Indigenous Ability

First things first, in today’s sermon “biting” has nothing to do with your teeth, so rid yourself of images of Mike Tyson chowing down on Evander Holyfield’s ear. In early Frontier Rough & Tumble parlance “to bite” was to take a shot at your opponent’s punching arm with your own fist—specifically an incoming fist. There is an entirely different rough & tumble vocabulary for injuring your opponent’s arms while in the passive, defensive, or on-guard position which we will discuss another day. You will find a few references to biting as a not necessarily on the square tactic in the early days of bare-knuckle work in Merrie Old England, and it made its transfer across the pond with some fighters making it a feature of their work. In American frontier rough and tumble there was no onus or pretention of “ That’s not quite cricket” as more often than not All-In fighting was just that. Let’s face it, in an era and fighting method that prided itself on numerous way...

Do you have a kitten? If so, go play with it, dangle something in front of it, activate its play-fighting mode. Watch it bat at the stand-in enemy with a forepaw. If you don’t have a kitten, perhaps a dog? Go play with it. Rile him up a bit and toss a toy on the ground watch him pin that toy with a forepaw and go to work with the jaws. No dogs, no kittens in the house? How about a toddler? If you have an 18-36-month-old human around the house go play with them. Roll a ball with them and watch them pick it up or roll it back. No kitties, no dogs, no toddlers? Well, let’s have you try something. While reading this, look around a pick up the nearest small object within your reach. Now that we’ve all played with our pets, or our kids, or at the very least picked up a stapler or some such thing, we can repeat these activities and pay attention to the handedness of all entities. The kitten will bat primarily with a dominant paw. The dog ...