Did you do PE barefoot

It’s was probably 80/20 for me in favour of trainers! @GkB01

@Ross19 My class, indoor PE was probably about 95% bare feet with only 2 girls that I remember keeping socks and plimsolls on.

Cool. In middle school it was me and about 2/3 others @GkB01

@Ross19 It was the fact that there were many that were barefoot that I suppose inspired me to go that way.

@GkB01 that’s cool. I don’t think I was inspired to go barefoot I came from a school where it was barefoot compulsory so I carried on in my new middle school

@Ross19 I think I wore my plimsolls for most PE apart from apparatus in first school, switching once I got to middle school.

@GkB01 First school was barefoot, middle school (y5 only) barefoot then I moved and joined another middle school that allowed “non marking sole” trainers

@Ross19 I didn't encounter trainers in school until comprehensive school. I much preferred bare feet. By that time, I'd been consistently barefoot for 2 or 3 years.

@GkB01 in high school most boys wore trainers except for gymnastics that was barefoot

@Ross19 Some wore trainers in the gym at my comprehensive school, far more including me forewent them in favour of the bare feet we'd enjoyed in middle school.

@GkB01 that great. In high for me I quite often would be the only barefoot one

@Ross19 That's tough, were you ever able to persuade anyone to join you?

Was there ever a PE activity that was challenging to do for you in your bare feet?

@GkB01 The most challenging would have been basketball. The jumping up and down on the uncushioned sports hall floor was quite bad and the fact I had my toes trampled on. I was going to say XC but that was quite good barefoot.

@Ross19 Were you ever tempted to don your trainers to protect your toes? Did you do much basketball?

@GkB01 Basketball only lasted for about 2 lessons a year. And played in the summer! Whilst rugby was reserved for winter.

@Ross19 Were you the only one having bare feet for basketball? Was that the case for other lessons too?

@GkB01 Yes I remember several occasions where I was the only one barefoot

@Ross19 Any particular reason you didn't have footwear?

@GkB01 The middle school I came from was compulsory bare feet for PE so that’s what I was used to plus my parents were used to not buying separate trainers so I only had one pair which had the dreaded marking black soles which weren’t allowed inside.

@Ross19 So you could have worn trainers if they hadn't had black soles? How did it feel to be the only one? I'm not sure I'd have liked it.

@GkB01 I could have but honestly I didn’t care I think I preferred doing all sports barefoot. Even outside of school I played rugby with my neighbour friends barefoot.

@Ross19 I think it's ironic that you couldn't wear black soled footwear but would have had black soles from the gym floor, lol.

@GkB01 Haha yeah true, it wasn’t so much the sports hall but the corridors man were they filthy. I remember the gritty feeling underfoot.

I always hated putting my shoes and socks on afterwards because I could never get my soles sparkling clean again at school and I could feel the gritty dirt in my socks for the rest of the day. I’d have just gone barefoot if I were allowed.

It may have been easier to wear footwear in the corridors and remove it in the sports hall had you been allowed. Our corridors seemed clean, it was the sports hall that was more likely to be dusty as some lads tried to retain their trainers inside, whilst the rest including me went without .