My experience with gym was most heinous, too. I can definitely sympathise with all the non-athletic folk out there! I was a gymnast, but was a complete klutz at any sport played with a ball. I was shy, too, so that didn't help. Elementary-school gym wasn't too bad 'cause we got to do fun things like square dancing and playing with parachutes, but by middle school it was a nightmare. I was awful at football. I was terrible at soccer. I couldn't hit the ball when we played softball, and I was even worse at basketball. That was a stroll in the garden compared to high school, when I had a tough coach for a teacher and kids in my class who would make fun of me relentlessly. I was singled out all the time for not being athletically inclined, and no one ever wanted me on their team.
But you know what? I'm still in favor of competitive sports in gym class. It was awful at the time, but it didn't scar me for life and I think it made me a little stronger just being able to get through it.
Life is competitive, and I think we'd be hurting kids if we coddled and babied them all through school. Not everyone is good at sports (like me!), but I was making A's in everything else while those kids who teased me barely scraped by, so I consider it a fair trade.
