There are two kinds of people: those who enjoyed school PE lessons and the rest of us | Emma Beddington

The horror of sports lessons put three in 10 of British 50 to 65-year-olds off exercise for life. I wish I’d known sooner that movement can feel so good

Surprising news: three in 10 50- to 65-year-olds in a recent Age UK survey said school sports memories had put them off exercise “for life”. Only three in 10? When it comes to exercise, there are surely two kinds of people – the handful who enjoyed school PE lessons and everyone else.

I’m guessing the first category are out smashing their marathon PBs, meaning we indoor sorts can safely share war stories. Mine: forced to walk half an hour to the sports field in the tiny synthetic pleated skirt that was mysteriously designated mandatory sportswear, heckled by local perverts and youths shouting “jolly hockey sticks”, then skulking, motionless, in the mud, avoiding various projectiles while being shouted at by the sporty girls and contemplated with bafflement by (mostly benign) PE teachers.