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Mettlecraft Month is Here: “Imperium Armorum”
8th annual Mettlecraft Month is here! What’s Mettlecraft Month? Every November we push a bit harder, and ask a bit more more of ourselves, in our quest for true mettle. What’s mettle? Fighting aspect, physical endurance, unflagging determination, and resolute strength of body, mind and spirit.
Imperium Armorum is designed to build basic competency with a walking stick in just 1 month.
Week 1: Black Tie & Buckskin Basics
Week 2: Mortality, Sparring and Movement
Week 3: Grappling and Retention
Week 4: Impairment and Stressors
Mettle maker #485: Imperium Armorum Week 4 — Impairment and stressors
Mettlecraft is about making ourselves stronger in mind, body, and spirit — cultivating indomitability. So far this month, we’ve focused on strong command and mastery skills, facing mortality, good technique, practical fitness, and more. And those are great. But sometimes the fight isn’t about winning. Sometimes the fight is about surviving. There is an old adage:
Failure is the best teacher.
So this week we are going to add impairments and stressors. We are going to find our failure tolerances and learn from them. To be clear, there is no way someone can complete this test perfectly. There will be tons of mistakes and failures, lapses of focus, missed strikes and so on. Failure is not only an option, it’s a certainty.
For the spiritual portion of the training session, read and discuss this week’s homily which obviously dovetails with the focus of the final week of Mettlecraft Month.
Imperium Armorum Walking Stick Self-Defense Week 4: Impairment and Stressors
Note: For the remainder of the month and ongoing there is a 25 Push-up penalty each time you drop your walking stick.
The Pledge of Allegiance and Student Pledge (2 mins)
The Wheel Mettle Drill. 100 strikes vs. air with each hand — see video — 200 total (5 mins).
Sparring. Put on headgear with face shields and use padded weapons. Accounting for individual risk tolerances, spar with as much realism as possible, allowing the freedom to strike, grapple, and wrestle. Shorten rounds to 2:00/:30. The longer the round, the more people begin to turn sparring into a game or a duel. Do some 2-on-1 rounds to force failure. Those training solo, watch this video. Then put a pool noodle training arm on your heavy bag, bungee the “hands” together to simulate encircling arms, and practice the maneuvers as best you can. Experiment to ensure that you are hitting as realistic an enemy as possible (15 mins).
This week’s constitutional. Set up the training area to include loud music and strobe lights and make 7 stations. Set a timer for 21 rounds of 1 minute each, and run through each of the 7 stations three times. The easiest way to do this is put put each person on a different station and have everyone proceed clockwise through the stations.
Run through the stations three times., each time with a different impairment: one hand tucked into the belt, with a rock in your shoe or with one shoe off, with an eye patch (put painter’s tape over one lens of safety goggles), etc. Each round pull out one person to be a drill sergeant. Have him or her go around asking the other people questions, hurling insults, critiquing technique and fitness, delivering some pool noodle strikes to the face and head, and so on.
Strike hanging heavy bag
Get-ups with switching of weapon between hands
Sit-ups with strike to low hanging heavy bag or similar
Prisoner Get-ups with continuous air strikes
Air strikes with punching and kicking combos
Close range strikes vs. speed bag or similar
Talon squeeze vs. heavy bag or similar
Cool Down (3 mins)
Spiritual Training: See homily below. (14 mins)
Total: 60 mins
links to weeks 1, 2, and 3:
Week 3: Mettle Maker #484 — Grappling and Retention
Week 2: Mettle maker #483 — IMortality, Sparring and Movement
Week 1: Mettle Maker #482 — Black Tie and Buckskin Basics
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Homily for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe 11/23/25 – Father Mitch
Readings: 2 Samuel 5:1-3, Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, Colossians 1:12-20, Luke 23:35-43
Luke 23:35-43 World English Bible
The rulers with them also scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one!”
36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
38 An inscription was also written over him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
39 One of the criminals who was hanged insulted him, saying, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!”
40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Don’t you even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 He said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
43 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
The scoffers in Jesus’ time are long dead, but the voices still resonate. The words are slightly changed, but the tone is the same. From almost every corner of the broken culture in which we live, the same scoffing voices from our gospel reading echo down the centuries saying, “Save yourself.” Sneering at the teachings of Jesus, these words flow from our televisions, phones, advertisements, social media and – as in our reading from Luke 23 – from the mouths of our leaders in government on both the left and right. They scoff at the ways of the Lord and say “Save yourself.”
Not exactly, of course. What our leaders say are things like, “Vote for me. I’ll lower your taxes and put more money in your pocket. I’ll restore America to her former glory. I’ll give you free groceries and free health care. I’ll bring more business and more jobs to your home town.” The political estate’s appeal to human selfishness is virtually absolute. These appeals to selfishness lead us away from righteousness and away from God.
The soldiers of today – that is, the fighters in life who think they can win on their own – also deride the Lord and say, “Save yourself.” I know the fighter-types well because I have been in their number, and I still fall into their trap when I am weak in spirit. These are the boot-strappers, the we-can-do-its, and the self-believers. They say, “Defend yourself. Hoard food, stock up on weapons, gold and silver. Make castles and compounds for you and your loved ones. And don’t stop there. Make your soul into a fortress too. Nobody is going to take care of you but you. Wall yourself off. Protect you and your own.”
But there are even now, a few repentant thieves saying, “Don’t you fear God? We’re all going to die!” Death is the ultimate end to the story of every human life; but death is also the first chapter of our eternal life in the world to come, either in heaven or in hell. Yes, there are a few repentant thieves, in whose number I pray we are all to be found, who look not to themselves but to Jesus Christ to be saved. Yes, there are repentant people among us saying that self-centeredness leads us away from God. Like a mass of people crowding together in an ever-tightening circle to witness some important event, we are closer together as we grow closer to God, who is the center of all existence, the King of the Universe.
He is the one man, the one leader and the one fighter, with a unique message. He is no scoffing politician or a mocking soldier. No, he is the greatest king and most powerful soldier of all. He is the one true Commander and Chief who directs his general St. Michael, the leader of the Army of God and the Prince of the heavenly host, in the battle against evil in all its forms.
Our great King does not say “Save yourself.” Instead he says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
Our great King, the King of the Universe, never says that we should make the power play and rely on our own strength. Leading by example, he never advocates that we try to save ourselves. He says instead, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
Our King wears a crown, not of gold and gems, but of thorns.
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A Traditional Prayer to Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
“O Christ Jesus, I acknowledge You King of the Universe. All that has been created has been made for You. Exercise over me all Your sovereign rights. I hereby renew my baptismal promises, renouncing Satan and all his works and pomps; and promise to live henceforth a truly Christian life and to do all in my power to procure the triumph of the rights of God and Your Church. Divine Heart of Jesus, I offer You my poor actions in order to obtain that all hearts may acknowledge Your sacred royalty and that thus the reign of Your peace may be established throughout the earth. Amen.”