IHPRA Newsletter
January 2002

Happy New Year

Picture of the Month. 
Mass inversion boot training during a 1999
United States Army Master Fitness Trainer Course.

Iowa Army National Guard graduates 
first Physical Readiness Training Leaders

TaeKwon Do Times has published another great article about club swinging.
Here is a pdf.  Article is ten pages long, so it will take some time to open.  It's worth waiting.

Friedrich Jahn

Jahn got a first hand look at how unprepared his country was during the Battle of Jena in 1806.

Recognizing the power of physical culture, Jahn began to promote rational physical training.  This is the an outdoor facility near Berlin he pioneered in the early 1800s after the defeat at Jena.

Iowa Physical Education was most influenced by the German Turner System.  See the November Newsletter for more information concerning the Turners.  You might also want to take a look at Chapter Three of Paradigm 21.  Also take a look at the Paper written by Metzner. 

 
The Davenport Central Turner Hall was one of the best in the USA.

1920 is the date often mentioned as historians of physical education mark our national paradigm shift away from physical training to sports and games.  It is called the "Battle of the Systems."  The German, Swedish, Czechoslovakian, French and other systems of physical education brought to the USA in the 1800s were pushed from the cultural landscape.  These systems were built upon traditions borrowed from the Ancient Greeks.  Physical training was never completely destroyed, but the dismantling of the European systems here in the USA continues to haunt our physical culture.  Following the Battle of the Systems, the gymnasiums were transformed into empty boxes compared to gymnasiums at the turn-of-the-century.  In last month's newsletter, we saw the magnificent and powerful gymnasiums built when physical training was linked to a higher national purpose.  Take a look now at what went on inside them.  Most of these images are large and slow loading, but they make great images for those of you who will be passing them on in print.  

Next month we will feature some great historical photos of physical training at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  

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