FRIDAY FOTO (January 15, 2021)

Rock’em, Sock’em Recruits.

(U.S. Marine Corps Photos By Gunnery Sergeant Tyler Hlavac)

Recruits with Papa Company, 4th Recruit Training Battalion, engage pugil sticks at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina on January 11, 2021. Body sparring and pugil sticks help recruits apply the fundamentals of the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program.

Notice not only are those recruits waiting to participate, wearing masks, but so are the combatants. If they can do it under such strenuous conditions, you can to when you go out and can’t keep six feet away from other people. We guess the referee had to pull his mask down to blow the whistle.

According to the website MafrineCorpsParents.com, a pugil stick is a heavily padded training weapon used by military personnel for bayonet training since the 1930s or 1940s. Similar to a quarterstaff, the pugil stick may be marked at one end to indicate which portion represents the bayonet proper and which the butt of the rifle.

Pugil bouts are usually conducted with hard contact while wearing protective gear such as football helmets, flak jackets, groin protectors, and gloves. Many recruits have never experienced the realities of inter-personal violence found in close combat, and pugil sticks provide effective, but safe, “full contact” combative training at the entry level. It is also an effective tool for enhancing the endurance and improvisation that are building blocks to developing the physical skills and mental toughness vital to success on the battlefield.

To see a 5 minute video of what this training looks like, click here. Also, click on the photo itself to enlarge the image.