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,...
Examining & Resurrecting Indigenous Skills and Frontier Rough & Tumble Combat