Sunday, September 11, 2011

Tracking and Martial Arts

When I used to practice martial arts, I quickly realised that even if you were practicing a striking oriented martial art, you would still learn groundwork; the groundwork just came at a different stage in the training. This was also the case with a groundwork oriented martial arts like Judo; it would start of predominantly with groundwork, locks and throws but would progress onto striking. Most martial arts if not all, by the time you have gone as far as you can go in that style include grappling and striking.

I have seen this contrast between tracking and bushcraft practitioners. Some see tracking as a sub skill set to bushcraft and some especially trackers see bushcraft as a sub skill set to tracking. I am one of those trackers, who sees bushcraft as an additional but useful skill set to tracking. I have recently learned a high level of respect for bushcraft practitioners and I have seen a wide spectrum of people who would use that term and some who avoid it by calling themselves survivalists or backwoodsmen.

The difference for me is in the independent streak I see in trackers who are not elitists but pragmatists. These are guys who would use a blowtorch to light a fire if there was one handy instead of a bow drill especially if time is of the essence. It is a hard mindset to attempt to describe. I guess the tracker from my experience is very competitive and result oriented but not only that they have a very inquisitive mind that needs answers to the mysteries he sees in the dirt. It is not enough to know that you are following a large man carrying a heavy load; there are loads more questions in the trackers mind: what is in the heavy load, why is he taking this route, where is he going, where did he come from, why is he traveling at that time, what is his level of fitness, what is the story in these tracks.

I wonder what a person with this mindset would be like if they had never discovered tracking and only had gotten into bushcraft. I would imagine the person would be a frustrated bushcrafter always trying to push the boundaries of what they can achieve. I guess this begs the question, is a good tracker born or made or is the question a false dichotomy?

Sunday, August 28, 2011

It has been a long journey and a few years since my last post. I am now an instructor with Shadowhawk Tracking School and have continued to progress with my journey as a tracker. I decided to revamp my old blog which was named Stalk like an Apache and change it to something more descriptive to the purpose of this blog which is the journal of a Scottish Tracker.


This has been a long and hard journey and I could not have made it without the help of Ian Max Maxwell who has trained me as well as the other Instructors , mentors and students at Shadowhawk. Many of whom I consider to be close and personal friends. They are a real fellowship of like minded and like purposed people.


Many of my next posts will be retrospective bringing you up to this present point from my last posts in 2006.

One recent and upcoming event that I will mention is my being on TV fairly soon. I will be on TV with James May and Oz Clarke along with the Shadowhawk Hunter Force Tracking team. We will be on Manlab 2 in the episode called Prison Break. This is scheduled as far as I am aware for The end of October.

Here I am below in a pic with James and Oz and in another with the Shadowhawk HunterForce tracking team.






I would also like to thank Andrew from Bushwear in Perth for sponsorship of equipment which I used throughout the show. The waterproof socks were great in the boggy places and the Jacket was removed after the sun came out as it was a very warm day. I look forwards to getting more wear from it as the nights draw in.