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The “Nebraska Tiger Man” Arm-Bar by Mark Hatmaker

 


Let’s talk Tough.

Tough with a capital T.

No, let’s make that two Capital Ts.

John Pesek was TTough, no ifs, ands or buts.

The man was a notorious taleteller, a yarn-spinner par excellence, so there is always a little separating the wheat from the chaff to get at the truth.

And by the way, the truth is Tough enough without the man’s exaggerated additions.

Pesek was something of an autodidactic anomaly. His wrestling is primarily self-taught augmented here and there by tips, tactics, and tricks he picked up from travelling carnivals and AT shows moving through Nebraska in the first decade of the 1900s.

[Pesek’s autodidacticism bodes well for all hard-chargers who buck the dogma of “the necessity of lineage.”]

This self-taught Nebraskan was not merely “good” for self-taught, he was simply, well, excellent.

He held the esteem of most old school early wrestlers of the Golden Age both in the pro circuit and of those in the top tier of the amateur world.

Robin Reed and Russell Vis, both Gold Medalists in Olympic Freestyle wrestling agreed that Pesek as the best wrestler either had ever met.

High praise, indeed. Particularly from Mr. Reed who had never lost a match official or unofficial in any weight class.

Pesek himself was not a big man—6’ tall, with a fighting weight of around 185 pounds.

No giant, but still nothing to mess with.

His leg scissors were a legend amongst those who experienced them. [More on this in our course The “Nebraska Tiger Man” Arm-Bar.

Legend has it he trained it by squeezing sacks of grain between his legs until they burst.

Partially true—he did train his leg squeeze with sacks of grain, the bursting, well, feeling like something will burst is good enough.

BTW-He may not have truly popped sacks of grain, he did allow a car to drive over his mid-section in demonstrations of resilience. That one is true.

Again, Pesek was given to exaggeration.

He claimed to have retired from wrestling as a millionaire.

He wasn’t.

He claimed to have murdered three men.

He didn’t.

He claimed to have been standing next to Baby Face Nelson when the gangster was gunned down by the FBI in 1934.

He wasn’t.

What he wasn’t fibbing about…

The man could Wrestle and put the hurt on.

In an age where show was beginning to take the reins of the legitimate sport he refused to show.

He preferred to do what he did—which was to wrestle, and wrestle H-A-R-D.

And not always cleanly at that. [Again, see our course The “Nebraska Tiger Man” Arm-Bar.]

He was notorious for head-butting [not just the face by the way, again see that Tiger Man Arm-Bar Course], gouging, raking his fingernails over “sensitive surfaces.”

Since Pesek preferred reality to show he was used as a Policeman, that is a wrestler that acted as a buffer between the current champion and all the challengers and contenders.

Those who wanted a piece of the champ had to get through a policeman like Pesek who was always willing to put the hurt on.

One contemporary on Pesek, “Savage guy. Cruel when he had to be. No one could take him… how he learned to wrestle, I don't know it was instinctive, something he did as naturally and easy as he breathed.”

Pesek himself said of his role as policeman, “The bigger they were when they tried to get by me, the further they wanted to get away from the Lewis camp after the match was over.”

[The Lewis camp being that of champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis.]

In our course The “Nebraska Tiger Man” Arm-Bar, we take one aspect of Mr. Pesek’s prowess his use of the straight leg scissors which was more than mere strength; there’s a whole lotta canny thought in hooking, extensions, muscle chaining and other savage tricks that go into it.

We take that wisdom and shoot it thru a prism to chase down the Rough n Tumble Tiger Man Arm-Bar. This ain’t your sport grappler’s arm-bar.

No, this is a different breed of cat.

Oh, some of it looks like the standard cat but…trust me, it ain’t.

We’ll cover 26 applications to seat this beast T-I-G-H-T!

Among what’s covered…

·        The “Tiger Man” Straight-Arm Bar Legwork: The Lock

·        The “Tiger Man” Straight-Arm Bar Legwork: The “Kick”

·        Neck-Chopping

·        Cup-Chopping

·        Three Ways to Twist Roll

·        Shin-Jam Bottom-Scissors Straight-Arm Finishes

·        Lost Elbow Fulcrum Finishes

·        Triangle + Tiger Man Finishes

·        Stopper Straight Arm-Bars

·        Bottom Scissors Straight Arm-Bar vs. Standing

And a few

·        Rodeos to Go

To snag your Old School meanness and get to training, hit the link.

To join the Old School Crew and be Old School Bad Each and Every Month consider joining the black Box Brotherhood. Info here.

Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life

The Black Box Store

https://www.extremeselfprotection.com/

The Indigenous Ability Blog

https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast

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