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Trayvon Martin had lots of options. He did not have to attack George Zimmerman. He did not have to fight. He did not have to die

The Most Important Lesson Martial Arts Ever Taught Me



I have been practicing martial arts, off and on, for over 20 years. I’ve studied five different styles in some depth, and others more superficially. I’ve learned a veritable plethora of strikes, kicks, and blocks, along with strategies for defending against attacks with knives, guns, baseball bats, and from multiple attackers.
But one lesson stands out to me from all the things I’ve learned in martial arts: IF YOU CAN AVOID IT, DON’T FIGHT. One reason to avoid a fight, even for a trained fighter, is because you often have no idea what skills or weapons your opponent might possess. I have two quick stories to illustrate this reality: The first I heard from a martial arts instructor friend of mine. He was friends with another instructor who was kidding around with a couple of females (showing off for the ladies, always a stupid move), showing them how tough he was and how they couldn’t touch him because of his martial arts prowess. He did fine until one of them landed a “lucky” and VERY powerful kick to his groin. He was incapacitated for an extended period of time. The second story involves another good friend of mine. Roy is a former member of the South African military and police, and works as a bodyguard. He looks a lot like Randy Couture and is simply one scary guy.

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About three years ago, Roy was drinking at a bar in England when somebody made a comment that offended him. The guy in question looked like no match for my friend, and Roy decided it was time to teach him some manners. So he grabbed the man by his shirt collar, dragged him out of the bar, and tossed him into the parking lot. As Roy approached him to finish the deed, the small man spun around and sprayed him square in the face with a can of mace. My very tough, very scary friend was completely incapacitated and suffered a beating to boot. A second, and far more important reason, to avoid a fight if at all possible is this: any fight—ANY fight—can end in the death of the one of the people involved. And most situations are simply not worth that risk. My instructor found a memorable way to demonstrate this in class one time. He told the class, “Today I’m going to show you what to do if someone demands your wallet.” Then he had me stand in front of the class, across from him, and demand his wallet. While we all watched expectantly for him to show us some cool combat move, he calmly removed the wallet from his back pocket and tossed it to me. Noting the puzzled looks on our faces, he said, “My life is not worth that wallet. What if he has a gun that I don’t see? What if he has a knife and he’s better using it than I am defending against it? Do I really want to take that risk over a wallet? And am I really willing to kill that guy over a wallet? It is not uncommon to read of simple bar fights or street fights ending in death. Do a quick Google search for those terms and you’ll see story after story of fights that ended in the death of one of the fighters. Just this year, Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of Malcolm X, was killed in a bar fight in Mexico City over a bar tab. Sometimes guns were involved in these fights, and occasionally knives, but as often as not, the fighters were only using fists. A punch landed at the right spot on the head or throat can kill a person, even if the one who threw the punch never meant it to be fatal. Unfortunately, too many people either don’t know or don’t care that even a simple fight can be deadly. I’ve known far too many martial arts students who ignored that fact because they thought they were tough and wanted to prove it to everybody. As often as not, they had their butts kicked and their egos bruised.

IF YOU CAN AVOID IT, DON’T FIGHT

As I write this, many in this nation are wringing their hands over the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. For many who have bought into the emotional, logic-barren arguments of the Jesse Jackson / Al Sharpton race-baiting brigade, the lesson to be learned from the trial is that “It’s open season on black males in Florida.” These empty-headed hypocrites look past the facts of the case and just see a “white Hispanic” man who profiled, stalked, and shot an unarmed child, and got away with it. But there is a much simpler lesson to be learned here. It’s the lesson I’ve learned throughout my martial arts training and a lesson that would have saved Trayvon Martin’s life: IF YOU CAN AVOID IT, DON’T FIGHT. The eyewitness testimony and forensic evidence were clear: Trayvon Martin, hardly a child at 5’11” tall and 160 pounds, attacked and was beating up George Zimmerman (5’7” tall and 185 at the time of the shooting) when the fatal shot was fired. Even those in the Jackson / Sharpton brigade concede that Martin was beating Zimmerman up when he was shot. They excuse it, of course, by saying that it’s perfectly understandable for him to lash out when he was spooked by a “creepy # cracker” stalking him. And there is the problem. This was NOT perfectly understandable behavior (except perhaps for those living in Chicago). Trayvon had lots of other choices. He could have called the police on his cell phone and reported a stalker. He could have knocked on someone’s door and asked for help. He could have run—and probably easily outdistanced Zimmerman. He even could have just stopped and demanded to know why Zimmerman was following him. At best, he would have explained himself to Zimmerman and gone on his way, and at worst he would have had to wait and explain himself to the police. He certainly had nothing to fear from the bag of Skittles in his pocket. I don’t know why Trayvon Martin made the choice he did. I don’t know if it’s a race thing or a cultural thing, or if he was simply raised to strike first and ask questions later. Maybe he felt that beating up George Zimmerman would enhance his image among his classmates when he got back from suspension from his school in Miami. What I do know is that he made a dangerous and risky choice, and he paid for it. Trayvon Martin had lots of options. He did not have to attack George Zimmerman. He did not have to fight. He did not have to die.


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Mike Jensen -- Bio and Archives

Mike Jensen is a freelance writer living in Colorado.  He received his M.A. in Professional Writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he wrote his first book, Alaska’s Wilderness Highway.  He has since published Skier’s Guide to Utah along with humor, travel, and political articles for various magazines and newspapers.  He is married with five sons, and spends his free time at a remote cabin in the Colorado Rockies.


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