Indigenous Ability

We’ll be talking three little targeted aspects of street/reality work that we will loosely label “Scatter-Gun” tactics.  First, that name. In my ongoing historical research, I have come across a few instances of phrases along the lines of “ Scatter ‘em!” or “ Don’t forget your scatter-gun” also “ shotgun ” has been used here and there in the same context, as in “ He got shotgunned all to hell .” What was initially puzzling to me is that often these references were in incidents where no weapon was pulled.  Finally, the key came together when realizing that we are hearing archaic slang for targets along the periphery, that is, forgoing, or at least, adding to the usual targets of head, limb, and body. We hear echoes of this euphemism in old prison slang. The most current usage I can find of it is in “Paul Wade’s” Convict Conditioning 2 where he refers to training the neck, grip, and calves as “shotgun muscle.” He explains it thusly: “ These groups w...

“ What do I do if I guy had me in this hold?” “What do I do if the guy knows jujitsu?” “What do if a guy is a good wrestler?” Combat Arts Instructors get these kinds of questions all the time. The question usually has a simple formulation with the interrogator not quite aware yet [due to inexperience] that they have posited quite a vast open-ended query. The inexperienced questioner is never at fault for questions along these lines. Here’s where the quibble begins [in Mark’s mind.] Any answer along the lines of: “ Well, all you have to do is just…” The implication that there is a simplistic answer to a large physical endeavor shows a good deal of short-sightedness or a staggering amount of hubris. We never succumb to such simplistic answers to encompassing questions in other physical domains. For example, if our naïve interlocuter asks “ What if I’m playing football and he has the ball?” See?  You immediately would want ...