Silent Warriorship: Two Exercises in Personal Stealth by Mark Hatmaker

 

There is not a formidable warrior culture on the planet or in all of history that did not hold in adulation Warriors, Hunters, Soldiers, or the “Woods Savvy” that did not include as part of its esteem the value of silent graceful movement.

Be they ninja in a midnight breach of a shiro, Green Berets moving as a silent unit through the lush jungles of the Mekong Delta, or a band of Iroquois or frontiersmen in the thickets of the Adirondack—all these warriors cultivated a high degree of stealth, which was known to be part and parcel of moving with facile grace and quiet precision.

These attributes do not come naturally, they must be inculcated.

They must be trained.

They must be drilled.

They must be lived.

Each of these warrior cultures had their own name for stealth ownership, in my adopted Comanche it is Mahoo’ikat’u.

No matter the name the concept remains universal. A premium is placed on quiet and quality movement.

They all embrace a middle-of-the-food-chain perspective, that is, to be a good predator one must become prey.

To become prey, one learns how to remain hidden, unheard.

When one is a successful prey animal one becomes simultaneously a superior predator as the qualities serve in both directions.

To stalk well, one must know how to remove your own spoor, and this is not merely visual sign, or using downwind protocols—your aural profile is an enormous part of successful stalking and anti-stalking success.

Side-Note: I find it a bit intriguing that many dress in camouflage or similar costume to signal “squared away warrior” even if said costume is more conducive to jungle, desert, or urban tactical than it is standing right next to me in line in Target.

Side-Note Two: I also find it intriguing that often those who signal “squared away warrior” with costume that says, “If the environment were right, I would blend in and you would not, Sucker,” these folks often have jingly high sound profile items attached somewhere aboard the gear, along with clompy footwear not conducive to “Shhhhh.”

[For more scientific skinny on the Prey-Predator Continuum seehere.]

There are many fascinating exercises to teach mahoo’ikat’u [we are compiling such indigenous exercise for a future volume that will bepart of The Black Box Project] but here I will provide two exercises modified for our everyday lives.

Your Personal Aural Inventory

For the next week, assess the sound you make. Every sound you make. Not necessarily monitoring your conversation, but the sounds you emit when you are alone, alone with yourself, or alone in a crowd, that is, your public behavior when alone.

I’ll provide prompts to get us on the same page.

BTW-Observe yourself closely, many of the answers you may not necessarily be aware of until you actually pay attention to yourself—I’ll provide a personal revelation/surprise of my own at the end of this exercise.

·        Do you wear jingly items on your belt?

·        Do you jiggle keys or change in your pocket?

·        What is your ring or text tone?

·        Can others hear it summon you to the digital teat?

·        Do you chew with your mouth open?

·        Do you slurp your coffee?

·        Are you a habitual whistler? Hummer? [Observe yourself in idle times, you may be surprised. Imagine a deer blithely humming in the forest while a hunter watches.]

·        Do you crack your knuckles, or neck with semi-conscious regularity?

·        Wear any clothing or sport any item with fasteners that make sound?

·        How would you assess your tread? That is how softly or loudly do you walk in any of your given footwear?

·        Do you alter walking tread for different surfaces?

·        Are you aware of where any creaking stair tread or loose bit of flooring is in your house that has a creak? If so, do you habitually move around it or do you tread as if the sound were not there?

·        Do you close doors lightly with an espionage tradecraft “pre-loaded latch to flesh bumper release” or do you simply push and pull a door open and closed.

·        How are you with cabinet doors in your kitchen?

·        Your refrigerator door?

·        Do you push and or slide glasses or mugs across the table or do you always use precise placement?

·        Do you use a “flesh bumper” when you place an item on top of any surface?

Sidenote “Flesh-bumpers”: Sound travels further and more clearly under certain conditions—cold dry weather being just one of them. It is for this reason that Arctic tribes do not use metal in clothing fasteners, or as jewelry. Any sound that alerts prey or predator is anathema.

This noise-discipline holds for even placing items into a canoe, kayak, or dog sled. The concept of flesh bumper is used in covert ops training as well.

To place a coffee mug onto a table top with a “flesh-bumper:…

·        Grip the mug with one hand with the small finger placed at the bottom lip of the mug.

·        As you place the mug onto the surface allow the small finger to make contact first.

·        Then allow the mug to slide down the skin to the table.

·        Skilled practitioners do such precise flesh-bumper placings with ease and speed. It looks exactly like setting a mug down but…the difference is in the sound profile.

Back to our sound inventory…

Should go without saying but…

·        Does music or any other sound coming from your phone, ear buds, headphones announce your presence?

Again, we must scrupulously observe ourselves to determine just how squared away we are in the Predator-Prey Sound Continuum.

Mark’s Personal Discovery

I hum slightly when walking upstairs when alone.

I had knee surgery just under a year ago and I can hear a faint disconcerting crunchy sound when ascending stairs. I do not like the sound of it, to compensate, I apparently began a very low mindless hum to block it from my senses.

Without drilling sound inventories periodically such a behavior would go undetected by me, whereas those around me would think, “Mark, has a staircase theme he enjoys.”

We will do what we do habitually whether we “desire” to or not.

Assess any and all habits for utility.

Exercise Two: Identify Sound Signatures

Once we’ve been scrupulous with ourselves for at least week start listening to the loved ones in your lives and others you come into contact with. What aural tics can you assess?

Side-Note: I occasionally adventure with folks and when we wind up sleeping in the same quarters, I can, more often than not, tell who’s up and about with no sound of voice—simply by the signature tread, door-open and closing discipline, and all the other myriad little sounds we make because we’ve forgotten all about Predator-Prey Sound Continuums.

Of the two exercise, the first is paramount. While it can be fun to notice, “Ed, always clears his throat right before he puts on his shoes.” It is nowhere as worthy as knowing “There’s someone somewhere in my house who shouldn’t be, now is not the time to do that quick sideways neck crack I do when I’m stressed.”

Warriors are awake. Part of being awake is hearing everything there is to hear.

Start with hearing yourself.

[For techniques, tactics, and strategies of Rough and Tumble Combat, Old-School Boxing, Mean-Ass Wrestling, Street-Ready Frontier Scrapping & Indigenous Ability culled from the historical record see the RAW Subscription Service, or stay on the corral fence with the other dandified dudes and city-slickers. http://www.extremeselfprotection.com