Burnley Grammar School

We occasionaly did some wrestling in pe and we had to wear swimming trunks for that instead of shorts. Don't know why but that was the rule. The strange thing was that you were allowed to wear swimming trunks to wrestle in, but not for swimming. That was the 70's for you. After a lessons wrestling, every boy had marks all over their tops where they had been grappled.

Archie

I rarely forgot my kit but it was punishable by the use of the slipper.A supply of shorts was kept in case of this eventuality and these were polyester,nylon satin shorts.

James

What happened to lads who forgot their kit for a mixed gym lesson?

Our gym shorts were black, so it was quite easy for masters to see the waistband of any white briefs sticking out the back which wasn't too unusual an occurrence especially during heavy sessions of circuit training and the like.

They would also occasionally go along a line of boys to pull back their shorts to do a "pants check" if they were being particularly mean!

Archie, I see your question to another writer. My experience was that we only wore white shorts, no pants from age 11 to leaving school at 16. I think white because any underpants which were always briefs would be seen. We were not told about any type of support and so did not know about it or wear jockstraps, relying on tight shorts for any support which sometimes left nothing to the imagination. However, as far as I remember no one thought anything about. It was an all boys school and there was no embarrasment and and then we stripped off and had communal showers at the end of the lesson with no inhibitions.

What were othe peoples experiences?

Archie

We were not allowed to wear anything under our shorts for mixed gym lessons or any other sporting activities.I simply wore shorts until I left school.

James

When you were in mixed gym class were you allowed to wear anything under your shorts? We weren't allowed to wear anything under ours until we were older when we could wear a jock or speedos under, though many of us wore briefs - we got belted if we got caught! I do remember that some lads didn't wear anything underneath even when they were a bit older notwithstanding they were a bit too big for their gym shorts....

Yes, meant wearing trunks was not on the Agenda. This was the practice at my school and many others. I did not wear trunks from early prep school from age 8 to about 15.
My sisters teased me a bit as they thought it was amusing that they were allowed to wear costumes and we wern't. I got my own back when we all forgot our swimming kit but i could still do my swimming lesson

Simon, I remember getting teased for having to wear shorts

Matthew your comments about whther the Teachers should have also been naked are interesting. Possibly logical but I should think unlikely.

Lorry,did you mean "wearing trunks was not on the agenda"?
Why were you teased by your sisters,I was teased by sisters for wearing short trousers?

An awful as I think the treatment of boys in games and swimming in school was up to the 1980s,it may still surprise you to hear that I actually have no problem with naked swimming in principal but it has to be a free choice of any boy to do so.What right does anybody have to force nudity on teenage boys at any level?That goes for showers too.The reasons for naked swimming at my school were that you couldn't wimp out with the excuse that you had forgotten your kit.Having said that many lads still didn't bring a towel and ended up borrowing from a friend or getting dressed damp.Our classes used to involve about 36 boys at times and I would readily admit that maybe 10 of them loved it but they were the minority.I rememeber at the end of one lesson coming out of the pool and getting a loud bawling at for some minor reason by my games teacher.I just cannot begin to explain how utterly small and pathetic it made me feel to be shouted at while naked in front of my fully clothed adult teacher,as a boy of 14,while he was looking me up and down.During a lesson of about 70 minutes the boys would not be in the pool for the whole time and for periods would be required to stand at the edge in line watching in the pool doing various swim tasks.I always remember wandering where to put my hands.To cover or not.When we lined up at the start of the swimming periods at the side of the pool,as our names were ticked off the register,I was struck by how many of my classmates would put their arms behind their backs,maybe somewhat defiantly.We had a female school matron who had seemingly unrestricted access to the pool where boys or girls were swimming.She appeared on numerous occasions and I clearly recall us saying to us boys one day that there wasn't a lad in the 12 years she had worked there who she hadn't seen in his entirety.We all new what that meant.About 3 times a year wee would have the matron check the soles of our bare feet prior to our lesson,when we kneel in a line along a bench.Not one of us liked it.Oh!and guess what,we were ready to swim at the time,so naked.Now why did we have to be naked to have our feet looked at?On numerous occasions rumours circulated that we would be getting our penises checked out by her too.It stayed a rumour,thankfully.The simple fact is that there were a lot of boys who never got used to this behaviour by our school teachers and staff.Boys could be stripped,poked about,looked at etc.as if we had no care about it.But girls,well it was a world of difference.No naked swimming,nice swimwear of their choice,voluntary showering and nice gym kits too.They could wear their trainers in the gym,boys were bare feet and bare chested.Many were mixed so it mattered.The boys were to be "meat" to be checked over.Lots of boys didn't like taking their shirts off and going bare chested but were given no choice.

Sam, in an all-male context, trunks would probably have been considered unnecessary. By the same token, though, the teacher should not have needed them either.

Sam, you have to remember, this was a totally different era. The cane was used daily and i was not aware of parents complaining about this. Mine certainly didn't and in fact if i got the cane at school, i got further beatings at home. Not wearing trunks for swimming was just not even on the agenda. It didn't register as anything unusual as this is what we did. Always got a bit teased by my sisters but this was the norm. I did go to a private school and in the 70's, this was the way it was. Nowdays, i appreciate, we are a million miles away from where we were

Jeff
We did sometimes have females come in to the swimming area. It really depended who they were. If it was one of the sports teachers or medical staff, never a problem. We were oblivious to them. The rule was that no trunks until year 3, ie about 15. Not compulsary and quite a few, especially the boarders stayed nude.
We did have house galas and these were all done nude if you were year 1 or 2. Only school staff watched. Not sure about galas outside school but i assume that trunks were worn

I have read so many of the comments about nude swimming. This was something I did not experience. Does anyone have any definitive reason why nude swimming for boys was insisted upon in it seems many schools. Were there any parents that objected?

Could you imagine it happening nowadays assuming swimming lessons are single sex.

George, did you ever have any female teachers or staff present during your nude swimming?
Some of the earlier posters here said that they even had to be nude at swimming galas in front of parents and other mixed spectators.
Were the boys allowed to wear trunks after the 2nd year at school?
Was it a boys only or mixed school?

Thank you to James for your theory and thank you to Lorry for confirming what James suspected.

Matthew, we often had visitors wandering around the school and the teachers generally preferred us in the pool when they came into look at the pool. Also, some female teachers sometimes used the pool after our lessons had finished and they seemed to enjoy watching the last part of our lessons knowing that we were a little self concious.

In reply to Matthew,I'm sure Lorry became accustomed to the conditioning of wearing no trunks during his swimming lessons but probably what caused so much alarm would be if a female entered the swimming pool area.

Sorry for doubting you, Lorry. But, if the school policy was no trunks and it applied to every boy, why were you quick to get into the pool if somebody entered the pool area?

Yes, I am a boy, or man. Lorraine for some reason was a name used in my family for relations of some ancient uncle. A bot odd i know. Called Lorry now. Sorry for the confusion

At weeekends at my boarding school in the late 70's, all the 1st and 2nd years in the secondary school had to swim naked. It always amused me that we had goggles, flippers, floats, even watches, but no trunks.

Similar to me. The swimming coach at my private secondary school gave private swimming lessons to any first year boys whose parents thought this would be good. We did these on a saturday afternoon and it was normally me and another boy. As nude swimming was the norm, the private lessons were done like this. We were only about 14 and thought nothing of it. As there were only two of us we always got changed next to the pool instead of the changing rooms. A lot of instruction at side of pool. The ooach sometimes got in the pool also, with trunks on, especially if he was teaching things like tumble turns where he helped us get on the right position. It wasn't the thing to be shy in those days

As you can see from 14:00 boys had to be barechested for PE in Netherlands too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adqr4Iu3ibM

Another comment on the posting by "Lorraine". Not wearing trunks was "quite normal and it would have felt odd to have to wear trunks". So why the need to "get into the water pretty quickly" if someone entered the pool area?

Strange comment from "Lorraine". I thought that was a girl's name.

And a comment to James. How many were there in your class? The process you describe must have taken ages considering the amount of times the doctor and his assistant moved up and down the line.

In my first and second year of secondary school in the early 80's, i had extra swimming lessons with the pe teacher. These were often at lunchtime or after school and the agreement was that the pe teacher would see when the pool was free and tell me to meet him there. As we were not allowed to wear trunks, having kit was never an issue. Towells were always hanging around. The initial part of the lesson was standing out of the pool as he would make sure my arm and leg actions were ok. As i had never been allowed to wear trunks at school, this was quite normal and it would have felt odd to have to wear trunks. How things have changed. I would however add that when someone came into the pool area, i got in the water pretty quickly.

Showers were compulsory when I was at secondary school in the 1970s. As they were often cold, we used to spend as little time in there as possible!

At primary school, we didn't have proper changing rooms, let alone showers! In fact come to think of it, as we didn't have a shower at home (just a bath)the first time most of us ever had a shower was when we started secondary school. The only exception was the shower you were supposed to go under before getting in the local swimming pool, but that was different as you went in that in your swimming costume. Most of us didn't bother, but we did have to walk through a sort of foot-bath thing, filled with a horrible smelling chemical!

What about obligatory nude showers after PE?
Some schools had them, some didn't.
We didn't have them in primary, but had them in secondary, although not exactly obligatory.