Indigenous Ability

  Buckle up, Crew, as we’ve got some ground to cover. First, “ Face under pressure ” is, obviously, a reiteration of Ernest Hemingway’s original quote on the concept of “ Grace under pressure .” Some refine to simplicity and say it was his definition of courage/guts, but in a letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, he makes it clear he has something more in mind than sheer guts. As a matter of fact, he’s a bit disdainful of guts or courage on its own. “ It makes no difference your telling G[erald] Murphy about bull fighting…. [I] Was not referring to guts but to something else. Grace under pressure. Guts never made any money or anybody except violin string manufacturers .”-A letter dated April 20, 1926. Hemingway was expressing a courageous ideal as something more than mere bravado, he reaches for something that might be closer to the Italian concept of Sprezzatura, a word that appears in the 1528 volume titled The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione. The Book of the...

Hey Crew, Stamina wisdom from our Elder Statesmen of Mayhem. 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 https://open.spotify.com/episode/2fTpfVp2wi232k4y5EakVv ...

  Let’s start here… Jack “The Manassa Mauler” Dempsey, ran a hard training camp, one reflective of his already hard life in logging camps. Amongst lumberjacks he picked up the habit of chewing pine-resin, the sap from certain coniferous trees. These loggers, a rambunctious bunch who loved their set-to’s swore by it—said it made your jaw strong, increased your ability to take a punch. A young Dempsey, had plenty of opportunity to see fellow resin-chewers at work in a tussle and decided, “ Yeah, seems to work .” He carried the practice into his training camps. Dempsey was not alone in this resin-chewing practice, many an early pugilist, an early wrestler, an early physical culturist [the drug-free bodybuilders of yore] adopted this practice. All purported it to be a good jaw-strengthener to take a punch, or in the case of the physical culturists they chewed resin to sleep better and to improve posture. Now, perhaps we can get out heads around a little jaw-strengthening,...

  A Little Historical Digression Behind the Clip [Read Part 1 Here .] Again, I turn it over to Joseph D. Pistone [the real-life Donnie Brasco,] a man who went deep undercover with the Mob. A brave man who knows of what he speaks. “One thing I knew not to do was go looking for a street fight. Why provoke a fight when the guy might have a knife or a gun? If, however, you sense that a fight is inevitable, you must make sure you get in the first punch. Once I started hanging out with wiseguys, though, I was surprised at how they went around almost eager to mix it up. They knew they had a tremendous advantage over almost everyone who crossed their paths: an utter fearlessness about fighting. Wiseguys do everything with their fists: fighting is a way to negotiate, send a message, settle a debt, even have a little fun on a slow night. I saw wiseguys beat up waiters, shopkeepers, cab drivers, you name it. And I never saw a wiseguy lose a fight. If you ever have the misfortune to be p...

  FREEBIE VIDEO Links to historical essays on this Mob-Boxing Connection . Link to how to throw like these man-killers w/ “ Chaos in a Phone Booth ” More info on throwing Illegal Hands and The Black Box Subscription Service below & how to save $38.40 on this instructional Here. Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life The Black Box Warehouse https://www.extremeselfprotection.com/ The Indigenous Ability Blog https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/ The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast https://anchor.fm/mark-hatmaker

  [October 1 st we release in-the-weeds drilling from an unsavory aspect of Underworld History—let’s set the stage with a bit of history.] [Read Part 1 Here .] Again, I turn it over to Joseph D. Pistone [the real-life Donnie Brasco,] a man who went deep undercover with the Mob. A brave man who knows of what he speaks. “One thing I knew not to do was go looking for a street fight. Why provoke a fight when the guy might have a knife or a gun? If, however, you sense that a fight is inevitable, you must make sure you get in the first punch. Once I started hanging out with wiseguys, though, I was surprised at how they went around almost eager to mix it up. They knew they had a tremendous advantage over almost everyone who crossed their paths: an utter fearlessness about fighting. Wiseguys do everything with their fists: fighting is a way to negotiate, send a message, settle a debt, even have a little fun on a slow night. I saw wiseguys beat up waiters, shopkeepers, cab drivers, y...

  [October 1 st we release in-the-weeds drilling from an unsavory aspect of Underworld History—let’s set the stage with a bit of history.] Let us turn our eye on the Boxing-Mob connection. The Real-Life Donnie Brasco, Part 1 The connection between old school boxers, old school wrestlers of the legitimate sort and those who moonlighted a bit in both worlds is vast and almost astonishing in its roster. If we add those who never competed in the legitimate game but were considered fearsome nevertheless by those who did play at top levels in the sportive side of things, the roster quadruples. The observations that follow from Joseph “Donnie Brasco” Pistone are simply from one voice in the know. We could easily add hundreds more like observations from the historical record of folks saying gangsters, mobsters, wiseguys, hard bastards, hooligans and thugs knew what they were doing, and, in most cases, knew more than the sport-saturated will ever know. [Mr. Pistone’s observat...

  Hey Crew, a wee lecture on Tactical chaining. See our store for more Freebie video Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life The Black Box Warehouse https://www.extremeselfprotection.com/ The Indigenous Ability Blog https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/ The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast https://anchor.fm/mark-hatmaker

  THE Primary Factor in self-protection/self-defense is situational awareness. Keeping in mind that crime is, more often than not, a product of opportunity, if we take steps to reduce opportunity to as close to nil as we can manage we have gone a long way to rendering our physical tactical training needless [that’s a good thing.] Yes, having defensive tactical skills in the back-pocket is a great ace to carry day-to-day but all the more useful to saving your life or the lives of loved ones is a honed awareness, a ready alertness to what is occurring around you every single day. Here’s the problem, maintaining such awareness is a Tough job with a capital T as most of our daily lives are safe and mundane [also a good thing] and this very safety allows us to backslide in good awareness practices. Without daily danger-stressors we easily fall into default comfort mode. A useful practice to return awareness/alertness to the fore is to gamify your awareness, use a series of specifi...

  So, we’ve all heard that scalps were often taken as trophies following battle-kills by both Indigenous Tribes and Anglo-adopters of this fearsome way. At times scalps were used as decorations to add fearsome aspect to war lances or as saddle adornments or used as “markers” to collect bounties and a few other sundry uses “decorative” and transactional. What is seldom asked is, “Exactly how does one go about scalping a human?” In cinematic representations it is often a time-shortened quick one-handed affair. But…the actuality was often far different. A more labor-intensive thing that demonstrates stopping to take a man’s scalp demands a bit more time, a bit more effort, and a lot more inclination that crosses the border into the unimaginable. How to Scalp ONE --Fell your victim. TWO --Grip the hair on top of their head with the left hand [assuming you are right-handed.] THREE —Make two semi-circular incisions around the skull with your knife—treat the skull as if ...