I have watched the Zimmerman fiasco with half-an-eye since it began. Frankly, if I were walking in a neighborhood where I had every right to be, and some guy without a badge starts closing on me, yeah - we're gonna have a problem. I can see the Martin perspective. I also see the Zimmerman perspective - he's trying to keep his neighborhood safe. I can find more to fault with Zimmerman than Martin - from a Right & Wrong, Reaction/Over Reaction perspective. I'm not talking about the legal misconduct that has been epic.
Zimmerman - you want to be a cop, go to the academy. Zimmerman's community - you want real security, then do it right with radios, protocols for engaging suspicious people, et cetera. This half-assed silliness when it comes to perimeter security gets people killed.
But from a CQB perspective: Every account I have read says Martin "got the mount" on Zimmerman. This means Zimmerman was on his back, and Martin was straddling him - either at the shoulders, the chest, or belly/hips. Either way, Zimmerman was in a BAD spot. Every report I have read (and evidence I have seen in pictures) suggests Martin was using his advantage and beating the snot out of Zimmerman.
Fight to your Weapon is the theme of my CQB class. I do not teach my students how to grapple their way out from under a guy who has the mount - that's beyond the scope of my class. But Zimmerman managed to do EXACTLY what I try to teach my students - he managed to keep Martin from knocking him out or killing him, while at the same time he managed to deploy his weapon and end the fight. Well done.
Here's my nit to pick - since I have my little attitude problem about being challenged by ANYONE in a place I have a Right to be, especially by some civilian who isn't OBVIOUSLY legit - if Zimmerman had just a few weeks in almost ANY groundfighting class, ju-jutsu, BJJ, GJJ, he'd have been able to end that fight without killing Martin, with a technique ALL of my students have seen in my class.
Most of you have watched when Holly straddled my chest, she captured one of my extended arms, rolled to the side and put me in an armbar? If Martin had the mount on Zimmerman and was either punching downward (by some accounts) or had hold of his head and was pounding it to the concrete (by some accounts) Martin was GIVING ZIMMERMAN THE ARMBAR.Caveat: Yes, it matters whether Martin was straddling Zimmerman at the shoulders or chest or hips, but only in the number of moves Zimmerman would have needed to take the arm and break it - ending the fight without muzzle-blast.
I'm not declaring right or wrong of either Zimmerman or Martin - I'm simply showing my students, and telling the rest of you, (and my students have SEEN how easily Holly was able to catch my arm and break the elbow if she had chosen to do so) that if you just train up a bit you improve your odds of survival exponentially.
Folks - get to a school. 6 months of Krav. Can't find a good Krav school, find a good GJJ or BJJ school, or even check into a dojo that claims "MMA" curriculum. If you train for the 300 yard fight, and the 30 yard fight, great! But I promise you, and there is no better current example than the Zimmerman case, that the 30' fight, even if YOU have the gun, can turn into a 3" deathfight in moments.
This is a teachable moment - don't miss the lesson.
Kerodin
III
