AskBeehaw

Yep. USian public school, middle school in the early 90's. I think I was.. 12 or 13. Never managed it because I had zero upper arm strength so I couldn't even get my feet onto the knot on the bottom.

Sure did, I think it was part of a bunch of tests we had to do for the... Presidential Fitness Award or something?

It was done in Elementary school, so Fall 87->Spring 93? I have no idea if they're still doing any of that crap now though.

I do remember it being the neatest dang thing because our school had like this entire wall of collapsible gym equipment that folded out like a playground with like 2 or 3 story monkeybars and gigantic poofy mats at the bottom, and you better believe some kids fell off.

The more I think about it, the more I suspect they don't let them do that anymore

No, I always thought it seemed stupidly dangerous. What happens if a kid falls and cracks their noggin. seems like an unnecessary liability

Yup. Canada, early 90s. Up to the gymnasium ceiling and big jump to the crash mats. Only once it twice though. I found it extremely difficult and struggled all the way. Some of my classmates were able to do it no sweat.

As for age. Under 11. So, maybe 9 o 10?

Nope, never.

I definitely remember climbing a rope in PE in like 3rd or 4th grade which would be around '99. Washington State btw.

rope climbing was a one day thing that i did every year of Physical education for as long as i can remember. i'd say it started in 3rd grade?

Western US here. We had a rope climb twice a year from 4th to 9th grade. I tried the first time and then refused every time after that.

Never did get any flak for it. Can only assume they knew it was dangerous and were happy to have kids skip it.

I did in US middle school (8th grade, 2008 or 2009) but it was a knotted rope, so the knots acted as footholds, making it much easier. Also there was a marker 10' or so up and we weren't supposed to pass it to avoid fall injuries. Very nerfed from the archetypical gym class rope climb. As a severely out of shape nerd I still struggled with it :']

Yes, for U.S. elementary schools in the late 80's it seemed common I thought (?)

Also I sucked at that, I only ever made it a few feet up before giving up LOL. In my school it was always more of a race to test who can do it the quickest, not actually spend an entire week learning how to do it properly.

Yes. US elementary school in the 1970s. Can't remember how high they wanted us to climb, but it was a 2 story gym.

We climbed rope in elementary school in the early 90s.

yep elementary school in the 90's. we rang a little bell when we got to the top. it was fun!

We used to here in the UK! At a guess I was probably 10 and this was in the 90s

No, and I couldn't have if I tried. I've always been bottom heavy: I was a runner and long-distance cyclist with some soccer in there, too. Wide birthing hips but not much in the way of arm and shoulder muscles. That began to change when I started lifting weights in college, but in high school? No way.

Yes, we did this in late elementary school (I want to say 5th grade, or 10-11ish years old?), but did not do it beyond that. There were two ropes--one standard rope and one with evenly spaced knots that you could use to climb with hand and footholds. This was in the '90s.

No (90s), we mostly lifted weights with no warm-up in a cold basement and sometimes got hit with a red ball. There was an old movie called Sidekicks (1992) that explains the climbing technique https://youtu.be/PDyOjz2us50?t=72

Yep, I remember doing it at least a couple years in a row in elementary school (I might have been 9 or 10?) - this was in France, in the early 00s.

Yes--elementary school (K-3) in Illinois, early 1990s. I was crap at it. We also had gymnastics rings.

I'm pretty sure none of the other schools I went to had ropes or rings in the gym, used or not.

No, not really. Graduated from high school in California in 2017. Both my middle and high school, however, had the equipment and stations on hand. It feels relevant to mention we also had what looked like climbing pegboard stations: boards on a wall that'd go something like 6 – 10 ft., 1.8 – 3m high that someone would climb with pegs. We didn't use those, either.

There might've been one or a few times that my freshman PE teacher had us climb or swing on a rope as part of a circuit? He had the good graces, at least, to give the rope foot and hand knots to work with. That was definitely an exception, however, and wasn't part of anything mandated by the district nor the state. Pretty wild, though. I kinda wish my schools did more to push that. I sure wasn't the athletic type, but my arm strength could've benefitted from it.

Nah. They had a vertical bar that you had to do a pull up on which I think replaced it. Graduated in 2010

At my elementary school in Michigan in the 90s, the rope got hung up once and we could try but it wasn't a requirement.

Yes, I had to do it, however only in high school, not elementary school, age ca 16. It was in the late 80ies, in Central (Eastern) Europe

Yeah we had to do it in junior school (so between 9-11) but never did at secondary school. I was in junior school early 2000s in UK.

I could never do it and didn't really see the point. Plus it always hurt my hands.

I was supposed to sometime in Junior High- 7th or 8th grade- which would have been early 1980s. I decided I was getting my period that day because I knew I would not make it one inch up the rope, and that it would also involve my gym teacher screaming at me in front of everyone. I had already deal with years of humiliation during any task requiring arm strength. It was during the six-week period that we worked on gymnastics, which was a complete horrorshow for this dyspraxic. We learned forward roll (which I could just about do), cartwheels (failed), handovers (failed), rings (failed), rope (didn't participate), and a few other floor moves that I don't remember.

Thank heavens they let me sub marching band for my PE credits in high school. Though, I didn't march either, I was sidelined because I could not stay in step. Dyspraxia is a bitch.

Yes, middle school late 90s, northeast us. I made it to the top, but I was in gymnastics for most of Elementary school so I was really strong from that for a good decade after I quit 😆 I was also able to do pull ups in high school too (15ish) which from what I understand is typically difficult for girls. Now I can't even do a single push up fml 😞 maybe I can change that before I hit 40 lol

Our high school also had a huge rock wall in the gym which was pretty cool, but we only did it for like a week one year

Maybe one time? I know there was a rope in a gym at one school I went to. Would've been one of the middle schools I attended (which was an old high school). So like 97-00 or so, in the suburban/exurban US Midwest.

But I got the feeling it was just something we did for fun one day. It wasn't required by any means. And that's the only time I can think of attempting a rope climb. I never touched a rope in PE/Physical Fitness classes ever again, or even saw one in another school.

American, East coast, 90's, I only had to do one rope climb ever in school and it wasn't a test I don't think, more like a rain day back up plan. Only a few kids could do it, I think I only got like five feet up lol.