8th Graders vs Jermaine Andre

Life Fight - Show 013 - 8th Graders vs Jermaine Andre’

“When will you fight again!?” This is a question that I have been repeatedly asked by fans and friends. “I doubt I ever will” is usually my response because I truly was never a fighter. I was simply a martial artist exploring the effectiveness of my skills. My point has been proven so there is not much more desire to go into a wired or roped area to try and outpunch the man who stands before me. My fighting days are over. Well… that’s what I thought until an 8th grade class in North County St. Louis put me in position to have to use my fighting strategies again.

Of course you know when I say “fighting ” I’m not speaking of my feet and fists of fury. We’ve known each other far too long through my podcast and you should know by now that I’m speaking of a mental fight. To be exact, it was more of a fight for the position of attention. This is the main battle with a group of young kids are want to be respected as adults, but have yet reached the point of wanting to be responsible like one.

What was my first strategy in my fight to beat almost 30 high energy kids in the battle for the center of attention in their school? I had to first establish a trust that I wasn’t there because they were “bad” or incompetent. I informed them that I was brought to aid them in controlling their Battle Energy. I then told them stories of how my lack of controlling my Battle energy lead me to many setbacks in my life. This immediately interested the kids especially since they had heard that they were sent to me because they were bad.

I’m sure we all have had a peek at the videos on Facebook of kids banging it out in the school hallways while it appears that the teachers are doing nothing about it. I happened to have been fortuned to step smack in the middle of a hallway full of kids about to fight as a lone female principle and female security guard worked their hardest to neutralize the situation. One of the youth even swung and hit the security guard as I stood and watched while following the rule of “not laying hands on the kids”. …Lol! Like I said earlier, we’ve known each other far too long through my podcast. Do you really think I stood there and simply watched? Well if you don’t, you might want to be sure to listen to this version of LifeFight so you can hear about the response that I gave.

The fight in the hallway wasn’t the only battle that I had while there. The biggest fight was in the oversized classroom that the kids and I were stuck in together for 3 hours. Of course I immediately seized control of the kids Battle Energy by daring them to prove how tough they were. Surely they all jumped at the opportunity to prove themselves, and of course I used this opportunity to trick them into executing harsh calisthenics and stretching which would hopefully settle down their Battle Energy to allow me to verbalize the life lessons of the choices that we make. Ha! And I say again, Ha! These kids weren’t going down easy! There was a minimum of the youth who participated at 100% and the one’s who had low interest were sure to be as disruptive as possible during the exercises. Even a well placed fart was boldly delivered during meditation to announce that the control of the calmness of the classroom was theirs, and there would be none unless they approved of it even if it meant totally embarrassing themselves.

As a leader and instructor of the martial arts, misbehavior is usually easy to control on the Dojo floor with a well placed Hip Toss on the mat or a Muay Thai leg kick that creates an immediate “frog” that temporarily takes away walking and standing abilities. But these were not options for me since I was holding class in the middle of a public school. The discipline powers of the Master Chief were bound away from their territory! But this didn’t stop my martial expertise. It only adjusted it. It forced me to use the art of fighting without fighting. How so you say??? Listen to 8th Graders vs Jermaine Andre’ and learn my tricky and sometimes hilarious strategies of fighting back against the ones that you cannot hit.

Jermaine Andre’!

“Now I’m in YOUR corner!”