Where the post is so fortunate as to be provided with a gymnasium full advantage should be taken during the winter season of the opportunities for physical training which it affords. The physical development of the men is most important. Where no gymnasium is available a well-planned course in callisthenics is the best substitute and should be used. Callisthenics to music or for pure show should be prohibited.
First aid Signalling
The indoor season must be fully utilized to save the full time of the outdoor season for that training which can only be given then. Instruction in such subjects as first aid and signalling naturally is given at this time. A place for gallery practice can always be rigged up.
Estimating distances
The foundation for estimating distances must be laid, and there should be practice in it every week, during the closed season. In this work the whole company should be employed together only for the first one or two exercises when the principles are being explained; after that a platoon or less at a time. Near each barracks there should be two stakes one hundred yards apart and so placed that the men see them every time the company forms. This is their unit of measure and cannot become too familiar to them.
The captain or someone designated by him selects a couple of distances to be estimated. Each subdivision of the company then goes out in turn and upon completing the exercise returns and another goes out.
The men must be taught to estimate distances both from themselves to a given point and between two points, both at some distance from them. The latter is necessary in their patrol work in estimating lengths of column and frontages occupied. If the estimating be conducted in this way the weather will make little difference; the men dress suitably for it and are out only a short time. The work to be of value must be done under varying conditions of light.
There should be no week in the year in which this exercise is not conducted. In summer it should be done on the days when the company is away from the garrison on the weekly practice march; there is ample time for it during the long halt.
This work can be conducted so as only to take about fifteen minutes of each man’s time per week. It is well worth it. I have seen the above plan carried out intelligently in two or three companies and the results were remarkably good; the ability of the men to estimate distance was better than that given for musketry school graduates in foreign services. On the other hand I have seen it indifferently carried out and, like most indifferent work, it was a waste of time.
Position and aiming drills, gallery practice