Indigenous Ability

  Let us begin with an historical snapshot, this is but one of the multitudes I could have chosen to illustrate. The following excerpt is from Whitman Mead’s Travels in North America [1820.] The author refers to an incident he witnessed in 1817 while travelling though Georgia. Such gatherings, according to Mead, occurred 2-3 times per week where folks would gather to fellowship, feast, drink, dance, gamble, exchange wares, and often following the ever-present horse-race a public challenge may be issued. At which time: “ A ring is formed, free for anyone to enter and fight…After a few rounds, they generally clinch, throw down, bite and gouge, and the conquered creeps out under the ring as a signal of his submission .” Mead tells of meeting several past combatants who had noses bitten off, eyes gouged out, and more than a few who had been castrated in such affairs. Many of these now unsavory tactics were not mere desperation moves in the heat-of-battle, but sought for targ

  Let us dive into a topic that has been addressed many times in the past, many times in the present, and likely on into the future; the perennial question of “Can a boxer beat a wrestler?”, or we can rephrase it as “Can a striker beat a grappler?” We could, and perhaps will another day, offer the record of how often these early mixed matches occurred and all the commensurate outcomes from such matches. But today let's look to another sports authority who examined the same question, David Willoughby. Mr. Willoughby dove deep into the historical record of boxing, wrestling and combination matches, which is the mix of boxing and wrestling. In some cases the rules stated, “This round is boxing and this round is wrestling,” in other cases it was actual mixed matches where the competitors got to use whatever discipline they felt comfortable with. Well according to Mr. Willoughby and his studies the question of “Can a wrestler beat a boxer?” should no longer be a question, since it

  “We must be polite. If we look at the skin of a white man, he said, you can see how thin and weak it is. Even such a small thing as words will bruise and cut it open.”— Conrad Richter, The Light in the Forest . That quote is from the Pulitzer-Prize winning author’s 1953 novel, The Light in the Forest. The novel is a tale of the Eastern Woodland frontier, particularly the story of a young white captive who has lived with Natives for years and is being returned “home.” Before we plunge on, I must get the reader- reaction  out of the way. As fiction, I found it a bit stilted, a bit too Rousseau “Noble Savage” in dialogue but in all other particulars a fascinating read. Richter has done his research here, there was a marked number of “white” captives who, once “freed,” escaped time and time again to return to what one would presume to be a harsher life, a harsher culture, one with less amenities, and yet… The historical record gives us tale after tale of these dissatisfied “ re

  Gettin' My Lord Greystoke on The Warrior Diet is a 4-tiered bit of reducing/weight-cutting/leaning simplicity based on Old School Principles backed by new school [but often ignored] science. The Plan follows a “ Do Step 1 for 14 days ”---if the scale needle budges downward, stick here and go no further—no need for the additional steps. ·         If it doesn’t budge, go to Step 2 and run the Guidelines from Steps 1 & 2 in tandem for 14 days. ·         If the needle budges in a desired manner, stick here. ·         If not, go to Step 3. ·         If the budge does not occur, well, you know what to do. 4 Steps--that's it. [Likely most of ya will never need more than the first two, particularly if you are using The Unleaded Program & Warrior Walking to build leaner and meaner muscle all the while avoiding catabolism.] • Steps 1 & 2 will be presented gratis via The Indigenous Ability blog and our podcast, Mark Hatmaker: Rough n Tumble Raconteur . The

  I multi-task: Reading & JOLT Training  Old School thought saw the “skull beneath the skin” when it came to conditioning. That is, it was not just a game of altering the musculature—attacking muscles first [and only] was seen as dangerous cart before the horse territory. The human body is only as strong as the connecting links. The muscles act as the force applied to the various pulleys, levers, and block and tackle that is the joints, ligaments and tendons of the axes or fulcrums of movement. Consider this, if we seek to lever a log out of a mire. We may force one end of a smaller log under it and lay the smaller log midway across a lever point, a fulcrum. Before we apply a force [our own strength + bodyweight] to the end of the smaller log lever, we must give consideration to what we lay the log across to act as the lever fulcrum. Given a choice of three fulcrums, all of the same dimensions, to do the job, would we choose… A solid rock? A pile of sand? Or, for