Some things hit you like a brick through a plate glass window.

And something like that hit me this morning! 

It came while listening to James Lafond and Jeth Randolph’s fascinating podcast on the Indo-European Berserkers in the old Ancient Days of Old. 

It immediately tied many disparate threads in my mind together that I have been working on for a long time…

So I called up my good friend James Lafond for a little “strategy session” to bounce ideas around. 

“So you’re back on your Physical Culture Quest?” James asked. 

I laughed and said: 

“No, I’ve never been off of it…I’m just now talking about it publicly!” 

GATHERING AND MANUFACTURING 

I go through periods of my life of both gathering and manufacturing. 

In the gathering period, I seek to compile vast amounts of information and teachings from different systems. I store it in my brain and wait. 

In the manufacturing period, I take a look at everything I’ve got, and see the connections between them that are there beyond the surface. 

I then take these connections I’ve found and  assemble them together into a usable whole…creating a thing of use for myself and others.

I do this on all manner of topics…and until I reach the manufacturing stage, I generally find it best not talk about what I’m doing. 

Most people are just not interested and get downright annoyed…they just can’t see the common factors linking these many disparate topics together.

Nowhere has this been more true in my “Physical Culture Quest” as James Lafond puts it, specifically in regards to Fighting Practices. 

THE BIG 3  

When it comes down to it, all Fighting Practices have 3 Components. 

Whether you call them Combat Sports, Martial Arts, or Reality-Based Self-Defense, they all share these same elements. 

The 3 Components are: 

• The Fighting Moves Themselves 
• A System of General Physical Preparation Practices 
• A Philosophy and Mythology to explain the world and how to live in it 

Some Fighting Practices place more emphasis on one or two elements over the others. 

For example, I believe that many people who have been drawn toward the Traditional Asian Martial Arts are more interested in the Philosophy and Mythology behind it rather than anything else.

The Fighting Moves are pretty much useless in those kinds of systems, but that is not the main draw. 

I think that the entire draw to somebody like Bruce Lee is not necessarily his fighting system, which was what most people would call pretty standard MMA today. 

It’s in the Philosophy and Mythology he preaches within the context of training his Fighting Movements themselves. 

“Be water, my friends…” and all that. 

THE DUNGEON DOJO  

Other Fighting Systems, they tend to place an emphasis on the General Physical Preparation Practices.

I’ve seen this with Krav Maga…everybody goes looking to learn some super-secret Fighting Moves to incapacitate an attacker in 2.3 seconds. 

In my experience, however, the majority of it was just doing Burpees.

That’s right, Burpees. 

The guy running the Krav Maga gym I was going to was nuts about Burpees. It was almost as if he thought they could cure Cancer. He actually set a Guinness Book of World Record for Burpees that stood for a time…no joke. 

We never really learned very much, just did Burpees. 

This is pretty standard fare with a lot of Fighting Gyms, so much so that the Tae Kwon Do instructor Jon Engum calls it “The Dungeon Dojo” system in his book, Trembling Shock.[1]

They just want to keep you busy and enteratined through torture, with the sweat you break and the pain you feel being evidence that you accomplished something Warrior-like.[2] 

REAL-WORLD MERITS 

Other Fighting Practices are selling their system on the real-world merits of their Fighting Movements alone. 

This is what most people would consider the “Big 4” of legitimate Fighting Practices…your Boxing, your Wrestling, your BJJ, your Muay Thai. 

I have noticed that when a system is sold on the real-world merits of its Fighting Movements, General Physical Preparation Practices tend to take a back seat. 

This generally leads to a situation where people who enter into these domains with General Physical Preparation already established quickly rise into the ranks to become studs…

While those who enter without any kind of General Physical Preparation foundation become sitting ducks in a vicious Darwinian cycle that usually leads them to quit after a while. 

WHAT THE BRANDING HIDES 

When it comes to Fighting Practices that sell their system on the real-world merits of their Fighting Movements alone, their use of Philosophy and Mythology is uniquely interesting…

And if you don’t look closely, you’ll miss it. 

This is because the Philosophy and Mythology is done covertly, in a subtly subconscious way.

It’s passed on through common language patterns that describe roles of the participants, rules of engagement, and ideals to strive for and achieve. 

Sometimes, it’s called Culture, but I don’t think that word is descriptive enough. 

I think you can better classify these common language patterns and ideals under the rubric of Lifestyle Branding. 

That’s because you’ll see it most in promotional branding…things like high-level participants giving podcast interviews, or Youtube and Instagram instructional breakdowns.   

WHAT THE POSTMODERNIST REVEALED

The effectiveness of the Fighting Movements themselves is the main selling point of the Philosophy and Mythology that is subtly being promoted. 

That’s because they are tying the Fighting Movements’ effectiveness to the subtle teachings of the Philosophy and Mythology. They become part and parcel, one and the same. 

It’s sold as “this isn’t a Philosophy or Mythology, it’s real life, it’s just the way it is, because look: here are the results”. 

As I recall from learning from my Postmodern University Professor, Dr. Mary Rigsby, 10 years ago, the most effective belief systems of all sell themselves as perfectly natural and the only way reality is. 

Nowhere have I found this to be more true in the Fighting World.

FROM ZERO TO HERO 

If you are seeking to get involved in the Fighting World, you have to understand all these things. 

And if you are wanting to train others who are further behind the trail than you, you definitely have to know these things! 

For starters, you have to have a System of General Physical Preparation Practices that actually makes sense, is thought out, and logically prepares you to execute effective Fighting Movements. 

It can’t be random, and it can’t be solely for the purpose of mindlessly tiring you out. 

Sadly, many systems of General Physical Preparation are not made for this purpose of improving Fighting Movements execution. 

Or if they actually best serve this purpose, they are seen as so disconnected from fighting that nobody makes this connection. 

You have to tie these disparate threads together…and once you do that, you have to have progressions within your General Physical Preparation system from Zero to Hero.

Why is this so important, you ask?

THE ROCK AND THE SAND 

It’s important because your General Physical Preparation system is your base, your foundation. Having a good system of General Physical Preparation is like building your house upon the Rock.

If you don’t have it, your house is built on Sand. 

Now you can build a beautiful house with the best building materials on the Sand…but when the Rains come and the Winds blow your house will collapse!

The Rain and the Wind are your Sparring Partners. Your beautiful house with the best building materials are your Fighting Movements. 

And your Foundation is your General Physical Preparation Practices!

So you better choose wisely! 

THE BJJ PHILOSOPHY  

Second, you have to understand what kind of a Mythology and Philosophy you are buying into whenever you are joining these places.

At the bottom, is it a Philosophy and Mythology of Order or Chaos? 

Does it promote dissolving of the Soul or Uplifting of the Soul? 

For example, the Philosophy and Mythology behind BJJ is very Asiatic…

It took everything everyone loved about the Asian Martial Arts Philosophy and Mythology, and tied it to actually effective Fighting Movements. 

You often here stuff like: 

• “You need to get rid of your Ego”  
• “It’s good to get humbled” 
• “Don’t muscle it, you have to flow” 

The East’s dissolving, hierarchical submissiveness, and childlike playfulness was given a new lease on life by the Gracies and their Guard. 

THE WRESTLING PHILOSOPHY

Contrast this to the Philosophy and Mythology behind Wrestling…

It has the feel of an old-time Koryos Mannerbund…like a band of raiding Vikings come to pillage and plunder!

You see a very Blue Collar, down-and-dirty, get the joh done work ethic here. 

You often here stuff like: 

• “Hardest Worker in the Room”
• “The Strongest Shall Survive” 
• “Everything in Life is Easier After Wrestling” 

And while the Wrestling Matches themselves are individual affairs, there is a strong sense of team camaraderie and collective esprit de corps within Wrestling Teams. It’s akin to Football Teams and elite Military Units. 

The East’s dissolving, hierarchical submissiveness, and childlike playfulness doesn’t have much place in the Wrestling Room.

THE BOTTOM LINE  

The examples given above are two of many. 

One could talk about the Lonewolf, Cowboy Gunslinger Culture of Boxing served up with a gritty, Urban veneer…

And contrast it to the Ghetto Gangsta Culture of MMA that celebrates the Strong devouring the Weak…

Then there’s emphasis on Ancestry and devotion in Muay Thai…

And the focus on Legal Justification within Krav Maga….

The bottom line of it all is: 

• Fighting Practices are always more than just effective Fighting Movements…

• A System of General Physical Preparation Practices is your Foundation for the Fight…

• The Philosophy and Mythology of the Fighting Practices is the hidden hand guiding the deed every time…

And whether you’re in this world for yourself, or teaching others to follow in your footsteps:

There’s more to it than meets the eye…so you gotta know it all!

Pulp Fiction Power to you, my friends! 

Sincerely,

Richard Barrett

08-30-2025

Written at 2:04 PM, somewhere in the USA…

Sources Cited 

Image 1.

[1] Engum, Jon. Trembling Shock: Strength & Conditioning Guide for Martial Athletes & Coaches: Year 1, Volume 1, The Elements. Brainerd, MN: Extreme Training, LLC. Pg. 12, see pages 10-12 for full account. 

[2] But it’s not just in Fighting Gyms where you see the “Dungeon Dojo” phenomena…it’s Military Units around the World too! 

When you want to keep your guys busy and beaten down, but don’t want to teach them any kind of Fighting Movements to make them lethal and potentially dangerous to your regime…

Well, you just make them run around a lot and do a lot of Push-Ups and Sit-Ups, or manual labor.

You see this a lot in Latin American Military and Policing units, as well as in many of the Eastern Bloc Countries during the days of the Soviet Union and after. 

Heck, the Bulgarian Army of the Communist era was a glorified road construction crew, a Balkans version of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Core in Red Army Uniforms. 

They picked this little habit up from their Soviet Overlords in the Kremlin. 

Usually, the Fighting Movements to make you lethal are only taught to the elite Special Forces units in these countries who act as a sort of Praetorian Guard to their Regime.

You don’t want the Peasants revolting successfully!