HOW TO USE YOUR FISTS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 8, Issue 26, 29 March 1907, Page 2

HOW TO USE YOUR FISTS.

If a bully attacks you, meet him eye to eye, step in close, and smash him. No sparring, no side-stepping, no fancy business. All these things belong to the ring, whore they have a referee, timekeepers, seconds and all that. : If you are forced to use your fists, use them for all they are worth. Two skilled pugilists in the ling will feint and lead and counter and manoeuvre, perhaps for a whole hour before either one can get a knock-out blow. In a street fight the chance for a knock-out comes right at the beginning.

Would you lead with your left, and follow with y o ur right? No’ Don't think of such a thing. The right hand ■is the best. Most of us, especially men who have not trained at pugilism a re twice as strong and quick with the right hand as with the left. So remember that if y o u find you must fight just step up close and shoot in your right like a cannon ball on the jaw.

There are many wrong ways of hitting. There is only one right way in this case. It doesn’t take much of a mind to understand, that a straight lino in the shortest distance between two points. In punching a man you want to hit him as hard and as quick as possible. Therefore your fist ought to travel over a straight line to his jaw or nose or stomach. This is a hard thing to remember. See two little fellows in a school yard. Their fists fly through the air, in half-circles, in either swinging or chopping blows. This is the instinctive way to hit. We don’t follow our instincts in the game of punching In this, as in everything else, the man with the best brain will win.

The swinging blow is very hard. When it lands it gets there hot and heavy. But it is too slow. It is good to use on a man who is groggy —so exhausted that ho can’t get his arms up to defend himself. But the ruffian who comes at you in the street is not groggy. He is very much the opposite. Your object is to nail him quick and hard. Shoot your right fist at him like a bullet. Shoot it straight at him, and you’ll knock the fight out of him. The straight punch is delivered with all the weight of your body thrown in behind it, Now, how can you put the weight of your body into a straight punch?

Step in with your left foot anywhere from one to two feet in advance of your right foot. The left loot should point straight at the enemy. The right foot should be pointed outward. The moment you drive out your fist incline your body forward and push off swiftly with your right foot, as if you were trying to shove the whole earth from under you. Don’t do this slowly, and with a geeat muscular effort, as il you were going to break a record at weight-lifting. Remember tha' your list is a bullet, not a sledgeha minor. You shoot it at a man. You don’t hurl it.

There is a great knack in throwing in the weight of the body behind a blow. The best way (o practise it. is with the punching-bag. Let the bag hang perfectly still about as high as your head. Stand two or three feet away from it. Practise smashing it with your right, always throwing all your weight with the. blow. You will be surprised to find how much harder your blows will become. The man who can hit straight, ami launch the full force of his body out behind his fist has a weapon in his hand that ■discounts the pistol. Pistols miss fro. Fists don’t. One of the surest ways to hit straight is to keen your fst below the shoulder. By this* I mean don’t let your fst go up above the mark you aim at, am) then come down to it. If you let it fly up and come down, your blow is a chop, and it’s no good. Bemember (hat. Practise it on your punching-bag. Say to yourself: “I won’t lot my fst go biclvr Ilian my shoulder until it reaches the bag.” Tf yon follow (his rule you will find yourself hitting straight.