What's going on
In Japan, the back hip circle — called sakagari (逆上がり) — is a staple of elementary school PE. Every child is expected to master it: you grip the horizontal bar, kick off the ground, and swing your legs up and over until your body wraps around the bar. It sounds simple, but for a surprising number of people, it never clicks. The movement requires precise coordination of arm strength, timing, and body position that resists verbal instruction entirely.
A 21-year-old university student sent a request to Detective! Knight Scoop *(a long-running Osaka variety show where comedians-turned-detectives help members of the public with personal problems, big and small)*, explaining her situation: she's studying to become a PE teacher, but she failed her gymnastics course in her third year because she couldn't do a back hip circle. Now in her fourth year, she needs to pass the retake — or she won't graduate. She's practiced with family and friends, but nothing has worked, and she feels like no one really understands what it's like to simply not be able to do it. She needs help, fast, before classes resume in April.
The show sends a detective and a gymnastics specialist to train her and a small group of others who've joined the mission. The results, and the discussion they sparked online, are what you see below.
Comments
A PE teacher who actually understands what it feels like to be the kid who can’t do it — that’s the most powerful thing.
できない子の気持ちをわかってくれる体育教師、最強
Understanding how struggling kids feel doesn’t actually change anything for the kid who’s still struggling, so it’s not really a superpower 😅
出来ない子の気持ちを理解しても、本当に出来ない子は何も変わらないから、最強でも何でもない😅
What most PE teachers lack most is the ability to empathize with kids who can’t do something. Someone like her is genuinely valuable.
体育の先生に最も足りないことは、できないことへの理解だと思ってるから彼女のような先生は本当に大事だと思う。
Most PE teachers have no idea what it’s like to be a kid who can’t keep up. She’s a rare find.
普通、体育教師は出来ない子の気持ちなんてわかってくれないから貴重な人材
This almost made me cry. The horizontal bar was genuinely the worst part of PE for me because I couldn’t do it either. A teacher who gets that feeling and still shows up like this for students — I would’ve loved having someone like that.
普通に泣きそうになった。逆上がりできなくて鉄棒の時間本当に憂鬱だったから、できない気持ち理解した上でこれだけ親身になって教えてくれる先生いたら嬉しい。
Every time I learn some trick about movement as an adult — how to run faster, how to climb stairs without getting tired — I think: I wish someone had taught me this in elementary school. Learning how your body works is interesting at any age.
大人になってから運動のコツを知るたび、小学生の時に学びたかったと思う 早く走るコツ、疲れにくい階段の登り方、大人になっても身体の使い方を学ぶことは面白いです
The tall dad who joined in — he’s just SO enthusiastic. Genuinely wholesome to watch. I was laughing 😄
背の高い方のお父さんが、積極的すぎて微笑ましすぎて、笑ってしまう
The guy who lost 8 kg — his eyes are just sparkling. That’s exactly what exercise does to you.
8キロ減量した人目がキラキラしてて素敵 運動の良さってこれよな
The person who looked like they’d have the hardest time ended up being the closest to getting it at the start lol
最初の時点でいっちばん重たくて難しそうな人が1番惜しいの笑う
This brought back memories of training with my mother — she was an elementary school teacher, now gone — back when I was preparing for PE tests. I still can’t do a back hip circle, but those are good memories.
小学校のテストの為、今は亡き、小学校教諭の母との特訓の日々を思い出しました。 未だに逆上がりはできませんが、良い思い出です
I couldn’t do it as a kid either. “Swoooop around” and “just go for it!” meant absolutely nothing to me. Then a friend told me: “don’t think of it as hanging from the bar — pull the bar toward your chest” and “after you kick, don’t think ’toes up,’ think ‘knees toward your head.’” Did it on the first try. The bigger lesson wasn’t the back hip circle — it was that how you explain something matters enormously. We need more classes on how to put physical movement into words.
自分も子どもの頃できなくて、｢くるっと｣｢ガッと｣とか抽象的なアドバイスが意味分からんかった。 ｢'棒にぶら下がる'んじゃなく'棒を胸に引き寄せる'｣ ｢地面を蹴った後に'つま先を上に'じゃなくて、'膝を頭のほうに'持っていく｣ って教えてくれた友達がいて、一発でできるようになった。 できた感動以上に｢伝え方って大事なんだ｣と実感した思い出。 鉄棒よりも言語化について教える授業をもっとやったほうがいい！と今でも思う。
A PE teacher who can’t do a back hip circle isn’t great, but a PE teacher who gets visibly annoyed at kids who can’t do it is worse. And a teacher who learned it the hard way — from not being able to do it — understands both the feeling and the mechanics. That makes them stronger.
逆上がりが出来ない体育教師もまずいけど、出来ない子に教えることに苛立つ体育教師はもっと良くない。 そして、出来ないところから出来るようになった先生は、出来ない人の気持ち、出来るためのコツや理屈がわかるからより強い。
This applies to math and science teachers too. A lot of them just solve things by intuition and can’t explain why. More teachers who once struggled but worked through it — that’s what we need.
数学とか理系の先生にも多い気がします。 天才肌というか感覚で解いてる方が多いので授業が分かりづらいことが多い。 元々苦手だったけど努力して習得した先生とか文系だけど理系もできるような先生が増えるといいなと思います。
For anyone who never got it: having a teacher who actually understands that experience and still shows up with this much care would have meant everything.
逆上がりできなくて鉄棒の時間本当に憂鬱だったから、できない気持ち理解した上でこれだけ親身になって教えてくれる先生いたら嬉しい。
I was literally cheering out loud. Nobody would’ve blamed them if they’d slacked off a little — but you can tell from the results that all three of them had been showing up every single day. That got me.
声出して応援してしまったよ。 最後、練習サボったって正直仕方ないのに3人とも毎日コツコツやってたんだろうなっていうのが結果に出ててすごい感動した。
She came in saying she couldn’t do it — and then immediately started suggesting the towel method and the cushion kick drills she learned at university. And she figured it out fast…
逆上がりができないと言って応募してきた依頼者が 大学（だよね）で習った、タオルを使ったりクッションを蹴る練習方法を提案して すぐに逆上がりができるようになりました・・・
She said she’d been struggling for years, then pulled out university-level training techniques herself on the spot. There’s a certain irony there 😅
逆上がりができないと言って応募してきた依頼者が 大学（だよね）で習った、タオルを使ったりクッションを蹴る練習方法を提案して すぐに逆上がりができるようになりました・・・
“Help me learn the back hip circle” is basically a recurring request on Knight Scoop — it shows up every few years. I think there was even an episode where they trained three PE-teacher-hopefuls at once before.
逆上がりできないから克服したいって依頼はナイトスクープでは数年周期でくる定番ネタ 以前にも同じ悩みを持つ体育教師志望の大学生３人ほどをまとめて教えてたこともあったはず
I don’t even have kids and I cried watching someone else’s back hip circle. If it was my own child putting in that effort and finally nailing it, I’d be completely gone.
俺子供いないけど他人の逆上がりで泣いちゃったよ。自分の子供が努力して逆上がり出来ちゃうと号泣やろな
Advice from people who are naturally athletic just doesn’t land, does it. Though to be fair, they probably can’t comprehend what’s going wrong for us either.
運動出来る人のアドバイスってほんとに分かんないよね。向こうも運動出来ない人間の動きが分かんないんだろうと思うけど
Once I studied physics it clicked. The farther you are from the axis of rotation, the more force it takes — so you want to stay as close to the bar as possible. Bend your knees after kicking to shrink your radius and your rotation speed increases. Same principle as a figure skater pulling their arms in when they spin!
物理学んでから簡単にできるようになりました。 回転軸から遠ざかるほど回るのに力がいるのでなるべく近づけるようにする。蹴ってから膝を曲げて半径を小さくすると回転スピードが上がってすぐ回れます！ フィギュアスケートの選手が回るときに身体を細くなるようにするのと一緒です！
The idea of a PE teacher who gets visibly frustrated when students can’t do something being set loose in a school is a little terrifying. That’s literally the job.
教えていてイライラしてしまう体育教師が世に放たれるの怖い〜 それが仕事なのに
Watching someone go all-in on something — whatever it is — is just dazzling. Reminds me of how hard I practiced this back then…
なんであろうと一生懸命やる人は眩しいもんだねえ 逆上がり練習したなあ…
Watched this and immediately thought “wait, can I still do it?” Went to the park, made it once, never again after that. Kept trying anyway and my arms stopped working the next day 😅
これ見て自分今できるのか？って公園行ってやってきた。1回できてそれ以降できず…何回もトライしたら翌日無事に腕があがらなくなりました😅
I always got a 2 out of 5 in PE (the lowest passing grade in the Japanese grading system), but the back hip circle was the one thing I could do. I wondered why for years — then I realized it might just be because I’m tall, so the bar was relatively low for me and the center of gravity lined up better.
万年体育2の私でも、逆上がりだけはできた。なぜだろうとずっと不思議だったけど、よく考えてみると答えはシンプルで、身長が高かったおかげで鉄棒が相対的に低く、重心が乗りやすかっただけなのかもしれない。
I’m 84 this year. Still working out every day at the gym. Still can’t do a back hip circle.
今年84です。チョコザップで毎日鍛え上げていますが逆上がりは今だにできません。
Our gym has an 85-year-old iron man! You should switch gyms.
うちのゴールドジム85歳の鉄人います！ジム替えしましょう
Speaking as someone with short legs: longer legs are a huge advantage here.
短足から申し上げますと、足が長い人が有利です。
It’s rare to find someone who’s athletic but still gets what it feels like to be the one who can’t. I had teachers who just got annoyed and never explained anything clearly. If I’d had someone like her, I might have actually liked PE.
運動出来る人の中で運動出来ない人の気持ちがわかる方って少ないよね、私もイライラされて具体的に教えて貰えなかった こういう先生がいたら体育好きになれてたんだろうな
My 5th-grade teacher made us stay after school until we could do it — you could only leave once you succeeded. I was stuck there for ages and absolutely hated him for it 🍁 The following year, a training aid was installed in the schoolyard.
終業のベルがなっても、逆上がり出来た順から帰宅出来る事になって、まじで出来んで居残りさせられて、筋肉脳の担任体育教師を恨んだ小5の秋🍁翌年、逆上がり補助機が、校庭に設置された
“Nobody goes home until everyone can do it” is genuinely cruel. That should not be allowed in schools.
クラス全員できるまで」は本当にキツいよね。 そういうのは学校教育でやってはいけないことだと思うね。
Infinitely better than the PE teachers who single out struggling kids in front of everyone as a “bad example.”
悪いお手本とかいって晒し者にする体育教師より何倍も良い
The back hip circle is really a physics experiment more than a PE skill, so in theory anyone who understands physics should be able to nail it regardless of coordination.
逆上がりは体育というより物理の実験なので理系の人だったら運動音痴でも楽勝であるべき
Gained the valuable insight that even if you could do it before, weight gain makes it not happen anymore.
昔はできていても太ると出来ないという知見を得た
I tried the monkey bars at a playground recently with my kid and was horrified to discover how much I’ve declined.
こないだ子供を連れて行った公園で久しぶりに雲梯をやってみて、身体能力の低下っぷりに愕然としたのを思い出した
People who could do it from day one can only describe it as “you just… go around.” Completely useless instruction.
はじめからできた人は教えるときも「ばぁー回るねん」しかいわれへんからね。
This is exactly what makes Knight Scoop great — they take completely ordinary, low-stakes requests and treat them with total sincerity. I hope it keeps going for a long time.
こうゆう他愛も無い依頼に真剣に応えてくれるのが、探偵ナイトスクープの良さです。これからも、このスタンスで末長く続いて行って欲しいですね。
A PE teacher who had to work for it as an adult? That’s the strongest kind there is.
大人になって出来るようになった体育教師なんて、最強だと思う！
My take
No matter your age, there's something genuinely admirable about deciding to try.
Source & translation note
Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.
View original thread →