I wonder where and when one receives training in the covert arts of mark-dō or mark-jitsu, the name I’m giving to this ludo-martial form of body-on-body blocks. These are meant to look like humans are clumsily entangled in each other. These humans who are possessed of preternatural proprioception. In naming this discipline – and it has to be a discipline, these are tactical but practiced, not spontaneous intuitions – I’m purposely avoiding the gendered “man to man” from basketball. Instead I am taking “marking” from futbol which also has its own flavor of this activity. Mark-dō (or mark-jitsu, still not sure) is meant to temporarily take an opposing player out of contention during the run of play. It may result in the disruption of flow and of momentum. More overt forms include “blocking out” in basketball and checking in hockey. Mark-dō involves a misdirection of referee attention because it would be called as a foul. It is tolerated – and perhaps expected – in the course of professional and the quasi-professional collegiate play. It would be severely punished in peewee play.
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