Boxing Can Boost the Navy’s Fighting Spirit

As national defense leaders urgently call for a shift from the counterinsurgency-based warfare of the post-9/11 era to a focus on near-peer competitors, the question arises: How does the world’s finest navy—the navy of John Paul Jones, the War 1812, and Midway—reinforce its fighting spirit in the digital age?¹ More important, how can it be passed to future sailors charged with the sacred defense of freedom and democracy? The Navy must look to its proud history to find the answer—boxing. Reintroducing boxing into the Navy would be an effective and viable means of military instruction that boosts both morale and physical readiness.

Critics are quick to argue that the benefits of fight-sport in the age of advancing technological capabilities are not only increasingly irrelevant, but also counterproductive. The practice often is viewed as an antiquated barbarity, destructive both physically and emotionally. The boxing curriculums of military academies have been decried by civilian and military personnel alike. Cases range from the West Point civilian advisory committee chairwoman arguing the sport made students “less ready” for military service, to a service academy mother declaring to the New York Times that her son is a “math and science guy, he doesn’t need to know how to box.”² Yet, both policymakers and military personnel often forget that a military’s ultimate purpose is to break an enemy’s will to fight, protect the citizens of its nation, and win wars. A military that cannot do this is useless.

Moreover, technological superiority does not guarantee victory, as demonstrated by numerous historical examples, the most notable being the technologically superior and dependent Axis powers of World War II. What has preserved U.S. naval superiority throughout its proud history and numerous technological transitions has been the instillment within its service members of the will to fight and operate their weapons with superior skill and deadly intent. Since Theodore Roosevelt’s creation of the Naval Physical Fitness Program, this primarily has been done through assertive cardio-based fitness and fight-sport.³ Not surprisingly, this system was created to reinvigorate a physical readiness that had lapsed during arguably the greatest technological leap in the history of maritime technology—the transition from sail to steam.⁴

According to a 2018 Rand report, more than 64 percent of Navy personnel are considered overweight or obese.⁵ One could argue that this stems from a lack of any martial crucible or physical proving ground. A superb warfighter is reduced to the one with the shiniest shoes, who conceptualizes military bearing as workplace reward instead of with a combative mindset. Esprit de corps at A schools is fostered through 20-minute facing movement contests and inter-barracks cheering matches. This is then exported to the fleet. There, military language such as delegation, a quality that has defined the success of U.S. warfighting doctrine, is redefined as a tool for petty office politics. “Physical readiness” is reduced to a bare-minimum standard, largely consisting of calorie burning, cycle physical readiness tests, and games of ultimate Frisbee. The Navy is a warfighting organization, and martial elements are crucial to preserve it as such.

In 1943, Captain F. T. Ward, director of naval aviation training, reaffirmed the dangerous and frightening military capabilities of the Axis powers against whom the United Stated was at war. He stated:

It is our duty to train cadets to be superior to that enemy, mentally and physically. Rigorous, tough, competitive sports offer excellent medium to fulfill this mission.⁶

That same year, a manual entitled Boxing was put out by the Aviation Training Division to train aviation recruits for the rigors of combat. The introduction stated that boxing had been selected alongside swimming and military track to produce “fighting flyers.”

Boxing is the essence of the fighting man . . . the value is not that in the skill that is acquired though that too has real value for hand to hand combat, but because it quickly acclimates the body and mind to the violence and shock so foreign to modern day youth, yet so absolutely essential to fighting men . . . the history of boxing is essentially the story of the molding of the combative or fighting instinct of man into a moral substitute for war.⁷

Boxing is perhaps the only sport that can create an environment of controlled stress and teach a practitioner not only to overcome fear, but also through superior tactical skill, to overcome an opponent of greater size or strength as well.

The second chapter of the manual further expands on the moral and physical benefits of boxing, qualities that mean “the difference between victory or defeat, life or death” for the “fighting flyer.” These include self-confidence, performing under pressure, aggressiveness, courage, and intelligence, as well as building endurance, coordination, and power.⁸ It continues with conditioning, calisthenics, running workouts (both distance and sprint), and an exhaustive explanation of the “sweet science.”

It concludes with methods instruction in a military setting. The manual not only is hailed as ahead of its time and still held in very high regard within striking arts circles, but also is rumored to have been Bruce Lee’s preferred reference on western boxing. Sadly, it is unknown in most naval communities.

If this manual were updated with contemporary information and medical supervision and blended into a rigorous physical fitness program, the results could be immense. Rather than settling for a bare-minimum standard, sailors could be brought up to a standard of excellence. A physical proving ground and crucible would exist for young sailors within A schools and the base tenet of warfighting could reaffirm the importance of military customs and traditions.

As boxing requires little space, it could be practiced on board ships as a means of exercise and stress relief. Boxing brigades similar to those at the Naval Academy could be created within rate schools and commands as have existed for much of the Navy’s past. The bravado and boredom that lead to destructive behavior in sailors, both junior and veteran, could be redirected into a practice that has been proven not only to develop discipline and respect, but boost morale as well. As the manual states:

Boxing . . . is a method of instilling high morale, not only in the fighter and his backers, but for a whole division, a whole ship. Before the war, each ship would have its own team. They would compete in regular scheduled tournaments against champions of other ships. Each fleet would eventually determine its own Champions.⁹

The purpose of a navy is to defend the nation and defeat and destroy its enemies. This can be done only by preserving the fighting spirit of its members. The Navy of World War II, arguably the service’s finest hour, was a boxing Navy and a fighting Navy. It is a crucial tenet of U.S. naval traditions and one that has been proven to instill the will to fight. Like all meaningful tradition it should not be myopically discarded but renewed, treasured, and passed to future generations.