Indigenous Ability

[All based on RAWs 210 & 209.] All are 3-Minute Rounds w/ 30-seconds Rest Round One -Cross. Keep it live, move. Put some stink on it, test that bag’s warranty. Round Two -With partner or without, toss that cross and envision a counter liver-hook or head-hunt on the high-line, so cross and roll with a bread-basket cover, keep those shoulders high—no sure things in the world. Round Three- Cross, Roll, toss another Cross out of the Roll Round Four -Add a rear bark as the cherry on top. Play this one on the drag bag as the true bark is unforgiving to tibias the world over. Rest 1 Minute Round One -On your feet slap and catch and drag to an outside two-on-one. Work both sides like a good wrassler. Head in the pocket, Crew, or I will tsk-tsk you to kingdom come. Round Two -Off of a resisted two-on-one slide as smooth as a viper into an Underhook ride. Again, where is that head supposed to be? That’s right. Round Three -Once you’ve got that ...

First, that title is a lie, there will be exactly two-steps taken. After that, any and all steps taken in addition is a signpost where your body broke and what you want to work on. This is a three-exercise warm-up that will wake-up all those lovely major muscle groups, provide some active stretching, wake-up that spine, and tell your heart and lungs it’s “Go time!” When done to protocol and speed it is a sub-5-minute warm-up.  Keeping it under 5-minutes [or as close to 5 as you can manage] allows you more time to work on the heavy-hitters of strength and tactical cultivation. The good news about the Never-Stake-a-Step Regimen is that it serves as a nice just below the redline cardio burner and is enough of a muscle pusher that those into somatotropics should find it a utilitarian muscle-builder. Note: This is not meant as a cardio-replacer in and of itself but…if you hit this Sub-5 with good protocol 3-days per week and use Blitz Drills on altern...

We’ll be talking three little targeted aspects of street/reality work that we will loosely label “Scatter-Gun” tactics.  First, that name. In my ongoing historical research, I have come across a few instances of phrases along the lines of “ Scatter ‘em!” or “ Don’t forget your scatter-gun” also “ shotgun ” has been used here and there in the same context, as in “ He got shotgunned all to hell .” What was initially puzzling to me is that often these references were in incidents where no weapon was pulled.  Finally, the key came together when realizing that we are hearing archaic slang for targets along the periphery, that is, forgoing, or at least, adding to the usual targets of head, limb, and body. We hear echoes of this euphemism in old prison slang. The most current usage I can find of it is in “Paul Wade’s” Convict Conditioning 2 where he refers to training the neck, grip, and calves as “shotgun muscle.” He explains it thusly: “ These groups w...

[The provided video will come into play in the second half of this essay. You’ll be prompted when to have a look.] Studying old school ways of hurt can go by many names: Combat Archeology, Combat Re-Creation, Historical Resurrection, but no matter what you want to call it, the goal and spirit are the same. We diggers in the past have beaucoup respect for old school tough, and if you’re anything like me, you’re more than a ‘Net-dabbler, or a mere copy-and-paster of what’s already been said by someone else. You drop money on the endeavor, you subscribe to numerous Historical Archive Societies, you keep your eye out for estate sales that might be pertinent to the facet of study. You test exhaustively via physical experimentation. You read anything and everything that is cogent, and you are even more deeply read in areas that seem tangential as often, like panning for gold, the dust downstream tells you there’s a good spot for a placer-mine somewhere upstream.  [See...

“ What do I do if I guy had me in this hold?” “What do I do if the guy knows jujitsu?” “What do if a guy is a good wrestler?” Combat Arts Instructors get these kinds of questions all the time. The question usually has a simple formulation with the interrogator not quite aware yet [due to inexperience] that they have posited quite a vast open-ended query. The inexperienced questioner is never at fault for questions along these lines. Here’s where the quibble begins [in Mark’s mind.] Any answer along the lines of: “ Well, all you have to do is just…” The implication that there is a simplistic answer to a large physical endeavor shows a good deal of short-sightedness or a staggering amount of hubris. We never succumb to such simplistic answers to encompassing questions in other physical domains. For example, if our naïve interlocuter asks “ What if I’m playing football and he has the ball?” See?  You immediately would want ...