More from: "My Time in Service:"
Pugil Sticks. Never heard of them. We fought with bare hands, or the occasional metal garbage can lid. Sword fights with yardsticks ...until somebody got poked in the eye. But basically, black eye, bloody nose, fat lip type stuff.

So when they put a catchers vest on me, a football helmet just five sizes to big, and a stick with hard pillows on each end...well, unfamiliar would be an understatement. I spend the first couple of hours being spun around, pummeled, and looking out thru the earhole of the helmet. I lost count of how many times I either bit my lip, or got the wind knocked out of me. And that wasn't any more fun than it was when a bike's handle bars achieved the same results.
But then the Drill Sergeant had us do a weird exercise. He threw two, sometimes three tennis balls at random people. And only when they were in the air would he yell: "Catch."
Somehow, that is the test he used to find quick reflexes, balance and response time to the unexpected. Somehow, I got into the four guys he deemed: "The quickest of you lot."
Then he told us we would be facing off in a Round Robin. Each of us would fight each other. And then the winners of the most matches would fight the one who won the second most fights. All with the pugil sticks that weighed in at a hefty six pounds. Since they were supposed to train us for using our rifle and bayonet in close encounters.

I. Got. My. Ass. Kicked.

If I didn't have a concussion...I sure got my bell rung.
So later I find out some facts about the other three.
One was a Marital Artist who ran a "weapons" Dojo. You know with those long poles, nunchucks, and those sheriff badge looking things. He was very comfortable with our clumsy little pugil sticks. But he was not the Winner.
He was second.
Third went to the guy who hit me the hardest. Turns out, he was a Champion Golden Glove Boxer from New Jersey. I am pretty sure before he got drafted, he broke thumbs down at the Longshoreman't Dock. Getting the "Vig" from late payers. He threw jabs and upper cuts...and body blows. And I felt everyone of them.
So who won?
Well, funny you should ask. Have you ever seen Fencing on TV or for the Olympics? Yeah. Well this guy was ranked in the Top 25 in the USA for all three kinds of Fencing weapons. And I didn't even know there were three kinds of swords they use.
He simply danced around all three of us, and nailed us with precise, incredibly quick, darting jabs. And he knocked our sticks out of our hands several times. But being trained to be a Gentleman, he would back off , let you pick up your stick, and put your earhole back over your ear. And then...wiz, whack, wham.

I never touched a Pugil Stick again. Never want to. And if I ever have to fight hand to hand, it is a metal garbage can lid for me.