You could choose swats with a paddle, or writing sentences over and over.
Most people took swats, but I just picked sentences and never did them. They’d double the amount a couple times and eventually stop asking for them.
But absolutely zero boys gave a shit about taking swats, it was no deterrent what so ever. Even knowing that there was an easy way out of the alternative, they’d just take swats and immediately forget it happened.
If anything it made behavior worse, because they could do whatever and then have a few seconds of discomfort later if and only if they were caught doing the bad thing.