Hesketh Fletcher Gym Team

Certainly when I was at secondary school in the 1960's there was no specific rule about wearing or not wearing tops for PE.In the first three years-Years 7-9 -in today's parlance - a few boys stripped to the waist both in the gym and outdoors.
However in Years 10 and 11 all boys stripped to the waist. This started when a new boy joined the school and went bare-chested.The next lesson we all joined him and went stripped to the waist.
This continued into Sixth Form(Years 12 and 13).

Fiona, all is good if your son is happy with that kit. My school was mixed although PE wasn't, but your brothers kit sounds identical to ours- so I am guessing no later than 1980s?

Andrew - my son is more than happy with his present PE kit arrangements. After his years at primary school doing PE in t-shirt and track-suit bottoms, being allowed to wear just a pair of shorts for PE is his idea of heaven. He's never liked wearing a lot of clothing, and even in winter will usually go to school without his coat, with just a shirt under his blazer, and in summer, he's topless for as many of the 24 hours as he can get away with

Toby - my brother was at an all boys school. PE in the gym was always topless, with plimsolls but no socks. Outdoor sports like football, cricket and tennis had conventional kit, and while vests were theoretically required for outdoor athletics in the summer, in practice everyone went topless, except on sports day, when parents etc were around. Swimming was always in speedo style swimsuits, which often doubled as supportive underwear for sports and PE.

Andrea - Mum went to an all girls school, which is probably why she wasn't sent straight back to the changing room to get her PE top.

Fiona, did your mum go to an all girls school, or were there boys there too?

Fiona Despite not being too good at sport I always enjoyed PE/Games. Our teacher knew his job getting us to sweat up. I was a bit surprised we always had to strip off in the gym rather than go in topless but I think that taught discipline and respect. Being stripped off outside was something else but it woke me up after being in overheated classrooms.

Your comments are interesting and offer a different perspective. You mentioned your brother stripping off for PE what kind of activities did he do with his shirt off.

Fiona, we had a similar kit to your son but outside tops went from optional to mandatory due to the long-term risk of sunburn. Much like yourself and Rob plimsolls were required outside due to risk of sharp objects. But yes its sad how such kits are now considered out of date, but what does/did your son think of it all?

Toby A - in answer to your question, I think boys stripping off for PE is a very good idea, and I have never really understood why this healthy practice has been allowed to disappear over the past generation or so. Both my brother and my father did PE topless at secondary school as a matter of course. At my son's school, PE tops are mandatory for outdoor activities like cross-country, but are optional, and rarely worn, in the gym. Towards the end of secondary school, about the time when the need for good sports bras for girls was starting to be recognised, my mother showed up for PE in just her bra, minus her PE shirt, and actually got complimented by the PE teacher for doing so, and although quite a lot of her class followed her example, that fashion now seems to have faded too.

Although we wore plimsolls in the gym, most of us voluntarily went out in bare feet when did athletics on grass in the summer.However, away from our well maintained playing fields when we ran cross country the surface was rough ground with grass over chalk with sharp flints and therefore made footwear a must. Otherwise it didn't prevent us from enjoying the pleasure of running bare chested.

Fiona, running around barefoot wasn't so bad actually during spring and summer being out on the fields barefoot was really enjoyable. Our cross country course was mostly grass, mud and more mud with a small stream to cross so looking back being barefoot was probably the wise descion as it meant we had no muddy clogged up water soaked plimsolls to clean afterwards. Also a quick Google search of school barefoot rugby will show you it is actually very common throughout the world.

I tend to agree with Fiona regarding playing Rugby barefoot although I recall reading somewhere that George Nepia the great All Black of the 1920's did do so in his early life.

Hi Fiona. Indoors we all stripped to the waist, same for xcountry runs. Outside,skins vs vests for football and rugby.Trainers at all times. Do you think it's appropriate for lads to strip off for PE?

Stuart, Ross - I can just imaging cross-counry running in bare feet, athough it's not something I never had to do or even want to try. We almost always wore plimsolls for PE, except occasionally outside on grass in the summer, but on tarmac or rough ground for cross-country, footwear was a must. Playing rugby bare-footed seems utterly ridiculous. How on earth could anyone kick a ball,especially a rugby ball, without anything on their feet?

Stewart, same here I was bare chested and barefoot for PE in or out including the cross country. Oh exception was rugby where we were allowed a rugby shirt but still barefoot.

Looking at some of these comments makes me realise how lucky you were! I was at an English Grammar School in the late 1960s and early 70s, and there was a strict no footwear rule for almost all PE, including cross country.

I too had to do PE both indoors and outside stripped to the waist and soon got used to it even being bare-chested with snow on the ground!

Well done to Chris C admitting he struggled being stripped to the waist when outside for PE. I thought I was the only one who found it cold! Harsh as it seems it certainly toughened you up. Some got used to being stripped outdoors before others but I enjoyed it too.

Dave,
I refer to the 1970s/80s. The Local Education Authority introduced a shirtless PE kit rule for boys for Primary and Secondary Education, this was in response to lads being injured whilst using wall bars and other gym apparatus. The lads had got their vests caught and had apparently sustained serious injuries. The Education Authority saw this as a health & safety issue. If all lads were stripped to the waist for indoor PE/gym these injuries could be prevented.

On the heath side the authority was aware that the Primary Schools had no shower facilities. In the 1979s most lads wore a vest underneath their school shirt, when they got changed for PE in the classroom they took off their shirt and kept their vest on to do PE. After PE lads would keep the same sweaty vest on and put their shirt on over it. It was thought that without a shower and keeping a sweaty vest on for the rest of the school day was totally unhealthy. Primary Schools didn’t want to have to ask parents to supply their sons with a PE vest.

At Secondary School the PE kit list stated white shorts, pumps. No vests/ t shirts were allowed and no underwear permitted underneath the shorts.

"I didn’t do PE stripped to the waist until I was age 9 at Junior School when the Local Education Authority introduced bare chested PE for lads, before that lads wore shorts and vests for PE."

Hi John!

Which decade do you write about? Ive thought that PE kits were decided by the school themselves. So the Local Education Authority was the one to introduce the new PE kits in some areas.If it was it explains the fact that from about the 1940's till the late 80's most schools had a shirtless PE kit for boys in the same time.

John, it seems that in my days at primary school the Local Education Authority had no power to decide whether or not pupils did any PE, yet alone what they wore for it.I remember aged 10 when it was our year for a physical examination and my mum was coming at a set time. We were called in to the school hall in small groups and told to strip to the waist in preparation for the exam which took place in the headmistress's office.As I mentioned,we didn't really do PE, just a bit of light exercise wearing our normal clothes and it was therefore a real shock and I resisted stripping off saying I would wait until I got into the office. The other boys laughed at me and I eventually had to take my shirt and vest off and wait my turn to see the doctor. If we had all done proper PE from infants school I wouldn't have had a problem later on. After that my parents encouraged me to play outside in the summer stripped to the waist as they had heard that if I went to the boys grammar school I would have to strip off for PE. The following year I found out this was correct at the first PE lesson when we were told to get changed into just gym shorts and plimsolls. I hadn't been prepared however for the open communal showers afterwards, but I soon got used to it and went on to enjoy being stripped to the waist for PE in the gym and on cross country runs with ever growing self-confidence.

Jamie, you were lucky that you ended up with a sensible PE teacher. I didn’t do PE stripped to the waist until I was age 9 at Junior School when the Local Education Authority introduced bare chested PE for lads, before that lads wore shorts and vests for PE. I was happy to do PE stripped to the waist and don’t see why this sensible rule could not have started in the Infant School. There is no need for lads to wear a top for indoor PE.

Reading John's post I agree that making boys strip to the waist for PE is beneficial in the long term. It's something I didn't experience at school until the age of 14 but now I think it's a pity I didn't have to do it earlier. The reason was that my PE teacher for the first two years in senior school took a laissez-faire approach towards gym kit; he wasn't too bothered if boys wore the wrong colour top or shorts and even allowed non-regulation sweatshirts to be worn over our PE tops! Our next PE teacher was somewhat different, more of an old school disciplinarian who didn't put up with boys being late or misbehaving. And never mind sweatshirts, he made it clear immediately that we'd be doing each lesson bare chested with no exceptions. It was a real shock at first and I certainly wasn't the only boy who initially felt very self conscious. Yet I got used to it, as we all did - and I think it made a big difference that it was the same rule for everyone. Being stripped to the waist probably encouraged me to work harder in PE as I wanted my body to look good and ultimately I grew more confident. But maybe that would have happened sooner if I'd had that teacher at 12 instead of 14!

Fiona,
I think the crop-top style running kits started to be adopted by female athletes in the late 1980s / early 1990s.

I've not come across any schools with that style of PE kit, but perhaps that's not surprising given that PE kit has to be worn by girls of all shapes and sizes, not just the slim athletics ones. I have come across a few schools which recommend that girls wear sports bras for PE. but that is in addition to their polo shirt or similar.

With regard to professional athletes, does anyone know what benefit the 'sleeve gloves' (covering the arms, but not connected to the vest) are supposed to give? Also why some wear their sunglasses even on cloudy days are at indoor events?

Watching some athletics on TV recently, my partner and I tried to remember when it became normal for female athletes to wear just sports bras or crop tops instead of full length vests, and then started wondering why the men don't go topless, just like they used to do in PE. We placed the adoption of bare midriff running kit around the mid 1980s, probably about the time when topless PE for boys started to go out of fashion. Does anyone know of a girl's school where bare midriff PE kit was/is the norm.

Chris C,
Great to hear that you enjoyed PE at school too. You were also lucky to have sensible PE teachers, skins vs skins was much fairer treating all lads the same. Shy lads became more confident being made to strip to the waist, the policy was good for boys.

John, We changed into vests,shorts and trainers for our first PE/Games lesson and told to line up out on the field. A couple of minutes with one lad singled out to strip in front of the group, we all followed and a line of vests lay on the grass. I struggled being stripped off outdoors in the winter until I turned 11 then I got used to it but was fine stripped down in the gym where it became normal for us to start to sweat about halfway through. I remember girls enjoying the sight of 30 lads stripped off and showing sweating the gym. Our scanty kit caught the girls attention and they relished seeing us stripped off especially outside in the winter months. I made the X country and basketball teams at school and had regular fitness competitions in the winter with some close-ish schools.Each years team was made up of 5 lads and comprised of a X country run followed by a hard workout in the gym. As the schools had different coloured shorts there was never a problem picking out a sweat soaked team member. Our PE teachers made sure skins Vs skins teams were the norm for all lads regardless of ability,physique or age. Everyone was encouraged to do their best, being stripped to the waist gave a bit more of an incentive to prove yourself especially with girls watching!

Rob, I had the same PE dress code as you at Senior School but we were also stripped to the waist for PE for the last two years at Junior School.I was so glad that I didn’t have to wear a top, we got so hot and sweaty doing PE it would have been very unpleasant. Like you we all enjoyed stripping off and having communal showers at the end of PE lessons.

I agree that I couldn't imagine girls being made to do PE topless at secondary school anywhere even in the sixties.Nicola,even though you say that it wasn't physically uncomfortable for you, it must have been embarrassing for all of you. Making young women'prance around' in the gym for 90 minutes of vigorous exercise like that is certainly 'utterly ridiculous, and bordering on abuse'. When I was at primary school in the early fifties we used to do what passed as exercises in the school hall wearing our normal school clothes. However, when I went on to a boys grammar school in 1955 I discovered we had to wear just PE shorts with nothing underneath and plimsolls.This applied both in the gym and outside including cross country runs, but as boys,we found it really enjoyable being stripped off and made to exercise and sweat profusely, as all boys naturally need to do, before going back to the changing rooms and taking our shorts and plimsolls off and getting in the open communal showers together.

Fiona, "prancing around" was how it felt sometimes, especially when we did dance in our PE lessons! For me personally, I was never too physically uncomfortable having to do PE with no top on, but I think a few of my class probably were. I remember looking out the corner of my eye when we were first told to undress, inquisitive about exactly what lay beneath the bras that some of the girls were wearing! Some of those girls were slow to remove their bras, but of course that was pretty futile as we'd all soon be gong into the gym for 90 minutes of vigorous exercise!