Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 259, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1918 — SOLDIERS RECEIVE MUCH BENEFIT FROM BOXING IN MILITARY TRAINING CAMPS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SOLDIERS RECEIVE MUCH BENEFIT FROM BOXING IN MILITARY TRAINING CAMPS

Published articles to the effect that boxing does not give a useful training as a basis for bayonet fighting and that the two have no common relationship have been emphatically denied In a formal statenient that has been issued by Dr. Joseph E. Raycroft, head of the athletic division of the war department commission on training camp activities, which directs the athletic activities in the military training camps throughout the country. The statement follows: “Several more or less uninformed critics have published articles to the effect that boxing does not give useful training as a basis for bayonet fighting. Such criticisms are based upon ignorance of both bayonet fighting and military boxing. The experience of the past year in the training camps shows that boxing has great value as a preparation for bayonet fighting, and In the development of those physical and spiritual qualities that are characteristic of the aggressive fighting men. Boxing Supplies Factor. “The great majority of our young men who make up the army have had little or no experience in physical contact games that develop self-reliance, courage, quick thinking and quick decisions under fire. Bayonet training at its best is a drill in which speed, endurance and skill in handling the weapon are developed, but in the nature of things there can be no practice contests with the bayonets. Boxing supplies this important contest factor and furnishes a means of training men to keep their heads and to carry out an effective plan of attack, even though they are‘being punished by their opponents. In this way, qualities needed in the makeup of a bayonet fighter are

by practice in boxing to an extent and with a rapidity that is impossible in any'other plan of training thus far tried. “The commanding officers of the training camps in this country haye almost universally testified to the value of boxing as a part of military training. In many qf the principal camps it has been made a partoi the dally routine. “The primary object of boxing, as taught in the army, is to make skillful, self-reliant, hard-hitting men, rather then expert boxers. An efficient soldier must not only be trained in the technique of offense and defense, but he must be charged with the proper fighting spirit. Blows Are Similar. “Practice in boxing has an additional value, because many, of the blows, and movements taught the meh in boxing class have their close counterparts in bayonet fighting. For example, a left lead to the head is very similar to a long point to the throat; a right hook to the jaw or the body is like the blows with the bqtt of the rifle. Of course, there are -thrusts and parries in bayonet fighting that are different from any lead, block or counter In boxing, but the principle is the same, and the sequence of action, the body balance, and the ability to take advantage of openings in the opponent’s defense developed in boxing are fundamentally important for the bayonet fighter. , “In the final analysis all physical training in the army must have a practical military significance; boxing possesses this significance to an unusual extent, so that particular stress has been laid upon the instruction of all the soldiers, rather than upon the development of a few experts.”

SOLDIERS WITNESS BOXING AT CAMP HUMPHREYS, VA.