“Are there any sources for your findings Of the earliest forms of striking equipment? I'm very interested in learning some history of. My buddy and I have only been using .gov or . Edu sites. This is why I ask if I could get a site or two from you please.”
-Gage
I have been holding off on writing The Boxer Dread, and now Gage has compelled me with a good question, to begin the book before I am ready. Here goes one small slice of the subject, which is the last and longest phase of ancient boxing, from 323 B.C. to A.D. 514.
I did my research at libraries, in paper books in the late 1990s, nothing online at all. I read all of the Greek and Latin science, civics, plays, poems, everything for references to boxing and training. I spent three years at 36 hours a week reading the private collection and paying for photocopies of the illustrations I found in the mostly 19th century and early 20th century English sources, and read the take out books from the public archive on the bus, for 1152 titles. I have found nothing additional in the sources I have searched since then.
I found three descriptions of striking apparatus and two illustrations. They are all collected in The Gods of Boxing, available through Amazon.
1. a hanging, sand-filled body bag
2. an effigy or anatomical dummy
3. a hanging, head-sized sack filled with barley
Also, since doing a lot of stick training, and keeping in mind that these men were all weapon fighters, I would be willing to bet that one of the methods that did not find its way into the scanty record was hitting the aspis, the round arm-shield. Open hand strikes were used in ancient boxing. A shield would have been a good target for training, something available while travelling to an agon, as these men had to provide their own security. Euthymus and other fighters carried their entire panoply with them as only their fellow Hellenes abided the sacred truces and the travel was often by sea, where pirates were a menace throughout Roman Republican times.
The ancients were about where the late 19th century American boxers were in terms of striking apparatus, better off than the LPR boxers, but far short of our variety. For a thousand years they seem to have stuck with the same basic set of three bags, just like American boxers from 1910-1980 stayed with three basic types. Mostly they shadowboxed and sparred. The other thing they did was handball exercises, which I experimented with and found useful, and which Oscar de Lahoya used. I describe handball exercises in one of my No B./S. boxing posts.
The best single source for boxing other than The Broken Dance series of books I have written, is Gardiner’s Athletics in the Ancient World.
Good luck with your search, Gage.
"... Open hand strikes were used in ancient boxing..."
I've read you talk about open head strikes to the side of the head. Is this effective? I don't get it. Use the heel of the palm? Where to hit? Seems it wouldn't have near the force of a fist but you wouldn't break your hand either.
I really need to video this.
The hand is cupped, like a checking hand in stick fighting or a pok in Wing Chun.
You don't want to thrust with the hell of the hand, though it is the striking surface.
It is not quite as effective as a punch but saves the hand.
Boxing is an attack on the respiratory system, the nervous system and the will, not an assault on body mechanics like Jiu Jitsu or on the structure like karate, so we are not trying to break a rib, but compromise the rib cage, not breaking the chin, but using it as a lever to shut down the nervous system, not kill the man but kill his will.
So the open hand does not do the damage to the immediate target, but only the transference damage to the systems which are the real key. If we go to war with Russia, are we worried about killing tanks, or preventing tanks from getting orders and fueling back up. Do we commit to killing every tank, or just take out the command and control and fueling they depend upon?
"...Boxing is an attack on the respiratory system, the nervous system and the will, not an assault on body mechanics like Jiu Jitsu or on the structure like karate, so we are not trying to break a rib, but compromise the rib cage, not breaking the chin, but using it as a lever to shut down the nervous system, not kill the man but kill his will..."
That's very deep and I've never even thought or imagined in those terms. It's much above my understanding of "smash the guy" with different techniques.
I think I get the cupped idea. The mechanics I see as a sort of air pocket in the hand. There's a lot of weird effects of gasses reaching peak (concentrated) pressures. For example I could imagine the air pocket "pressure" NOT being uniformly related to the surface area of the cup of the hand. A shock wave of sorts. You can get MASSIVE peak pressures in small areas. Stuff like the noses of aircraft. I wonder if some of this is what makes it effective. I bet in order to produce such effects there would have to be some very subtle, say delicate alignment, to get there.
Here's one such weird air effect. It uses water but it's an effect of the compression of the air causing a hammer. Mucho peak pressures from the VELOCITY of the water converted into high pressure due to the air spring.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_ram
Or maybe I'm thinking too hard. Maybe just punishing the air drum of the ear?
Mind you I'm no fighter at all. Up until recently my idea of defense was to 1. Avoid bad areas. 2. Carry a .22 Magnum. 3. Carry a knife. 4. .223 and Ak for home.
Things have changed though and I can't carry guns any more due to reasons I don't want to get in to. I really like your umbrella carry. The force of that handle has got to be horrific.
I've been in maybe five or so fights in my life and a few tussles. Most in my favor if they were any where near my size. Mostly I've tried to avoid these situations as today is not the ancient days where you could invade and murder your neighbors so what's the point?
A little more thought. "...not breaking the chin, but using it as a lever to shut down the nervous system..."
So I would guess that it more important to guard against side hits than frontal. The frontal would hurt but be less likely to whip the brain or is it the nerve in the brain stem?
Quick question... In the Robert E. Howard fragment, "The King's Service", there is a mention of the Welsh-Irish protagonist, Donn Othna, having fought wearing cesti. The story is circa 450AD. Any idea where that might've taken place at that late a date?
There is also a mention of some Eastern style unarmed combat in the story.
I will have to look this up. I have not read it.
Ancient boxing did persist until at least 514 in Greece, and maybe later in elsewhere.
King Alfred resurrected it in England in the late 900s.