All who have been caned on the bottom have said that it hurt, and all who have been caned on hands and backside, have stated that the cane applied to the bottom hurt much, much more.
Most never experienced a caning of the same severity as my own, and in fact, some have said that in a number of cases, the master did not seem to be really trying to inflict a serious punishment, but basically following a routine, quite mechanically and without any sort of real interest in its punitive value.
Some older teachers were ‘softies’, and probably were losing their muscular strength anyway.