50 Fun Facts About PE

How many players does each team have on the field in a game of soccer?

That includes the goalkeeper, the only player allowed to use hands, and only inside the penalty area.

How long is a full soccer match, not counting stoppage time?

Two halves of 45 minutes; the World Cup is played every four years and is watched by more people than the Olympics.

How many players from one team are on the court at a time in basketball?

Teams of five became standard by 1897-98, a few years after the game was invented.

Who invented basketball in December 1891 to keep his gym class busy on rainy days?

He was a PE instructor at the YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts, and nailed peach baskets to the wall.

How high is the rim of a basketball hoop above the court?

That is 3.05 metres, the same at almost every level from school gyms to the NBA.

What did the first basketball players throw the ball into?

Someone had to climb up and get the ball out after every score until the bottom was cut open.

How many players does each volleyball team have on the court?

Each side gets up to three touches to send the ball back over the net.

What was volleyball originally called by its inventor, William G. Morgan, in 1895?

He was a YMCA PE director in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and wanted something gentler than basketball for older businessmen.

How many players are on a baseball team's fielding side?

A game normally lasts nine innings, and each half-inning ends after three outs.

In baseball, how many balls does a batter need to be awarded a walk to first base?

Three strikes and the batter is out; the terminology comes from the umpire calling each pitch.

How long is a marathon?

That is 42.195 km, fixed in 1921 to match the 1908 London Olympic course from Windsor Castle to the royal box.

In which modern country is the battle site the marathon is named after?

Pheidippides is said to have run from Marathon in 490 BC; the race was one of the original events of the 1896 Olympics.

How many rings are on the Olympic flag?

Blue, yellow, black, green and red on white; Coubertin said those six colours cover every nation's flag.

What is the Olympic motto 'Citius, Altius, Fortius' in English?

'Communiter', meaning Together, was added in 2021.

The Olympic torch relay from Olympia to the host city began at which Games?

The flame is still lit at Olympia and carried to the host stadium before every Games.

The ancient Olympic Games were held every four years at Olympia in honour of which god?

They ran from 776 BC to AD 393; the only event at the first thirteen Games was a 192-metre sprint, and winners got olive wreaths.

In which city were the first modern Olympic Games held in 1896?

Fourteen nations sent 241 athletes, all men; American James Connolly won the triple jump to become the first champion in 1,500 years.

The word 'gymnasium' comes from a Greek word meaning what?

Ancient Greek athletes trained without clothes; the gymnasia doubled as schools where philosophers lectured.

How many bones does an adult human skeleton have?

Babies are born with around 270; many fuse as we grow. The skeleton is about 14 percent of body weight.

Which is the longest bone in the human body?

The thigh bone is also the thickest, which is why it takes so much force to break.

What is the single largest muscle in the human body?

Its size is what lets humans stand upright and run; other primates have much flatter hips.

The heart is a muscle about the size of what?

It has four chambers and beats about 72 times a minute at rest, roughly 100,000 times a day.

What is a typical resting heart rate for an adult, in beats per minute?

Anything from 60 to 100 is normal; exercise makes it climb, and fitter people often rest lower.

Push-ups mainly work the triceps, the front of the shoulders and which chest muscles?

The one-hour record is 3,378, and Charles Servizio did 46,001 in 24 hours in 1993.

The word 'aerobic', as in aerobic exercise, means relating to or requiring what?

Air Force doctor Kenneth Cooper coined 'aerobics' in the 1960s; running, swimming and cycling all count.

The 'beep test' run in PE classes worldwide has students shuttle back and forth over what distance?

Luc Léger devised it; the beeps get faster every minute and it estimates VO2 max. It is also called the PACER.

The Presidential Fitness Test used in American schools from the 1950s to 2013 included a run of what distance?

Sit-ups, pull-ups or push-ups, a sit-and-reach and a shuttle run rounded it out; students above the 85th percentile got an award.

How many events make up the decathlon?

Two days, five events each; the winner is traditionally called the world's greatest athlete, a title King Gustav V first gave Jim Thorpe in 1912.

Which three sports make up a triathlon, in order?

The first modern one was in San Diego in 1974; the Olympic distance is a 1.5 km swim, 40 km ride and 10 km run.

In dodgeball world championships, how many balls are in play at once?

Six balls, six players a side; some schools have dropped the game after complaints it is too aggressive.

Pickleball was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island in which US state?

Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum made it up as a backyard game; the no-volley zone by the net is 'the kitchen'.

What is the ball in pickleball made of?

Paddles are solid, the net is 34 inches high and the court is the size of a badminton doubles court.

How many feathers are in a traditional badminton shuttlecock?

They are set in a cork base; the fastest smash ever recorded flew at 426 km/h.

In tennis, what is a score of zero called?

One theory says it comes from the French l'oeuf, an egg, because an egg looks like a zero.

How many games does a player need to win a set in tennis, with at least a two-game lead?

At six games each a tiebreak usually decides it, 7-6.

The jump-rope game in which two ropes are turned in opposite directions is called what?

Skipping burns about 30 percent more energy than running and boxers use it for footwork.

Which is the fastest of the four competitive swimming strokes?

Butterfly is second fastest; it grew out of a loophole in the breaststroke rules and became a separate event in 1952.

The butterfly stroke's leg movement, with both legs kicking together, is named after which animal?

Butterfly first appeared at the Olympics in 1956, four years after being split from breaststroke.

Scoring three goals in one game is called a hat-trick. In which sport did the term start, in 1858?

Fans passed the hat to buy H. H. Stephenson a new one after he took three wickets with three balls.

Ultimate, the team sport played with a flying disc, was invented in 1968 at a high school in which state?

Seven players a side, no referees: players call their own fouls under the 'spirit of the game'.

How many holes are in a standard round of golf?

St Andrews set the standard in 1764 by cutting its course from 22 holes to 18; a birdie is one under par and an eagle two under.

What is the highest possible score in a game of ten-pin bowling?

It takes twelve strikes in a row; the lane is 60 feet from the foul line to the head pin.

Which swimmer holds the record for the most Olympic medals ever, with 28?

He won 23 golds, including eight at Beijing 2008, beating Mark Spitz's seven from 1972.

Under the WHO's guidance, how many minutes of exercise a day should young children aim for?

The recommendation is for at least three days a week and can be met partly through school PE programmes.

Singapore's compulsory school fitness test, graded gold, silver, bronze or fail, is known by what acronym?

Pre-enlistees who score bronze or fail face an extra two months of national service training.

Which US high school pioneered 'Zero Hour', a before-school PE class designed to boost learning?

In Illinois the programme is called Learning Readiness Physical Education, based on research linking fitness to academic alertness.

Roughly what share of countries legally require PE in school programming, per a worldwide survey?

Most children worldwide take part in PE in general education settings, though programmes vary enormously.

Ennis identified three curriculum models for PE: Factory, Garden and which third one?

The Factory model runs like an assembly line of standard drills; the Garden model nurtures individual wellbeing and choice.

What is the informal name for physical education in United States schools?

The subject is also commonly shortened to 'Phys. Ed.' or 'PE'.

In Poland, universities must organise at least how many hours of PE in undergraduate courses?

Polish school pupils are expected to do at least three hours of PE per week in primary and secondary education.