Yeap! I can relate *VERY* well to those PE horror stories. I was so glad to be out of PE when it was over. On ice jumps is nothing like off ice jumping, believe me. It's much more jarring on the knee and the lower back even on those matts at the rink. (Guess how I know this?) Gor me personally, I'd rather have the full exemption b/c I feel that giving the personal training that I have now, I'm actually much stronger than I was in junior high or high school. But you know... if your kid is adjust well to the PE classes and she doesn't have a problem with it, a partial exemption would work too.

I've found that elliptical trainers (if you can find a gym that has it) is the best solution to the cardio problem. It's easy on the back and knees and but still allows you to use your upper muscles/arms to help you get more out of your workout. (Heck, I'm losing weight on it now. I'm not complaining!)

BTW: I was told Stairmasters, if done wrong, are also bad for the knees by my chiropractor... so be careful and watch your form!

__________________
Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Interesting dilema...

From personal experience... when I was in high school in NJ, I took a full schedule of classes minus electives and left school at 11:45. I'd skate from 12:15 until 6 (spread out with breaks) My first class in the morning was PE. I've always loved PE. Nothing to do with the "socialization" value of it. I didn't speak to most of the girls anyways.. just did my own thing. Found PE as a nice stress reliever and well ended up learning alot. My Jr. and Sr. yr in high school in FL, I ended up in weight training. Turns out that the weight training coach was also the conditioning and training specialist for a nearby university. All I can say is that it has done wonders for my skating. I've had the option to not do PE at all... but have always wanted to take it.
That's just my view. Personally, a little extra exercise didn't kill anyone.

As far as the swimming goes... it's part of my x-training program. I swim everyday sometimes before but usually after practice. Has been very beneficial for my stamina. Before I compete I usually take a nice quick dip in the pool and then relax in the hot tub after I've competed. Living in Miami and having a pool in your backyard... swimming isn't an issue with skating. Coaches used to say no..then they realized it was helping.

Hope it helps.

__________________
I am God

In my high school, we had gym every year, every other day. There was the option of taking it every day for two years and then you didn't have to take gym at all for the other two years.

Schools around here constantly are giving parents problems with getting out early.

Jocelyn

Unfortunately for us, since my daughter goes to a Catholic school, opting out of PE is not an option until at least 9th grade. When it does become an issue, I plan to sit down with the PE teacher to make sure what he's having them do won't work against all her training.

As for swimming - I can understand not swimming right before competing, but I have ALWAYS been told it's a better activity for skaters than gymnastics. Mainly because swimming elongates the muscles where gymnastics bulks them up.

My girlfriend's daughter is a skater and is homeschooled. For her PE requirements, skating counts. She keeps a log book of her hours of practice and lessons, then has her coaches sign it for verification.

For those Britons and Canadians among us, skating is also a skill that counts towards the "Physical" part of the Duke of Edinburgh's award at every level. Again, the coach can sign the relevant documentation.

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

My recollections of middle school PE are not especially positive either. I was a very shy child and not athletic. I do not think school PE helped in either of these areas. I agree w/ the person who said middle school (and adolescents in general) can be very cruel. Unless your child has the type of personality that she fits in well w/ the group, she may feel left out in PE. There is nothing more humiliating to a teenager than being chosen last for a team sport. If your child is athletic (other than skating), she will probably enjoy PE.

Kay

__________________
Visit my figure skating journal
http://www.skatejournal.com/

Middle schools here in my part of Florida don't require PE. It is an elective as is band, art, chorus, etc.

Our coach was the one who told us how school administrators hate to hear the words "home school". Turned out to be all we really needed in the first place. If worse comes to worse, as it did in our case, threaten to home school your skater, thereby depriving the school of their tax dollars. I got what I wanted which was an early release and an "independent study" PE class. She logged her hours at the rink, gym and dance floor, wrote up some very creative documentation for the areas of fitness her training covered and we were fine. Later they opened up the option for other serious athletes who were not part of the school team sports.

I have nothing to add about PE exemptions, but I used to be a comptitive swimmer in high school and the first two years of university. After that I dropped out of it but maintained my own training. When I graduated I eventually dropped that (5 years ago now).

Starting last summer I picked up figure skating and ballet intensively... and once in a while I'll go swim too, as skating and ballet works my lower body really well but not the upper. When I swim, I go just as hard as I used to in training, just with more breaks. I'm fairly positive this is much more intensive than most people when they jump in the pool. However, I haven't noticed anything negative to my skating from swimming. I think perhaps it's detrimental only if you're not swimming with proper efficient technique? I'd imagine that would be the case for most skaters, as they wouldn't have trained in swimming and so may not be using their bodies properly in the water, thereby using energy and muscles improperly?

Jeujeucda

Today I went in to school to see if I could get an exemption to gym.. answer: nope! I am deffinately not looking foward to this at all ... tazsk8s how did you approach the school?

__________________
beks~
"winning isn't everything... wanting to is."

" the only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary"

"It’s not necessarily the amount of time you spend at pracitce that counts; it's what you put into the practice."

I think you need to get your parent to do it. They have to provide documentation and such. If you go yourself, it just looks as if a kid wants to do anything to get out of PE

I believe you can only get out of PE if you have to leave school early or are a competitive skater. At least thats how it worked in Ontario at our school

Hi,

I had no luck either. Taz Junior starts school today, in fact, PE uniform in hand.

I spoke to the assistant principal a couple of weeks ago when I had her on the phone regarding another issue. She was very pleasant but informed me that the district makes no allowances whatsoever for getting out of PE at the middle school level. My guess is they don't want to deal with the logistics of having to make sure this particular kid would have had PE 1st hour or last hour so they can come in late or leave early. Nor do they want to set the precedent because then other people will be requesting this for their own kids. It's frustrating - it is ***extremely*** easy to get out of PE for skating in the neighboring district where many of her skating friends attend school. The AP did say there is precedent for this at the high school level. They allow varsity athletes to get out of PE during their "season". They don't have a school-sponsored swim team, but a couple years ago a group of club swimmers were allowed the varsity exemption anyway. If you are in high school and they give exemptions for sports teams, perhaps that is one way to pursue it.

Hubby was absolutely NOT going to give in anyway, he would be really torked if he knew I'd even mentioned it to anyone at the school. At least now I can shift the blame to the school and not be mad at hubby about it anymore.

Sorry I didn't have any better news - I feel your pain!

I did go with one of my parents this morning.. still a big fat no. There is something i could do which im not too big on .. it's where I don't do gym this year but in gr. 11 I do a course for girls where it's more of a cardio course.. but I really just want to get this stinking gym over with! :S

I thought i would be able to get an exemption because I do three other sports too... oh well.. The counselor told me that if I really really don't enojoy gym we will talk it over again but I'm pretty sure I will still have to do it.

__________________
beks~
"winning isn't everything... wanting to is."

" the only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary"

"It’s not necessarily the amount of time you spend at pracitce that counts; it's what you put into the practice."

When you say "gym", do you mean gymnastics? If so, that's superb cross-training for skaters. If you just mean PE in general, do you have a choice of sport? My daughter started to have choices once she went into Year 10 (in this country, the year you are 15), and one of her choices was ice skating - that's what started us off..... The point is, you may be able to choose sports that are good cross-training for you. Perhaps whoever's responsible for your pastoral care at school would be able to help?

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Sorry if I wasn't clear I meant Phys. Ed.

Well here you need One Phys. Ed. Credit. Which they really want you to take in Gr. 9. They want this because for those who want to stream into more Phys. Ed. in the next years can do so and the others can pretty much drop it after Gr. 9.

At the moment to X-train I will be doing, pilates, ballet, and swimming.

__________________
beks~
"winning isn't everything... wanting to is."

" the only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary"

"It’s not necessarily the amount of time you spend at pracitce that counts; it's what you put into the practice."

So what sort of PE (as we usually abbreviate it) do you have to do? A great nuisance, I do agree, but if you can choose something that's quite fun, it becomes bearable. We were allowed to choose in years 12 and 13, but not before (lacrosse, ugh!!!!).

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I knew ballet dancers who were allowed out of PE classes because their ballet academy (very elite, sending many students on to professional companies) had made an arrangement with the surrounding school districts. Only dancers at a certain level or above were allowed this exemption, and they were dancing for about 6 hours every school day. They were admitted into these levels by audition and had to give up their elective classes at school as well, so that they could leave after lunchtime.

That said, I also know some dancers and skaters who received exemptions from doing certain kinds of PE, namely running. For dancers with turned-out feet even when they're not dancing, the running is very bad for the knees (because of the turned-out feet), and these girls' doctors had written them notes. They still had to show up in gym uniform but were allowed to do stretches and sit-ups instead of running.

I'm not quite sure I get what you mean.. in a PE class you will usually go through the big team sports: soccer, base ball, volley ball, basjet ball.. and other things like badminton , dodge ball, track and field etc. Too many to think of right now

__________________
beks~
"winning isn't everything... wanting to is."

" the only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary"

"It’s not necessarily the amount of time you spend at pracitce that counts; it's what you put into the practice."

beks,

To me it sounds like you want to get out of PE because you don't like it. It doesn't sound like you need to leave school early to train. If you really wanted out of the class this year and needed to get out of it, you would take the gr 11 girls course.

How does that work? At my school, we did lacrosse three times a week and gymnastics twice, in the spring and autumn terms, and in the summer term it was tennis three times a week and swimming twice (this in the first five years of secondary school, now known as years 7-11); in the last two years one could choose what one did, within limits. I did judo and scottish country dancing, if I remember rightly.

My daughter, however, did far less sports, as is the modern trend. They "tried out" a lot of things: netball, athletics, swimming, aerobics, dance sport, etc. These days I believe they play hockey, but in those days they hadn't a pitch. In Year 10 they were given a choice of what they could do, including ice skating and ten-pin bowling. And when she was in the last two years of school, they had a fitness centre which they could use when they had free time.

I was wondering if they let you "sign up" for whichever sport you fancied, be that a team sport such as football or something more individual like gymnastics or dance sport. But if you have no choice... still, you might find you like, and are good at, ball sports.

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I think the particular PE activities must vary by school district and grade level (and perhaps a little by country).

For example...
When I was in school, in middle school and high school, we had running one day a week. The other 4 days were dedicated to units--e.g., soccer for 4 weeks, American football for 4 weeks, gymnastics for 4 weeks, square dancing for 4 weeks, etc. When it rained,we did something indoors like crab soccer (it's like soccer but with a big inflatable ball and everyone scrambles around on hands and feet like a crab), kickball, tetherball, etc. We didn't really ever get to choose our sports. I remember HATING 6th grade PE because our teacher was convinced he could teach each of us to juggle. We each had to make beanbags at home and practice. I was HORRIBLE and to this day I cannot juggle more than one beanbag at a time. But I loved gymnastics because it was very much like dancing. (The boys HATED it.)

My doctor said he thought I shouldn't do running in PE because of my turned out legs from ballet, but I did it anyway and didn't have knee problems then.

Although I'm not a parent but a student (senior now, woo hoo!) I have one more semester of PE to go. Funny that as bad as CA schools are, they make you take two years of PE! I took adapted PE in my freshman year because I have lung problems, and they still made us run the mile and everything...it about killed me. Now that I've started skating and I'm on the academic decathalon team at my school, I've decided I'm going to talk with the counselor about that last PE semester because academic decath is interferring with the ballet class I was intending on taking; we have a show the same day we have our qualifyer to county competition! I don't want to get up at 6am, drive to another city, get back and go do a dorky school dance show until 11pm, that's for sure.

I just wanted to thank you guys for the observations you've made about all this since it makes me feel better about it; there are no other skaters in my school (performing arts/tech magnet school) and so tomorrow I'll be talking with the counselor and see if we can make this work because I don't want to waste time in academic decath for ballet (although it would help my skating; I'm starting Pilates too). Anyway, thanks again everyone...really helped with the opinions and how to go about doing this. The parental units are behind me (my dad LOVES that I'm skating, which is funny considering he hates watching it!) so I think it'll all work out.

This is slightly off-topic, but don't you do PE in school for health and fitness, rather than as an academic discipline? In this country, although schools nowadays seem to do it far less than they did in our day, it is done to enable you to keep fit. In my day it was also done to promote "team spirit", whatever that is, but nowadays it is thought to be bad for the little dears to compete.....

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I really don't know why we have phys ed. It was always just there. I guess it's to promote good health and fitness. I never really thought about it, I just went along with it.