The Okie-Doke (Zimmerman)

In our training of whatever style, we must be very cautious not to make assumptions. If we make assumptions of our ability, our technique, our opponent or other styles, we can easily deceive ourselves and be lead into danger.


That being said I would like to share with you a family secret technique that my father taught us when we were very young. He said he learned it from his friend "Fats" who accompanied him in many fights in the streets before he gained his knowledge of martial arts and wisdom. Yet even after his martial arts training he continued to use this technique to stun, knock out opponents or hide other attacks.

The movement became something that me and my brothers used as a back up or in emergency situations. I favored it  for times when I had to fight more than one opponent while my brothers favored it when they found themselves faced with a weapon or whatever. This move is so effective that even after I have learned it, my father can still hit me with it to this day.

Martial arts is like a life time financial investment into your spirit while fighting is much more like gambling against another person. Therefore a great martial artist can still lose a fight to an average fighter if the fighter understands human weakness.

"This movement is called the okie-doke" My father explained while me and my brothers stood around him in a circle waiting for our chance to attack. We had heard this phrase before and we knew when he announced it, someone was about to get hit. I attempted to attack with a low kick from the back hoping that he didn't notice. He turned and looked at me with piercing eyes, freezing me in my tracks. Just then his other leg reached over and kicked my brother in the stomach.

The okie-doke has nothing to do with martial arts really. It is completely based on eyes and facial expressions. Before you attack you look away from your target for just a moment. As the opponent tries to adjust you quickly attack while his mind is distracted.

"That's just a sucker punch." My brother said while getting up and wiping the dirt from his chest.

"More like a sucker kick." My dad joked. "A good  opponent will read your eyes. So if you lie with your eyes, you can buy an attack. Unlike a sucker punch you can use it in the middle of a fight..." My father finished while jumping over my other brother's  low spinning-sweep that cut through the dandelions, just missing my fathers ankle.

From that time many years went by and we saw the okie-doke over a dozen times. It saved my bacon so many times, I began to do it when I wasn't even aware.

"Hey nigger, did you take my lunch" I heard as closed my locker. I turned around to see a massive boy with an assuming and angry expression on his face. He was so large that I wasn't sure whether it was muscle or fat. I knew I had seen him scoping me around the halls and he had been waiting to get my by myself...I think cause my brother had beaten up his racist brother. Instead of getting upset, I just smiled as I put my bag on my shoulder. As I smiled I looked at my watch while pivoting my lead foot. I twisted my hips and came through with a straight kick off the hind leg that buried into his sternum. I knew that when I was watching my watch he wasn't watching my feet and that is the secret of the okie-doke.

There are two reasons that I am teaching ghetto tactics on my Bagua site. Number one is that I love you and I want to make sure you have all the advantages you can in this continually increasing crazy society. Bagua and the okie-doke go together like mash potatoes and gravy.

The second reason I am bringing this up is actually because of Zimmerman. From my story you can see that I have been dealing with racial issues in the states since I was born. My uncle was shot and put in a wheel chair for entering his own car. Every minority has heard these sad tales while growing up, but they are always in the background. It's usually local news...if there is any news at all. So why is there this huge focus on this one incident? 

My reason for sharing is because I am certain that this news is nothing but the okie-doke. It is supposed to make you upset, unclear, uncertain and overall jittery. It's got everyone looking in the wrong direction. It's only a matter of time before the attack follows.

I love Americans and I love America. I have fought with many people from the Klan and skin heads or whatever, but still most of my closest friends are white. People are people and you will always have good ones and bad ones. The people in your area aren't as dangerous as the people who put thoughts and feelings in your mind.

To my brothers and sisters who feel that there patience has been pushed to the boiling point...I understand you too. Inequality is not only in the news, it's in job applications, main stream media, etc. I can name 20 recent movies that destroy the image of black people in one form or another. These things used to make me so upset that I couldn't sit still. I was pulled over 40 times within 5 years and I never made a traffic infraction. The worst part about it, is when I told most of my friends, they dismissed it like it wasn't even real.

Racism is very real and it is very prevalent in many areas. But after I started to take a good long look at it, I found that it was only a distraction. I wanted to live a life that had more meaning than just another angry black man. For me the answer was to dig into the great gifts that God had given me, which lead me to Asia. It may not be the right choice for everyone, but man can help get the chip off your shoulder. When you leave your country it's like you leave yourself long enough to decide who you really are. Of course you deal with issues wherever you go, but at least I won't worry about my son getting shot.

Yes America has many problems and I have to say that Zimmerman doesn't even make it to the top 50 of what's really going on. There are hundreds of thousands of missing children yearly, they don't even talk about the people living in tent cities anymore, the debt is unreal, drones are in the sky, millions of women are raped and we need to drug kids to make them "fit" into our education system. Looking at it from a kung fu perspective..America is only one move away from checkmate.

This is not the time for us to be fighting amongst ourselves. This is the time for us to be united like we never have before. Do not be upset just because the TV says it's time to be upset. Stay focused. Hold your stance. Don't get caught by the okie-doke.