klikli:
I suffered 6 years of doing this for the Presidential Medal of Fitness.
I couldn't pass. No male, other than like.. 2 or 3.. in our grade could.
Guys don't develop the upper-body strength to perform a single pull-up before puberty.
A yellow participant patch for me all through grade school.
We had the "Flexed arm hang" instead of pull ups. Basically pull yourself up until your elbows are at 90 degrees, then hang on for as long as you can. A few of the fattest kids couldn't pull up that far but most could hang in for a bronze or silver, while some petite girls could easily hit gold. (for us each event scored bronze/silver/gold, to get an overall bronze you needed at least four bronzes, to get silver or gold you needed at least five at that level.)
I hit puberty early in grade six, then later that year I was the only boy in class to only get an overall bronze, and the teacher called us up in groups based on the award level. That was when I first had an inkling that there was something about being out of shape that excited me -- I was embarrassed and worked to make sure I got a gold the next year, but there was something else in how I felt that I couldn't quite name, but I knew it was dangerously exciting.