Oh, OK. I thought dodgeball was when kids in a circle threw balls at other kids inside the circle.
From everything I understand Michelle is quite the athlete. I don’t think she’d want you to go easy on her!
Dodgeball was in a circle when I participated.
Still do! 
BTW, I’ve seen 60+ year old men and women climb a rope. It’s just about training, no matter the arm length.
Sorry, back to dodgeball. One of my kids is a summer camp counselor (camp is 2nd to 6th grade) this summer and the camp has a dodgeball class/time/session. They may be playing right now.
Oh, my gosh, the rope climb is an instrument of torture. Right up there with the uneven bars in the gymnastics unit in middle school.
No, it’s physics with other factors being equal.
And the rope climb is an activity in which I simply refused to participate. I’d try, fail and simply announce it’s not for me.
As for physics just look at gymnastics–a lot of great gymnasts “age” out as they grow taller and mature. It’s not strength or training (they already have that)–it’s physics.
We disagree. And I’m moving on after this post to obey CC rules.
I’m not a scientist, but I can climb a rope. I can do handstands and I can twirl on the bar pretty good. And I’m “mature” and “taller.”
All it takes is training, technique and developing arm and leg strength. How do I know? I’ve literally trained people from nearly all walks and ages of life to climb a rope. Climb a wall too. Without effort, there will be no success.
At some point, I will “age out” myself. That will be a very sad day.
Gymnasts age out at the elite/Olympic level, but older folks can do gymnastics. I see it every day. Lots of gymnastics being performed by non-elite gymnasts. Just regular people like you and me. We have bars and rings and a gymnastics floor. No ribbons though. 
Come join us. Join a CrossFit Box (gym). It may take a while though. 
@cfsmap thanks for making my day
I might have liked rope climb if the gym teacher had imparted or taught even a little technique. But it was just here’s a rope, let’s see who can climb it, or more importantly, who can’t.
At my kids’ elementary school, the rope climb was introduced in third grade. The kids knew this was coming, and many dreaded it. My son had trouble sleeping the entire summer before third grade because he was afraid of getting to the top of the rope and falling off. He thought the upcoming school year was when he would die.
In the fall, he failed to get up the rope at all, which wasn’t surprising because he’s quite clumsy. That solved the problem. But the summer before was awful.
I was too timid to refuse, but I just couldn’t do it and dreaded it so badly. My terror of the thing was probably way out of proportion, but I do remember how much I despised it.
Another thing I hated was having to do the bar hang while everyone counted out loud how long you could hold on.
Too funny that this thread is still going.
Dodgeball, swimming, tennis, rope-climbing, gymnastics, Red Rover, algebra, etc… I was terrible at most of those things. Some were tortuous for me and I hated them. The common theme seems to be that we all have had to do things we don’t like to do, are afraid of doing, or are bad at. None of which justifies not doing them at all.
I am terrible at sports like volleyball and softball. I recall doing various activities like the rope climb (which remarkably I could do) and a run of some duration but not dreading them. We played dodgeball in elementary school, but we also had things like a bowling unit. I have to say I preferred dodgeball to bowling but I don’t recall bullying at that age. Some of the experiences described in the thread sound really traumatic and I don’t think that should be happening in gym class. I did gymnastics in high school which was an alternative gym class - if you got cut from the team, you were dropped from the class and had to do regular PE. The horror! Of course, gymnastics is where I picked up some dysfunctional eating behaviors but that’s another thread entirely.
What’s interesting for me is that activities I avoided when younger are the activities I want to challenge myself with now. That said, I hope the firm doesn’t decide to host a dodgeball tournament anytime soon.
First, I really want to know where some of you went to school and had facilities for such things as swimming and gymnastics. My 1970s elementary school had a gym/cafeteria/auditorium, red rubber balls, nerf balls, softballs, basketballs, whiffleballs, bats, jump ropes, a couple of parachutes and playground equipment that would fail any government safety regulation today.
Second, as a self-described nerd, I can tell some of you never learned the “nerd strategy” of how to avoid getting pummeled at dodgeball: just touch the ball with your fingertips or wrist and get out as quickly as possible. It’s much kinder and gentler to get hit from the ball that ricocheted off someone else’s leg.
I was terrible at dodgeball (and kickball and softball and the rope climb and the dreaded Presidential Physical Fitness Test which I never once passed in six years of elementary school). But I do appreciate being forced to be athletic in school. I don’t think I would have gotten much exercise otherwise. At my school, the teachers kept a watchful eye on all of us and greatly enforced the no-hits-above-the-shoulders rule. Dodgeball is a very active game and, as such, is a great way to release stress (even for non-athletic nerds). It seems that the problem isn’t with dodgeball itself but with how some adults allow inexcusable behaviors in the game.
Now the real bullying at my school was in Thumbs Up Seven Up. Bullies DID pick you at my school and would practically twist your thumb right out of the socket - hard to get caught, too. Duck Duck Goose was a close second - yeah, let’s give kids an opportunity to knock other children in the head.
I had the “nerd strategy “ down even better—I just left the court when the chaos started. Didn’t bother to touch the ball.
I had one high school PE teacher who was wonderful. We did gymnastics (which I still hated) but after some required routines she made a super long list of extra credit items and if you even TRIED one or all you’d get at least one point extra. So effort did count. And not having much pride I just tried everything and received an A in the class.
She later became the tennis coach at the state university—and I got to learn tennis from her.
I didn’t mind doing the things I was bad at. I did mind doing the things that seemed to be designed to hurt you. Big difference.
I have been watching this thread for almost 20 pages now and am amazed that anyone believes any school program is “designed to hurt you”. Every PE activity is designed to be safe, the insurance companies mandate it. That said there are always going to be injuries and bullies are always going to bully. The difference is the adults need to maintain control of the classroom.
Any PE activity can be used to bully and can cause hurt (either physical or mental). Softball units the athlete can throw a fastball at the “nerd” knowing it will not be caught and will likely hit the “nerd” hard and hurt. Floor hockey is the same with slap shots directed at people. The stretching in gymnastics, painful as hell. The amount of body shaming/harassment available to the bully in swimming units is unbelievable. I could go on for days but the point is dodge ball is no different and the common theme is the adult in the room needs to act like an adult.
There are 3 ways to deal with a bully; suck it up, report it, or beat them at their own game. I vividly remember 2 occasions where I took 2 different approaches. Junior high softball unit where I made a throw to first base and it was a “rainbow” and I was teased relentlessly. I sucked it up as I could have cared less what my throw looked like or what others thought about it. The other was late elementary school where I was an improving diver and had just beaten the “team stud” in a meet. He had a souvenir baseball bat he had just gotten and carried around with him. He pulled me aside and told me if I beat him at the upcoming city championship meet he would beat me with the bat. I told my parents but better than that I beat him in the city championship (guess what no beating from the bat). We competed together for the next 6 years (through high school) and I never lost to him again. We ultimately became frenemies as I had beaten him at his own game and took the power away from the bully. At our 20 year reunion I was one of the people he said he had looked forward to seeing as I had changed his attitude years before. He still had a bully impulse, lighthearted teasing at the weight I had gained over 20 years but at the end of the night shared he had just had a large weight loss of his own and would do anything he could to help me lose weight if I wanted.
I was never bullied, but I was a terrible athlete. I was so glad when I got into high school and marching band counted as PE. Never again. 
I think I would have gotten hurt if I’d attempted a cartwheel!
I was a gymnast and I think that trying to teach gymnastics to the masses is dumb. It’s not a sport one can take up casually. It takes a long time to build strength, flexibility, and coordination. Also most gym teachers don’t know much about teaching gymnastics skills or how to keep kids safe (spotting them) while learning.
Same goes for the rope climb. Way too much strength needed for that for the average kid to be able to do it. We had a kid (pretty athletic) fall off the rope at my school the first day it was installed. He broke his arm. The rope came down.
When I was in middle school, PE was one thing - basketball. Every day all year long. I was good at sports but we had a bully of a coach. Screamed at me for picking up my dribble and made me cry and then yelled at me for crying. I would have rather been hit in the head playing dodgeball that day.
We have a small summer class at the gym where I’m a member and we’re teaching kids (10-12 year olds) to climb a rope, among other strength building exercises, including kicking up to handstand using the wall for balancing. Then we use side-to-side movements (on your hands) to mimic handstand walking. Some have it immediately, some it’s taking time, but they’re all making improvements each week. Building strength and flexibility. Desire to learn is essential.