PESS Physical Proficiency Test

This five station test assesses water confidence, running agility, ball and game sense, eye-hand/procimal-distal coordination in racket games, and also balance and basic gymnastic movements. I finally managed to help out in this one after missing the previous ppt last semester. So why am I so eager to help? I did not go there to ogle at girls and flirt with them (as someone in my class who did not turn up to help stayed around to do) , but because I am interested in seeing assessments of physical performances. In a perverse way, I am interested to see the best and the worst of performances, and perhaps be helpful to a group of nervous participants who are full of performance anxieties.

I recalled that when I did the PPT, I talked to a few of the people in my detail, and just before the badminton test, someone I chatted to told me that he has never held a badminton racket before. That was like a slap to my face - I wanted so much to be a good teacher, and there are jokers here who just wanted to try their luck and hope to somehow smuggle themselves into PESS without even the desire to do well in the qualifying test. As we went round the stations and I saw the usual mediocre performances in badminton and gymnastics, I realised that so many of these people just wanted to get in just because they see themselves as sportspeople and not teachers. They think they ought to be here just cos they can play soccer/basketball/run well. They dismissed the skill test components that they are weak in, and think they're silly and not worth their time.

My detail performed at the average skill range for almost everyone, but it's a joy to see a few move around well and finding space during the possession game, and one guy who lobbed strong clear shots confidently. But there's a disappointing girl who swam the breaststroke like a hummingbird (meaning bobbing upright and inching forward), played badminton like my cousin when he was ten, and flopped at gymnastics. Why did she even try when obviously she's so ill-prepared? The only thing she's trying is her luck, and it doesn't work that way unfortunately. Doesn't she feel ashamed of her effort, or guilt if she miraculously passed it?