With March Madness getting under way, you may be thinking about what you’d do if you found yourself with the ball in your hands, your team down by two, with a second left in the game. Could you make the game-winning shot?

Like most athletic skills, shooting a basketball is less about raw talent than repetition — building a consistent motion so that your body can perform it the same way over and over again. Proper mechanics start from the floor, using the legs to generate power and the upper body to direct it in one smooth, continuous motion. That’s what makes longer shots feel fluid instead of forced, and why players who rely too heavily on their arms often lose accuracy as they tire.

If you tend to feel like you’re trying to shoot a square peg into a round hole, the encouraging part is that even small adjustments can produce quick results. Use the guide above to work on having a better stance, cleaner hand placement, and a more disciplined follow-through — all of which can help the ball come off your hand more easily and with a more reliable arc.

At the same time, remember that good shooting isn’t about forcing your body into a perfectly rigid set of positions. The best shooters develop a motion that’s consistent but still natural — aligned with the basket, balanced, and repeatable, even if it doesn’t look exactly like a textbook diagram. Rhythm and feel matter as much as form. Practice the basics, then let your shot become your own.

Putting up a decent jump shot belongs in the same category of basic athletic competence as throwing a football or swinging a baseball bat; even if you’re not using this skill to secure a championship, it comes in handy for playing pickup ball, coaching your kids, or just putting up shots in the driveway.

Illustrated by Ted Slampyak

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Left to their own devices, shrubs will usually grow okay on their own — but they won’t always grow how you want them to. Over time, they become unruly and congested, with tangled branches that block sunlight and limit airflow, leading to damaged, unhealthy plants that kill the landscaping aesthetic you’re aiming for. Done properly, trimming your bushes at least annually helps manage their growth and structure, keeping them healthy, balanced, and visually appealing. By removing dead or diseased stems and selectively shaping the plant, you encourage stronger development and a longer lifetime. 

Spring-flowering shrubs like lilac and forsythia should be pruned right after they bloom, so you don’t accidentally cut off next year’s flower buds. Summer-flowering shrubs, on the other hand, are best pruned in late winter or early spring before new growth takes off. Dead or damaged wood can be removed anytime you notice it — in fact, the sooner the better.

Too many property-owners hack away at a plant until it looks tidy. But proper trimming is about making thoughtful cuts to guide future growth. With a simple plan and a few fundamental techniques, you can transform a wild, overgrown shrub into a healthier, more vigorous plant.

Illustrated by Ted Slampyak

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Roasting a whole chicken has an undeserved reputation for being difficult — dry breasts and underdone thighs can make it feel like you’re wrestling with the poultry rather than just cooking it for consumption. The preparation method of spatchcocking — which can be done with any bird you want to roast — solves most of those problems in one decisive move. By removing the backbone and flattening the bird, you expose more surface area to heat, which means faster and much more even cooking.

Thankfully, spatchcocking isn’t complicated, specialized, or reserved for professionals. It requires just a couple tools you likely already have and a willingness to make a few confident cuts. There’s no delicate knife work, no anatomical expertise, and no need to worry about perfection. Chickens are tougher than they look and the process is far more forgiving than it appears at first glance.

Once you’ve done it a single time, spatchcocking becomes less of a stressful technique and more of a default three-minute job. It shortens cook times, improves consistency whether you’re roasting or grilling, and even makes carving easier. Use the guide above to dramatically improve your chicken roasting confidence.  

Illustrated by Ted Slampyak

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Identifying animal scat is one of those outdoor skills that sounds simple until you actually try it. You spot a pile on the trail or in your yard and think, “Aha, I can solve this mystery!” But then you realize that several animals leave behind droppings that look basically the same. This illustrated guide to the most common and notable scat found in the U.S. is meant to give you a solid starting point and to help you narrow the field rather than declare a definitive verdict.

Many types of scat differ mostly by size. Elk, deer, and even rabbit pellets can look strikingly similar at first glance; scale is often the biggest clue. Others blur together because related animals will produce nearly identical scat. Fox and coyote turds, for example, frequently overlap in overall appearance, and telling them apart often comes down to context: where you found it and what else you’re seeing nearby. In those cases, an identification is often an educated guess rather than a certainty — and really, narrowing it down to a couple possibilities is often good enough! 

Complicating things further, scat is highly variable depending on an animal’s diet, hydration level, and overall health. A berry-heavy meal, a run-in with a tasty bag of garbage, or a period of illness can radically change texture, color, and consistency. Plus, the same animal may leave very different calling cards at different times of year.

So think of this guide as simply one tool among many. Pair what you see here with tracks, habitat, location, and common sense. Scat identification is part observation, part experience, and part informed guesswork. 

Illustrated by Ted Slampyak 

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

When disaster strikes while you’re away from home — whether it’s a blizzard that strands your car, a citywide blackout, or an earthquake that knocks out cell service — the only thing that really matters is getting safely back home. That’s where a get home bag comes in. Unlike a full bug out bag meant for longer-term survival away from your primary residence, a get home bag is designed for speed, mobility, and self-reliance over 12–24 hours. It’s the kind of kit you can keep in your trunk or under your desk — light enough to carry, but stocked with the essentials that can turn a scary situation into a manageable one.

The gear inside your get home bag doesn’t need to be fancy or expensive, just functional. The illustration above highlights the core items every man should consider packing. If you work in business casual or professional attire, it’s also smart to include a change of rugged clothing as well: durable pants, a tough shirt, and comfortable shoes can make all the difference if you need to walk miles to safety.

Create a get home bag with these supplies and when things go sideways, you’ll be ready to slip the pack over your shoulders, stay calm, and make your way home.

Illustrated by Ted Slampyak

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

In an age when every tap, text, and location ping is tracked, there are times when a little anonymity goes a long way. Whether you’re traveling through a dicey region or working on a top-secret project, a burner phone can provide a level of privacy and security that your primary device simply can’t. The ability to buy and use one under the radar is a bit of know-how worth having — even if you never need to use it.

These days, you can actually purchase a smartphone that’s meant to be a burner and has access to the internet and apps. But they’re more expensive, often require some type of account setup or sign-in, and have shorter battery life. It’s best to stick with the simplest available option like the old school flip phone or brick-style model that doesn’t do much besides calls and texts. The fewer features, the fewer ways your anonymity can be compromised.

Using a burner phone effectively takes more than just buying a cheap prepaid flip phone, though. To stay truly off the grid, you need to understand how and when to use it, what not to do, and how to properly dispose of it when you’re done. Follow these steps above to ensure your short-term phone serves its purpose: keeping you connected when needed, and untraceable when not.

Illustration by Ted Slampyak

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world — having the breadth of skills, the savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we’ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week.

In a wilderness survival situation, you may need to cut down a small tree. Maybe you need to make a debris shelter and need a long ridge pole to get it started. Or maybe you need some logs for creating a parallel fire lay (one of the 6 fire lays every man should know).

But what do you do if you don’t have an ax or a hatchet?

Well, as long as you have a solid survival knife on you, you can still fell a small tree.

You want to use a knife that’s sturdy and isn’t hollow ground. A simple mora knife is ideal for this job. It can take a beating.

You’ll need to find a sturdy stick too. Then, by pounding the back of the knife with it, you can cut small wedges out around the tree until its structure is sufficiently compromised for you to push it over. 

This technique takes some time and sweat, but it works if you need to fell a tree in a pinch.

Like this illustrated guide? Then you’re going to love our book The Illustrated Art of Manliness! Pick up a copy on Amazon.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world — having the breadth of skills, the savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we’ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week.

Your snoz is full of blood vessels, and nosebleeds happen when they incur some kind of damage. That damage can come from vigorous nose picking or blowing, outright injury (as in taking a punch to the face), or, very frequently, from exposure to dry air (whether via the outdoor climate or indoor heating). Nosebleeds are particularly common in children ages 2-10, but can occur at any age.

We don’t often see our blood outside of our bodies, so that when a nosebleed occurs, it can feel a little alarming. But unless nosebleeds are extraordinarily heavy, accompanied by other symptoms like high blood pressure and trouble breathing, last longer than a half hour, and/or happen more than twice a week, they’re almost certainly harmless. They’re just messy and annoying, so that you want to stop your own, or your kid’s, as soon as possible, by following the instructions above.

To prevent future nosebleeds, it helps to keep the nasal membranes moist by putting a humidifier in your home/office, using a saline spray 2X a day, and/or applying Vaseline inside the nostrils. More frequently occurring nosebleeds may need to be addressed through cauterization.

Illustration by Ted Slampyak

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Over its long history, the whip has been tool for a variety of men.

Cowboys in the American West, South American gauchos, and herders around the world carried whips to move cattle and sheep. The crack wasn’t meant to strike the animals but to startle them with sound, nudging the herd along without contact. Out of this tradition came the “stockwhip” and the “bullwhip.”

Teamsters and coachmen once used whips to keep their horses in step. The lash might brush a flank, but more often the crack alone was enough to guide a team down the road. Cavalries often issued short whips to horsemen and pack drivers as part of their kit.

By the 18th and 19th centuries, the whip moved from utilitarian use into the realm of spectacle. Circus trainers used them to tame lions and tigers, while trick-whip artists developed flourishes that showcased control and precision.

Later, pulp heroes carried them alongside revolvers, turning the whip into a symbol of adventure. Half tool and half weapon, it was ostensibly useful for a variety of tasks: latching onto beams or branches to swing across gaps, coiling around small items to grab them, knocking an object out of someone’s hand, cracking to intimidate and keep foes at a distance, or lashing an opponent directly. (Some of these techniques, of course, work better and are easier to execute on screen than in real life.)

If you want to harness your inner rancher or treasure-hunting archeologist, this illustrated guide will get you started with the art of whip cracking. Whip cracking is just physics: you send the energy of your arm into the thong, it travels down the length, and accelerates until it breaks the sound barrier and creates that satisfying “POP!”

Every whip-hand starts with the cattleman’s crack. It’s a simple up-and-down snap that will give you a grin-inducing pop, and help prepare you to raid tombs and fight Nazis.

Illustration by Ted Slampyak

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world — having the breadth of skills, the savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we’ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week.

A knife’s functionality is only as good as its maintenance. Although there are dozens of ways to sharpen knives, this basic technique goes a long way toward keeping your blade keen enough to do most jobs with ease. Sharp blades mean smoother cuts, which are safer because they require less force. You can find more details on knife sharpening here.

Like this illustrated guide? Then you’re going to love our book The Illustrated Art of Manliness! Pick up a copy on Amazon.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.