Indigenous Ability

In today’s sermon we shall ramble through WWI nautical ingeniousness, Old West architecture, Major League Baseball fashion, and, if we’ve done the job right, wind up with an observation or two regarding the cost-to-benefit analysis of being a bad-ass or simply “ dressing like a bad-ass.” Let’s start with our WWI history. Q-Ships. What exactly is/was a Q-Ship? Let me back up a little, let’s discuss why Q-Ships were conjured in the first place. U-Boats. We all know what these are. The U-Boat, or “ Unterseeboot ” [you guessed it, “undersea boat”] was a major contribution to Germany’s success at sea. These roving bands of submarines sank exhaustive tons of ships, cargo, let alone the number of lives lost. Many were lost on both sides, as submarine duty is particularly hazardous-even today, all the more so in the early days of the technology. U-Boats stalked shipping lanes, looking for ship profiles that read as easy prey and then they struck. ...

First, that title is a lie, there will be exactly two-steps taken. After that, any and all steps taken in addition is a signpost where your body broke and what you want to work on. This is a three-exercise warm-up that will wake-up all those lovely major muscle groups, provide some active stretching, wake-up that spine, and tell your heart and lungs it’s “Go time!” When done to protocol and speed it is a sub-5-minute warm-up.  Keeping it under 5-minutes [or as close to 5 as you can manage] allows you more time to work on the heavy-hitters of strength and tactical cultivation. The good news about the Never-Stake-a-Step Regimen is that it serves as a nice just below the redline cardio burner and is enough of a muscle pusher that those into somatotropics should find it a utilitarian muscle-builder. Note: This is not meant as a cardio-replacer in and of itself but…if you hit this Sub-5 with good protocol 3-days per week and use Blitz Drills on altern...

[From the introduction to Boxing Like the Champs, Round Two , but this applies to all the historical wok we do around here. From boxing, to old school wrestling, to rough ‘n’ tumble we must dig hard to find the real gold.  The book will be released in the Fall of this year. See our other products for more of this approach to training.] You’ve likely heard this quote before…   “ Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it .” It was uttered by the Spanish philosopher George Santayana. In context, he issued it as a warning to those who seek solutions on the world stage, urging them to have a bit of long-view perspective before they plunge on merrily and or madly with this or that “save the world” scheme. In that context, Mr. Santayana was likely sage. But…on this smaller stage of a canvas covered ring, bordered by ropes and turnbuckles it is a bit of untruth. Oh, but only if it were true for we lovers of fistic mayhem. ...

Let’s tell a few tales from the fighting days of sail. Our tales will come a bit later than the usual Master & Commander Napoleonic battles and also a wee bit later than the buccaneer days in the Caribbean. These two periods of nautical mayhem overlapped to some degree and have much to contribute to our modern understanding of war at sea. Another day. We want to jump forward in our timeline just a bit and have a look at some aspects of violence aboard sailing vessels from approximately 1800 on into the 1920s when we see the last of the windjammers still plying their trade on the seven seas. We will not be speaking of military vessels or pirate ships. One expects to find tips and tactics in matters of violence in these two cases. Instead we will focus on private ships of commerce. Vessels that were charged to move cargo from destination A to destination B as quickly and efficiently as possible. We want to have a look at the bit of melee wisdom that spawned o...