The Bear

To all my fans and supporters I would like to say to you first, I love you. You are the are the jelly in my doughnut. I enjoy sharing my experiences, ideas and hope we can continue to grow closer to truth together. I only wish to serve you, the reader, with hopes that be it kung fu, or life you you will be able to obtain the highest level of true achievement.

Let's talk a little bit about a kicking strategy that I learned when I was a youth. I have mentioned several times that my background in the martial arts was spawned from living in an abusive neighborhood. So everything that my father told us about our training was crucial for our safety and survival.

"Your kick only has power at the height that you can hold it. If you can only do the kick fast, but you can't control every part of the technique, it is a fake kick." He told us one day while we practiced holding the kick that was making my face squirm through a slide show of expressions while trying to block out the pain. When I was younger I hated the long still training, it made it easier to hear the kids playing outside.

Still I made time to work on it, but it was only about as high as stomach level. I knew that heavier kids were not safe to kick in the stomach because it acted as a shielding for many nerves around the sweet spot. I struggled to try to increase the speed of progress so that I could raise my leg to chin level. It was the only chance I would have against a continually growing danger in my personal life.

A kid that looked like a young full grown man. There were two rumors floating around the school at the time about this brick wall of a student. One of them was that he was already shaving at 13. The other one was he wanted to kill me. I was much more concerned with the second rumor.

As I passed by him in the hallway time almost stopped, as his eyes gazed down on me with a familiar look of disgust that I had grown to know. This wasn't a rumor at all, he had shaving cuts. And his eyes definitely were filled with dark intent.

Under his menacing eyes I also took the time notice that his veins made a perfect target for me to locate a pressure point next to his temple. I felt reassured that if I ever had to deal with "the bear" I would at least know where to attack. The only problem was, this kid was a foot taller than me, and I could only hold my leg up to my own stomach level.

"What are you going to do?" My friend asked me at lunch, feeling almost sorry for me.

"I'm gonna weight for God to tell me what to do?" I said while hunching over eating my lunch hoping not to be noticed.

My idea was that if I held on to the table while I was holding my leg in the air, I would be able to put my foot higher quicker. It was still painful and it seemed to be working when...

"What are you doing?" Aaron asked me while I was dripping sweat and holding on to the table as if my life depended on it.

"Trying to increase my power." I said to him while struggling to keep my leg elevated.

"But if you practice with your hands holding you up, won't that make you defenseless?" He added. "It's better to just do the move the right way, with  your natural balance and weight." He said while patting me on the shoulder.

I always listened to both of my brothers when it came to martial arts. Even though Aaron only trained a year longer, it seemed he had more wisdom about somethings. Or maybe he learned it from the fight he was in last week. All of us were fighting more often then taking test. The KKK make the best bullies.

"What should I do?" I asked Aaron, while putting my leg down.

"God, will make your enemies your foot stool." Aaron said to me feeling confident in my ability.

Being one of only 3 black kids in my school, it was only a matter of time before he found me and cornered me in an empty class room. After a few insulting remarks I began trying to find the right moment to attack while backing away.

"Backing away makes you look scared, so they will never see the attack coming." I remembered Eddie telling me at one time. He was 5 years older and at least a hundred fights ahead of both me and Aaron. So I continued to step back as he moved at me more aggressively. I knew that any kick I through at him while stepping back would case me to fall back and be in an even worse position. As the Bear grew frustrated he began slamming tables and chairs to the side of the classroom.

One of the tables almost crashed into me as I used my a front kick to stop its momentum. My leg was still pressed against the table as the Bear tried to force me off balance. I had no choice but to slide backward on one leg while I waited for some form of rescue. Then I heard my brothers words in my mind,  "God will make your enemies your footstool."

I grinned as I realized I that maybe my kick training hadn't matured enough, but my jump training sure had.

I quickly jumped up on the desk on my right hand side just in time to watch the other table crash into the wall.  On the desk I stood taller than the bear and I only needed to be able to kick as high as my waist in order to reach the pulsating red target next to his temple. As my hip turned my foot snapped into his pressure point causing the Bear to black out before he even hit the ground.