Robert Robert - Scouting for Boys

A meaning attached to this exercise, which you should think of while carrying it out, is this: The clasping hands mean that you are knit together with friends—that is, other Scouts— all round you as you sway round to the right, left, before, and behind you; in

every direction you are bound to friends. Love and friendship are the gift of God, so when you are making the upward move you look to heaven and drink in the air and the good feeling, which you then breathe out to your comrades all round.

5. For Lower Body and Back of Legs—Like every one of the exercises, this is, at the same time, a breathing exercise by which the lungs and heart are developed, and the blood made strong and healthy. You simply stand up and reach as high as you can skywards, and backwards, and then bend forward and downward till your fingers touch your toes, without bending your knees.

Stand with the feet slightly apart, touch your head with both hands, and look up into the sky, leaning back as far as you can, as in Fig. 1 above.

If you mingle prayer with your exercises, as I described to you before, you can, while looking up in this way, say to God: “I am

yours from top to toe,” and drink in God’s air (through your nose, not through the mouth). Then reach both hands upward as far as

possible (Fig. 2), breathe out the number of the turn that you are doing, and bend slowly forward and downward, knees stiff, till you reach your toes with your finger-tips (Fig. 3).

Tuck in the small of your back while on the downward bend.

Then, keeping arms and knees still stiff, gradually raise the body to the first position again, and repeat the exercise a dozen times.

The object of this exercise is, however, not to touch the toes, but to massage the stomach. If you find you cannot touch your toes do not force yourself to do it, and, more especially, do not jerk yourself or allow anyone else to force you down. The value of the exercise lies in the upward stroke as against the downward stroke.

6. For Legs, Feet and Toes—Stand barefooted, at the position of “Alert.” Put the hands on the hips, stand on tip-toe, turn the knees outwards, and bend them slowly till you gradually sink down to a squatting position, keeping the heels off the ground the whole time.

Then gradually raise the body and come to the first position again. Repeat this a dozen times. The small of the back must be tucked in. The breath should be drawn in through the nose as the body rises, and counted out, through the mouth, as the

body sinks. The weight of the body must be on the toes all the time, and the knees turned outwards to make you balance more easily.

While performing the practice you should remember that its object is to strengthen the thighs, calves, and toe- sinews, as well as to exercise the stomach, so if your practice it several times during the day, at any odd moments, it will do you all the more good.

And you can connect with this exercise, since it makes you alternately stand up and squat down, that whether you are standing or sitting, at work or resting, you will hold yourself together (as your hands on your hips are doing), and make yourself do what is right.

These exercises are not merely intended as a way of passing time, but really to help a fellow to grow big as well as to grow strong.

Climbing

Every boy likes climbing, and if you stick to it and become really good at it, you will go on at it forever.

Most of the great mountain-climbers began as boys climbing up ropes and poles, and then trees. After that, a long way after—because if you haven’t had lots of practice and strengthened your muscles you probably would tumble, and attend a funeral as the chief performer—you take up rock climbing, and so on to mountain climbing.

Tree climbing is great exercise. Fasten a thick rope over a strong branch, and try different ways of climbing it.

It is glorious sport teeming with adventure, but it needs strength in all your limbs, pluck, determination, and endurance. But those all come with practice.

It is most important for mountain climbing to be able to keep your balance and to place your feet nimbly and quickly where you want them. For this there is nothing like the game of “Walking the Plank” along a plank set up on edge, or “stepping stones” laid about on the ground at varying distances and angles to each other.

This is a home- made camp gymnasium. Build it from strong poles and ropes for the lashi ng—and there you are! There are no regular exercises; you make up your own stunts.

When I was a fairly active young bounder I went in for the vigorous kind of folk dancing. It amused people at our regimental theatricals and it was good exercise for me. But I came to realise a new value in it later on when I had to carry out some scouting in service against the Matabele in South Africa.

I had climbed into their mountain fastnesses in the Matopo Hills and was discovered by them. I had to run for it. Their great aim was to catch me alive as they wanted to give me something more special in the execution line than a mere shot through the head—they had some form of unpleasant torture in view for me. So when I ran, I ran heartily.

The mountain consisted largely of huge granite boulders piled one on another. My running consisted mostly in leaping down from one boulder to another, and then it was that the balance and foot management gained in folk dancing came to my aid. As I skipped down the mountain I found myself outdistancing my pursuers with the greatest of ease. These, being plains men, did not understand rock-trotting and were laboriously slithering and clambering down the boulders after me.

So I got away. And with the confidence thus engendered, I paid many successful visits to the mountains after this.

Training in folk dancing was of great help in evading the Matabele.

Nose

A Scout must be able to smell well, in order to find his enemy by night. If he always breathes through the nose, and not through the mouth, this helps him considerably. But there are other reasons more important than that for always breathing through the nose. An American once wrote a book called Shut your Mouth and Save your Life, and showed how the Red Indians for a long time had adopted that method with their children to the extent of tying up their jaws at night, to ensure their breathing through the nose only.

Breathing through the nose prevents many disease germs from getting from the air into throat and lungs.

For a Scout, nose-breathing is also specially useful. By keeping the mouth shut you prevent yourself from getting thirsty when you are doing hard work. And also at night, breathing through the nose prevents snoring, and snoring is a dangerous thing if you are sleeping anywhere in enemy country. Therefore practise keeping your mouth shut and breathing through your nose at all times.