Pugil

Back in something like 3rd grade, our normal PE routine got a little addition - we got to don protective gear, take big padded sticks, and whack eachother. That must have been before the wild growth of lawsuits in this country. I can't imagine that happening today. The Army has no such issue with legal actions, and uses the concept as part of BCT. They call it Pugil. First, we completed male vs. male and female vs. female. The DS matched us up according to size. I'm pretty big - but only the 2nd biggest in the platoon. The title of Biggest Undertaker belongs to to a 6'7" kid from the block who is half my age (gulp!). We had pretty good competition, but in the end he got me (he also went on to the company finals in our weight class). After each platoon had it's own session, the best three males and best three females (one from each weight class: light, middle, and heavy weight) went on to compete against the best from the other platoons. For the semi-finals, we competed against our acrh-rivals - 3rd platoon, while 1st and 2nd platoon had their own semi-final battle. The 3rd is always loudly proclaiming how great they are, but we won 5 of 6 fights! The winner of each sex + weight class from the semi-finals went on to the Company finals. There the competition was harder, but we came away champions! Pugil is one of a few events that bring with it a guidon - a streamer - to add to the Platoon banner.