“He seemingly takes as much joy in receiving blows as in giving them. When he used to play at single-sticks with General Wood, the latter, remembering that his opponent was President, refrained from hitting him at first, but at last, warming up to the work, would crack him without mercy, for Wood is the President’s superior in this exercise. As soon as the blows began to rain upon his body, Mr. Roosevelt would leap about, I am credibly informed, “fairly shrieking with delight…A good crack with a single-stick hurts, but it is probable that the President gets so much sheer physical joy out of a contest of this kind that he is unconscious of the pain” – Roosevelt’s French fencing instructor on Teddy RooseveltIt was Major General Leonard Wood that frequently went to blows with Roosevelt. Wood and Roosevelt had a long-standing friendship. Wood was acting Colonel of the Rough Riders and subsequently the Military-Governor of Cuba. Once Cuban occupation was over, Wood returned to the States and under the command of his friend and Commander-in-Chief.
The papers frequently wrote of bruises on Teddy’s hands and head:
It comes as no surprise that TR rarely obeyed the rules of single-stick. When Wood got in a good lick, Roosevelt would go all-in, jumping on furniture, pounding away with his stick like a club, and enjoying the exercise immensely.
