Reading through Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to his Children, I came across a letter describing Christmas in the White House in 1902. TR had a lot more energy than I do, as after opening all the kid's presents and having breakfast, TR went for a 3-hour horesback ride with General Leonard Wood (with whom he served in the Spanish-American War, and whom the Army base in Missouri is named after) and another Rough-Rider, then came back for lunch. TR then did some single-stick fighting:
Late in the afternoon I played at single stick with General Wood and Mr. Ferguson. I am going to get your father to come on and try it soon. We have to try to hit as light as possible, but sometimes we hit hard, and to-day I have a bump over one eye and a swollen wrist. Then all our family and kinsfolk and Senator and Mrs. Lodge's family and kinsfolk had our Christmas dinner at the White House, and afterwards danced in the East Room, closing up with the Virginia Reel.I'm usually exhausted by noon on Christmas Day...
Aside from stick-fighting, boxing, wrestling, weight-training, and (obviously) shooting, TR trained in Jiu-Jitsu / Judo (or Jiudo, as it was spelled then), built a training hall in the White House, and even set up a MMA fight in the white house, sort of the first UFC. Here are some of the letters on that:
http://www.bartleby.com/53/47.htmlhttp://www.bartleby.com/53/59.html
