Foot Fight at the Vo-Tech Corral

Sometimes you find yourself in a situation for which you may not think that you’re prepared, but it turns out you were.  This happened to me once when I was in high school and was confronted by three other students.  I grew up having Asperger’s syndrome.  In fact, I’ve spent my whole life having Asperger’s Syndrome, and it wasn’t until a few years ago that I even figured out what was wrong with me.  When you have Asperger’s Syndrome, you are socially inept, and generally smaller than your peer group and not very coordinated physically.  I was always the last one to be picked for sports games from grade school on, and I have a lot of experience standing alone in right field hoping that the ball was not hit my way.  On the other hand, I did have a high IQ (Mensa level), but that doesn’t help much when you have troubling focusing, and have compulsive thoughts and behaviors.

Because of all my troubles that Asperger’s Syndrome caused me, I started looking for solutions in my early adolescence.  Because I was socially inept, I spent a lot of my time alone reading.  I had discovered Marvel comics in my childhood as a vicarious power fantasy against the slings and arrows of my isolated fortune, and I spent a lot of time at the library, where I discovered a book by Jesse Stern called Yoga, Youth, and Reincarnation.  This was the late 1960 and yoga was unknown.  But I started practicing the postures in the book, which slowly gave me more control over my less than finely coordinated body.   I spent countless hours of my life motionless in various postures, often for several minutes at a time.  Plus, I managed to order Joe Weider’s basic muscle building course out of the back of a Marvel comic.  Unlike most people who buy an exercise machine and never use it, I started doing my yoga and muscle building exercises every morning for 1 to 2 hours because I was desperate to not be the socially unpopular and smallest kid in school.

One of the other problematic behaviors that I exhibited as a result of my high IQ and Asperger’s was that I would say things that really upset others, and I was totally unaware of it.  By the time I was about half-way through high school, I had grow physically so that I was at least a middle-size male.  My body was like that of a lean gymnast.  In fact, I was so strong that I could climb the length of the silver wires that supported telephone poles.  I could do this using only my bare hands, and it only took me a few seconds.  Again, because of my Asperger’s, I did not realize how hot I was, and I was the biggest loser in my own mind because I couldn’t make a lot of good friends and felt very unpopular.

There was another student who was smaller than I.  His name was Tommy.  He started making fun of me in the hallways sometimes.  One day, he made a comment to me when there were no other people in the hallways.  Out of a subconscious desire to be macho, I grabbed his collar with my right hand and push him up against the wall.  I really am not a violent person, and will easily apologize to avoid conflict, even if you were less than correct.  But I had learned to apply violence only to the level that would solve the problem.  I did not like to hurt people nor see them hurt.  So I didn’t hit him, I just said that I was bigger than him and that he should no longer make fun of me.  Then I let him go and walked away.

This event came to a climax one Friday night during a high school football game.  The high school was next to the football field, and across the street from the parking lot was the vo-tech building.  It was dark and cloudless night.  I was walking alone by the vo-tech building.  I was all alone, or so I thought, when out of the shadows three figures appeared.  There was Tommy on my left,  and there was another guy on my right.  And in the center was Randy.  Randy was the personification of trailer park trash.  He was tough and taller than me.  I was frozen in fear at the sudden wall that had appeared out of the shadows.  Randy started talking and telling me how upset he was for what I had done to Tommy.  I started agreeing and apologizing.  My only thought was how to escape from this scary and unpleasant situation.  But Randy had other plans.  Suddenly Randy swung one leg straight up between my legs.  The force was so great that my feet were lifted off the ground for a moment. Now another thing that I had practiced was kicking.  I had a book called Bruce Tegner Teaches Karate.  Part of my exercise routine was to also practice delivering kicks, especially to the face.  I do not know how many times I had practiced kicking imaginary faces.  So even though most guys would have fell in pain to the ground, and the three cowards would have begun kicking and stomping him, and it definitely would not be a pleasant situation, so I subconsciously ignored the pain and let the adrenaline response take over.  I immediately delivered a kick towards Randy’s face.  I came back down into fighting stance and said, “I don’t want to fight, but if you want to fight, I’ll fight.”  Of course I didn’t want to fight, the odds were 3 to one.  What were my chances?  I looked at Randy for a moment like an unleashed tiger, ready to begin kicking at the slightest motion.  It was all Zen, and I did not even know what Zen was.  My subconscious mind had safely guided me through a series of unfortunate occurrences, so it was to my delight when Randy said that he didn’t want to fight either but I had to be nice to Tommy.  I agreed, if Tommy would be nice to me too.  The deal was done. Randy said, “Ok,” with a slow nod, then he and his two friends turned and walked into the darkness. relief sweep through my body.  I was hurt.  I walked painfully back to my home about 3 blocks away.

I had big bruises between my legs for the next week.  That’s how hard I had been kicked.  Fortunately my pants cover the bruises, but had to walk with a slow half-limp while the damage repaired.  In spite of the need for recovery, I think I won that fight.  Thank you, Joe Weider! Thank you, Jesse Stern! Thank you, Bruce Tegner!  Results are better than words.  Without their training, I would had been decimated by overwhelming force.  With their training, I was prepared for and won the foot fight at the vo-tech corral.