Hesketh Fletcher Gym Team

Rob, Alan, Alfie A and others, why didn't you wear a jockstrap?
We were not allowed to wear pants but jockstraps were worn from 3rd form onwards.

June

I can remember the'ritual' of the jockstrap at school. Think overnight each and every boy had bought one ... another stepping stone toward manhood. Gosh how times have changed! Lord knows what ritual modern day kids follow today. But it was fun and simple in our time!

I agree with John but I have seen 'somewhere' a comment that making boys do gym shirtless is tantamount to child abuse. I've also come across a remark about a lady who saw two 11 y.o. boys going to school in shorts on a warm day in October and reported the mother to Social Services for 'child neglect'. (I don't agree with either of these commemts, BTW!)

Rob,
‘The tide comes in, the tide goes out’, I think that over time things may change again. Throughout the history of mankind nothing stays static, it may take a long time. I still believe that wearing shirts for gym should be optional for males and not compulsory.

I agree that it is much healthier being bare chested while exercising but sadly I can't see any way that PE lessons could return to the way most of us remember. From the start of our first lesson we had to strip off completely and wear just shorts and plimsolls. We never wore anything on top and it felt great being able to sweat freely in the gym and also running around outside and enjoying the fresh air. I felt decidedly hesitant at the end of first lesson about having to go naked into the open communal showers but quickly overcame my inhibitions leading to an increased level in my confidence.

Andrew,
Exercising shirtless is a healthy and natural way for males to exercise. I don’t see why lads cannot be allowed to do Physical Education shirtless if they want to. Having done PE with a shorts and shirts rule and a shorts only rule, I would always choose to be shirtless to exercise.

I found initially going without a top a bit daunting but never thought it was abuse either, but its now presumably unheard of and would be considered abuse today I would imagine- or at least not even contemplated.
Recalling experiences here is one thing but who would dare advocate its return these days, even given its merits?

Interesting to read your post Drew C - it sounds like a really positive set-up at your school. Did I misunderstand or were you saying that the girls were actually able to choose which boys played on which teams? How did that work if every boy was bare chested anyway?
Normally at my school when we did the sports you mentioned, the teams were chosen by the teacher and the boys on one team then had to take their tops off. PE sessions weren't always done alongside the girls but they certainly enjoyed the opportunity to see at least some of us bare chested!
I definitely agree it's a good thing for boys to be stripped down for PE as standard - health wise and in terms of building a positive body image. And also no bad thing if girls are watching as it encourages the boys to work harder and stay in good shape!

Drew C,
I experienced barechested physical education lessons too and totally agree with everything that you’ve said. In no way were we abused.

As a newbie to this I do not recall at any time being mistreated. We were all made to strip down to the waist for PE/Games indoors and outside for cross country and athletics during spring and summer. Punishment was being made to do a fitness test out on the field obviously bare chested regardless of weather or temperature, normally lasting a single lesson so you had to catch up after. Our teachers were fair but expected you to work and give effort regardless of ability, or lack of. Being made to strip at school was definitely a good thing. Girls were always keen to see us bare chested too, picking class teams for basketball, cross country and athletics based on what they could see in the gym or outside. When we were 11 one morning loudly suggested a lad sitting nearby should stop wearing a vest under his school shirt... and he did too.
Being stripped to the waist gives boys a sense of identity and proved a natural way to exercise. We often competed in inter school cross country competitions stripped down. That really narked some other teams but it allowed us to sweat freely and show our chests to others.

As a newbie to this I do not recall at any time being mistreated. We were all made to strip down to the waist for PE/Games indoors and outside for cross country and athletics during spring and summer. Punishment was being made to do a fitness test out on the field obviously bare chested regardless of weather or temperature, normally lasting a single lesson so you had to catch up after. Our teachers were fair but expected you to work and give effort regardless of ability, or lack of. Being made to strip at school was definitely a good thing. Girls were always keen to see us bare chested too, picking class teams for basketball, cross country and athletics based on what they could see in the gym or outside. When we were 11 one morning loudly suggested a lad sitting nearby should stop wearing a vest under his school shirt... and he did too.
Being stripped to the waist gives boys a sense of identity and proved a natural way to exercise. We often competed in inter school cross country competitions stripped down. That really narked some other teams but it allowed us to sweat freely and show our chests to others.

I've not been spending too much time on here recently but like some other people I think some of the punishment stories may be a little inaccurate. Certainly in seven years in a Grammar School in the East Midlands in the early to mid 1960s I cannot recall anything relating to what has been mentioned.

Alan. Our PE kit was listed as vest (with stripe in school colours around the middle), shorts, ankle socks, and white plimolls. And that is what our parents bought when we joined the all boys grammar school age 11. But we quickly discovered that only shorts were allowed in the gym. No tops and barefoot. Pants were definitely not allowed but boys never learn and were quite frequently slippered for keeping them on. In second form we had a different PE master who insisted on the full kit - but by then (age 13) we were bigger and it was a tight fit. Some of the vests bought for us age 11 were more like crop tops! But the hanging from wallbars as a lesser punishment than a slippering continued.

Frank D I agree with you.

I would suggest a lot of these caning stories are wildly inaccurate!!

Alan
We were not allowed to wear pants under our shorts and often everything was on view when exercising.

Alfie A


It was quite brutal being caned in our shorts without wearing anything underneath and it did leave wheals for a few days,but fortunately they were covered when I wore my short trousers.
Wearing satin or nylon shorts which were fashionable at the time were ultra thin so were it was more painful.

Alfie

As we grew up with it, we regarded the risk of a caning in PE as normal.

Basically if you did something "serious" (like push another lad, cheat at a punishment, swear etc) and got caught you were told what was going to happen, then caned at front, usually at the end of the lesson. Some teachers caned more than others, one a lot and usually 4, 5 and 6 strokes. Probably in his lesson there was a caning every 2nd week, and often more than one boy.

To be honest, it was "exciting" to watch classmates line up and get caned - to see them waiting their turn, see the caning and if they cried. Naturally we saw the marks in the showers after.

It hurt of course, it hurt to take off your (usually tight) shorts after, but it was how things were.

How did we all survive the corporal punishment of our day? Wearing thin white shorts and no pants when getting slippered was bad enough, but to think some teachers caned in pe lessons. It must have left wheals or marks.

Nick

The lad caned would have been 14/15, and it was 6 strokes. It was for "not accepting your punishment" I think, thus the caning. It also illustrated clearly to the rest of us, that we had to hang unsupported at all times or face the consequences.

I assume you were shirtless and bare feet for your PE lessons.

Were you allowed pants, because with legs spread all would be on view!

We had to strip underpants off when changing, anyway with everyone stripped to the waist the waistband of the pants would have shown above your shorts.

Alan. We too had to hang off the wallbars as a minor form of punishment. One PE master would talk about us needing to "cool our heels" and that always meant a few minutes (like you it couldn't have been more than one or two but felt like an eternity!) hanging from the top wall bar, feet free. A different PE master would always make us stretch our feet wide apart, no support, and hold the position. Anyone not making what he thought was a proper effort to hold the stress position would be slippered instead. Our gym kit was very short white cotton shorts.

How old was the lad who was caned for putting his feet on the rungs?

Chris C,
I grew up in the 1970s and it was common for lads to play football shirtless in the street. Our PE teachers worked us all really hard and we always sweated a lot, there’s no way that my mates and I would have preferred to have been made to wear a t shirt or a vest for PE or cross country. I remain grateful for being made to strip to the waist for PE.

When lads were divided into teams, the PE teacher gave one team coloured bibs in order to distinguish the teams. Football was played wearing shirts, and our school football shirts were reversible with a different colour on the reverse side, so one team had to reverse their shirts. If it was a warm day the PE teacher would often make us play shirts vs skins for football. Being shirtless was normal for us, and no big deal, we enjoyed playing sports shirtless.

Did anyone else get made to hang from the wall bars as a punishment in PE ?

Climb up, backs to the wall, hang by your arms, feet free - often 2 or 3 boys, side by side. Usually only a minute or two, but it seemed for ever.

We always wore shorts only, so with bare feet it was easy to see if you tried to support yourself. Once one boy got caught with his feet on the bars, he was called down and caned, straight away in front of the whole class.

Andrew R, Surely, the lad realised that he had to take his vest off when he saw that you were all stripped to the waist.I was at an all boys grammar school in the late fifties so I can't recall exactly in our gym sessions when I started sweating, but it wouldn't have been because the gym was too warm. We were always worked hard at whatever activity we were doing and it was practically non-stop.I do remember that when we all had to stop to listen to the PE instuctor we had to sit on the floor with our legs outstretched and support our arms on the floor behind us. At this point the sweat used to trickle down my sides from my armpits and down my back and chest and when I got up again my legs were covered in sweat. I felt great and was very glad that I was stripped to the waist and wearing just gym shorts, looking forward to getting in the showers. You haven't said when you were at your school but I remember feeling reluctant to take my shorts off after the first gym session and then going naked into the open communal showers. If you had to shower, I wonder how your lad with have coped with that.

In my experience we simply did as we were told in all aspects of school life.

We had a uniform, we were expected to wear all of it, and to wear it "properly" (tie/shirt done up, hair short/combed, cap on etc)

PE/games were like this, but worse. No teacher ever used first names, it was "Smith, hurry up lad" and so on. PE lessons involved circuits, controlled with the teachers whistle, and if you weren't soaked in sweat you weren't trying hard enough.

Cross country was simply change into shorts, line up outside, run, no talking to each other (or at least don't get caught talking). It may well have been sub zero, but we all knew that we had to run stripped to the waist, and anyone who complained got their backside warmed up.

John, I read your post saying that most boys prefer to do PE stripped to the waist - but to be honest that doesn't accord with my own experiences. The only time I can remember boys in my PE class going shirtless was if they'd forgotten their vest, or had to remove it to distinguish teams. In the sixth form PE became optional and virtually self supervised, but even then I don't recall many lads choosing to discard their vests. I was at school 25-30 years ago so not all that recent.

I remember a new lad about 13 at the timestarted at our school.This was his first experience of stripping to the waist and was very reluctant to take off his vest when he was told. He got some laughs from us and some taunts from the teacher, at finally that point he stripped off. Rob, at which point in your gym sessions did you start to sweat? Was the gym too warm?

We certainly expected to have to do as we were told about anything, but particularly when it involved school uniform. After morning assembly in the school hall we would have to file out past the headmaster who would pull out anyone who hadn't, for example, tied his tie correctly,or had a button undone on his blazer. Similarly, if we had been told to wear a vest for PE no-one would have dared to deliberately go bare chested. Fortunately, I was glad we had to be stripped to the waist and as we were made to work hard and sweated profusely. Naturally, we all had to conform to showering after every PE lesson.

Alan,
Your school had a sensible PE kit rule for lads. The fact that so many posts on this forum have mentioned boys deciding to switch from wearing a top to
going barechested for PE seems to indicate that most lads prefer to do PE stripped to the waist. I’m glad that I was able to do PE in just shorts and pumps and not have to put up with wearing a totally unnecessary hot and sweaty T shirt or vest.

There have been a couple of comments about new boys going shirtless, and the others switching.

Certainly at my school (which had a shorts only policy inside, stripped to the waist for xc), new boys had to conform, irrespective of what they were used to.

There was no debate, and the cane enforced this.