What’s the “weekly mettle maker?”
The weekly mettle maker is a weekly blog post that contains training ideas, information, and fun facts related to Heritage Arts’ programs — Heritage Self-Defense, Heritage Wildwood nature appreciation and survival training, Heritage Fitness, and Heritage Spirit (YouTube church). It’s been around for over 5 years — although we didn’t start numbering them until May of 2018!
Mettle Maker #316
Self-defense: I know firsthand how hard it can be for folks who want to avoid violence to get into training with weapons. But the reality is, people use weapons. And the best way to defend yourself against a weapon is to arm yourself. In addition to that, if your club doesn’t practice using weapons, you’ll always be training to defend yourself against the unskilled. Get over your difficulties, trepidations, and reservations, and learn to fight with weapons. Here at Heritage Self-Defense, we practice knife and cane. We feel these two cover the most common weapon categories: short/sharp (knives, box cutters, screwdrivers, small household objects) and medium/blunt (wrecking bar, baseball bat, lamp, etc.) Bracing, racking, and bayonet-type strikes are oft-neglected techniques that can be tricky to delver with a medium/blunt weapon. Watch the video above and then put in a few rounds of bracing, racking, and bayonet strikes on your heavy bag. Want more training tips and drills in a structured format? Get with the program! Check our our free distance learning program here.
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Fitness: It took me two years of consistent work to get my first Handstand Push-up. Here’s how I did it.. Want help designing a fitness program that suits your needs? Sign up for our free distance learning program.
HANDSTAND PUSH-UP PROGRAM
Stage 1: 5 or 6 days/week, do 3 sets of 10 Push-ups. Form is key. Go nice and slow (2-count down, hold a full count, 2-count up, hold a full count, repeat). Cover the full range of motion, and stop 1 rep short of failure on each set. Write down your numbers. When you can get 10,10,10, elevate your feet by a few inches using stacked blocks, a weight bench, etc.
Stage 2: When you get to a point where your body is at a 45° angle or so, which is hard on your back, change to Jackknife Push-ups — feet on a box/bench, bent at the waist at 90° — and go to 3 sets of 8 reps. Essentially you will be doing a Handstand Push-up with the weight of your legs off-loaded to the box. If you cannot get 1, put a Yoga block under your head and do partials. When you can get 8.8.8 — covering the full range of motion and stopping 1 rep short of failure on each set — reduce the height of the blocks. When you can get 8,8,8 without any blocks, go to Graduated Handstand Push-ups.
Stage 3: Stack up two Yoga blocks and do partial Handstand Push-ups. Switch now to 3 sets of 5 reps instead of 3 sets of 10. When you can get 5,5,5 — stop 1 rep short of failure on each set. — reduce the height of the blocks until, at last, you get your first Handstand Push-up.
Wildwood. Can you identify the most common fish in North America? The best way to get to know the most common fish, their habitats, and how to catch them for food, fun, or survival is go fishing!
But, if you can’t quite get there just yet, check out the illustration on the right. It’s from The After School Library in 12 Volumes: Volume V The Animal World by Theodore Wood and edited by Hamilton Wright Mabie. I love this book — really fun to just sit and browse. Old books about naturalism have an entirely different sensibility.
Want to learn more about survival? Sign up for our free Wildwood distance learning program.
19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 7, 2022
Readings: Wis 18:6-9, Ps 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22, Heb 11:1-2, 8-19, Lk 12:32-48
Luke 12:32-48 World English Bible Catholic Edition
32 “Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. 33 Sell what you have and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn’t fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
35 “Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning. 36 Be like men watching for their lord when he returns from the wedding feast, that when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most certainly I tell you that he will dress himself, make them recline, and will come and serve them. 38 They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch and finds them so. 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 40 Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don’t expect him.”
41 Peter said to him, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everybody?”
42 The Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the right times? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his lord will find doing so when he comes. 44 Truly I tell you that he will set him over all that he has. 45 But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My lord delays his coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and to be drunken, 46 then the lord of that servant will come in a day when he isn’t expecting him and in an hour that he doesn’t know, and will cut him in two, and place his portion with the unfaithful. 47 That servant who knew his lord’s will, and didn’t prepare nor do what he wanted, will be beaten with many stripes, 48 but he who didn’t know, and did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes. To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked.”
Brothers and sisters, perhaps you are like me and, from time to time, with no rhyme or reason, the reality of a particular biblical reading crashes down like a thunderbolt. Now, the Gospel is always real – I don’t mean to imply otherwise – it’s just that there are times when it seems Jesus is speaking directly to me as if physically in the room. That is what happened with this passage the other day.
A little background is in order. As I’ve shared with you before, I lost my faith as a young man and spent many years practicing various religions before I found my way back to Christ and heard the call to pursue the priesthood. In those days, the one constant in my life was martial arts. Although I practiced many faiths for all those years, martial arts were, for all practical purposes, my religion. And the symbol I selected to represent my martial arts club all those years ago was a winged hourglass. I still run that club. It’s called Heritage Self-Defense, and it’s logo is still a winged hourglass.
When I originally picked it back in 2008, it was because I thought it was cool. I thought it meant, “live life to the fullest because time flies.” And that’s true as far as it goes. But it wasn’t until later, when I found my way back to Christ, that I saw a deeper meaning. The hourglass, with it’s two identical halves, represents the incarnation of Jesus Christ, Man and God coming together as One, breaking into human time. I thought I had made up a cool symbol for my club. But in reality, I had been fully in God’s grasp even then. I didn’t pick the symbol. The symbol picked me. God knew exactly where I was headed and he put a logo in my head that I wouldn’t appreciate fully until I appreciated the mission of his beloved Son.
And then the other day, preparing to write today’s homily, this passage broke in upon me. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” It is! It felt like Jesus was right there in the room. It is! Not “it will be” or “it was” but “it is.” Before, I had always read this as something that would happen in the future. I thought Jesus was saying that, in the fullness of time, we might perhaps inherit his kingdom. But I saw that we’ve already been given the kingdom. Jesus, our Lord, has ascended into heaven and left the household for a while, just like the human lord in the parable. And we, his faithful servants, are charged with taking care of his kingdom just as he would, until he comes back.
And now that winged hourglass means something more. Yes, indeed, time flies. And at any moment our Lord will come home. And we would be wise to remember that, “To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked.”