Eeeyup. Climb the rope, ring the bell at the top, everybody looks up to see who made it all the way up there. Late 70s/early 80s.
We did, it was required. They wouldn’t let you stop trying until you made it up the rope, and we had no mats.
I remember a girl falling from about the ten foot height and getting knocked out cold when the back of her head hit the hard gym floor. After that it was just…oh, if you feel like it…noooo pressure.
I vaguely recall doing it once - but I suppose it could have been a dream. It was elementay school early 70s
Brian
We climbed ropes in school, and in the military.
I also had a rope that came from an old ski rope tow, hung from a big pine tree for my kids to climb.
Yes, I climbed the rope, in multiple grades.
Mid 70’s, highschool in Los Angeles.
brag time
I could climb from seated upon the ground in an “L” position, and could hold that to the top and then back to the ground. No, I wasn’t a gymnast.
Note that rope climbing was at one time an Olympic event.
Yep, we did it when I was in elementary school. I remember I was one of the few girls who made it all the way to the top.
Yes, in junior high I think (early 80’s), and I was excellent at it because my father had suspended a 1 1/4 or 1 1/2"-thick rope on a big tree in our backyard for us kids when we were in elementary school. This rope swing was fantastic fun and even though we mostly swung on it (sitting on a knot tied on the bottom end), we climbed it a fair bit, too.
I did, in the 70’s. My kids elementary and middle schools both had climbing walls.
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I did it in elementary school in Oklahoma in the 70’s.
It was more fun than the bent-arm hang, but less fun than parachute day or crab soccer.
Does anybody else remember those?
We had to and were graded on it in 7th-9th grade. Once you got the feet thing down, it was easy. The peg board was much harder since it was all arms. You weren’t allowed to cheat by swinging sideways when you were graded.
Yep. In high school. This was back in the early to mid 60s. It was probably 25 feet up and we had a couple of 2"ish thick pads to land on if we fell.
We had ropes and poles as part of our regular rotation in PE in elementary school in the mid-late 90s. I don’t remember it being embarrassing or difficult for anyone though, I’m pretty sure that everyone could climb it, and it was pretty high up (went to the ceiling of our rather large gym). Getting down was more of a problem than getting up because of the danger of friction burns killing your will to grip what you were climbing.
Yes, mid-seventies. I couldn’t do it.
Yes. Elementary school, early 80s, awful at it.
What exactly was the point of this exercise? What use is this skill in other athletic events or what muscles does it work out? Does the rope have to natural rope (like my school) or would much smoother synthetic rope work?
Yes, in middle school. Maybe 2001. It wasn’t that high (maybe fifteen, eighteen feet) and I was able to climb it, which surprised me, because I’m not small and I’m not strong. I don’t think it was required, or maybe we were required to try it with no penalty for failure, and not forced to repeat it.
Sure. The studs could do it in under 5 seconds or only using arms. I remember one dude that went up in like 3 seconds.
I loved doing it.
Yeah, we had to climb a rope back in the 1950s. Our school champion was a kid who was confined to a wheel chair by polio; his upper body strength was incredible.
Absolutely, I once climbed to the top and held onto the rafter until the next guy came up, then he held on while I went back down before he did, gym coach thought it was funny.