I promised the new brand would drop on 8/7 and here it is:

The non-profit has been renamed Heritage Arts, Inc. And as of today, all of my projects are being run for free under the Heritage Arts banner.

Cabal Fang is now Heritage Self-Defense. The program has been streamlined, improved, and is better than ever! Any and all fitness content that wasn’t martial-arts-relevant has been moved into the new Heritage Fitness program.

Bobcat Martial Arts has been dissolved. The martial arts material has been folded into to the Heritage Self-Defense program, and the outdoor skills material has been spun off into a dedicated nature appreciation and survival program called Heritage Wildwood.

The old temple space has been renamed St. Barachiel Chapel. Starting soon, church services will be broadcast online from the Chapel.

My YouTube channel has been renamed Heritage Arts, I’ll be getting a new “@heritageartsinc.com” email address, this blog will eventually be moved to the Heritage Arts website, and I’m sure there will be more cascading affects that I haven’t even realized yet.

Onward and upward!

Heritage: Mettle Maker #271

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.  

1. 

   Showing Vinny a Drop Duck-under

   Self-Defense: A grappling fitness constitutional, pyramid-style. Set timer for 8 mins.  Climb the pyramid until it timer beeps (1 of each, 2 of each, 3 of each, etc.).  Finish the set you’re on and then descend.  We did this one at the club Thursday night and it took us about 15 minutes.  Exercises as follows: Russian Squats, Hip Throws (w/ heavy bag), Shots, Crunch ‘n’ Punch, Push-ups, Prisoner Get-ups, and Shoulder Roll.
2. Fitness: The 100 Bodybuilder challenge.  Complete 100 10-count Bodybuilders in under 20 minutes.  My record is 13:15.  What’s a 10-count Bodybuilder?  Jumping Jack (1,2), squat down (3), shoot feet back to plank position (4), Push-up (5,6), feet apart (7), feet together (8), hop feet back to squat position (9) and stand up (10).
3. Wildwood: Tracking exercise. Find or clear a patch of dirt at least a couple of feet across.  Put a piece of fruit — a grape, slice of apple, etc. — in the center and leave it.  Come back tomorrow and examine the area.  What took it?  Pro-tips: choose muddy ground or moisten it with a hose if its in your yard.  And if you can make it back at sunrise you might be able to get more information by getting to the west of the location and looking at the surrounding area with the light reflecting off the dew by the light of the sun. 
4. Spirit: Write a prayer and say it every hour.  When you’re faced with a trouble or difficulty — a work goal, a personal challenge, an addiction, a stressful situation, an unfolding calamity, a death in the family, etc. — an hourly prayer will help.  It doesn’t have to be fancy, lengthy, or poetic.  When I was struggling with how to solve all of the issues, goals and stressors surrounding the Heritage program, I said the following prayer every hour for a couple of days straight: “Heavenly Father, help me to remember that every human activity is an opportunity to usher Christ into the world, that I might bring forth Christ in my every thought, word, desire and deed.  Through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, Amen.”   

Dirt, Bugs and Mud: Mettle Maker #270

1. 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.  
2. Self-Defense: Weapon Capture and Retention.  Today’s the last day of weapons training this month, so let’s really work.  Get out your wooden or rubber mock-up weapon of choice and go out on the grass.  Set timer for repeating 1 min. rounds. Toss mock weapon over your shoulder, then turn and pounce on it with your right hand using a belly slide.  Cut one “X” in the air against the imaginary enemy next to you on the ground.  Do a commando-style Get-up, and repeat until the bell rings.  Do a second round with baseball slides and a third round with shoulder roll pick-ups.  Cycle through 3 more rounds with left hand for a total of 6 1-minute rounds.  Be sure to wield your weapon with whatever grip to get — you need to be able to use your weapons with either hand in any grip!
3. Fitness: Simulated mud run.  What makes mud runs like Tough Mudders and Rugged Maniacs challenging isn’t the obstacles — it’s mostly running with the added weight and altered body mechanics caused by pounds of caked on mud.  Do not rack up tons of miles this way — too hard on your body for too little benefit.  But a few mud miles per month will prepare you to cover ground under adverse conditions and make sure you’re prepped if a friend extends a last-minute invite to a Warrior Dash.  Go find some mud, get in there like you did when you were a kid, and then run.  Pssst: There’s dirt outside — I’ve actually seen it!  Or, if you want all of the misery but none of the fun, simulate a mud run by putting on a weighted vest, ankle weights, and wrist weights. 
4. Survival & Spirit Combo: Sit down and shut up.  Go out into your backyard in the half-light of either early morning or evening.  This will ensure that the bugs are swarming and you can’t see your surroundings optimally.  Set a timer for 5 – 10 mins, sit down in your posture of choice, and practice contemplation.  Regulate your breathing to a slow and regular pattern.  Keep your eyes open.  Do not fidget, wiggle, scratch, move or speak (not even to swat or swear at that mosquito whining in your ear).  Like ripples on a pond, allow your thoughts to dissipate toward thoughtlessness — just sit and look out at the world without evaluating.  The four great spiritual disciplines — contemplation, meditation, prayer and sacred reading — are as much adventures in stoicism and survival as they are quests for enlightenment, atonement, and fulfillment.  If you can’t even sit quietly under any conditions, without moving or making a sound, to avoid capture, observe an enemy, or land a meal, how are you going to have any hope of making contact with God, your Higher Power, or Ultimate Reality?  Get there.

Walk, Weave and Spiral: Mettle Maker #269

1. 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.  
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Realignment: Mettle Maker #268

1. 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.  
2. Self-Defense: Practice your slips.  The best way to practice not getting hit in the face is to let people try and hit you in the face.  It’s called “sparring.”  The problem?  Repeated blows to the head lead to poor long-term physical and mental health outcomes.  To the rescue: the humble pool noodle!  See video at bottom of page.  
3. Fitness: Back Squats, Rope Climbs, #30 Ruck.  Last week we did heavy Back Squats followed by a set of weighted chins and a short, fast run.  Make sure that your training has a periodic element.  This week, let’s do 2 x 10 at 66% 1RM of Back Squats + a third set to failure (more reps less weight), followed by four rope climbs (more reps less weight), and a moderate ruck, say #20 – #40 depending on your size (more weight, less intensity).  Hate to sound like a broken record, but LPs without periodicity = injures.  Switch things up! 
4. Bushcraft: Don’t be afraid of redundancy.  One of the things I always make sure I have plenty of are first aid kits.  I have a complete med kit (the kind with quick-clot, sutures, etc.) in the bug-out bag, traditional first-aid kits in the utility room, one in each vehicle and in the bug-out trailer (read more about that here), and mini-first aid kit (with needle and thread added) in my shoulder bag and in my desk at work.  You never know when disaster is going to strike.  Or when a paper cut is going to need a bandage, or when a crashing headache is going to demand ibuprofen.  Whatever you think you need in an emergency, make sure you have more than one.  Seriously.
   

   Mini kit #1

   

   Mini kit #2
5. Spirit:  Spiritual but not religious?  I’m not buying it.  Spiritual strength, like physical strength, is built through work.  When you train martial arts, always remember to work on “S.A.F.E. M.P.”©  which is speed, accuracy, form, endurance, mobility, and power.  When you train spiritually, work on your thoughts, desires, actions and beliefs using the four spiritual practices: sacred reading, prayer, meditation, and contemplation.  If you’re not doing those four things you’re not “spiritual.”  You’re just lazy.    

COUNTDOWN! Mettle Maker #267

1. 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.  
2. Self-Defense: Practice your chokes.  Chokes cut even the largest aggressors down to size. You and your partner put on your paintin’ clothes in case something gets ripped and spend 10 minutes practicing your garment chokes.  If you don’t have a partner, put a shirt on your grappling dummy and go to town.  If you don’t have a partner or training dummy, that calls into question whether you’re a martial artist or not.  The chokes I’m most partial to are: Old #7, Bracing Choke, Loop Choke, X Choke, Jersey Choke, Guillotine Choke, Double Lapel Choke, and Ezekiel Choke.  What are your favorites?  For extra credit, practice using material from the environment as subs for the shirt itself, things such as drapes, sheets, towels, sleeves, etc.  Be careful with your partner and apply chokes with care — they are for real.
3. Fitness: Back Squats, Chins, Half Mile run.  Back Squats: 2 x 5 at 50% of 1RM, followed by 2 x 1 of 1RM.  Chin-ups: 4 sets to failure.  If you can do more than 5 at one go, add weight such that no set exceeds a rep count of 5.  Run: Cover 1/2 mile as fast as you can. 
4. Bushcraft: Identify this plant.  If you gather some of this and add it to your salad, or toss some of them into a pot of greens, it might be your last meal.  Answer at the bottom of the page.
   

   

   

   

   
5. Spirit: Learn the difference between icons, idols and symbols.  Confusion on this score causes argument, lack of discernment, and failure to avoid the suffering associated with idolatry.  An idol is that which points to a finite object or idea and is treated as if God.  An icon is that which points to God and is treated as if finite.  A symbol is a finite representation of an idea, concept or quality.  “Symbol” is an umbrella term encompassing icons, idols, and any shorthand representation of something larger.  Stars of David, peace signs, swastikas and the little trashcan on your laptop representing the recycle bin are all symbols.  A symbol can stand for something positive, negative, or neutral.  To a non-believer, a crucifix is just a symbol.  To a believer, it is an icon — as long as it points to God and is treated like a mere object.  A crucifix becomes an idol when its owner points it away from God to his or her own desires, treats the object like a magic charm to get what he or she wants, etc.  An American flag or a poster of a hammer and sickle is just a symbol.  But either becomes an idol if we treat it as if it is God.  Many people, atheists, agnostics and religious alike, decry idols and idolatry, not realizing that they are treating pastors, politicians, nations, science, and other finite objects or ideas as if they are God.  We know where idolatry leads — to extremism, totalitarianism, anarchy, disorder, and the bad old days of the ancient past.  Learn these distinctions.  Hunt down the little idolatries in your life and banish them.  You’ll be happier and more fulfilled, I guarantee. 

SYMBOL, ICON or IDOL?

The plant pictured above is Common Nightshade, a.k.a. Solanum nigrum.  Dangerous — do not eat!

New Direction: Mettle Maker #266

1. 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.  
2. Self-Defense: Select a weapon type you are not accustomed to — or even a household object! — and complete as many strikes as you can in four minutes.  Eye protection required, and warm up for four minutes first so that you can learn the basic mechanics of the object before going full speed.  Beginners, do air strikes with a wooden/rubber tool.  Intermediates, use a dull, mock weapon and strike a heavy bag, pell or forging post.  In real life you may need a force multiplier, and you can’t be assured it will be something familiar, symmetrical or easily wielded.  Get there.
3. Fitness: Bear Hug Carry followed by a 3-mile run.  Select a sandbag of appropriate weight based on your fitness level.  Advanced folks should be able to carry their body weight, beginners should be able to handle about 1/3, intermediate folks somewhere in the middle.  Walk off 25 yards/meters, rest 2 minutes, walk off another 25 yards, rest 2 minutes, then walk as many 25 yard/meter laps as you can until you can carry it no more.  Rest 2 minutes and then cover 3 miles as fast you can, even if that means you have to break stride and walk some of it. 
4. Bushcraft: Spend a day being a raccoon.  Do not attempt this challenge if you have a health problem such as diabetes, low blood sugar, etc.  For one whole day, consume only what you can scavenge for free.  Tell nobody what you’re doing, do not beg your friends or coworkers, and keep it a secret even from your family members.  Eat only the cold pizza or stale doughnuts that somebody left on the conference room table, the free hot-chocolate or instant soup from the break room or concession stand, the wild edibles you can gather in your neighborhood, the free samples they’re handing out at the big box store, and so on.  You might have to go hungry a little.  Don’t worry, it won’t kill you and you might learn something.   Want more exercises like this is one?  It’s from my book The Wildwood Workbook.  Gitcha some.  
5. Spirit: Cultivate some patience and discipline by sitting still for 20 minutes. Set a timer for 20 minutes and assume your posture of choice — cross-legged, in a chair, leaning against a tree, in lotus position, on a prayer stool, etc.  Calm your breathing to a slow and steady rhythm, and do not fidget, wiggle or scratch.  Keep your eyes open, think about absolutely nothing, and sit absolutely still.  Your mind will wander.  Don’t make war with yourself, just calmly let thoughts wither on the vine so that you can get back to “zero.”  Write down what you learned about your patience level and ability to be calm in your training journal.

As a manager at my day job, I have a rule that I got from Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, which is that 4-out-of-5 interactions should be positive. That way people are excited to hear from you, receptive to what you have to say, and primed to become friends, associates, customers, and team members.

Do the 4-out-of-5-thing with yourself. Make notes in your training journal to reflect your successes and PRs. Note your milestones, goals achieved, and all of that. But you had better be critical as well.

There’s real power in realizing that you really aren’t all that amazing.

In my work as Christian apologist, seminarian, and deacon — and just in everyday life — I’ve noticed that many people who are critical of Christianity are folks who want to create a safety bubble of like-minded people around themselves in which nobody is threatened or criticized. All criticism is directed outward at the “other.” And when they criticize Christianity, I hear them say that Christianity creates a false sense of sin and guilt and then provides a make-believe solution in the form of forgiveness, salvation, and redemption.

I know this because I said those things myself after I lost my faith. Thank God I got it back. But I quickly noticed that there are a lot of complacent Christians create their little safety bubbles too. In their bubbles, everyone is Christian (perhaps even of their own denomination) and everyone outside it is the evil “other.”

To hell with safety bubbles.

If you’re sufficiently self-critical — if you’re doing the work of being the best person you can possibly be — then you are staring into the darkness of yourself and seeing some ugly things. You should feel the need to repent, to be washed clean, absolved, forgiven, saved and redeemed. And from time to time, you should need a life-line to prevent descent into self-loathing. I pray for the peace of non-Christians doing the work, because I’m not sure how that’s done.

But if you’re okay with who you are, and if everyone in your circle is also okay as they are, then sin, repentance, absolution and all of that either looks really stupid (atheists) or already handled (complacent Christians). Not much is getting done on the self-improvement horizon.

Believe or don’t believe in the reality of Christ. I hope you will. But either way, be critical of yourself and see past bubbles.

Critical: Mettle Maker #265

1. Warm-up before training.  To avoid injuries, warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes before you train. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope or footwork (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.  
2. Can you manage your body weight or not? 4 sets of Chin-ups, Front Lunge (martial artists do them DDU-style), Bear Walks (5 yards), and Shoulder Rolls.  If this is your your MBF for today, do 4 reps/set slowly with perfect form.  If more intensity is needed or desired based on your training cycle and approach, increase the reps/set.  Don’t know what some these abbreviations?  Ask in the comments or schedule a call.
3. Can you hit stuff or not?  Set timer for 3 x 3:00/1:00.  Round 1: Lead hand straight Palm Strike once, Reverse Punch; lead hand straight Palm Strike twice, Reverse Punch; lead hand straight Palm Strike three times, Reverse Punch.  Repeat. Whenever you gas, change stance.  Round 2:  Same as first round, except alternate straight and hooking lead hand Palm Strikes.  Round 3: all Palm strikes, alternating lead and reverse hand, in ascending count sets — 1 strike, skip a beat; 2 strikes, beat, 3 strikes, beat; then 4.  
4. “Aggumplish” something you’ve been “slothilizing.”¹  You can’t run a marathon without practice or deadlift twice your bodyweight without ever having picked up something heavy.  But if you’ve been practicing a long time toward a goal that has been just out of reach, it might be time to push through and just get it done.  This week I ripped off the bandaid on two scores — I played my first guitar solo and finally got my rope climbed.  See video below for details.
5. Look at yourself for 10 minutes. This month’s spiritual symbol is the Candle and the associated activity is meditation.  Last week we used sound as a meditative tool.  This week we’re using a visual technique instead of an auditory one.  Set a timer for 10 minutes.  Assume your meditative posture of choice, calm your breathing to a slow and steady rhythm, and do not fidget, wiggle or scratch (meditation is a mental exercise, but it’s also about developing control over your instincts and reflexes).  Keeping your eyes open, imagine a translucent screen in front of you, and on that screen is a movie of your life.  It’s playing backwards starting right now.  Watch that movie unfold.  Do not think in words — only images.  Just like a real movie at the theater, it will skip certain chunks of time, but that’s okay.  Keep going back, back, back.  You might get back to last week, last month, college or pre-school.  That’s okay, everybody’s different.  When the timer beeps, analyze what you saw.  What did you like?  What did you not like?  Write down what you want to change in your training journal.

¹ Remember sniglets, created by Rich Hall?  Hilarious stuff.  What’s a sniglet?  “A word that doesn’t appear in the dictionary but should.”  Aggumplish is a mix of gumption and accomplish.  If you can’t figure out slothilize I can’t help you.

TWO MARTIAL ARTS DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMS AVAILABLE. 100% free and operated through my non-profit, Cabal Fang is martial arts for personal development, self-defense and fitness. Bobcat Frontier Martial Arts is just $19.99/month and that’s your choice if you’re interested in Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble — the fighting arts, survival skills, lifeways and ethos of the colonial and indigenous peoples of North American during the frontier period (1607 – 1912). What are you waiting for — enroll today!