Nobbs.

This is coolbert:

Two-fisted, head up and eyes open! Damnit!

Consider this blog entry a reprise of previous material posted a number of years ago.

As it was for Percy Erskine Nobbs in 1914 so will it be too for Vitali Valuev in 2022.

Vitali the former World Boxing Champion to teach physical fitness and the rudiments of boxing to recent Russian military recruits. 

Vitali as mobilized will be a father figure, an admired and respected person, his lack of hesitancy in not shirking his responsibility noted by the much younger men..

"Boxing for Beginners, with Chapter showing its Relationship to Bayonet Fighting"

As extracted from the http://ejmas.com Internet web site and thanks to same.

"The Value of Boxing in Military Training"

"The object of teaching boxing in the army is to make 'head up and eyes open' two-fisted fighting men rather than expert boxers and ring fighters. Therefore the instruction of the mass and not of a few individuals is of prime importance. Work for the largest number of men in the shortest possible time. Eliminate the 'frills' and fancy work and do your best to get the men to fight aggressively and effectively. Six standard blows are sufficient. A straight left, well delivered and backed up by aggressive American determination, is a Boche[German] eliminant in nine cases out of ten." - Introduction, Joseph E. Raycroft.

"I have seen youngsters in khaki turn pale lilac with orange blotches on being told to put on the gloves, and give up cheerily at the end of the first round, notwithstanding the fact that they were daily going over the jumps and hitting the bags about; and I have seen the same boys six weeks later, in the strength of their youth and fitness, come up against skilled boxers in the regimental boxing finals, get a fourth round ordered and come up with a grin for a certain knock-out. A fight to a finish with the gloves is an excellent experience for anyone. I do not mean a ten-round heart-destroyer, but a short, hard fight. Such a fight is in my opinion an essential part of any infantryman’s training. Whether he wins or loses he learns a lot. Bayonet training does the 10 percent that is not spiritual in the making of a fighter, and boxing can do the other 90 percent. That is the makeup of the first-class fighting man." - Major Percy E. Nobbs, Canadian army, WW1.

Percy E. Nobbs at the time of the Great War was thirty-nine years old. An accomplished fencer, boxer, cross-country runner. An athlete of Olympic caliber but most remembered in Canada for his accomplishments as an architect!

coolbert.