can look back now and understand.  I, too, liked sports that seemed individualized.  I liked gymnastics.  I even liked tennis, because mainly we practiced serving...I liked it despite getting a concussion from being accidentally smacked in the head with a tennis racket!  Overall, though, I was not a happy camper in gym...I just didn't have the right vocabulary at the time to tell them it was making me sicker than a dog. Remember, I'm the one who blacked out several times a day and thought that was "normal", too.  Anyway, this problem, coupled with the fact that I was a very, very thin, pale blond left others with the impression that I was "not strong", or "frail".  I think my personality really formed around proving to people that I was at least as emotionally, intellectually and mentally strong as anyone else...in fact, I had to prove I was more so.  

My kids attended a performing arts school.  They had no gym class...rather, they had dance classes and conditioning classed.  They were allowed to choose which ones they wanted to do.  I think that would be a great alternative for kids.

Thankfully for me, marching band counted as a PE credit and I did not have to take PE after 8th grade.

I am not coordinated and no good at team sports. I hated PE class.

Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.  No way should I be parenting a little jock, but I am.  On the plus side I get out of the worst volunteer activities by explaining that I don't want to affect the children with my attitude - that usually does it.  I work the snack shack.  Soccer doesn't inspire the same visceral hatred but I don't like that either.  Standing around a field during a tedious team sport is unpleasant to me.

Of course I was completely traumatized as a child - my lack of depth perception wasn't diagnosed until I was an adult.  2-D vision is normal for me as I've never seen anything else, and I didn't know the other kids were seeing something that was invisible to me.  I could not figure out how they guessed when to swing the bat.  I can handle a ball that's on the ground, but if it's in the air I have absolutely no concept of where it is.  Naturally I was always picked last.  Baseball's the worst, but have you ever suffered the public humiliation of diving for a volleyball that's not coming down on your side of the net?

I don't think there was a point to the scooters, but I thought they were fun.  I remember the chaos and laughing my ass off scooting around.  I also remember people pushing other people on them and flying across the gym floor.  It's hard to figure out what type of skills were to be learned by using these tools.

I'm old enough to remember dodge ball... that was an evil sport.  I wasn't big into gym class either.  I remember getting my shins hacked up by effing field hockey sticks in 9th grade.  

Here's one part of gym class I never understood.  Square dancing.  Why the heck that was part of PE's curriculum is beyond me.  Now THAT I hated.  Talk about getting picked last for a team LOL.

Ahh.... memories. ;-)

I was also a model student and the only time I was removed from class to meet the teacher in her office was when I was reprimanded for "not trying" during sports.  When it was time to play baseball, I would go w-a-a-a-y out in the outfield and examine flowers.  Didn't pay any attention to the game at all.  

Then - horror of horrors - I was found to have scoliosis and needed to wear a brace to sraighten the curve.  I thought I was home free - can't do PE if I can't bend over, right?  Wrong!  The orthopedist asked that I wear the brace for 23 1/2 hours a day - he said 1/2 hour for a shower and an hour for PE.  And publicly removing and shoving that plastic brace into a too-small locker was horrifying for a self-conscious 15 year old!

I hated PE more than anything - essay tests, math quizzes, persuasive papers, dissecting things.  I spent more time worrying about PE than any other subject.  And I dreaded "President's Physical Fitness Week" like the flu.

When I became a mom, I told my DH that if our kids were going to do sports, it would be his responsibility to attend practices.  Never happened. TEN years later, I finally signed DS up for Taekwondo which he is absolutely loving.  His very first class for physical activity and I'm kicking myself I didn't think of it 3 years ago.

DS will probably never play a team sport with any kind of confidence but at least he has a chance of developing some gross motor skills.  Taekwondo is awesome!  I wish I didn't have vertigo or I might try it.

Omigod, I experience team sports as so incredibly boring. Truly, I don't get the hoopla about sports, either. I am pretty coordinated, but I think my introverted brain doesn't think fast enough to deal with 8 - 10 - 12 people running here and there, with some kind of ball involved. Because .... why? Same for watching sports, so boring.

Tennis, swimming, I get these, even on the competitive level (although I've never competed in any sport). Cycling and track, all good. And why can't school PE include yoga or martial arts?

Anyhoo, I once dated a guy who was incredulous that I didn't recognize a picture of Michael Jordan and didn't know he played for the Chicago Bulls, whoever they were. I was incredulous that he was incredulous - it doesn't seem like a requirement for a good life, to know about sports figures. My first awareness of Venus and Serena Williams was when they were on the cover of Vogue.

Ds, though, that is one active, fast, super coordinated, strong kid. So I have him in swimming (with an eye toward a future sport option) and mommy and me soccer this summer (with an emphasis on "me" hopefully). I do think he is a natural athlete, so I gotta figure this out. But please, lord, no interest in football, basketball, or baseball.