Combat Drills of the Week
This Week's Theme: Minimal Gear
Our forebears accomplished some mighty amazing things either with zero gear to ad hoc gear that would be considered laughable today. Snowshoe Thompson made 300 mile treks 3 times per month on 10' long skis that weighed 25 pounds apiece for 20 years-he did this with an 80-100# pack of mail on his back.
Practically every early explorer of note made their amazing treks in homemade gear, and/or gear improvised along the way.
Our original boxers, wrestlers, pankration athletes, hell, all Olympic athletes trained in the nude, which we gotta admit as is as minimal gear as you can get.
Hardihood and subpar equipment was the watchword throughout most of history. It is only in recent decades that we have become addicted to "state-of-the art" "scientifically designed" "engineered for your best performance" doo-dads, gadgets, shoes, water you can wear on your back stuff.
And the vast majority of us use this uber-gear for the most mundane of things.
I have said it before and I shall say it again and again, if what's holding us back is the perfect super-shoe, or hair follicle monitor that will feed to my smartphone than we are either stupendously under-gritted or ridiculously over-prepared, or perhaps both.
In light of this I offer the following drill options.
BTW-Also give this a go this week. During training time the following are not allowed on the premises: Phones, water bottles, use of air-conditioning or heat, or use of any music playing device. The only concession is modern plumbing.
Boxing
Repeat last week's Boxing Option.
Spend 5 3-minute rounds on the heavy-bag with no gear whatsoever. No gloves, no hand-wraps, zilch. Observe what adjustments you make in light of this.
I ask for 5-rounds because some may bang with abandon in one or two rounds, but let's see what happens if you start skinning knuckles, will that wild abandon stick around?
Wrestling: All this week lose your gear while wrestling (drills and scrimmage.) No cup, no knee sleeves, no rash-guards, no whatever prop you regularly wear that makes you feel "ready" to roll.
And...get off the mat. Doesn't have to be concrete (doesn't not have to be either) but it can't be a soft surface designed to make the sport easier. Grass is fine, sand is fine, dirt is fine, but no "I bought this so no one would get hurt while we do our hurty thing" surface.
Real-World Survival: All un-armed reality drills this week are to be conducted with zero safety gear and on hard surfaces. Do not use this as an excuse to bang full-contact but as a reminder of "Hmm" perhaps what I thought was wise is less than wise if I don't have-----."
Real-World Flight: Barefoot or True Spartan Sprints
Barefoot Sprints, Hell, nude-Spartan Sprints if you've got an environment that will allow you to be a true Spartan and not the commercial puritanical comic-book smear-of-history version.
50 yard sprints.
x's 10
Your rest is the walk back.
Cognitive Work: Spend at least 1 hour in nature, a secluded spot if you can. No phone, no book, no nothing to fiddle with. Have a seat, resist the urge to be active, no climbing trees (of course, you can do this when the exercise is over), no whittling, no fiddling with sticks. Just sit there and look, smell, listen, feel the wind and sunshine on your skin, hell, taste the air.
1 hour just you and the book of nature.
Extra-Credit: For this week, lose your sunglasses, your car AC, music in the car. Try this with any other expendable you can think of that we think we "need" but just may possibly be just extra things we keep around.
VALE!!!!! ["Be strong! Be worthy!"]
