Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2020

Old School Combat PT: Training Template Precis by Mark Hatmaker

  We shall cover a bit of old School Training Packaging here. But first, a wee bit of background. For the new Black Box direction, we have chosen all old-school, all effective, zero-sport, if it ain’t what the old-timers espoused I ain’t doin’ it, This dictum holds for armed and unarmed combat as well as for the physical training. [ This also holds true for the “interior” training, see The Suakhet’u Program for this esoterica .] This hard left turn has worked a bit of a wonder on this Old Man’s body. If you minus out all of the accrued bumps, bruises, breaks, lost-teeth, knee surgeries etc. I’m in the best shape of my life at 55 years-of-age. I re-iterate, it is done with… ·         No weights. ·         No “other sport” cardio, that is, no running, biking, treadmills, or any other “cross-training” activity of that ilk. ·         No repetitions higher than 20 o...

Frontier Knife-Fighting: A Tale of Four Regions by Mark Hatmaker

  Let’s a take a complex topic and render it into bite-size morsels to start our conversation, perhaps down the road we will go into greater depth on this wide-ranging subject. [Wide ranging in both land covered and depths of past cultures re-visited.] Knife-fighting, knife-wielding, knife-play played a large part in the frontiers of the Early Americas, and to be clear I combine the North American continent with the South American Continent in this estimation. For our discussion’s purposes we will divide our geography into four broad cultural regions. One -Our Brothers and Sisters to the North in the Canadian Frontier. Two -The Early United States and Western Territories. Three -Mexico as the “Dividing Line” or “Meshing Line.” Four -Our South American Brothers and Sisters will be considered in toto just as we do in the case of the United States and Western Territories. To approach in numerical order we begin with the Canadian Frontier, and recall we are only examinin...

Frontier & Tactical Mythbusting: The Buckskin, Parkours, Wyatt Earp Edition by Mark Hatmaker

  Frontier Myth-Busting #1 ·         We often envision the early backwoodsmen, frontiersmen, and indigenous Warriors of the Eastern Woodlands clad in buckskin. ·         This was often the case. ·         In our mind’s eye, we often picture these brain-tanned garments edged with fringe. ·         The fringe was not for decorative purposes. ·         Ponder this, why would a warrior/hunter who desires stealth apply dangling ornamentation to his clothing to snag on brush or catch the eye in movement? ·         So, if it was not a matter of “ Look how pretty Hawkeye looks with all his fringe!” why was it employed? ·         It was a rain-channel. ·         In a light brief drizzle or on dewy m...

The Suakhet’u Program: Opening the Sensorium by Mark Hatmaker

  My twin studies of the archeology of frontier rough ‘n’ tumble combat and “primitive” indigenous abilities have [and continue to] unearth tasty morsels of violent mayhem that we deliver in our revised RAW/Black Box curriculum. Thus far this material has been manifested as physical expression [the tactics and how-to] and the cognitive side of the game [the strategy, history, mind-setting.] Along the way though, there have been many illuminating ideas in the areas of a more esoteric nature, that we may loosely judge akin to meditation, environmental immersion, awakening practices. These terms “meditation” and the like are academic constructs and do little to convey what these practices are truly like. [ Full Disclosure : I practice the Suakhet’u myself, 365 days of the year, rain or shine and have found the benefits and revelations of paramount use to my life. Take that for a statement of crass salesmanship, or if you know me, you may take it for how I mean it—a frank state...