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What’s the weekly mettle maker?
Training tips and educational info in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? Mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Kylie (L), Fr. Mitch (C) and the Immortal Mark Hatmaker (R)
PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for Kylie Hatmaker and her husband Mark (see pic on right). The brain tumor Kylie dealt with a few years back is growing again. Kylie is Mark’s primary co-conspirator, best friend, power animal, goddess, gourmet chef, pistol-packing bodyguard, and hoochie-coochie dancer in residence. A finer lady you’ll never meet. God give her strength, we pray thee, Amen.
Mettle maker #448: Rough '‘n’ Tumble lineage
Martial artists in the Western tradition don’t put near as much faith in martial lineage as they do in the East. But that doesn’t mean we ignore it. In fact, if we pay a bit of attention to it, we find that distinctions like East-West begin to fuzz, fray, and fall out of focus.
Erik Paulson is one of the greatest martial artists of all time. He has trained in more martial arts styles than most man can name, and literally wrote a book called “Rough and Tumble.” He is the first American to win the World Shooto Championship in Japan. But isn’t Shooto an “Eastern” martial art? Not really. Shooto is what you get when you teach judoka and karateka catch wrestling, and they mix it all together. You see, the Japanese got hooked on catch wrestling, and in the 1970’s catch wrestler Karl Gotch became a legend in Japan, and taught guys like Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, and Satoru Sayama, the original Tiger Mask.
Erik Paulson’s most famous student is probably Josh Barnett. Barnett is a true Rough ‘n’ Tumbler who got started in martial arts by fighting in unpaid backyard fights and became the youngest Heavy Weight Champion in the history of UFC. This is the guy who, in 2009, won the IBJJF World No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu Championship without having any formal training in BJJ. This is guy who, while fighting under Paulson’s CSW banner (“Combat Submission Wrestling”), tapped out undefeated BJJ giant Dean Lister using basic, high-school folk wrestling moves.
Read that again.
Josh Barnett tapped out undefeated BJJ great Dean Lister using basic wrestling moves like Crunch Cradle, Quarter Nelson, and Scarf Hold.
Of course, he sprinkled on some Rough ‘n’ Tumble “fairy dust” — mind-bending agony — by putting his shins on the tender portions of Lister’s body at all times. Watching this match very closely is essential homework for all Rough ‘n’ Tumblers (video above left).
If you watch it and you can’t see it, here’s my short breakdown on the right.
So, when you tell people that you practice American Rough ‘n’ Tumble, and they say “what’s that?” or “what kind of lame made up thing is that?” just drop some famous names: Erik Paulson, Josh Barnett, and Original Tiger Mask.
Want to learn Rough ‘n’ Tumble fighting as a full-context, mind-body-spirit martial art? Sign up for the Rough ‘n’ Tumble Distance Learning Program today!
Holy Eucharist is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 10 am EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy Eucharist, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the First Sunday of Lent 3/9/25 – Father Mitch
Readings: Deut 26:4-10, Psalm 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15, Rom 10:8-13, Luke 4:1-13
Luke 4:1-13 World English Bible
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”*
5 The devil, leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 The devil said to him, “I will give you all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I want. 7 If you therefore will worship before me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’ ”*
9 He led him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
‘He will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you;’
11 and,
‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”*
12 Jesus answering, said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”*
13 When the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until another time.
St. Augustine said that all temptations fall into the three categories which Jesus faced: pleasure, pride, or curiosity. Pleasure being the desire to turn everything which is bland, like a stone, into something that is enjoyable, like bread. The devil always tempts us by promising to flatten all of the steep hills we must climb, to sweeten all the bitterness of life, to make the complex simple, the unpleasant pleasant, and my personal favorite: the temptation to make the inconvenient convenient. Rest assured that it is Satan who lies behind the most evil conveniences.
When people say, “I just can’t have a baby right now” and they turn to abortion, or when you hear “Putting Grandma in an old folk’s home is the best thing for everyone” think about changing stones into loaves. When you hear a divorced father excuse his behavior by saying, “My kids will be better off without me” or a business man say, “It’s not personal, it’s just business” this is stones-into-loaves thinking.
Pride is next. The devil is always offering pride in the form of power, fame, and fortune. Now, there’s nothing wrong with trying to better oneself, and certainly nothing wrong with healthy competition in sports, business, scholarship, artistry, and so on. Competition breads competence. This is how we encourage everyone to be better, stronger, and more skillful. Without competition there’s no culture. But when our priorities are placed above God’s – when our power, fame and fortune come at the cost of loving God and our neighbor as we ought to – this is Satan’s temptation.
And finally, curiosity. The devil says, “Just do it!” He says, “Just relax, let your hair down. Try that drug, you won’t get hooked.” He says, “Stop second-guessing yourself and take the leap. Bet your paycheck on the lotto. You gotta risk it to get the biscuit!” He tempts us take flight without regard for the fall – to taste the fruit and take the chance without regard for the implications and consequences.
St. Augustine concludes his statement on the temptation of Jesus by saying that, as Luke the evangelist says, “When the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until another time.” The devil slinks away like a serpent, only to return like a roaring lion, entering Judas and making him betray his master. He enters the Jews and fills them with rage. No longer tempting, now he makes them cry out, “Crucify him, crucify him!”
This is how we begin our Lenten season. With awareness that, in our lives we must face the temptations and beware of the frustrations, lest they rush in and take us over like serpents and roaring lions.
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* 4:4 Deuteronomy 8:3
* 4:8 Deuteronomy 6:13
* 4:11 Psalms 91:11-12
* 4:12 Deuteronomy 6:16