Sorry I’m late posting the weekly Mettle Maker.
I was camping this weekend at Holliday Lake State Park. This little mini-adventure made me late with the mettle maker, but it also helped me come up with the theme. You should know that each and every mettle maker is made up of actual drills and exercises I’ve personally done in the preceding week. I never ask you to do anything I haven’t done myself.
Third Annual November Mettlecraft Challenge is in full swing.
November is Mettlecraft Month at Cabal Fang. Click here to participate if you dare! Here’s what we did in 2018 and 2019.
Engage!
If you’re new in these parts, you should know that people who engage with the content by doing some of the work and/or posting in the comments have been known to get discount coupons for books and merch from Mitch’s General Store.
Dragon Weir: Mettle Maker #233
A weir is a low dam built across a stream or river in to raise the water level and create a body of water. It manages the flow.
- Warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, or light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.
- 12 minutes of “Very Bad Karma” plus 8 minutes of kicks. Even if you’re not going to participate in Mettlecraft Month 2020 you gotta do this thing at least once. Click here for details.
- Work your flow. If you’re participating in Mettlecraft Month 2020 it’s important to make sure your training volume and intensity don’t rage out of control. Exclusive of your mettlecraft training, work in the 50 – 70% range. I’m doing lots of flow drills, slip ball, shadowboxing, MBF, and so forth.
- Hold your position for 3 minutes. Another way to moderate your training this month — which is all about pushing the reps and the intensity — is to work on exercises that don’t involve any reps at all: pose-based fitness. Crow sits, Planks, Handstands, Wall Sits, etc. Set a timer for 3 minutes. Pick two or more poses and start your timer. Hold the first pose until failure, then move to the next, cycling through (or back and forth) until the timer beeps.
What tree is this? In a survival situation it’s a good idea to know your trees so that you can be sure to use woods suitable to your purpose. This is Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). In my opinion it’s perfect for nothing but passable for most anything. Some folks make bark baskets from them but I never tried.- Face the dragon. Mettlecraft Month is about building your indomitability so that, like a mythic knight, you can be courageous and indomitable in facing the dragon. The thing is, before you can face the dragons of the world you need to face the dragons within. How many times in the last week have you made excuses for not doing better — not just in fitness, but at work and at home, in your relationships? The scariest dragons are in you — lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride, and so on — and they are breeding in the caves of your subconscious. Fail to run them to ground every day at your peril.
- If it ain’t in the training journal it didn’t happen. Do the work, the external and internal, and write about what you did and thought in your journal.
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!
Robert Mitchell Jr. 