Indigenous Ability

  “ Now just for fun we’ll each name what we place our trust in. I’ll choose first, and there are three things I place reliance on---one is my purse, the second my axe, the third my storehouse .”—Spoken by Glum in Killer Glum’s Saga , Ch. 14  I may have nothing to provide in regard to your purse or your storehouse, but…that trusted item number two, well, there is much that I may have to offer.  The good folks at FightFast have forged a fearsome battle-axe beast dubbed The Norseman. She is a rock-solid durable and formidable behemoth that conjures feelings of thew-driven power as soon as you hold it in both fists.  The Norseman is solid and dependable, not a mere shelf-piece. Oh, don’t get me wrong—she is a beauty, with sinuous lines well deserving of display—but, The Norseman is more than your standard ornamental “weapon,” one of those designed to look good but stay away from use lest dings and swings dull blades, rattle shafts, and pit and curl “impervious” blades.  I have per

  Ground-Fighting, we all picture grappling, right? [Well, most of us do.] But…it seems many a tribe saw the ground as far more inclusive than the rolling scrum.  This world includes, yes, mean finishers that at first blush would seem to be standard grappling [t’aint true] but…it also is comprised of a Wild [notice that capital “W”], I repeat, Wild variety of kicking in the midst of ground interaction. I’m talking… ·         Kicks from the ground to fellow ground-based opponents, be that grappling, striking or weapons engaged. ·         Grounded -Kicking from ground to standing opponents. ·         Two-Way Transition Kicking —that is, kicks that are delivered while going to the ground or kicks that literally rise you from the ground. ·         Pillar or Support Kicking , which is a mighty interesting kicking vocabulary that uses vertical and upright support to aid, abet, add power and range to kicking. These wild ones allow you to get your environmental weapons jones going

  The Old Man’s Preamble : My Warriors, allow me to say that the concept of counting coup has been, and is, one of THE most important, useful and successful drivers of my martial approach in the past decade. And, it has paid even larger dividends in everyday life. “ How? ” you may ask. Let’s cover a bit of historical and contextual territory. Counting Coup To “count coup” in American Frontier indigenous cultures was to execute a deed of bravery. It’s actually a bit more than that. We all value the brave acts of others and swell our own spirits when we behave bravely ourselves. In indigenous cultures, acts of bravery deserve recognition, just as they do in all cultures but…a slight difference may be found in the indigenous evaluation of bravery in which the bravery estimation is tiered by deliberate risk-levels. Example : Behaving bravery in battle is valued by all cultures. Another tier of battlefield bravery is performing while in the face of greater odds than usual.