From Mark Hatmakers Blog. A nice write up on how fighting methods initially become effective to suit the needs of survival on the fringes of civilize areas, and later are downgraded to signing up the kiddies for their self esteem building bullshit in the Dojo.
Original link; https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/2022/06/frontier-fighting-borders-no-borders-by.html
Frontier Fighting: Borders & No Borders
Mark Hatmaker
I am often asked what defines Frontier Combat or Old School Rough ‘n’ Tumble Fighting.
A damn good question.
The
answer can prove elusive at first blush as these myriad
arts/practices/skills can be so scattered in distance, influences,
environment and application it bears little resemblance to [in
comparison] closed systems that one finds in traditional arts or
boundaried combat sports.
If
there can be a single characteristic of an actual Frontier in the
geographical sense it is that, by definition, it lies beyond the border.
It is a remove from the acceptable or codified stricture.
Be
this West of the Mississippi in the 17th century or the interior of the
Congo of the 19th-century, what is beyond the reach of law or organized
government was a Frontier, ripe for the intrepid to venture and mingle
with whatever indigenous forces they met [environmental or tribal.]
That
geographical definition holds for Frontier Fighting as well, it lies
beyond the border. It is a remove from the acceptable or codified
stricture.
Old Man Mark’s Idiosyncratic Boundaries
Admittedly,
to focus any effort, it is wise to have targets and a bit of direction
so that our wanders in the Frontier Wilderness are a bit less
meandering.
Also,
admittedly, my interests and Wanderings may not match another’s
definition but…after lengthy immersion, study, experimentation, and
hell, living much of this, I offer my own definition of Frontier
Fighting.
The Physical Borders of Frontier Fighting
First, I do not confine to the American West, or even simply the North American Continent itself.
A geographic frontier moves as settlement and “civilizing” forces follow the intrepid who made the way safe.
Borders and frontiers were always on the move.
The
Wild Frontier in the New World was the East Coast itself until
settlement took root, then it was the Allegheny Valley, then it was
beyond the Ohio river, then…on and on.
Frontiers advance ahead of tameness.
In
1936, George Goodchild offered a definition of “Western” stories that
strikes me as a fine template for defining the Frontier. Here he is
referring to a literary movement and phrases according to the acceptable
dictates of the day, but it stands in just fine for the broadness of
the frontier idea.
“For
the purpose of this volume I have deliberately widened the scope of its
interest…in my view ‘Western’ has ceased to mean Western in the
geographic sense, I can scarcely be accused of inconsistency. Since
every geographical sense must be West of something. I feel I should be
forgiven, so long as the stories do succeed in capturing the sprit of
adventure and enterprise---not to mention romance—in the open air, where
life is largely in the raw, and ‘men are men’ as the Western writers
say.”
It
is with this very expansive definition in mind that “West of somewhere”
can, to my mind, be a tasty tactic or two culled from an Australian
Bush Ranger to aquatic combat tactics from Polynesian Tribes to…well, as
long as it is a Frontier with no smack of “Well stand aside heathen, the civilized ones are here, let us show how it is done.”
Old Man Mark’s Temporal Boundaries
Also, of concern is just when a Frontier ends. When does the “Wild and Wooly” element morph into a simulacrum of what was”?
When does the original and brutal subak of Korea morph into the early hard-slamming Tae Kwon Do, morph again into the not quite the same Tae Kown Do of today.
FYI-This
Is not a knock-on Tae Kwon Do. It an illustration of civilizing
influences. Have a gander at TKD competition from the 90s and compare it
to now.
A mere 30 years have wrought many a softening change. So much more so before even the 90s version of TKD.
TKD
is a mere example here, it seems to my eye most endeavors started with
an eye on grit and grim effectiveness, then go through a civilized
sportive stage that is still rough, and then through a commercial “Get as many asses in the dojo, gym, ring, cage, on the mat, in the Box” as you can period that adds further water to stews that were formerly too spicy for general palates.
To
ensure that I am not “picking on” what is considered an Eastern or
traditional art, one of my beloved sports, boxing, has been subject to
the same civilizing forces.
This is boxing authority O.F. Snelling writing in 1972.
“Many
still look back to the 1920s, 30s and 40s as the heart of boxing’s
history. The sport was not so highly organized, and the fighters risked
greater injury for lower rewards, but there were fewer pointless
matches, less hype and hot air, and there was an honest endeavor and
grittiness that is often missing today.”
I must say, I concur with Mr. Snelling.
I use his cut-off of the 40s for both boxing and wrestling and…a myriad other adjunct endeavors—more on that in a minute.
More Than Early Boxing, More Than Early Wrestling
Of course, Frontier Fighting and Rough ‘n’ Tumble are more than boxing and wrestling. It is all of the vicious mano y mano weapon in hand or no that was conducted in lawless areas.
Lawless regions that persisted far longer than many assume.
Example: When did the Wild West end?
With the last cattle-drive? The advent of the motor car?
Well,
according to many an historian [Paul Wellman among them] and many an
authority of the genre itself [Pulitzer Prize Winning Larry McMurtry]
the end of the Wild West is not till the end of the wild and wooly days
of the Depression Era gangsters that rode roughshod over America’s Great
Plains and Southwest using motorcars instead of horses, and Tommy guns
in place of six-guns.
I
use Mr. Snelling’s 1940s estimation for the sport side of things, and
the historians’ 30’s estimation for the meaner side of things.
More Than Fighting: The Iodine Club
There
are many directly overlapping skills, practices, endeavors that were
once considered part and parcel of fighting or general all ‘round
ruggedness and preparedness.
Separating
these tasks or ignoring them completely strikes me as a disservice to
true Old School study. These additional skills were not considered
auxiliaries or electives to be sampled, skipped or ignored—there were
assumptions of “We all do these things, don’t we?”
It is for this reason of allied arts that other early endeavors are wisely included in study.
For example, The Iodine Club.
In early motion pictures, silent through the early sound era, lo and behold CGI was not to be found.
A premium was placed on ability. Not merely looking impressive, one must be impressive.
Stunt
men and women of the day were recruited from rough and tumble endeavors
to provide the needed screen thrills with no risk to stars.
They
were recruited from rodeos, circuses, returning World War I pilots,
early open wheel drivers, in short, any endeavor where life was risked,
living was large, and the civilizing forces had not smothered the
wild-assed nature of the given pursuit.
Many of these early stunt performers referred to themselves as The Iodine Club for their copious injuries.
Some
stunt players were specialists but many, well, let’s leave it to early
stunt performer Joe Bonomo who worked in Hollywood circa 1920s to
mention what was on the table.
He insisted that many a good performer had the following in their bag of tricks, “[They must be] a wrestler, tumbler, acrobat, strongman, boxer, and judo expert.”
Others added that one must be able to ride, swim, hand balance, and…it goes on and on.
Many
early allied arts, from stevedore to keelboatman, to wrangler, to pearl
diver had their own take on some aspect of combat in addition to their
own rough n tumble professional expertise.
To Corral
Effectively, I see Frontier Fighting and rough ‘n tumble living and The Black Box Project
as All-Frontier inclusive, spanning from the earliest frontiers to an
approximate early 1940s cut-off and including any early sport or
occupation that had not been civilized and attracted a rough and rowdy
rough and tumble element.
It
is within these borders that we find an astonishing wealth of practical
value regarding Frontier Fighting and Rough ‘n’ Tumble living.
It is through this syncretism of seemingly disparate elements that the rich vein of knowledge can truly be experienced.
