Here’s another wonderful learning opportunity provided by a classical physical education and fitness photograph. Let’s carefully examine the photo and see what we can learn… The obvious is female boxing. It might be argued this is more of a propaganda photo or glamour shot, but nonetheless, there is a lot of history being expressed if…… More
The United States Navy “V-Five Association” is legendary. This WWII physical training produced some of the US Navy’s finest pilots and men including former President Gerald Ford and some of NASA’s Apollo astronauts. The V-Five published about a dozen manuals on various physical topics including mass calisthenics, track & field, gymnastics, and many other sports.…… More
The United States Navy “V-Five Association” is legendary. This WWII physical training produced some of the US Navy’s finest pilots and men including former President Gerald Ford and some of NASA’s Apollo astronauts. The V-Five published about a dozen manuals on various physical topics including mass calisthenics, track & field, gymnastics, and many other sports.…… More
President’s Day Playground Post. Children play–even children of presidents. Let’s take a deeper historical look at the actual playground “equipment” installed by and supported by two United States Presidents. Interestingly, both playgrounds modeled classical equipment that involved gravity. In the FDR photo above, we see his grandchildren playing on the slide which is a decent…… More
“Classical PE” was not exclusive to the United States; it was global. Here’s a nice vintage image of women in Ireland taken circa 1908. Pre 1920, PE was very gymnastics based. The gymnastics of this era was medical and orthopedic unlike today’s gymnastics designed mostly for competition with high injury rates. This kind of gymnastics…… More
Examining historical physical education and fitness photos is like reading Hemingway who explained his writing like being an iceberg. What is obviously sticking up in plain view is not the real story. What’s are the lost messages above? What is obvious is a beautiful woman with boxing gloves. Cool pin up style sort of…next…but wait!…… More
NAZDAR! (Czech Sokol greeting that translates “on to success!”) To the non-physically literate person who does not understand the history of movement and physical education, large mass calisthenic groups appear to be Nazi propaganda. While Hitler bastardized the reputation of large mass group movement, this form of physical training is as pure as it can…… More
People often ask, what is the best way to help young children get fit or healthy through exercise? Sincerely, one of the best recommendations is playing with gravity. The placement of simple bar structures like this can provide amazing “fitness” for children…while they have fun doing it. Let’s highlight just a few… Strength by lifting…… More
“Vertical Climbing” was a major part of classical PE and fitness from the late 1800s into the early 1900s. This is a nice example of ropes and ladders. Let’s take a closer look. From the far left, we see a rope ladder with fixed horizontal steps. There were many variations of climbing ladders which represented…… More