Changing are coming folks — when Mettle Maker #271 posts Sat. 8/7 the non-profit’s new brand name will drop, and alll my projects (Cabal Fang, St. Barachiel’s, Bobcat, and this blog) will roll up beneath it. Read more here.

Among the changes already in place at the martial arts club:

New constitutionals (fitness routines) every session rather than monthly
All exercises have direct martial relevance — no fluff
Martial focus rotates weekly — Mettle Makers tied to the upcoming week’s rotation
First full week of the month is dedicated to striking, second week is grappling/clinching, third is wrestling, fourth is weapons. If there’s a fifth, split week at the end of the month, it’s for gen’l self-defense. Ex.: the next week for general self-defense will be Sun 8/29/2021 – Sat 9/4/2021.
Spiritual focuses have been simplified and are being rotated every session rather than monthly.

Check back often — more to come!

Walk, Weave and Spiral: Mettle Maker #269

Warm-up before training. To avoid injuries, warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes before you train. Do about 4 minutes each of (a) jogging, jumping rope, or similar activity, and (b) light calisthenics. Martial artists should do 8 minutes of MBF.
Self-Defense: Weapon command and mastery. Create a constitutional and do it with wooden or rubber mock-up weapon of choice like the one on the right. Intersperse one “X” air cut between each rep. Example: Shoulder Rolls, Russian Squats, Shrimps, Vaults, Sprints, Sprawls, Sit-outs. Set timer for 15:00 and climb (1 of each, 2 of each, 3 of each, etc.) until the timer beeps.
Fitness: Farmer Walks, Farmer Walks, Farmer Walks. Most of the credit for my 60+ strength I give to heavy carries. I recommend 2 heavy carries a week for functional strength, and 1 of them has to be Farmer Walks. Don’t do tons of sets with low weight — push the weight up such that you can only do 3 sets of about 25 yards/meters each. Set a goal of body weight per hand. Here’s how to progress: Start with a weight you can manage with relative ease, say 1/2 your 1 RM Bench Press per hand. Walk 25 yds/m, rest 1 min., walk 25 yds/m, then walk until failure. Next time add weight. When you can’t get 3 reps of 25 yds/m each, reduce weight by %5 – 10% and restart your progression.
Survival: Sheet Bend or Weaver’s Knot. A few months back I got stuck in kind of a tough spot and needed to be able to join two different diameters of cordage together. Fortunately I knew the Sheet Bend or Weaver’s knot. Learn this knot and thank me later. Want a free knot book? Check out Knotting and Splicing Ropes and Cordage by Paul N. Hasluck — that’s where I got the picture on the right.
Spirit: Spiritual strength, like physical strength, should be measurable. If you’re doing your contemplation, meditation, prayer and sacred reading, you should be getting stronger intellectually, emotionally, in your relationships, and so on. Are you getting along better with friends, family and co-workers? Are you happier, smarter, and more productive? Look back at your journal and see if you’re in a better place than you were last year. If not, then it sounds like your spiritual work is walled off from the real world, and you need to get engaged. What’s that? Did you just say, “But Mitch, I don’t keep a journal”? Well, that explains a lot. Sounds like you need to get your hands on a spiral notebook and put some ink in it.