A pugil stick is a heavily-padded pole-like training weapon that has been used since the early 1940s by

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

personnel in training for

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

and bayonet combat."Pugil Stick-Overcoming Hesitation and the Opponent"
www.marines.com, Retrieved 31 January 2011 The pugil stick is similar to a quarterstaff or Japanese ''bo'' and may be marked to indicate the end that represents the bayonet and the one that is the

butt. Dr. Armond H. Seidler, of the University of New Mexico, invented the pugil stick training method during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was initially adopted by the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

but was later included in

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

combat training as well. Seidler received an award from the Marine Corps for his invention. Pugil bouts are usually conducted with hard contact while wearing protective gear such as groin protectors, American football helmets,

hockey gloves There are two styles of gloves worn by ice hockey players. Skaters wear similar gloves on each hand, while goaltenders wear gloves of different types on each hand. Types of gloves Skaters' gloves Skaters gloves help prevent the hands getting ...

, and chest protectors or shin guards, such as those worn by

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

catchers. Some pugil sticks are made with integrated hand guards to reduce the potential for injury. Military procedures for pugil bouts are often detailed, with

and

both prohibiting pugil training by anyone who has recently suffered concussion of the brain, lest they suffer

traumatic brain injury A traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as an intracranial injury, is an injury to the brain caused by an external force. TBI can be classified based on severity ranging from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI/concussion) to severe traumati ...

, or has had a tooth extraction within the past 24 hours. The concept of the military pugil stick bout was adopted by the producers of the American television

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

'' American Gladiators'', which used it to create one of the physical events for the series called Joust (no relation to

jousting Jousting is a medieval and renaissance martial game or hastilude between two combatants either on horse or on foot. The joust became an iconic characteristic of the knight in Romantic medievalism. The term is derived from Old French , ultim ...

). The object was for competitiors to use the sticks to knock the opponent off a platform. The name "pugil stick" is a

neologism In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...

from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

noun ''pugnus'' (fist), the source for other English words such as "pugilist" (boxer) and "pugnacious" (eager to fight).

References

External links

{{commons category, Pugil sticks
"Professor Tells the Marines"

Popular Science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

- p. 77, July 1954, Vol. 165, No. 1. Retrieved 31 January 2011 Training weapons Military education and training

See also

References

External links