Written from memory on 6/17/20220

The concept behind Modern Agonistics is developmental combat function through experimental training and competition. In this segment, discussion of training, this year and next year, at Man Weekend [1] is the theme.

Very few of the men attending wish to compete at a high level in a combat sport. Most simply want to be able to defend themselves if attacked and to be able to get together with like-minded knuckleheads and go at it in the ring or on the mat, to be able to reach deep within and see what is there, hopefully to find and pluck forth a savage shard of rough wash-rock.

Our developmental training was in two stages:

In the morning while the gun range was active, I worked with Paul Bingham on his boxing, using movement drills in the ring with him slapping my shoulders and learning time, measure and motion. This guy’s hands are so thick and strong that I had to change shoulders and then change the drill from the heavy-handed slaps to push-touch. If he can lighten those hands and make them whips, then a year down the road they will be many times heavier in fight.

I determined there that if he fought Sean bare knuckle it would be a one-sided beating and advised against it. I will continue Paul’s combat story in the next piece.

Next Paul and Andrew Edwards took turns doing light stick coach-sparring with me in the ring while Cory watched. I then detailed Cory to go over fundamentals with Andrew. Latter on I showed Andrew the forearm conditioning exercises used for developing power, as Cory had covered the range of motion.

The next developmental phase of the day was Sean boxing with each man who needed work or was a novice. Afterwards, Andrew spoke to me about the concept behind boxing that he had earlier held, based on the technical points I had given on making the man miss and then hitting him well with a counter based on how closely you made him miss, to Sean’s post contact assertion, that boxing is all about domination. I will paraphrase below my ringside confirmation as men moved in the ring behind me:

“To a boxer, the man who is trying to score the hard telling blow, to get the ‘one shot, one kill’ epon of Karate, or the unanswered flurry of Gung Fu, or the submission of grappling or kill stroke of dueling, is not called a boxer, but a puncher, a man with the puncher’s chance of ending a fight at any moment. The men that boxers call boxers, are the men who have developed the ability to use movement, rhythm, time-and-measure and various skills, to coolly control their interaction with a dangerous man that cannot simply be knocked out. In this way boxing is closest to stick fighting, where a battle of psychological and physical attrition is conducted over a fixed period of time, a battle in which two men try and use their fists and associated skills to dominate the combat space.

“This has great utility when generalized too self-defense and survival situations. For the common ‘serious’ military style martial arts usually focus on rendering the attacker unconscious, which means possibly dead. Since the law in such situations assigns the attacker role to he who injures the other party, regardless of who actually launched the attack, then the puncher’s chance or karate ‘kill’ strike presents a great legal liability and puts the autonomy we ultimately fight for in jeopardy. We will see with the knives and sticks how that domination of the combat space that is key to boxing is expressed on more lethal terms.”

Andrew was mostly interested in the weapons as an observer and learning attendee. We got him out there with the knives to get the feel of the linkage between pugilism and survival with a weapon that has an identical range to the fist. The stick round, which almost everyone avoided fighting in, but many were interested in trying at a slow pace, put an idea in my mind. Typically, when sparring with The Brick Mouse or Portland Joe, lean athletic guys like Andrew, who train for self-defense, I will finish the final round of sparring by casting aside my stick or sticks and trying to clinch with them while they check and beat. The mask affords a way for me to talk to him while he is hitting me in the head and checking my shoulder. We did this drill which was videoed and hopefully goes up. In such a drill I am trying to touch his hips [take down or clinch] check his shoulder [shirt grab] and touch his face with my extended fingers [eye rake, razor slash] or palm [punch].

Sean wants to do an entire training camp the day before fighting, next year. Here are the sessions we hope to cover, [noting likely coaches in brackets], suggesting a time length for each, in an order that is progressive, both behaviorally and mechanically. Having a non-combatant match maker, maybe an older man who used to fight, observing training and sparring and suggesting good matches for the next day might be a bonus in linking te training progression with the fight registration at the end.

-0. 7:30-8 AM: Warm Up

-1. 8-9 AM: Boxing fundamentals: movement, bag, shadow, partner [James, Sean & Backfist]

-2. 9-10 AM: Boxing sparring [James, Sean & Backfist]

-3. 10-11 AM: Weapon Fundamentals [James, Brett, Cory, Sean]

-4. 11-12 AM: Blade Sparring [James, Brett, Cory, Sean]

Lunch

-5. 1-2 PM: Stick Sparring [Brett, James, Cory, Sean]

-6. 2-2:30 PM: Surviving stick & blade attacks [Sean, James]

-7. 2:30-3 PM: Canes, bats, shields, jackets, umbrellas, machetes [James, Sean]

-8. 3-3:30 PM: Kicking [Sean]

-9. 3:30-4:30 PM: Grappling basics [Sean, Backfist & other grapplers assisting]

-10. 4:30 Event Entry, signing up for participation in the following the next day, match maker recording coaches advising.

Fight Day Events

-1. Boxing is mandatory, the first event, 1 minute scored by ref and the 2 fighters [kickboxing and LPR rules included [2]]

-2. Blade dueling [blunt &/or steel] best of 3 clean strokes

-3. Stick Fighting [least experienced fighter picks stick types] 1 minute

-4. Gladiatorial exotic weapon bouts, to a kill

-5. Grappling, 1 minute

-6. Brawling, team fights with boxing gloves or wrestling-hand by state/region, timed 1 minute, scored by non combatants

Any attendees who would like to coach in first day segments, like if we could get Dexter to do an on point blade sub-clinic, or Juan Stabone a Judo grappling sub-clinic as part of the training day, please contact Sean.

Any ideas are appreciated in this ongoing venture to be better Paleogenic Beastmen.

Paleogenic Notes

-1. Man Weekend is the invention of Sean Glass and preceded his taking over of Modern Agonistics after he fought me at my first Man Weekend experience in 2016.

-2. LPR rules should be done with MMA gloves, saving bare knuckle, if any, for last, and doing that under gypsy rules. I would look to do a real LPR bare knuckle event in 2024.