BOXERS’ HANDS.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 September 1923, Page 4

BOXERS’ HANDS.

i’Tlv Trevor C. Wignall in Daily Mail). Most people must be getting heartily tired of tin' frequency with which ,pre-sent-dny boxers damage tiieir hands. '||„.,-e i- scarcely a light nowadays which does not cause -ome boxer 01 another ruefully to remark that m the second or seventh round ho had the ill fortune to knock-up his knuckles or otherwise damage the hand on which he had hanked Ids nil to give him victory.

( arpcntior made some such comment, alter his bouts with Siki and Nilles. lie lutd justification, for I saw his hands, lint since then there lias hern an absolute epidemic. iieckett has l>een complaining of his left for over a year; Bloomfield excused his poor form against McGill by declaring that he could not punch because of the pain that was caused him ; Roland Todd, after his battle with Rattier, caused it to he known that one of ins hands had gone early in the tight.

To me the most curious feature is that the laments always come from the men tit the head of their profession. Why do we never get apologies or reasons from the less prominent—from the comparative unknowns, for example, who fight once a week at the small halls? Arc their hands harder? Are they better fitted for the trade of pugilism? Are they loss liable to injury? Or is it a fact that the climber is accus-

tomed to make light of his hurts?

I know, from experience, that it is easy to damage the hand when boxing; luit before it became fashionable ro advertise these matters one rarely j heard of a lighter being forced on to j the shelf because of his soft hands. 1 think our boxers are degenerating. They attach far Loo much importance to a bruise that the men of the old days would have sniffed at. lint: tliev have themselves to blame for the things that happen to them. They pillow their hands in bandages to such tut extent tis in make the observer wonder what on earth has occurred to their intelligence. I have seen fighters wind yards of unyielding stuff about their knuckles. It is true that the rules of the National Sporting Club say (and these tiro the regulations generally observed) that the length of bandage for each and either hand shall not exceed six feet, with a width of one inch, hut I have often wondered whether boxer.-, are always careful of the exact lengt It.

Consider six feet of strapping! What becomes of the elasticity of the hand, the resiliency? The hand must he in a lice. No wonder hands get hurt, when thv cannot possibly return to the netted. It seem.-, to me it would Lo just a-, well to encase the hands in concrete a - tightly la wrap them in six feet ol hamlage.-. Over a. year ago I discussed this very mail.'r with Mr Marry I’tesiou, who knows more ahum boxing titan any other person I ever met. Me predicted the present epidemic. Me felt

and rightly. I am sure—thill the craze for swathing the hands was being overtime, that it was leading to disaster. "It stands to reason,'’ I remember him saying, "that the hand is hound to he hurt. It isn't given a chance of performing ils normal functions.”

And that is the whole point. At tile outset of his career. Bombardier Hilly Wells suffered from injured hands. Me lost more than one light heeatt.se of them. For the last two ot three years, however, lie boxed without bandages. The result was that his hands were as good sifter a fight a- they were before. Any number of Americans bar bandages. Some, I believe, hold a wad of yielding material in the palm to assist the grip whether that, conforms to the law is debatable.'-, but. I have been told ropoaledlv by those who know best -and particularly l:v doctors who have gone into the matter —that the lighter who takes the ring minus bandage- is very Much less liable to injury than he who dons them.

Would it not bo possible for some test to I ,-e made, sav, by Mr A, F. Betti.san II is nu important subject. A boxer's hands are his livelihood, and every effort should he made In safeguard them. Tom ( ribb and his ennlemiioraries didn’t bother about bttrclr ;os, mainly because they fought with bare lists. But they never had the rrouble that stalks boride the heavy-weights of to-dav.