Endurance Club Swinging Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Captain T.B. Bax

Posted on Friday, November 11th, 2022 by John Wood

Captain T.B. Bax of Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, set his first endurance Indian Club swinging record in 1895, swinging a pair of 2lb. 9oz. clubs for 26 hours, non-stop. Bax set his last (and all-time) endurance club record on December 10, 1913 swinging a pair of “light” Indian Clubs for 144 hours, 33 minutes. I get tired just thinking about it.

Homer W. Crawford

Posted on Friday, July 27th, 2018 by John Wood

On April 3, 1890, at the G.A.R. Hall in New Lisbon, Ohio, Homer W. Crawford broke the world’s record for endurance Indian club swinging by swinging a pair of 8 pound ten ouce clubs for six hours and thirty one minutes. This record was broken on January 1, 1891 by Edward W. Brown of Bath, Maine who swung a pair of 9 pound 8 ounce clubs for six hours, forty one minutes, and ten seconds (averaging sixty five full swings per minute).

Crawford regained his record on March 12, 1891 by swinging a pair of ten pound clubs for a full seven hours while averaging seventy full swinger per minute. Crawford was also an accomplished dumbbell lifter and bicycle racer. He stood 5ft 8in and weighed 149 pounds.

Tom Burrows’ First Club Swinging Record

Posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 by John Wood

On March 20th, 1895, Australian club swinging champion Tom Burrows set out to break his own record of 24 hours on continuous club swinging. In order to do so, he set forth the following conditions:

1. The clubs were to be 2 pounds each and to be 24 inches long.
2. To Swing 50 complete circles each minute.
3. No rest or stop allowed during the 25 hours.
4. No aid of any sort allowed.
5. To swing no fewer than 70,000 complete circles for the record.
6. There would be two judges present at all times to watch the swinging.

Burrows commenced swinging his clubs at 9:18 pm on Wednesday evening. At 10:18 pm the next day, he officially met his mark of 25 continuous hours of club swinging but he didn’t stop there. At 11:33 pm, he finally put down his clubs having established the mark of 26 hours and 15 minutes of continuous swinging. The above photograph is from that evening (I’m quite curious about the axes.)

William Needham

Posted on Friday, March 6th, 2015 by John Wood

Health and Strength League member William Needham was the Tasmanian Club Swinging Champion of 1911. Needham swung a pair of 4lb. Indian clubs for 24 continuous hours to set the Tasmanian record in April of that year. At times, he did 300 circles per minute but his average was about 150 per minute. Eyewitness accounts reported that Needham looked surprisingly fresh at the conclusion of his record swing.

A few years later, in 1913, Needham swung a pair of 3 lb. 3oz clubs for 100 hours and 4 minutes to establish a new record. Not only that, during one of his memorable endurance swinging performances, Needham allowed his barber to give him a shave, while continuing to swing, of course! Needham engaged in several memorable Endurance Club swinging matches against Harry J. Lawson.

Indian Club History: Endurance Club Swinging

Posted on Friday, February 7th, 2014 by John Wood

Indian Clubs

In the early 20th century, the unlikely hot spot for the even more unlikely sport of “Endurance Club Swinging” was Australia. The gentleman in the middle is the American champion, Harry J. Lawson, flanking him are his manager G. J. Jones (at the right), and Carrie Jones (his manager’s daughter) at the left. Lawson’s two training partners Bill Stanley and George Simmons are behind.

This picture was taken in 1910, and it was worth the very long trip by steamship to Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia where Lawson set a (then) endurance club swinging world record of 73 hours, 8 minutes with a pair of 3lb. 3 oz. clubs.

One of the reasons that Lawson traveled such a long way was to challenge the great Tom Burrows to a match…

Edward W. Brown

Posted on Tuesday, January 14th, 2014 by John Wood

Edward W. Brown swung a pair of INDIAN CLUBS, each weighing 8 lbs. 1-1/2 oz. continuously for 6 hours, 20 minutes in Bath, Maine on February 18, 1886 to set the (then) World endurance club swinging record.

Tom Burrows Makes The Record

Posted on Saturday, June 16th, 2012 by John Wood

Tom Burrows Makes The Record

On April 18th, 1913, the Australian All-Around Athlete and Club Swinging champion Tom Burrows accomplished an incredible feat: he swung a pair of Indian Clubs for 100 hours straight without a rest. He averaged 80 repetitions a minute through the entire affair, a mind-boggling feat of muscular endurance and toughness. That’s a record you won’t see challenged any time soon.

Tom Burrows: The King of Clubs

Posted on Friday, July 15th, 2011 by John Wood

On April 18th, 1913, the Club Swinging champion Tom Burrows accomplished an incredible feat: he swung a pair of Indian Clubs for 100 hours straight without a rest. He averaged 80 repetitions a minute through the entire affair, a mind-boggling feat of muscular endurance and toughness. That’s a record you sure won’t see challenged any time soon.