Indian Clubs:
The Riverside Magazine For Young People
An Illustrated Monthly - Vol. 3, 1869
By C.R. Treat
(continued)
...How many do you think to-day will follow the few
plain laws of health, and thus get really well, and keep so, rather that go to some
quack, swallow his scented, sugared pill of bread, if nothing worse, and open wide
their purses in profound gratitude?
Therefore do not, I beg you, scorn the lesson of
this tale, but take a word of advice about the Indian Club, which, like the wise man
of old, I would commend to you.
I shall not try to lend the charm of mystery to it,
but shall hope to draw you to its faithful use by an "unvarnished tale" of its genuine
merits.
Leaving now the region of this fabulous story, let us turn to the accounts history
gives of the Indian Clubs. In the narratives of missionaries and travelers to India, of
the national sports and pastimes, mention is made of the swinging of heavy clubs in
curiously graceful and difficult motions, requiring great skill and strength. |
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An
officer of the British army, stationed in India, describes these exercises as follows:
"The wonderful club exercise is one of the most effectual kinds of athletic training
known anywhere in common use throughout India. The clubs are of wood, varying
in weight, according to the strength of the person using them, and in length about
two feet and a half, and some six or seven inches in diameter at the base.
The exercise is in great repute among the native soldiery, police, and others, whose
caste renders them liable to emergencies where great strength and muscle is
desirable."
Soon after the occupation of India by the English, the excellence of the club-exercise
was felt to be so great, that is was adopted for army use, as a part of the preliminary
drill. The exercises thus introduced were mainly modifications of the so-called
"extension movements" of the regular drill, such as raising the arm at full length
with club extended, and by a movement of the wrist bending the club back upon the
arm, and returning it to perpendicular, or to an opposite horizontal position.
From
the army it was natural that the Indian Club should find its way into the hands of all
lovers of athletic exercise. These, however, were not content to practice a few simple
movements of the "extension" drill, but borrowed largely from the original source,
the Indian practitioners, and added many of there own suggestion.
From England
to America the transition was also easy. When, a few years ago, the interest in
gymnastic exercise became great enough to encourage the establishment of
gymnasiums, with teachers to give systematic instruction in gymnastics, the use of
Indian Club was taught, with that of other apparatus.
But the club of those days
was a very different thing from the club of our day.
The march of improvement has
not left unchanged the Indian Club. What was then a short, round post, with a
handle at one end, has become a thing of elegance and beauty. The proportions of
handle and "body" are not left to chance, but are shaped with mathematical
precision. The point of greatest weight must be as nicely adjusted as that of a
Damascus blade. Nor is all this care and study wasted, as you might think; for there
is thus secured a higher degree of skill, and a vastly greater amount of pleasure.
Of
this consideration you can hardly fail of being sensible; for the real difficulty in
persuading the sick, and all who are likely to become so, to take the proper and
necessary amount of exercise, lies just there: that exercise is a burden and a bore.
The remedy is to make it attractive, and a source of pleasure.
This is the avenue
through which we can reach the enervated and enfeebled ones of modern times.
They will hardly believe a tale of the wonderful virtues of a hidden drug, and so be
induced to brave the toil of club swinging: but they may be persuaded by the ease
and fascination of the health-giving motion.
As a proper termination to a general article upon the Indian Club, it will not be out
of place to state the reasons for its use, and the benefits that may be expected to
follow.
It is of course plain that the hand, wrist, arm and shoulder are the parts
actively used. The muscles of the chest and back are the agents of the principal
motions; while the muscles of the waist, in order to hold the body firmly upon the
legs, and the muscles of the legs, in order to furnish the steady support, must also
bear no unimportant part.
Now, consider for a moment what the most important organs of the body are, and
what functions must be performed, and well-performed, in a healthy body.
The
most vital functions must be those of preparing the food for passage into the blood,
and of effecting the second change, by which the food supplies new tissues, and fresh
energy. These two functions are digestion and respiration. The parts that perform
these functions are the stomach, with the intestines and the lungs. This statement is
not perfectly accurate, but is enough so for our purpose...
Continued in Part III
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