Indigenous Ability

  We shall begin with two lovely quotes to light the path, then express distaste for why the argument may even need to be made, talk disappointed monkeys with long memories, tangled webs/cognitive load and then, if we’ve walked the path rightly wind up back where we started. “ To the wise and good man the whole earth is his fatherland .”--Democritus That quote is not mere platitude, Democritus was well-travelled in a day when travelling was h-a-r-d and, unlike many professors of doctrine, he “ ate his own cooking’ ”, that is, practiced what he preached. He esteemed the value of “cheerfulness” in inward and outward demeanor and was known widely as “The Laughing Philosopher” because, well, I’ll bet you can guess… Our next path-light is a blessing of a Navajo ideal. “ I have been to the end of the earth. I have been to the end of the waters. I have been to the end of the sky. I have been to the end of the mountains. I have found none that are not my friends .” Asto...

  [The following cocktail twins pleasingly with a prior offering : “Face Under Pressure”: A PT, Combat & Stress Hack.] Good grapplers know that good mat-movement upright or horizontal is about excellent positioning for the aggressor and creating poor positioning for the defender. Good strikers know that to have good power is to have good posture and structural alignment in the midst of striking and that to feint or bait poor alignment in the defender steals power. The wise combat-a-teer trains assiduously for structural perfection whether in motion or stock-still. I’ve said nothing disagreeable or new to this point. Veterans stay with me a wee longer as we use a thought experiment that can easily be taken to the real world to test what we have established so far. Yes, what proceeded may be obvious, but even obvious hypotheses should be put to test to ensure that what is obvious is also true, as more often than we realize, obvious is sometimes just legend, dogma or...

  Anti-shadowboxing? “ C’mon, Mark, shadowboxing is a hallowed part of old school training, you can’t be serious?” I hear ya, but…allow me to double-down: Shadowboxing and all other non-contact work that is meant to simulate fighting [kata/hyung/forms etc.] fit into this category-warning as well. I know, sounds blasphemous, so let’s jump in and build the case against and you can do your own evidentiary evaluation afterwards. I will say, the deeper the archology took me, I gave up this protocol that has been a staple of my own training for literal decades. First a Little History Little mention is made of shadow work being a large part of a boxer’s stable-work prior the turn of the last century. Oh, there are mentions of it, and more than a few “ made a flash of the hands ” to impress “ coves at ringside ” but being a cornerstone of the training, little ado is made. I’m with you, little mention in the record does not a convincing case make. Stick with me… Why the P...

  [Below is an excerpt from the Pliant Physique Program. The package is a 65-minute DVD & 12-page booklet detailing the Old School Principles behind and detailing the Four Program Paths tailored to your Combat Athlete needs.] Pliancy vs. Flexibility, Part One Let’s start with a definition, as this strict use of the adjective gets to the heart of what Old-Schoolers meant when they used the word “pliant” or sometimes “lissome.” Pliant : Yielding, as in a willow that bends against the force of the wind and easily returns to its standard posture. [Keep that willow analogy in mind, we’ll come back to it.] Lissome : (of a person or their body) thin, supple, and graceful. We sometimes see this sort of physique or attribute referred to in the old literature as “willowy.” The Two Attributes of a Pliant Physique Attribute One -The concept was to foster a yielding-resiliency, that is, the ability to easily and ably return to posture/base after an applied force [wind vs. th...