Competitive activities are usually part of middle school physical education in Cyprus. Students experience a variety of both sports and competitive activities throughout the year. Competitive activities may be used to promote physical activity in adolescence, help students develop their skills, promote sportsmanship and prepare students for real life, where competition exists in many aspects of life. However, the offered competitive activities by the physical education teacher may affect students differently; they either enhance students’ interest for participating in the lesson and probably provide them with an enjoyable and successful participation or they may exclude students’ from participating. Considering that children grow up in a “technology” world and that they spend much of their free time sedentary playing video games, it seemed critical to examine how the offered activities in physical education affect students. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate middle school students’ perceptions towards competitive activities in school physical education. Ninety (90) middle school students (56 girls & 34 boys) from 9 urban middle schools all over Cyprus, who were randomly selected, participated in this study. Students’ age ranged from 12-15 years. For data collection purposes lesson observations were scheduled, field notes were collected and participants’ interviews were organized in the school settings. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions allowed data collection on students’ perceptions towards competitive activities in school physical education. Three visits per class were paid by the investigator to observe the lessons and the competitive activities offered during the lessons and to take field notes and other valuable information. In addition, formal interviews were conducted with all participating students. The results revealed four common themes: a) all students participate in competitive activities, however, few of them possess the skills that will allow them to play and enjoy these games, due to lack of time for appropriate practice in class, b) high skill children have a good time, middle skill children have less good time and low skill children just fill in the space, most of the times, c) the structure of a competitive game affects each student’s experiences in physical education, and d) the first 3 themes seem to affect students’ attitude towards the lesson, since some students may develop more positive attitudes where others more negative attitudes towards Physical Education, also affecting their perceptions towards the game. Physical education teachers might need to structure their classes in ways that promote opportunities for skill development. Not all children possess the necessary skills for the competitive activities offered in physical education. Probably, teachers need to re-examine the way competition is structured in school physical education and if it is appropriate to offer such activities, before all students learn the skills.