Square 1: Training Involution #125

Sir Gawain with his shield bearing the pentangle or pentagram as illustrated by yours truly in “Cabal Fang: Complete Martial Arts Study Course from Querent to Elder”

I founded Cabal Fang martial arts, I wrote the curriculum, and I’ve met every requirement hundreds of times.  But hat doesn’t mean I’m any better than anybody else.  That’s why I’m starting over.

We just announced our revised Cabal Fang martial arts rank advancement and achievement tracking method called the Cord and Rule, which serves a purpose simiar to the colored belt ranking systems pioneered by Jigoro Kano.¹  I could justify marking up my rule completely full and tying on my completed cord.

But I’m not.  I’m untying all the knots in my cord and I’m starting with a blank ruler as if I was a new student.  Leaders lead from the front.

Square 1: Training Involution #125

• 100 Get-ups.  Beginners, get it done in under 15 mins.  Intermediates, 10 mins.  Advanced, finish in 8 mins or less.
• 1 mile tire run.  Pick up an auto tire, put it over your shoulder like a courier bag, and run one mile.  No tire?  Use a backpack with water bottles.  Switch shoulders often.  Gloves and a sweatshirt advised.  Beginners use smaller tires and take your time.  Tire sizes are complex.  Roughly speaking, the bigger the final two digits in the tire size (the diameter of the hole in inches) the heavier the tire.  A 14″ tire averages about 15 pounds, a 15″ about 20 lbs., a 16″ about 22 lbs and a 17″ tire can weigh up to 35 lbs.   I used a 16″ (a 205/65R16) and finished in a rather middling 14:32.
• Cool down by walking it off for 3 minutes.  Then stretch out.
• Re-read Chapter 18: The Pentagram in the Cabal Fang Study Guide.  “Gawain was faithful in five and five-fold, for pure was he as gold, void of all villainy and endowed with all virtues. Therefore he bare the pentangle on shield and surcoat as truest of heroes and gentlest of knights.”  From the 14th-century masterpiece  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

¹  One of the things that makes Cabal Fang unique is that we have initiations known as trials, and they are inspired by the Western Mystery Tradition.  I don’t think Jigoro Kano ever did anything quite like what we’re doing, but I do think it’s interesting that used similar language when he received his first real martial arts rank:

“I told Mr. Iikubo [Kano’s teacher] about this, explaining that the throw should be applied after one has broken the opponent’s posture. Then he said to me: “This is right. I am afraid I have nothing more to teach you.”  Soon afterward, I was initiated in the mystery of Kito-ryu jujitsu and received all his books and manuscripts of the school.”  ~Jigoro Kano, Founder of Judo (full quote here)