I hated up-downs with a passion!! I would rather do 100 yard suicides than up-downs, and our coach knew it! He was a master at knowing what we hated most, and was very effective at using that knowledge to make life hell when we screwed up.
Did you ever figure out how to do up/downs without really doing up/downs?
I was always trying to figure out a new way to do them.
Generally I'd do hip downs :)