A PLEA FOR STYLE IN BOXING.

BY A. AUSTEN.

fig. 3.

HEN, with the international contest between Sayers and Heenan, prize fighting and all its odious train of barbarities died a natural death, it seemed as though the day star of pure amateur boxing had arisen and the Queensberry rules adopted by gentlemen for gentlemen seemed to assure its future. The enemy was, however, apparently scotched, not killed, and the professional sporting man, not to be deprived of such an easy means of making money, soon subtracted from, added to, twisted and turned about the rules and applied them to glove fights between pugilists under the guise of boxing matches, and it is needless to say with the same degrading effect upon boxing as a branch of athletics in which gentlemen might compete as had developed upon the prize ring. No attraction is so great to a certain debased class of mind as a

fight between two men, and the so-called promoter, under the guise of elevating the art, reaped rich harvests. There should be, and formerly did exist, a wide distinction between a prize fight between two professionals and a boxing competition between two amateurs, but the difference has so narrowed of late that it would tax the judgment of the average man to say which was the more coarse or brutal, the professional fist or glove fight promoted by professional sporting men or the boxing tournament by so-called amateur athletic associations. Encouraged sometimes by prominent authorities, it is little wonder that the fast or semi-fast man about town has developed a fad for seeing such fights, not be. cause he understands boxing or desires to do so, but in order that he may be able to tell the biggest in regard to the number of knock outs or the quantity of blood he saw spilt at a particular amateur athletic club tournament. Approaching still nearer the methods of the professional speculator, many more or less prominent real and sham amateur athletic clubs have fed this fad and profited by degrading one of the branches of athletics they were presumably instituted to elevate. Institutions of high standing and refinement, and the better sort of amateur athletic clubs, encourage, it is true, boxing as a means to several ends, including self defense, amusement and exercise, and in all these style is essential. The art of boxing is more in the manner than the doing. It is what you make i t ; skill and refinement alone render it worthy of being classed as an art. Like fencing, which emanated from cutting and slashing affrays, boxing is the outcome of rough and tumble fights, wherein kicking, gouging and biting were concomitant parts. Civilization demands the suppression of brutality. What was considered rational amusement in the early part of the century, when the mayors of Bath and Bristol were frequently present at the annual pugilistic competitions between the two towns, is deemed brutal now. In boxing, as in any other form of con-

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almost universally established amongst good boxers wherever boxing is practiced, is very striking to the experienced boxer. This should not be, particularly where the aim of the promoters is to elevate the art. The qualification should be mainly if not altogether in the students proficiency in the established principle the same as in educational examinations. In all such competitions the principle and system of the science are clearly defined; in boxing they are not. It is inconceivable that those on both sides of the Atlantic who for the time being have undertaken the government of national boxing should have omitted this important duty. From the manner in which they have managed their tournaments and the number of inconsistent decisions their judges have given, one cannot help inferring that this is the result of their lack of knowledge, particularly in defining the Marquis of Queensberrys rule, style in boxing is essential. Championships have been won by Humphreys and Mendoza, pump handle, windmill, up and downer, roley poley and other peculiar ways of boxing,

fig. 2.

test, manly and honorable conduct pays best, as a rule; and when the admiration and general approval it excites are considered the balance is still more in its favor. Our best pugilists were generally the most manly and fair fighters; in appearance the effect of their effective hitting was minimized by the skillful manner in which they did it. The appearance of two unskilled men slugging each other is far more brutal, although they would not do nearly as much execution. The general impression among intellectual men is that boxing in general, and for amateur contests in particular, requires further refinement. The contention that during the past twenty years it has become coarser is not without reason. Every other manly sport has improved with the times. Why should boxing stand still, much less retrograde? The peculiar ways in which the average amateur of to-day boxes, each seeming to think he has to himself some method or trick which will enable him to defeat his adversary, and this without even elementary proficiency in the principles which are

fig. b.

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OUTING FOR NOVEMBER. cally, and a strong, prompt deciding mind mentally. Whatever a man does athletically he must do either in accordance with the manner of man depicted in Fig. 1 or Fig. A or somewhere between these two opposite poles; but the nearer he approaches 1 the better he does it, irrespective of the success of his effort. In boxing 1 is the principal attitude. Movements and efforts comprising system must be strictly in accordance therewith to make a stvlish boxer. Figs. 2 and 3 show 1 in boxing attitude and striking a blow with his left hand. Figs. B and C show A in similar postures. The numbered plates depict good form, the lettered ones bad form. By practicing in a good school a man with the capacity for so doing, in time, grows from the bad to the good and acquires the action of a boxer the same as he might the stride of a pedestrian or the stroke of an oarsman. This carriage and action are the outcome of generations of experience; men boxed, hit, counter hit, parried, ducked, slipped and used their feet a century ago. Nothing material has been invented, but everything has been

fig 1.

as well as the slapper, cleaver cur and slugger methods of applying them.* At the time the Queensberry rules were written I was striving to become an expert boxer by boxing in the sparring saloons in London, and in gauging the quality of the boxer by the manner in which he shaped, the straightness of his hitting, his ability in leading, countering, ducking, slipping and using his feet, I am convinced that I was in accord with the true principles. I firmly believe that this would have been the marquis definition of style in boxing, but at that time the term style was so well understood that definition was unnecessary. The system I advocate and shall proceed to outline is applicable to any degree of boxing from the bare fist fight to the lightest sparring and was the one followed by the most skilled pugilists in the prize ring and sparring saloon at the time when the art had attained a higher degree of perfection than it had ever attained before or has since. It means, in brief, perfect boxing deportment, good carriage physi* Professional phrases for designating peculiar ways of boxing. fig a.

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improved, step by step in principle, from the awkward postures and constrained movements of the lettered plates to the easy and graceful attitudes and action of the numbered. This deportment should be the grammar of boxing, and its application should inspire all efforts either official or personal. It constitutes form or style in boxing and should supersede the absurd, more or less vicious, indefinite, swinging, swiping efforts of the average amateur, who flounders about without aim or system, and he should be forced to follow it by stringent regulations. I suggest going hack to the principle of the school of boxing from which the marquis drew up his rules. A common-sense interpretation of the rule, style in boxing is essential, and this together with an intelligent and firm application of it by our executive authorities, would, I am satisfied, remedy many of the objections I have alluded to and be the means of placing the art of boxing in the foremost place it is entitled to in the estimation of every grade of society. An outlined definition of the phrase should be given and some such explanation of an addition to the rules in vogue would, I believe, have the desired effect. Style in boxing being essential, no contestant will be adjudged the winner unless his attitudes and actions are good, or show promise of becoming so, and his hitting straight. His quality as a boxer will then be gauged by 1. Aggressive efforts, commonly called leading off, i.e., landing well, judged clean and definite blows, with the left hand, on the face or body. 2. Resistive efforts, countering or cross countering, i.e., striking an adversary while he is in the act of attacking, leading. Unsuccessful attempts to do so with the left hand will be considered mistakes of smaller importance than with the right. 3. Evasive efforts, i.e., parrying, ducking, slipping, stepping or springing out of distance or to the right or left. Continuing to do either without making more active resistance or attacking will be considered lack of ability. 4. Return hits, i. e., striking an adversary immediately after evading his attack. 5. Any of the following will justify disqualification or be considered bad form in accordance with the manner in which it may be done, the circumstances, etc.:

Striking with the palm or unpadded part of the hand, returning a blow when it is due to your adversarys consideration that you were able to do so. Striking without aim or judgment, whether the blow land or not. Striking at your adversary while he is in an indefensive position, not on guard, or any other unmanly or unchivalrous act, including placing ones self in an indefensive position to avoid being hit. 6. Where the style and points are equal the man whose boxing and general deportment are the most fair and manly will be adjudged the winner. If the spirit of these suggestions were rigidly enforced by really competent officials I believe the tough so-called amateur would soon learn that the honor and reward of victory were as much due to the means as the end and govern himself accordingly. Certain amateur athletic clubs which foster boxing might also awake to a sense of their duty, which is to encourage its practice and the acquirement of proficiency among themselves, instead of paying directly or indirectly track members, amateurs, etc., to slug for their amusement.

fig. c.