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Physical Training

Creator: H. E. Mock (author)
Date: May 1919
Publication: Carry On: Magazine on the Reconstruction of Disabled Soldiers and Sailors
Source: American Printing House for the Blind, Inc., M. C. Migel Library
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 1  Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4

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THE pugilist and the ball-player, the wrestler and the football coach, even the little Jap jiu-jitsu artist, all had their very definite parts in the training of the armies during this war. And why? Because each had something vital to contribute to the physical development of the soldiers, something which made them better fighters, forgetful of fear, and able to care for themselves when thrown on their own responsibility in a single-handed combat with a dozen or more Huns.

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All of the warring nations used these various forms of physical development in making their fighting men. Characteristic of America, where athletics of all kinds have become so highly organized, the training of the soldiers in every camp in the early days of the war resembled the preparation for a huge athletic carnival. Physical trainers of every description were early mobilized and rendered invaluable service in preparing our doughboys for the great struggle overseas.

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The country is now quite familiar with all these efforts. But very few people realize to what extent these same methods and these same physical trainers are assisting in the restoration of the returning soldiers who have been disabled in the war.

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The physical training department of our hospital schools is the least talked-of division in the whole reconstruction program, and yet no division is doing more for the physical restoration of these disabled men, to put the fight back into them, than a well organized, enthusiastic physical training department.

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In England during those more than four years of war, the question of man-power became very critical. It was necessary to salvage every wounded soldier as rapidly as possible and, providing he could be made fit again, to return him to the firing line. This was true in all the nations long in the conflict and it is not at all uncommon to find soldiers who have been wounded four and five times who were returned after each recovery to the fight.

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The convalescent camps and command depots of England furnish excellent examples of the use of physical training in restoring these wounded men. As soon as their active hospital treatment was completed the men were promoted to the convalescent camps. Here well-trained physio-therapists utilized every known method to overcome the stiffened joints and rebuild the atrophied muscles. But a great part of every day was given to physical training, graduated and carefully supervised by medical officers. Calisthenics, setting-up exercises, games of all descriptions and special development for individual cases were all utilized. As soon as these men had sufficiently developed to permit of group rather than individual training they were transferred to the command depot where more strenuous exercises, games, and hardening processes were indulged in. As rapidly as men reached the physical condition required they were sent back to the front.

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The French recognized the value of games in this physical training process to such an extent that they invented and described hundreds of new games suitable for all physical types of men, from the severe mutile to the perfectly fit.

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During the last six months of the war the United States was forced to consider more carefully the conservation of her man-power. Development battalions were therefore created in this country and convalescent camps in France where men who broke down in the training or who were wounded or disabled by disease could be sent to be reclaimed. Here again physical training played the chief role in refitting these soldiers.

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A story is being told of the famous ball team in the development battalion at Camp Kearny. It seems that when the division from this camp left for overseas they dumped into this battalion the riff-raff of their organization, so considered by the officers. Convalescents from the base hospital were also assigned to this battalion. Among this group was a soldier who had lost his right arm by accident -- a 'south paw' luckily.

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A young major, a West Pointer with a vision, was left behind in charge of this motley battalion. Submerging his disappointment, he set about making soldiers out of the material in hand. Within three weeks every man of the 1,200 in his outfit was classified and assigned to that type of physical training best suited to his condition. Every man belonged to some team and played some game every day. Two men who thought they were too weak to play were assigned to the marble team and for two hours every day played their marble game. As the men developed physically they were promoted to a higher class.

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Several ball teams were formed, the best one being captained by the one-armed soldier who was the left-hand pitcher of his team. This development battalion baseball team, made up of physically handicapped soldiers and some who were considered mentally defective and otherwise unfit to go overseas with their companies, became the champion of the Pacific Coast.

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To see the 'crips' as they were called, clean up the crack team from the heavy artillery regiment was worth a trip across the continent.

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