[II. APPLIED GYMNASTICS.]
The exercises of applied gymnastics must be directed with extreme prudence. Care must be taken by the instructor that the emulation of the pupils should not degenerate into a spirit of rivalry, instigating them to dangerous efforts.
[During cold weather] they must abstain from executing leaps that require violent efforts; at all times those who are not perfectly disposed should not be required to leap at all. Carelessness and inattention to the rules can alone cause those accidents apprehended in these exercises.
The dimensions of the obstacles to be leaped over must be gradually increased; but no downward leap must ever exceed sixteen feet—five meters. Such is the regulation; but really to leap down sixteen feet seems no small matter, considering that the height of an ordinary room—some ten or twelve feet—would make the nerves tingle if we had to leap down that height; however, the French soldiers perform such leaps with ease, and therefore we must conclude that all Anglo-Saxons here or elsewhere can “go and do likewise.”
The words of command are: 1. Attention. 2. Forward—leap—one, two, three. At the second word, the man closes the points of the feet; at the word one, he stoops on his lower extremities, slightly raising the heels and stretching his arms to the rear, the fists clenched; he then rises again, the arms hanging naturally down. At the word two, he repeats the movement; at three, he recommences the same movement, stretches the hams vigorously, throwing his arms forward, leaps the distance, or over the obstacle, falls on the point of his feet, stooping down, and then comes to attention.
The same principle is observed in all leaping, whether to a height, downward, or forward and downward—the only difference being in the position of the arms. In leaping upward, the arms are flung overhead to aid the ascent—the same in a downward leap; but if the leap be forward and downward, the soldier begins with his arms in advance, and then places them perpendicularly for the fall. The reverse takes place when in leaping forward and upward.
Thus they practice leaping in every possible direction—upward and downward combined—upward, forward, and downward—to the right or to the left—to the right and to the left and downward combined—the arms being directed accordingly. They leap backward precisely in the same directions, and according to the same rules. In leaping backward from the top of a wall, the man first takes a glance at the descent, turns, closes his feet—the heels projecting over the wall, stoops—the upper part of the body being forward, places his hands outside his feet and seizes the edge of the wall, the four fingers above, the thumb underneath, and thus flings himself backward, his arms overhead. When there is width as well as depth in the backward leap, the body and the legs are flung off almost horizontally.
The running leap is performed in a similar manner—the run being quickened more and more up to the moment of springing forward. Some of the leaps I saw performed were from fifteen to twenty feet. As a complement to these leaping exercises, the ground may be prepared with various objects to leap over, such as benches, tables, heaps of stones, &c.
The men are also progressively practiced in all these leaps, carrying their arms and baggage. In such cases the downward leap must be restricted to thirteen feet. The soldier holds his rifle balanced at the trail with the right hand, the muzzle slightly raised, so as to prevent it from touching the ground; he holds his sword (as the French soldier has a sword) with his left hand. When the soldiers have become familiar with leaping, the difficulty is increased by rendering movable first the point of departure, and then the point of the fall, and, finally, both these points are made movable. To leap from a body in oscillation, the soldier leaps at the moment when the body is sinking. There is great danger in leaping from an object in rapid motion. In case of necessity, the soldier must face in the direction of the motion, and at the moment of quitting it he must lay hold of it, shortening his arms, and so push himself backward, lengthening his arms.
It is a general principle that in leaping from a height of any extent, the soldier should avail himself of anything at hand to diminish the shock of the fall.