One possible source of ‘training’ could arise if a teacher was invited to act as witness to a caning given by the head teacher. It would be interesting to know whether they were ever given a cane and a pillow to practice on; God knows, one of my masters could have done with the practice. I prefer to think he was just erratic and that the low blow his canings usually included was not intentional – though he never once apologised for them
You raise an interesting question. There must be some historical reason perhaps. Certainly early American punishment codes , which our distinguished life member American Way has unearthed with his beavering use almost every number of cuts (many refer to the hickory stick) from 1 up to , if I recall rightly, 10 or so .