Category Archives: Martial arts

Last week’s T.I. was a double-down.  So this week we’re going to take it down a notch — see below.

This month’s internal focus is The Book, a.k.a the Tarot.  The Tarot is essentially an encyclopedia of symbolism in the form of a deck of cards, a way to train your mind to see the world in terms of story and symbol.  When used as a tool for reflection and psychoanalysis, Tarot is fun and beneficial beyond measure.

Tarot cards are not dangerous and scary unless you use them to tell fortunes.  I’m in seminary, and neither of my bishops see the slightest thing wrong with using Tarot cards to gain insight into oneself or as aids to meditation.  The finest Tarot book ever written was penned by a devout Catholic.  Divination and magic, on the other hand, will get you into hot water.  I advise against it.

Here’s an example of how Tarot can work, using songs instead of Tarot cards.  On the right is a copy of a CD I made for a coworker back in ’07.  Chuck was leaving the company headed for greener pastures, and I said goodbye to him with a CD.   I liked it so much I made a copy for myself.

Give it a listen.  Pretend it’s a concept album and see if you get the story that’s being told by the various tracks.  Here’s the YouTube playlist.

That’s kind of what you do with Tarot cards.  You lay out a spread of cards, look at the pretty pictures and amazing symbols, and see if you can follow the story.

HiIt Parade: Cabal Fang Training Involution #151

A parade is a “succession, series, or display of items.”  The origin of the word parade is the Latin paro which means to prepare, provide, or resolve. 

Let’s do this.

• Warm up thoroughly — that’s 8 minutes minimum.
• Cabal Fang Grappling Conditioner #2. Set timer for 3 x 3:00/1:00.  For each 3:00, Splay-n-Punch 1-2, Splay-n-Punch 1-2-3-4, Splay-n-Punch 1-2-3-4-5-6, etc. up to Splay-n-Punch 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, then start again.  If you’re not dawdling you should be able to get at least 5 climbs done during every 3:00 round — that’s 25 Sprawls and 150 punches.  For the 1:00 “rests” body-lock a heavy bag and squeeze it as hard as you can.  Take as many 12-count breaks as you must in order keep from upchucking.  Just breathe.  I promise it’ll be over in 12 minutes.
• Scuffling, grappling and wrestling HIIT. Set a timer to beep every 40 seconds. Whenever it beeps take a 10-second break and then start the next exercise. Cycle through the following 6 times for a total of 16 minutes, each as many as you can for 30 seconds: Smearing Push-ups, Cross-arm Clinch Lunges (maximum cutting power!), Leg Triangles and Splay-n-Punch. See video below for details.  Look familiar?  It should.
• Tell a story. Shuffle your Tarot cards and deal out nine cards, all face up, in a 3 x 3 square.  Think of them as panels in a comic book of your life — the top row your past, the middle row your present, the bottom row your future.  Come up with a plot that connects the pictures.  Spend some time asking yourself questions about the little story you made up.  Which episodes from your childhood are brought to mind by the first three cards?  Do you know why?  Does the story have a good or bad ending?  What could you do to change it?
• Record everything you learned in your training journal.  If it ain’t in the journal, it didn’t happen.