The Washington times., 1923-10-29


are facially. Each has his specia
tne qualities of Drawn and agilit
for ring honors. However, these
that / can readily describe.
Frequently when take man in
hand he has some ring hero of his
own in mind whose style he wants
to copy. I discourage him imme-
diately. No man can successfully
adopt completely another mans
methods and points of handling
himself. And 1 point out to my
pupil that what has made his hero
successful is the fact that he has
style all OF his own, and that the
pupil should develop the same him
self along the lines which his ply
steal qualities dictate.
The first thing 1 do with him is
to put on the gloves with him. A
round or two tells me how much he
may have learned of the game and
whether he is an instructive boxer
how quick are his hands, eyes
and feet. The next is to find out
8 how good he is on the receiving
end OF the game-how much pun
iishment he can take. For on this
much depends as to his future
training.
If he is q rugged boy to whom
q few hard punches are not Serl-
Gus. L concentrate ON teaching
him attack. 1t is not only q
waste of time, but decidedly
harmful to attempt to teach a
big, strong fellow who packs
good, hard swings and hooks with
the X. O. in them, cleverness.
It's not his game. All such q
line of instruction would do would
be to lessen the force of his
punches and teach him eau
ton he is much better without.
Take Firpo, for instance. The
idea. which seemed to be current
that I was trying to burden him
with a knowledge of the fancy
tricks of the game has given me
many a smile.
II / had got hold of him when
he was kid certainly could have
worked up his speed and given him
a defense ample to protect his most
vital spots. But he had come too
far along in, life to attempt any
radical change of his style. His
value to himself was his hitting
power.
The training / gave him was all
that way. It was to show him
how to shorten his blows from wide
to close swings and hooks and get
him to push out straight blows
with his left
travels increases it's force and
power. And then, banking on his
height, / taught him what became
his most damaging blow. The critics
called 1t the rabbit" punch, but il
was not.
He is taller than almost any man
he might be called on to face, so
the punch developed for him was
q swinging chop to be aimed 1
come down right back of his o,
ponent's ear.
That blow strikes ON the &C.
cipital bone and has the same
paralyzing effect as the cOTn-
mOner knockout blow which lands
on the point of the chin, except
that it does not produce uncOn- 4
sciOusness.
He was so wholly dependent on
his right arm that he gave his left
no part in his game at all. He
next to impossible to get him to
guard properly. He complained that
his left arm tired quickly when he
tried to hold it up and in use.
But I soon caused that trouble to
disappear by the simple process of
making him hold the left up for a
guard with light weight clamped
on his wrist or held in his hand,
end increasing the weight gradually,
until finally when the hand and arm
were relieved Of the weight, the
arm went into proper play uncon-
gCiously and without any WEAKNESS
coming into it. However, / never
had a chance to finish the develop.
meut Of F1rpo's left.
The main features of my training,
speaking in a general way, are the
wheel, the wrist pole, the wands,
the treadmill. dun1bbells, road run
ming, stomach exercises, shoulder
and forearm developing, the light
and heavy bags in conjunction with
an elaborate method Of rigid breath.
ing exercises originated by myself,
ana the use OF scientific massage.
The wheel is just like that used
on q ship for steering, only in
stead of turning a rudder you are
winding up a heavy weight. 1t is
not only invaluable for developing
shoulder and arm muscles, but
also the clasping of spOlxes teaches
man how properly to close his
hands when he is fighting.
The wrist pole is one of the best
assets Of my gym, for no man can
become a stiff, hard puncher whose
wrist muscles are not hardened to
the fiber Of steel. In my training of
Dempsey / made him use the wheel
TWO and three times a day, and |
guess Jack will tell you himself how
considerably il increased the force
of his blows.
The wrist pole is vertical and of
hard, polished wood. II looks like
d telescope drawn out. That is to
say. it has three circumference.
The hand clasps around the first
Tung entirely, two-thirds around the
upper section. You grasp the pole
and turn il, winding as you do a
weight on a rope upward from the
floor. The exercise brings into
play the muscles of the fingers,
wrists and entire forearms
Wrists SO developed can support
all the force that the shoulders can
throw into a blow and the peril of
broken bones and torn tendons of
h \ s<ztz