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Rough n Tumble Guard Pass 1/2 Burpee

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The Rough n Tumble Guard Pass, Part 2: 6 More Strategies by Mark Hatmaker

Best if consumed in tandem with Part 1. See here . For a podcast version, listen here . Pry, Stand & Deliver Why it is wise to stand for perhaps All Guard Passing [See the linked essay or podcast for additional insight/support.] 1.      Easing the Way . Often the stand itself opens the legs with no need of “tempting fate.” 2.      Halving Your Opponent’s Attack Opportunities . Standing [with proper stance and posture] nullifies the vast majority of submission gambits: armbars, guillotines, triangles—essentially all upper-body elements. It becomes a game of preparing for the stomp kick, blocking sweeps and evading leg locks. Far fewer things on the table to worry about. 3.      Knockouts Need Room . What holds for boxing, holds for ground n pound. A good knockout punch needs a minimum of 8-12” inches to pack educated wallop; strikes from the Rough n Tumble standing pass have 3-4’ feet of travel. Your strikes are more effective from on your feet than any of the short cho

The Rough n Tumble Guard Pass, Part 1: The 3 Strategies by Mark Hatmaker

  Four Things Before We Plunge On Thing 1 : Strikers do not flag on the word “Guard Pass” and assume, “ Me, I’m no fan of the hyper-complexities of grappling, I’ll skip this.” I urge you to read on, The Rough n Tumble Guard Pass has you in mind. The Goal of Rough n Tumble Guard Passing is to kybosh, bypass, nullify a grappler’s tactics. It asks you, the Fighter, to avoid or tear to shreds the spider’s web that can be the deep game of a damn fine guard. Thing 2 : Grapplers do not think I discredit our Noble Cadre. I am one of you. Me? I have a deep abiding love for the devilish minutia of a good guard game. [We will spend several volumes of The 1,312 Submissions Project playing with some of these puzzle pieces.] Here, our goal is fast, efficient, effective. Striker or grappler, anti-guard skills are a must . Thing 3 : I use the recent vernacular of “Guard” as opposed to some of the early nomenclature of Bottom Scissors, Leg Scissors, Leg Riding, etc. simply because guar

Rough ‘N’ Tumble History: Fire-Fighters [Literally] by Mark Hatmaker

  Fighting, to a firefighter in the early US was literal in two senses of the word. A)   You fought fires and… B)    You were often a fighter expected to literally “fight” other human beings at the scene of the conflagration. Let’s turn back the clock to early America when practically all dwellings were made of wood, patched with pitch, illuminated with open flames or rickety vessels of coal oil. Let’s add cigarettes and cigars and pipes and a lucifer [striking match] in most every hand. Let’s add open flames being the primary source of warmth. With all of these additions I think we might see just how dangerous early incarnations of the firefighting job were. Now about that fighting other humans bit of the early job description. Let’s have a look at the why. In the early days of the firefighting game the “fire departments” were, shall we say, competitive. They earned according to the number of fires doused. This quota incentive led to a few nefarious practices, among

Tactical Realities of “Illegal” Fighting by Mark Hatmaker

Let us talk about the strategic realities that manifested in the curious times where sport and illegal activity joined hands across the aisle. A time when boxing/combination-fighting was mighty popular but also very illegal. A time before seconds could negotiate for ring sizes, rope tension, ring surface, dimensions of rosin boxes, “ Who enters the ring first,” “Who gets the sun in his corner,” “Let me inspect that glove ,” and the myriad details that have come to riddle the negotiations of modern era boxing and MMA. There was a class of fighting that existed outside the illegal [at the time] boxing of the early fistic era. A class of fighting that was even illegaler, to coin a clumsy word. If early “illegal” boxing was far looser in rules and more admitting of tactics than the modern era [which it was] this twin class of illegal activity was more so. Where this early “illegal” boxing admitted just the bare-fist, but… those self-same fists wielded in manners a bit less orthodox

Boombattle 1: “Hard Times” to Barge-Fighting by Mark Hatmaker

The following is the first volume of top tier Boombattle combinations--fists, elbows, lowline kicks, shift-offense, twist-defense, trigger-fighting, and more. All strategies and tactics you would find in the era of Depression America. Culled from cup fights, illegal barge fights, barroom set-tos, hobo railyard scrums and the like. See the 1975 film  Hard Times  for a fine fictional take on the era. All will be demonstrated via focus pads, but all drills transform lickety-split to sparring, street, heavy bag or shadow work for the solo training vacation times. 72 Rounds of Drilling These are Hard Combinations from Hard Men who Lived in Hard Times. For a glimpse from a man who boxed in some of these melees, a man who rode the rails, a man who knew these men, here’s a young Louis L ’Amour on the subject. [Yep, that Louis L ‘Amour of Western novel fame.] “ At the time there were at least twenty good fighters for every one there is now, it was about the only way a young man co

Calculating Lifetime Reserve: Mortality Mathematics by Mark Hatmaker

[Originally offered as "Can You Afford the Time to Read This? Can You Afford Not To ." By request, I offer these two pieces as a whole. Those who find this approach to life soul-resonating may find Part 3, " Lifetime Asymmetry " of like value.] How old are you? Me? I’m 58, be 59 in 3 weeks. Convert your age into months. Me? 696 months and 3 weeks. The average lifespan of the adult male in the US is 74.8 years, for women it is 76.3. That’s 897 months and 912 months respectively. The average human lifespan is less than 1,000 months. [And that’s assuming we make it that long. There Are NO Guarantees.] If you are a male and are 38 years old or older, you have already used up over half of your average lifespan reserve. 39 or older if you are female. Subtract your current lived months from your average lifespan months to get your lifespan reserve. Me? That’s 201 months remaining. You have slept for an approximate 1/3 rd of your life. You will cont