Indigenous Ability

[Excerpted from our book Boxing Like the Champs, Round Two , to be released Fall of 2020.] Rocco Francis Marchegiano. Rocky Marciano The Brockton Blockbuster. Yeah, yeah, we all know, the only undefeated heavyweight champion.  Retires with a perfect record. A strong, powerful fighter with a big heart, tremendous work ethic and a good character to boot. Usually we start all of these mini-lessons with a reminder to the cognoscenti or an introduction to those new on the path.  Rocky Marciano is one of those rare few who seems to need little of that “ Gather around, let me tell you about …” noise. So, in this case, let’s not talk about what he did well, but something that he did poorly. And….how that poorly done thing often made him perform so well. Contradictions abound there, huh? The legend, while graceful in character, has never been accused of grace in movement. He was an awkward lunging fighter. Some labeled...

This is Lieutenant-General John “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne on the rabble that was encountered during the American Revolution. “It is not to be expected that the rebel Americans will risk a general combat or a pitched battle, or even stand at all, except behind intrenchments as at Boston. Accustomed to felling of timber and to grubbing up trees, they are very ready at earthworks and palisading, and will cover and intrench themselves wherever they are for a short time left unmolested with surprising alacrity…Composed as the American army is, together with the strength of the country, full of woods, swamps, stone walls, and other inclosures and hiding places, it may be said of it that every private man will in action be his own general, who will turn every tree and bush into a kind of temporary fortress, and from whence, he has fired his shot with all deliberation, coolness, and uncertainty which hidden safety inspires, he will skip as it were to the next, and so on for a long ...

In four weeks we do the photo-shoot for the long-promised volume Boxing Like the Champs, Round Two . Consumers of the 1 st book and the companion DVD-set Boxing like the Champs can expect more deeply researched fistic malice. [All available at our little ol’ website store.] The publisher tells me it will see wide release this Fall. Coming Up Sooner in the Pipeline: The Suakhet’u. First, what The Suakhet’u is not… ·         It is non martial arts or combat sports related. ·         It is not a strenuous physical endeavor. What is The Suakhet’u? ·         It is an audio-visual course detailing a morning enlivening/awakening practice culled from various American Indigenous traditions. ·         Although there is some “sitting” involved, it is not meditation. ·         Altho...

Rough ‘n’ Tumble, scufflin’, illegal boxing, boombattle, and all the various and sundry names that go to describe the all-in melee that is truly no-holds-barred, no-strikes-off-the-table uses the entire body as a weapon. Let’s take a brief sojourn with just one of those weapons—The Shoulder. Due to obvious range restrictions, the shoulder is part of the closed-quarters arsenal.  [ Notice, in deference to the origin of the word, I call it “closed quarters” in the piratical naval melee sense and not the modern and incorrect perversion to “close quarters.” Yeah, I’m that guy, a stickler for the details. Consider this, if the name ain’t right, what else might be wrong? If a guy calls a jab “a fisty puncher” and is oblivious to the word “jab” we’d suspect something was a bit awry in the boxing research, would we not?] To the Shoulder! We’ve got three broad ways to use it [Slams, Butts, & Grinds] and essentially only two attack paths [Inward & Upward.]...

Oh, Crew, looking to get outside the comfy smooth gym and test your real mettle with activities and objects that haven’t been designed to make hefting them easier so you can skip grade-school reveling in the WOD participation trophy hamster wheel? Then, belly up to the bar for a PT Challenge from ye olde days of lumberjack and woodsman prowess. Pulp wood was a designation for bucked lengths not quite up to par for lumber use. For our purposes, and those into Woodsman and Lumber Sports Competitions, grab yourself 4 lengths of log four feet in length with an approximate weight of 30-40 pounds per. If you don’t have logs available, you can hit the resource that is Home Depot and pick up a couple of 6 x 6 pressure treated timbers. They come in 8-foot lengths so a wee middle cut to each gives you a PT resource that will last. [They’ll be a bit on the light side but they will serve the log-bereft.] The Course ·         Lay out...

[Excerpted from the upcoming book Boxing Like the Champs, Round Two .] Due to his untimely death few recall the man that was Luther McCarthy.  Let’s rectify that. First, his name. 21 st -Century sources list his name as Luther McCarty with no “h” following the letter “t.” Every single one of my resources from 1911 to1931 have the spelling as McCarthy. These sources being closer to the time this fine boxer walked the planet, I’ll stick with them. Born in Hitchcock County, Nebraska March 20 th , 1892, he was called “Luck” by his family. Raised on a ranch he came up in the cowboy lifestyle and could ride and rope well. During his brief career he would appear on the vaudeville stage and regale the audience with his lariat abilities.  His Nebraska origins, and cowboy skills led to the ring names of “The Cowboy” or “The Fighting Cowboy.” McCarthy was a big powerful man, well over six feet tall, some sources have him as tall as 6’4”. He possessed an 8...