The Complete Boxer

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PREFATORY LETTER BY LORD LONSDALE "lowther, Penrith. "My Dear Mr. Lynch, "I have read with the greatest interest what to me is the finest description of the origin of Boxing that I have ever heard or read, and I offer you my humble compliments on the most thorough and historic rdsume^ I imagine has ever been produced. "Your description of the origin and purposes of Boxing is of itself interesting and instructive, and accurate to a degree. Coming to the General Hints, I have read and re-read them, and I am not master enough of the English language to find a word that could convey a high enough estimate of the whole of the practical advice, and they show a masterly knowledge of all that happens in the ring. "The Cardinal Blows and Counter Blows are most accurately described, and anyone who follows your instructions accurately must derive the greatest possible advantage, not to say instruction. I also entirely agree with what you say about ' K nock-Out Blows,' but to my mind there is no such thing as a 'knock-out blow,' except the blow that 'knocks out,'—a very Irish statement, but what I mean is

that any blow that causes concussion of the jawbone, from whatever punch — causes vibration of the brain, and that no matter if the blow is on the neck or chin or chest, or with a dropping head, or whatever means, becomes a 'knock-out blow.' But to describe any particular blow as a certain 'knock-out blow' is to me (in my ignorance) an impossibility. I have often heard of and seen a boxer in a competition going on the off chance of a 'knock-out blow,' and nine times out of ten it has never come off, because the position of the adversary prevented it taking effect. "Your Training remarks are valuable and absolutely correct in my humble judgment. And I think it would be impertinence on my part were I to in any way criticize so able a work—on an art that is healthy, honest, and in the best interests of daily life and exercise, and a game that helps young men to keep their head, know what a blow is, keep their temper under trying circumstances, and above all helps to educate them in the most valuable asset in life—Presence of Mind. "I only hope that your book, which deserves the greatest praise, may be successful to a degree, and that it may help to bring about a continuance of a science of which Englishmen are proud, and which has done so much for those who have proved heroes for their country. "Yours very truly, ■ LONSDALE '*

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Straight Left At The Head . . . Frontispiece PACING PACE Thf Roman Caestus And The Modern Boxing Glove . 16 A Right Hand Body Blow . . . .30 Side-stepping Away From A Straight Left . . .46 Wells And Flynn ....... 60 From a Photograph by Topical Press Agency Guard For A Straight Left . . . .76 Summers And Lewis . . . . . -90 From a Photograph by the Gaumont Co. Ltd. A Left Hand Cross-counter . . . .106

In-fighting ..... . . 120 A Left Hook At The Jaw . . .136 A Street Fight . . . . . .150 Guarding A Right Swing .166 The Referee In The Ring . . . .180 From a Photograph by Topical Press Agency Ducking From A Right Swing And Countering On The "mark" .196 A Right Hand Cross-counter . .210 Bombardier Wells And Gunner Moir .220 From a Photograph by the Gaumont Co. Ltd. ix

THE COMPLETE AMATEUR BOXER CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF BOXING "Sweet Science of Bruising! how often has man, Twice as strong as his fellow, presumed just to lark it; But deceived in his brutal and hectoring plan, Has lain, "wanting wind," in Fleet Ditch or Fleet Market." IT is perfectly impossible to treat Boxing merely as the Noble Art of Self-Defence. That is what it is habitually called; and before proceeding to describe the various lights in which it may be regarded nowadays, the reader should be reminded that in the first instance—in its genesis—boxing was a sport and a sport only. If people wanted to hurt each other they resorted to weapons; and if there were no weapons handy we may be very sure that they tried to strangle each other, and learned the best and quickest way of doing that before ever they considered the advantages of temporary disablement from a hard blow with the clenched fist. For personal warfare, with bad blood in it, natural methods were resorted to: and boxing is not in the least natural. It is sheer artifice. Natural methods are animal methods —scratching and clawing and kicking. Mr. E. B. Michell, writing in the Badminton Library, points out that children learn the means for strife from cats, dogs and horses; that even the closing of the hand for purposes of inflicting injury is itself unnatural. The argument may be carried further than this, for it is safe to say that in human beings, in common with other animals, there is an instinct to use natural weapons: teeth and nails because they are sharp; feet, because the legs are strong; the head—for butting—because it is (or certainly was in the days of our remote ancestors) hard. Then, in the process of civilization, men learned the damage to be wrought with knuckles. But human life was little accounted of; and if a man attacked you or aggravated you in some way, a weapon—anything from a heavy bone to a fine steel blade—was what you took to him. On occasions of lesser gravity, a slap with the open palm would be sufficient, as it is to-day: and it is certainly probable that two quarrelsome young Greeks, emulating some Olympic hero, may have battered each other with their bare knuckles. But there would be no system about the fight, and doubtless after a while it would have degenerated into a first-class scratching match. But the athletes of this early world—those who for honour and glory and display (and later on, it must be confessed, for material reward)1—prodigiously exerted their muscles, called into account their utmost staying power—these learned fist-fighting as a recreation. The earliest record we have of any strife, whether 1 Solon decreed that five hundred drachmas should be paid to each Olympic victor.

in self-defence, or for a wager, or for pure sport, which in the smallest degree resembles what we conceive by the word boxing, comes from the Greeks. "The literary accounts are either very early or very late," writes Mr. K. T. Frost in the Journal of Hellenic Studies,1 "and most of the latter seem to be echoes of Homer." It is Homer indeed who tells us of lpdvTe