Tag Archives: mettle-maker

Handprints: Mettle Maker #246

Posted on February 6, 2021 | Leave a comment

This month’s martial focus is Evasion, and the spiritual focus is the Hand of Mysteries (see right).  These will the thematic elements around which the weekly Mettle Makers will revolve this month.

Heads up!  This week’s mettle maker contains a coupon code for a flash sale at Mitch’s General Store so read on.

Handprints: Mettle Maker #246

  • 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, light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.
  • Do the February constitutional. Calisthenics are the most efficient fitness investment when you factor in equipment cost, space, time investment, injury risk, and functional strength.  Do this month’s constitutional: 25 BRPs, 100 WTCs. 50 ZSQs, 25 CNPs, 100 JJKs, 25 GUPs, and 25 PUPs.
  • Put your hands on your floor bag and on the ground and make tracks.  Get out your floor bag or grappling dummy and set timer for 10 minutes.  Complete 6 Wrestling Shots away from your floor bag,  Bear Walk back, and then pick up the bag and squeeze it as hard as you can using a Gable grip.  When you gas out on the squeeze, put down the bag and repeat.  Cycle through this as many times as you can in 10 minutes.  If you aren’t breathing hard when you get done, you are either a very fit person or you paced yourself.  Created using Scufflin’ Dice ©   — available at Mitch’s General Store.  Use coupon code FEBFLASH at checkout to get any set of dice for 50% off.
  • Look for some handprints in the snow — some critter handprints that is.  As I mentioned last week, the snow makes animal tracks incredibly easy to spot and follow, and it’s so much fun. Last week we tracked a raccoon.  This week watch this video and go look at a rabbit and a squirrel to see if we can determine which way they’re jumping.
  • Speak to the hand.  The Hand of Mysteries that is.  Watch this cool video about this remarkable symbol.

 


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!

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Alas, Flesh: Mettle Maker #245

Posted on January 30, 2021 | Leave a comment

Heads up!  This week’s mettle maker contains a coupon code for a flash sale at Mitch’s General Store so read on.

Alas, Flesh: Mettle Maker #245

  • 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.
  • Do some calisthenics. Calisthenics are still the biggest bang for your fitness buck in terms of equipment cost (zero), space (very little required), and functional strength.  Do this month’s constitutional. or dodge over to Mitch’s General Store and use coupon code FLASH121 to get 50% off any fitness dice order (offer good until midnight 2/5/21).
  • Striking and self-defense movement drill.  Set timer for 3 x 3:00/1:00 and get in front of your heavy bag.  First round, strike with your focus on movement.  Make sure that you are popping, weaving, dropping and twisting.  For the break, practice your stalking steps.  Walk the area like a crane stalking minnows.  Second round, concentrate on striking with accuracy.  For the break, practice your stalking low crawl around the training area.  Move slowly and silently, keeping your navel within 2 inches of the floor at all times.  Third round, strike with maximum power.  For the break, practice your stalking high crawl on hands and knees.  If you are stalking properly you should be exhausted.  Not exhausted?  Crawl slower and more quietly next time.
  • Go out your back door and see where your dinner is headed.  Find some animal tracks near your home (trust me they’re there!) and follow them as far as you can as if your life depended on it.  In a survival situation there are no vegetarians because critters are more nutrient dense than weeds (not that weeds aren’t yummy and great for fiber). Go get ’em, tiger.  See video below.
  • Alas, you are only flesh.  To quote theologian Paul Tillich, “Finitude in realization is anxiety.”  Sooner or later the realization of mortality will shatter your soul’s pretentious façade and you will have to deal with the existential threat of death.  Where is the solution to this ultimate reality?  Our first clue can be found in the great Evelyn Underhill’s definition of mysticism: “One of the most abused words in the English language, it has been used in different and often mutually exclusive senses by religion, poetry, and philosophy: has been claimed as an excuse for every kind of occultism, for dilute transcendentalism, vapid symbolism, religious or aesthetic sentimentality, and bad metaphysics…Mysticism is the art of union with Reality.”  Write at least 50 words in your journal on this topic.  If you aren’t squared off and all set, schedule a meeting with me and let me help you get there.


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!

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Telos: Mettle Maker #244

Posted on January 23, 2021 | Leave a comment

Heads up!  This week’s mettle maker contains a coupon code for free shipping at Mitch’s General Store so read on.

 

Telos (/ˈtɛ.lɒs/; Greek: τέλος, translit. télos, lit. “end, purpose, or goal”)[1] is a term used by philosopher Aristotle to refer to the full potential or inherent purpose or objective of a person or thing,[2] similar to the notion of an ‘end goal’ or ‘raison d’être‘. Moreover, it can be understood as the “supreme end of man’s endeavour.”[3]

Telos: Mettle Maker #244

  • 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.
  • Do some purposeful fitness. What are you getting fit to do?  How about real stuff in the real world.  Set a timer for desired training length based on your fitness level and needs — I did 10 minutes for maintenance — and adjust weight of sledge and sandbags as well.  Start timer.  Do 10 Sledge Blows, 50 yard shoulder carry (I did #40 each shoulder), 25 weapon strikes per hand (I did live tomahawk strikes vs. a wooden pell), and 10 Step-ups (I used a 25″ box).  Repeat until timer beeps.   Created using Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble dice available at Mitch’s General Store. Use coupon code “SCUFF21” at checkout and get free shipping (offer good until 1/31/21).
  • Yank drill.  Don’t be one of those martial artists who fixates on fancy moves and neglects the blunt power of basic movements. Put a rope on your floor bag or heavy bag and practice yanking.  Do not pull or reel.  Yank with maximum violence.  Imagine that you are pulling an attacker away from a loved one by taking hold of a wrist, arm, coat sleeve, shirt, etc.  and yank with your entire body rather than just your arms.   I try to put in a couple of rounds of yanking every week or two so that, if need be, I can yank as hard as a bayou ‘gator.   If you’re doing it right, this is exhausting.  Get there.
  • Make fire using natural materials only.  You can use a commercial lighter, but don’t use newspaper, sock lint, or anything manmade for tinder.  I prefer cedar bark fluff and the bark of paper birch.  If you need a little more detail see Chapter 7 of The Wildwood Workbook or, if you’re all at sea, sign up for the Bobcat Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble Program.  And please be sure to build your fire safely — clear a large patch of dirt or build it in a fire pit, chimenea, fireplace, stove, camp fire ring, etc. away from combustibles and obey local ordinances.
  • Review your 2020.  Sit down with your journal or diary and take a hard look at last year.  Did you achieve the things you set out to do?  What were your successes and failures?  Evaluate your metrics.  Did you use the right measurements and tracking methods last year?  How could you improve your metrics this year?  I’ve made slight adjustments, but mainly my metrics are staying the same for 2021.  You can view them here.  If you don’t keep a journal or diary and you don’t have any metrics, then how do you establish your personal teleology?


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!

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Vault of Reason: Mettle Maker #243

Posted on January 16, 2021 | Leave a comment

Heads up!  This week’s mettle maker contains a coupon code for free shipping at Mitch’s General Store so read on.

What’s in these weekly mettle makers?

A martial segment, a fitness segment, a primitive skills segment, and a spiritual segment.  Want to get strong inside and out?  This is the way I’d advise doing it.

Vault of Reason: Mettle Maker #243

  • 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.
  • Do some scufflin’ fitness.  Set a timer for repeating 1 min. intervals.  Cycle through 1 min each of Sprawl ‘n’ Punch, Bear Walks and Heavy Bag Squeezes (use your floor bag and squeeze as hard as you can!).  As a maintenance drill, run about 3 cycles (9 mins total) at moderate intensity.  For something more strenuous, up the intensity and run more cycles.  Created using Scufflin’ Dice ©.  Set includes 4 dice and a handout with link to training video.  Enter coupon code “SCUFF21” at checkout for free USPS priority mail shipping on any order — good until 1/31/21.
  • Hike, vault, and roll.   Put on a pack and hike to a place where you can practice your vaults and rolls.  Take off your pack and put in a few minutes of movement practice.  I used a couple of park benches — see video below.  When you’re done, put your pack back on and hike home.  Adjust weight and distance, and number and type of movements, based on your fitness level, training cycle, and so forth.  If you don’t have training cyclically, you should read my book Martial Grit: Real Fighting Fitness (On a Budget).
  • What plant is this?  Here’s a hint: it’s the same plant the famous wand is made of — the one Voldemort wanted to get his hands on so badly.  Answer below the photos.

This is Sambucus canadensis or common elderberry.  Berries ripen from late July to August and should be cooked before eating, which explains why you always see elderberry jam, preserves, wine, etc.

  • Acknowledge your higher power.  If you don’t believe in God you might want to reconsider.  Recognition of a higher power was central to the survival of our hominid ancestors when they were on the verge of extinction 70,000 years ago and is easily supported on scientific and logical grounds.  Of the roughly 20 sound logical arguments for existence of God, the best, in my opinion, is…
    The Cosmological Argument1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
    2. The universe began to exist.
    3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
    4. The universe began to exist at the point of the Big Bang.
    5. Before the Big Bang there was no time, no matter, and no causality.
    5. Therefore the cause of the universe is timeless, immaterial, and uncaused.
    6. A timeless and immaterial first cause is commonly known as God.The first classic rebuttal is “Not all things that begin to exist have a cause.” But persons, animals and things are not popping in and out of existence all around us. If you insist on completely rejecting our current understanding of how things work, I can’t help you.  The only other avenue of escape from this argument is to dispute the standard model of the universe. But the standard model — in which the universe had a beginning and will have a cold dark end — has remained the scientific consensus despite all challenges thus far, including the Steady State Model, the Oscillating Model, the Baby Universe Model, the Multiverse Model, and so on.

    Based on the evidence and the current state of the scientific debate, we can say with relative certainty that the universe is of finite size, it had a beginning, it will have an end, and that only the Uncaused Cause – a.k.a God — is infinite.  So start saying your prayers. It might feel a little awkward at first, but like anything else, you’ll get better with practice.


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!

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The Ropes: Mettle Maker #242

Posted on January 9, 2021 | Leave a comment

The Cabal Fang monthly focuses are Self-defense vs. empty hands and the Rose.

the Ropes: Mettle Maker #242

  • 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.
  • Do the monthly constitutional.   Complete a 15-minute half pyramid of Sprawls, Mountain Climbers, Push-Ups, Slow Side Kicks, Drop Duck-unders, Steam Engines, Jump Squats (for split leg exercises and kicks L + R = 1).   A half-pyramid is 1 of each, 2 of each, 3, 4, 5 etc. until the timer beeps.

  • Why the lantern? Because it was 27 F and dark at 6 AM when I did this little beauty the other day.

    16 minutes of Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble mix ‘n’ match fitness.   Set timer for 1 minute intervals and cycle through the following four times: Rope Climbs, Bowie knife air strikes, Sledge Blows, and Wrestling Shots.  Created using two dice from the MBF set and two dice from the FRT set, both available from Mitch’s General Store.

  • Can you tie a taught-line hitch?  It’s one of the most practical knots known to man, useful for setting up a clothes lines, staking out tents, and so on.  Knot slides easily but holds well under moderate loads.  Steps below.
  • Say a prayer.  If you already have an active prayer life, don’t let me interfere.  But if you don’t, let me show you the ropes.  Why?  Because recognizing a higher power was central to the survival of our hominid ancestors when they were on the verge of extinction 70,000 years ago.  Recognizing a higher power is step two in the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program — the most successful mutual-aid, self-help program in history.  And there are hundreds of reliable studies showing that prayer improves cognitive function and happiness quotient, reduces alcohol intake, fights depression, aids in psychological resiliency, and much more.  Get started.  If you’ve never prayed before, or you’re rusty,  start small.  Say grace before meals, say your prayers before bed, or start your day with a simple prayer like, “Heavenly Father, I pray thee stand with me today, guiding my thoughts, desires, actions and beliefs so that I may walk in your ways in all I do and say this day.”  If you don’t feel better I’ll eat my hat.


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!

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Cut the Chatter: Mettle Maker #241

Posted on January 2, 2021 | Leave a comment

Blah blah blah.  The older I get the more I become the old man who sees 99% of what goes in the world as racket.¹

Cut the Chatter: Mettle Maker #241

  • 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.
  • Face the 25-minute “Stayin’ Alive” drill.  Set timer for 5 X 5:00.  Round 1, run away from your training area.  Round 2, run back.  Round 3, shadowbox.  Round 4, pick up your floor bag (a heavy bag with chains removed) and do not put it down until the timer beeps.  Practice your stand-up grappling — squeezes, Scarf Holds, chokes, etc.  Round 5, wrestle the bag.  Put it on the mat and practice your Bridges, Reverses, tackles, Bottom Scissors, etc.  Click here or the above pic for a video.
  • Pick a finisher.  Cap off your training session with a quick “finisher” — a short but intense contribution to functional martial fitness.  Take your pick: (A) 100 yard heavy carry (choose a sandbag based on your fitness level — I used #105), (B) 5 minute IMT run (C) As many kicks as you can in 5 minutes.  That ought to “cut your chatter.”
  • Do you know what bird this is?  It’s one of the chattiest birds in North America, and it’s name comes from the Greek kitta — “chattering bird.”  If you don’t know its call, then you don’t know one of your closest, most talkative neighbors. Give up?  Click here for the answer.
  •  Cut the chatter and see how different the world looks.  We are constantly awash in racket — music and media of all kinds, T.V., YouTube, podcasts, books on tape and on and on — much of it verbal.  Words can be very useful.  But pointless words are just noise.  Shut off the media, go outside (or at the very least go to a quiet space), and silence your chattering monkey-mind with 10 minutes of contemplation.  Set timer for 10 minutes and assume your posture of choice.  Regulate your breathing to a slow, steady rhythm, making sure that you fully fill and empty your lungs with each breath.  Keep your eyes open and do not fidget, wiggle, or scratch.  Full instructions and more info in the video below.

¹The new movie Wonder Woman 1984 was good though.  Maybe I should make a video about that, considering that I gave it 8 stars and IMDB says it’s only 5.5.


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!

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