035 Gym Class

In this episode, I talk about a few stories related to gym class!

Chapter bookmarks:

00:00 Start
01:46 Gym class
06:09 High school gym class
06:48 High school gym class (mailman)
10:28 High school gym teacher hated me
16:12 Gym teacher hated me and then loved me

Transcript

Copy

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Kuli English Podcast. It's me, your host, Chris. So today is uhh Monday, December 8th, and tomorrow is Tuesday, December 9th, which is the day that this episode is going to be released. 

So in today's episode, I want to talk about the gym. And when you hear me say the gym, you might be thinking I'm talking about working out at the gym. So like a gym where you get a membership, and then you go there, you lift weights, maybe you run a little bit, maybe you take like a special yoga class or something.

But actually, I'm going to be talking about a different kind of gym. So that, that gym is also like called the gym, and that's totally fine. But I'm not talking about the gym that you go to work out at, I'm going to be talking about gym class. 

So gym class is like a subject that you have in elementary school, maybe middle school, maybe high school. And it's just kind of like a class that you have to do gym stuff. So usually for elementary school kids, that's usually their favorite subject, because, you know, kids like to run around and play sports and play games with each other. 

They don't like to sit and study. So there are subjects like math, history, and then I don't know, language stuff. But gym class is the class where everyone goes to the school gym. 

And then you just go and play some games. And that's what you do in gym class. So I'm going to be talking a little bit about that.

And also some other stuff. But first, let's take a short little music break. 

All right, so let's go and start talking about gym class. 

So just to be extra sure, I want you to know that I'm not talking about going to the gym and working out. I'm talking about gym class, which is like a class that you have in elementary school, maybe middle school, maybe high school. But in gym class, what happens is everybody in the same class, so let's say in third grade, then all the third graders in your class, you go to the gym, there's a school gym. And then in gym class, you play some kind of game, or you do some kind of exercise, but it's usually kind of fun. And that's why it's the favorite subject of most people. 

So in gym class, they'll play games, for example, like dodgeball. So what is dodgeball? Dodgeball is you split the whole class in two. So if you've got 20 students, maybe you put 10 students on the red team, and 10 students on the blue team, and then it's red versus blue. 

And in dodgeball, what you do is, so those 10 people, they try to eliminate the other 10 people. So eliminate means like you beat them. And then if you get out, so if you're a player, and then you get out, and that means you have to like go sit on the side, because you are like, you're out, you're eliminated. 

And then if something happens, then sometimes you get revived, or you can come back in. So you call that, oh, you're out, and oh, you're in. Out is like eliminated, and in is like you're revived, and you're playing. 

And in the beginning, everyone is in. And then eventually, after one whole team, after all 10 members are out, then that team loses. So that's dodgeball.

And dodgeball, I guess the main thing is there's like, there's like one ball, or maybe there's multiple balls. And then you take the ball, and you throw it, and then you try to hit other people. And if you hit other people, then they get out. 

And then if you catch the ball, then that's really good. And sometimes you revive a teammate or I'm not going to explain dodgeball that much. But that's like one of the games that you play in elementary school.

And another thing that you do is you do something that's called like the physical fitness award. What was it called? I think it was called like a national fitness award or presidential fitness award. But anyways, what they do is they measure a bunch of different things.

So they measure, for example, like how fast you run, you do something called a shuttle run, you don't have to remember what that is. But basically, you just run a short little distance. And then the teacher measures how long it takes for you to run that. 

And if you run it in like, I don't know, like nine seconds, then you're really fast. If you run it in like 13 seconds, then you're kind of slow. So it's just a short little distance. 

It's like about how fast you run. And then they have some other stuff like the, I think, like the pull ups. So they want to see how many pull ups you can do. 

So pull up is like, there's like a bar, and then you hang on to the bar. And you're not standing on the ground, you're actually hanging on the bar. So all of your weight is in your arms and your hands. 

And you have to pull yourself up once, twice, three times as much as you can. And then if you pull yourself up a bunch, then that's really good. And then they have some other stuff that's like the sit and reach, where they basically test your flexibility. 

So you you'd like sit down, you sit down on your butt. And then it's like you're kind of stretching to touch your toes. But instead of touching your toes, you touch like the special machine. 

And you try to reach as far as you can. And it's supposed to measure how far you can reach. So how flexible you are. 

And so there's that kind of thing. And that thing, I think, everyone in the US probably did that. Well, everyone around my age, at least. 

And then there's like this special benchmark, benchmark, meaning like a score to compare against. And then if you beat that score, then you get an award. And there's like two different levels. 

There's like the easier level. But it's actually not that easy. I think it's actually kind of hard. 

It's called the National Fitness Award, where you'd be like 50% of people or something. And then the one above that, which is really hard, is called the Presidential Fitness Award. And that one's like super hard.

But then like if you score really well on everything, then you beat that. But there's that metric. And then this thing is the same metric throughout all like high schools and stuff. 

So I always thought this thing was a little bit interesting. And it does really segue into the next story. But let's take a short little break. 

And then I'm going to tell you a story about how like my gym teacher in high school super, super hated me. But here's that music break.

All right, so let's go and start talking about gym class from high school. 

So my high school, it was a school that's focused on math and science. So there were a lot of classes that were focused on math and science. So there's like a bunch of different math classes. 

There's a bunch different science classes. And there was also a gym class. And gym class, there was only one, and everyone had to take it every semester. 

A semester is half a year. Oh, sorry, somebody's here. 

I got something. 

All right. So anyways, I was talking about how everyone has to take the gym class. And this is mandatory, meaning you have to take it. 

And in this gym class, it was kind of interesting because I feel like a lot of grades, like for example, in math class, if you do well on the math test, then you get a good grade. And in science, you know, if you do a good job and you get a good grade on your homework or something, then you get a good grade. But in gym, how do you grade stuff in gym? Well, you might be thinking what you do is you, you know, test people on how fast they run and how strong they are. 

And if they're really strong and they're really fast, then they get a good grade. But that's not how it was graded in our gym class. Our gym class was graded on effort. 

So on how hard you tried. And so what we do is in gym class, there would be like these warm up things. And then in warm up, what you do is like you have to run some laps and you run laps, meaning like you run around the outer edge of the classroom of the whole gymnasium area, of the whole gym. 

And then you might be thinking, oh, what you do is you run like three laps and then that's it. Like that's that's a pretty common thing. Like the coach will say, hey, everybody run three laps and then you have to run three laps. 

And if you run it really fast, then maybe like you take a little break, you walk around, you sit in the middle or something like that. But in our class, in our gym class in high school, it was effort based. So instead, you have to run not three laps, but just for three minutes, run at whatever pace is good for you.

So if you are, if you're really like fast at running, then you're supposed to run fast. And if you're not really fast at running, then you're supposed to try your best. And remember, if you try your best, you get a good grade. 

So I remember doing this and I was thinking, wait a minute. So if I run really fast, it's like I don't really get anything. So what I did was I would do this kind of, it's like a parody. 

It's kind of like a joke. I was just being a hooligan. I was being a class clown. 

What I would do is I would run, but instead of running at a normal pace, I would run really, really, really slow. I would run so slow that I run even slower than other people walking. And so, you know, all my friends and my classmates, they usually run like some normal speed. 

And then I'm just running at like an extremely slow speed. And it's kind of like a joke. And then other people who are walking, maybe because, you know, they're tired or something, I would be like running right next to them. 

And I like my facial expression and like my body is like moving as if I'm normally running, but I'm like not really moving. I'm like moving even slower than other people walking. So this was like one of the main reasons why the gym teacher hated me because the gym teacher would always be like, Chris, take the gym class seriously. 

And then sometimes he'll get mad at the whole class for something like, oh, the whole class is not working hard or something. And then like, he'll give like a short little speech and he's like, everyone, you need to take gym seriously. Gym is an important class, okay? And, you know, I will fail you if you don't try. 

And some of you, and then he'll like look right at me, like some of you don't take the class seriously, and that's not okay. And then like all my friends are like, ooh, Chris, Coach Vossen hates you. But so, you know, there was like this kind of stuff where the coach hated me, but it was kind of my own fault because I was kind of slacking off. 

But actually, let's take a short little break here just in case another Amazon package comes. And then I'm going to tell you about how the coach came to love me. All right, so here's that music break. 

All right, so let's go and continue talking about high school gym stuff. And just to review, in this previous section, I talked about how the high school gym teacher super hated me because I was a hooligan, because I was a class clown, because I played a lot of jokes and I didn't really take the class seriously. But in my second year of that high school, so that's my senior year, my fourth year of high school, I decided to take gym class a bit more seriously because I wanted the National Fitness Award. 

So the National Fitness Award, it just means, if you remember earlier in this episode, I talked about how in elementary school, there's like a special benchmark. So there's like a score to compare against in terms of like how many pull-ups you can do, how fast you run, how flexible you are. And so there's like six or seven different categories. 

And then if you are able to do all of those above the benchmark, then you get like a fitness award. And then the fitness award doesn't really like say anything. It just says like, oh, like Chris has the fitness award from this year or something like that. 

It's actually not really cool or anything like that. But I don't really remember why, but I wanted the fitness award. I wanted something. 

So then I decided, okay, so I got to pass all these benchmarks and like six different things. So I have to run the mile faster than seven minutes. And then I have to do the shuttle run. 

And then I have to do like a bunch of sit-ups and I have to do like, I think at least nine pull-ups or something like that. But there was a bunch of different stuff that you had to like get past a certain benchmark for. And then I tried to do all that. 

And I remember, so a lot of these things, a lot of these benchmarks, I remember thinking, oh, these are actually really easy. Like there's this one that's like, I think you have to do, I don't know, like 40 or 50 sit-ups in a minute. And then, you know, how many seconds are in a minute? There's 60 seconds in a minute. 

And that just means you do like one sit-up a second and then like, you're totally fine. And, you know, that's, I thought that was pretty easy, but then they have some stuff for like, for example, like the mile run, where you have to run a mile in under a certain amount of time. And that one, it was, I thought it was really hard because like, even if I'm running and I'm like pretty good at running, even if I run the whole time, I like wasn't able to run it in under like seven minutes.

So what I ended up doing was, what do I do best? I'm really good at cheating at games and stuff. So what I did was, I'm just joking. Like you can't really cheat this one, but I did cheat a little bit. 

So in gym class, you have to run the mile. And then if you run the mile outside, then like, there's like this track where you go and then you run outside and then eventually you make your way back. And that counts as a mile and it's like measured. 

But then if you're outside, then like, sometimes the ground is like a little bit bumpy or sometimes there's like wind or something. And so the conditions, like the situation isn't perfect for like getting a fast mile. So then I asked, oh, can I run the mile indoors? So instead of outdoors on that track where there's like a bunch of different dirt and a bunch of like road stuff, some like tree stuff, instead I was like, can I run it indoors? And then so they're like, okay, yeah, sure. 

Then indoors, what you have to do is you have to run like around the gymnasium, like around the basketball court, something like 28 times or something like that. But the great thing about running indoors is number one, there's no wind indoors and it's like air conditioned. It's like pretty nice. 

And the ground is really flat because it's like a, it's like a basketball court. And then even, the absolute best part is when you run around the gymnasium, you can like jump the corners and then it like makes the whole thing a little bit shorter. So then I ran my mile and I jumped like all the corners. 

And I think like the coach was kind of like, Chris, you got to stop jumping the corners. And then I stopped jumping the corners, but I jumped like half the corners. And then that allowed me to like get the mile in under seven minutes. 

Was it under seven minutes? Yeah, I think it was under seven minutes, but it was like really, really close. And I remember thinking, oh, wow, I ran so fast and I also cheated. And I barely beat the benchmark. 

So that means like the benchmark is saying 50% of all 18 year old boys in the US like run this mile faster than me. And I'm like, there's no way, there's no way. But anyways, there's that. 

So I like tried a bunch for that mile and then I got it. And then there's like the pull-ups one, there's like the sit-up ones, there's like the stretch one, the shuttle run. And then eventually I got the stuff and then I actually got the award. 

But this award, I think it's the least like known award ever. So if you like talk about it with anyone, even if I talk about it with like friends that grew up in the US, a lot of them are kind of like, what is that? Like, I don't know what that is and I don't care what that is. And if I were to tell someone, hey, I have the national fitness award, like number one, people don't know what that is. 

And number two, they'll be like, is that even something that's like respect worthy? Is that worthy of respect? If you have that, does that mean I have to respect you? And the answer is no, not really. I think nobody knows about it and it's kind of weird to get it. And then some of the stuff that you get, you can kind of cheat your way for it.

So anyways, I got that award and then actually let's take a short little break here and then I'll come back and I'll tell you my last little bit about some gym stuff. 

All right. So let's go ahead and continue into this next last part, which is me telling two stories from high school. 

So I have like two different stories and one of the stories is from junior year, which is my third year of high school. And that's when like my teacher super hated me. So the teacher hated Chris back then. 

And then one year later after that, in my fourth year of high school, so senior year, then the coach like super loved me. So I have a story from both. And so let me start with the first story, which is where the teacher super hated me.

But basically once somebody pulled the fire alarm. And so what is the fire alarm? The fire alarm is like this emergency button in a lot of buildings where if you pull it, then that means that somebody sees a fire. So that's dangerous, and everybody has to get out. And then sometimes it triggers like the automatic sprinklers. So there are like these little sprinklers inside the roof, inside the ceiling. 

And then if you pull the fire alarms, then that little sprinkler goes off, goes off, meaning it turns on and then it like sprays water. So if there's a fire and then you pull the fire alarm, then the sprinkler sprays water onto hopefully the fire. And then hopefully the fire goes out and then, you know, you like save people's lives or something. 

But a lot of the times when somebody pulls the fire alarm, there's actually no fire. And it's just because when you pull the fire alarm, like I think by law, so the rules say that you have to leave the building and, you know, because there might be a fire in the building. And then you like have to like call the fire department and the fire department's going to come check to make sure that there's no problems or anything like that. 

But it's supposed to be for emergencies, but sometimes people pull it even when they don't have to. And then so in junior year, somebody pulled the fire alarm. And then so everyone in gym class had to leave and the coach didn't know who pulled the fire alarm. 

And, you know, he kind of didn't like me because, you know, I'm like a bad student or something. And then so he was kind of like, all right, who pulled the fire alarm? And then, you know, surprise, surprise, nobody said, oh, it was me. I pulled it. 

Like nobody wants to say that. So then basically the coach was like, come on, who pulled it? Who pulled it? And then people, I think kind of looked at me because they thought, oh, this is maybe something that Chris would do. You know, Chris is like a hooligan. 

He likes to play jokes and stuff like that. Maybe he pulled it. And then so, you know, people were looking at me and then the coach was looking at me. 

And then, you know, nobody told the coach that nobody said anything about who pulled it. So then the coach is just thinking like, okay, nobody's going to say anything, but I bet it was Chris. So he's like thinking it was Chris. 

And so other students also probably thought it was me, but, you know, I was actually there and I 100% promise you, I did not pull that fire alarm because I have my own memory from high school. Right. And I didn't pull it. 

Like that's kind of a big thing. I don't, I don't want to have to deal with that. I'd get in a lot of trouble.

But anyways, you know, officially on paper, then I didn't pull the fire alarm, but like in the think in the brain of the coach, he was probably thinking, all right, Chris pulled it. So it was kind of not good. And I think other people actually talked to like my friends and stuff, friends from that high school that graduated. 

And I talked to them many, many years later. And then I think some of my own friends were asking me, they're like, oh, Chris, so you pulled the fire alarm. Right. 

And I was like, no, dude, I didn't pull it. But in their memory, I pulled it because, you know, nobody fessed up to it. Nobody admitted that they did it.

And so they just think, okay, who did it? Well, it was probably Chris. So then like that happened. And then the coach thought that I did it. 

So that's, that's not good. That's because the coach hates me. And for good reason, because I wasn't a good student. 

So because I'm not a good student, then he thinks that I pulled the fire alarm. I must have been the one to do it. So that was not good. 

But then, but then, you know, senior year, something changed, right? So I, I like got the award thing for like the physical fitness thing. I like try hard for it. And then the coach started to see me in a different light. 

So to see someone in a different light means to like change your viewpoint about them. So then he was kind of like, oh, I bet actually maybe Chris isn't a bad guy. Maybe, maybe he's actually going to work hard or something like that. 

And I did work hard. I worked hard for that award, which like gets you nothing, but it may, it earned me his love, which was actually pretty nice. And then something happened where somebody hit someone else with like a big sock. 

And then that person was like, ah, I got hit with a big sock. Chris hit me with a big sock! And then actually, let me go ahead and tell the story again. 

And let me go ahead and zoom out and give all the details. But, um, so this was in high school. And then once during gym class, we were playing like some kind of, it's like a fake snowball fight, I guess. 

So if you don't know what a snowball fight is, um, when it snows outside and, uh, you can do this thing called the snowball fight where like you, there's not really any rules, but basically everyone just picks up snow from the ground and then kind of wads it up into a ball. You kind of push the snow together into a little ball, and then you throw the ball at your friends or whoever you want. And if it hits them, then you're like, yay. 

And you feel good. And then, uh, if you get hit by the snowball, oof, then, you know, you feel bad. You're like, ah, that doesn't feel good. 

Cause it doesn't feel good to get hit. So, you know, snowball fights are really casual thing. There's no rules or anything like that. 

Um, but, but in gym, inside the gym, indoor gym, uh, there's no snow inside the gym, but what the coach did was one day he was like, okay, so, you know, it's like winter time and this is like the last gym class before, I don't know, some winter break or something. So I want to give the kids a good experience. So what he did was, um, he went to like the lost and found center. 

So the lost and found centers where like, I guess, um, if there are like clothes or something that somebody left behind, but you don't know whose they are, then you can turn them into the lost and found center. You can put them in the lost and found center. And then hopefully the person who lost those clothes will come back and be like, Oh, Hey, like, do you have my clothes? And then you look in the center and you're like, Oh, Hey, I found my jacket or something like that. 

But the lost and found center, like it only gets bigger in size. It doesn't really shrink because people don't really take clothes that aren't their own. And then people who forget their clothes, sometimes they like, don't know that they forgot them and then they leave it there forever. 

So the lost and found like basket for the school. Uh, it's like, it's got a ton of socks and jackets from like the past 10, 15 years of like people forgetting stuff. And so the coach, what he did was one day, he just like, he gathered a lot of socks from the lost and found center. 

And these are all like clean. So it's not like, you know, you find socks on the ground that are dirty and then you like give them to kids, but it's like, you know, these have been there for five years. And what he does is he like, he took them and he laundered them. 

So he put them in the laundry and you wash them. And then the socks, if you kind of fold them in a certain way, they become like little balls. You like you, you paired up the socks and you like fold them into a little ball.

And then you have like a fake snowball that's made out of a sock and all the jackets and clothes and stuff. He made these like little Hills, these little mounds. And then, so those are like the little forts where you can like hide behind them. 

And then you like pick up some socks and like throw it at people. And so this is like, it was like a little fake snowball fight thing. And actually it was a really fun thing. 

I'm really glad the coach did that for me. I like that coach by the way. But anyways, so I was playing this thing and then somebody, somebody actually, I remember who, and it's, it's so long ago that maybe I'll just mention his name and it's probably fine. 

But there was a guy whose name starts with Cheeho and he found like this really, really long sock. Well, he took one of those snowballs and he like, you know, unfolded it. And then he found this really, really long sock. 

Cause you know how socks, some socks are like short and some socks are really long. We took a really long sock and then he opened it up and then he put other socks inside that long sock. So he started like fusing the stuff together. 

He's like making like a super weapon. So then he like put one ball, two balls, three balls. So he's got like five socks into this one sock. 

And he starts like, you know, swinging it around in a circle and he's got like this giant super sock weapon. And then, uh, I think, uh, he, instead of like throwing the sock, which is what you're supposed to do, he like went up to the enemy and then, uh, he like smacked the enemy. So he smacked it, which like he hit them. 

He hit them with this like giant sock thing. And then he hit someone. And then that person, I think, uh, he hit them in the face and it was actually pretty hard. 

I mean, the person didn't bleed or anything. It's a sock. So it's not, it's not going to like, it's not actually going to injure you that badly.

But then that person got hit in the face and that person's glasses kind of flew and they're like, ah, they gave out the scream. That's like, ah, I got hit. 

And then, uh, and then because she got hit and her glasses flew, she didn't actually know who like hit her with the sock. But Cheeho, uh, you know, he's like kind of my height. Uh, he's, he's like kind of skinny like me and he's Asian like me. 

So then, so then, uh, the, the person who got hit was like, ah, who hit me? And she looked around and she needed somebody to blame. So she was like, you, you hit me. And she pointed at me and I was like, me, I didn't do anything. 

I was just playing the sock game. And then, uh, so she got so mad. She went to the coach. She went to the coach and she was like, Hey coach, like Chris hit me with the sock, like really, really hard, like on purpose. 

And then, uh, and then the coach was like, okay, I'll take care of it. And then like, she went back and then the coach was like, Chris, come here. And I was like, oh yes, sir. 

What happened? And then the coach was like, uh, that person said that you took a sock and you made a giant sock and then you hit her on the face really, really hard on purpose. Is that true? And then I was like, no, I didn't do that. And the coach was like, yeah, I didn't think you did. 

So let me just look like I'm mad at you. And then you can go back and, you know, play the sock game or something. And I was like, okay, great. 

And then, so I went to sit back down and then, uh, and then I was thinking like, wait, actually, I guess the coach doesn't hate me because, you know, if he hated me, he'd be like, oh, you definitely did this. You're a bad guy. You did this. 

You're going to get punished. But then, uh, you know, he actually just gave me the benefit of the doubt. So the benefit of the doubt means like, uh, you suspect somebody did something bad, but you're like, okay, well, since I'm not sure, I'm just going to assume that you didn't do it. 

I'm going to assume the best. So in the case that I doubt, I'm going to, I'm just going to give you the benefit. I'm going to give you something good. 

I'm going to assume that you didn't do the bad thing. Um, and I actually didn't. So in both cases for both the fire alarm and junior year, and also hitting that girl with the sock, I didn't do it. 

I I'm not that bad of a person. Uh, so anyways, you know, the coach ended up liking me and I got that award. I remember getting the award at the end of the year and it felt good for me, but that award has never come in useful for anything except it got me like the, the love of the coach for like the rest of the year, which is like, you know, the second half of the year or something. 

So for six months or so, then the coach stopped hating me and that was really great. 

Okay. So, you know, uh, that's probably enough for this episode. 

So thanks for much. Thanks. Thanks so much for listening until the end of this episode. 

And, uh, you know, if you're already subscribed or you're already following, then thank you. And if you want to subscribe or follow, then you can, but you don't have to. Uh, but anyways, thanks so much. 

And I hope to see you next Tuesday on Kuli English podcast.