Indigenous Ability

A thoughtful question from Affiliate Rough ‘n’ Tumble Coach Mitch Mitchell prompted me to offer the following advice regarding these two common items of frontier weaponry. First, the part of Coach Mitchell’s Question/Observation that prompted what follows. “ Am I on the right track or holding my danged knife wrong?  Bowie designs are manifold. My personal preference falls toward a flat spine knife with a half-guard because a spine-side guard or broken spine jams up my thumb on a sincere stab in sabre grip.  For me anyway, a nice, straight, full-power stab with a hammer grip on the high line is impossible and anyway it's is a wrist killer.” His observation/complaint is common and one that leads to wisdom. I will also point out that to discover that certain tactics and grips are wrist killers can only be garnered via experience, that is, hard post training. If we stick with mirror play, shadow play, or tit for tat [ zumbrada] flow drills with a partner u...

Those of us who train weapons, whether that weapon be firearm, tactical folder, escrima stick, pepper-spray, or Viking battle-axe likely spend most of our time en garde, at port arms, or “Weapon-Ready.” In other words, our tool of choice is un-holstered, un-sheathed, un-pocketed, un-pursed, un-quivered and ready to go. Our training is often drill-based or duel patterned, meaning all of the preliminaries have been assumed. Fake-words have been had, weapons are in hand, now we click the sticks 1-8, adjust the paper-target up or down range, slash-one/thrust-four for reps, or apply the centurion’s gladius to the post ad naseum. But… …in the New World, [Frontier America] a premium was placed not only prowess with a weapon at-the-ready but also speed of weapon acquisition and how quickly that weapon could be engaged tactically. In other words, we are not merely talking fast-draw, we are talking fast-draw and do the job. Let us not assume the fast draw is mere stuff ...

[ I offer the following in advance of our addition of Frontier blade, tomahawk, and like weaponry to the RAW Program beginning 2019 .] Much advice on early frontier blade work [Bowie knife, dirk, tomahawk, etc.] is speculation. In some cases, good speculation, but in execution it appears to be a variation of some eastern blade work transposed with alternate terminology to give it a patina of New World verisimilitude. If one takes a deep enough historical dive there are enough resources to give a more accurate eye as to what may have actually occurred with early continental edged weaponry. References buried in contemporary letters, journals, archives and the like abound regarding such things as “ bad doin’s with Kansas neck-blisters .” [Knife fight using bowies.] Many of these refences make no mention of tactics or strategies just as most of today’s blade [and gun encounters for that matter] have little to do with skill and more to do with willingness to engage or respond w...