Skip to main content

The Gunfighter’s Clinch: Weapon Retention, Clinch Control, and “Stealin’ from the Belt” by Mark Hatmaker

 


[Look at that photograph HARD. Imagine the dire straits that officer is about to be in. One adjustment [ONE] in his underhook would deprive the scum with a hand on his weapon the opportunity for that deadly pull that is getting ready to occur just as it did in real life.]

The Clinch Fight of the Early America’s Rough n Tumble days was a different breed from the clinch across the pond.

In Great Britain, Continental Europe and the Mediterranean Basin we see a heavy sportive influence.

Think of Cornish Wrestling, and other belt/jacket dominant sport styles: jiu-jitsu and judo included.

In the non-jacketed forms, we have many sport styles to choose from with Greco-Roman Wrestling being the dominant example that comes to mind.

In all these versions, the grip, the hooks, the control of wedges to topple, unbalance, to throw is the leading edge of strategy and tactics.

As we cross the pond to the Americas, we enter a realm where rules slough away the deeper we get into frontier territory.

We must always keep in mind; the frontiers were not merely “Old West.”

The frontier was an ever-expanding push.

“For some people the term ‘frontier’ may bring to mind only the way west. That is acceptable as long as one remembers that everything from where the Atlantic Ocean breaks upon the shore was west at one time. It was all frontier.”-Louis “Amour, Frontier.

“All these Americans are, as they say, ‘Strapped.’”

The west-faring peoples of the Americas were a people of weapons.

There was often a rifle in hand, if not that, a bow, a lance or tomahawk.

At belt or waist-strap we find pistol[s], blades, tomahawks, cudgels, war clubs and sundry other weapons.

Yes, there were sportive tussles for fun, for dominance where “unstrapping” before the often brutal affair might return the clinch concerns to the tamer realms of toppling only but…

The ever-present threat of skirmishes and/or one-on-one warfare with an armed and dangerous opponent changed perspectives on the clinch in this New World.

Strapped Clinch Affairs & The Gunfighter’s Clinch

The clinch of strapped opponents be it both strapped or merely one strapped alters how the idea of the clinch itself must be approached.

Ideas of Entry—to gain weapon/belt control are different.

Ideas of Exit—Getting out of the unexpected/unwanted clinch to clear one’s own weapon were different from the sport versions all the while using tools that appear the same, but most assuredly ain’t.

Ideas of holster smothering, “reach hand” control, maintaining your “pull” [weapon access] and “biting them with their own tooth” [pulling their weapon against them] alters the game a good deal.

Street to Sport; Not Sport to Street

The Gunfighter’s Clinch allows us to reverse the causal arrow where we no longer use sport tactics to address real-world concerns as in the photo of the unfortunate officer.

If we focus our attention on an arsenal of dire circumstances it requires ZERO alteration when we go unarmed.

I go so far to say The Gunfighter Clinch arsenal improves ALL aspects of the sportive arsenal.

This month’s Black Box volume is all about the base materials comprising The Gunfighter’s Clinch.

It is ideal for the street, and it will even serve my unarmed scufflers in the weapon-free clinch scrum; it will build intuitive positioning from the jump.

I repeat, look at the offered photo again---one [ONE]alteration in the officer’s underhook changes his game.

The devil is in the details.

We'll demo the material dry and some with gun belt to highlight the why's of much early clinch wisdom from the days when everyone was strapped and rarin' to pull.

Rough n Tumble Vocabulary Word: Buford

A Buford in rodeo parlance is a small, weak, easily thrown steer or calf.

In human correlation a Buford is a small, weak, easily thrown human.

Don’t be a Buford.

Control the Clinch.

Keep your weapon.

Take theirs.

Save your life.

To snag your copy hit the link. The Gunfighter’s Clinch.

To save over 50% off + gain additional premiums consider joining The Black Box Subscription Service.

The Rough n Tumble Raconteur Podcast

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Apache Running by Mark Hatmaker

Of the many Native American tribes of the southwest United States and Mexico the various bands of Apache carry a reputation for fierceness, resourcefulness, and an almost superhuman stamina. The name “Apache” is perhaps a misnomer as it refers to several different tribes that are loosely and collectively referred to as Apache, which is actually a variant of a Zuni word Apachu that this pueblo tribe applied to the collective bands. Apachu in Zuni translates roughly to “enemy” which is a telling detail that shines a light on the warrior nature of these collective tribes.             Among the various Apache tribes you will find the Kiowa, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Chiricahua (or “Cherry-Cows” as early Texas settlers called them), and the Lipan. These bands sustained themselves by conducting raids on the various settled pueblo tribes, Mexican villages, and the encroaching American settlers. These American settlers were often immig...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Conversation with Neil Melanson by Mark Hatmaker

Here is a chat I had with a good man with a good mind, Neil Melanson. If you are unfamiliar with Neil’s exemplary work he has coached at Xtreme Couture, Alliance MMA, and a HC with the Blackzilians. He is now at gym Genesis Training Academy and Coach of the Filthy Few MMA team. -DVDs out are: Head Hunter, Catchwrestling, and Ground Marshal guard basics  -book Mastering Triangle Chokes -black belt under Karo Parisyan in the Hayastan Grappling System  First things first, Brother Neil, thanks for taking the time to have this chat. Allow me to get another thing out of the way, your book Mastering Triangle Chokes , top-notch. This is high-speed, low-drag stuff all the way. Often there is chaff to be culled through, but you have a linear approach that appeals to the pragmatic streak in me. Excellent work. Thanks a lot man.  You are a real articulate and detailed coach so that means a lot coming from you. Your approach to grappling appeals to my expansiv...
Post a Comment
Read more

Walk Like a Warrior by Mark Hatmaker

In reading contemporary historical accounts written by soldiers (cavalry and dragoon), settlers, scouts, pioneers, and other citizens of the American frontier 1680s-1880s, I find mention that Native Americans (“Indians” or “Savages” in the accounts) did not walk like “white men.” Their gait, stride, and foot placement is described often in poetic terms as “light” or “light-footed,” “fleet”, “gliding”, and often times “springy” or “spring-like.” These terms while descriptive of the effect do little to tell us the how or why of the gait. We can find clues in accounts given by trackers in any of the myriad “Indian Wars” or skirmishes that riddled the continent in the first few centuries of the settling of the nation. The obvious telltale barefoot or soft impression of a moccasin is often a giveaway that you have a Native American track but this is less so in the moccasined foot as more and more Anglo backwoodsmen adopted this footwear. But there are a few accounts that mention ...
4 comments
Read more