It's a place where one misstep can result in a fatal blow or a little juke can mean victory. It's where the exercise of sparing becomes a metaphor for life. And a sport that as a child growing up in the Gardner community, helped Martinez develop the strength to succeed in life.

For decades, Martinez has donated his time teaching boxing at Gardner Community Center, passing on those lessons among jabs and uppercuts.

"The whole idea of boxing is not fighting," Martinez says. "My focus is being accountable, understanding your body, understanding your mind, knowing you can control your body and understand that you have choices."

After a yearlong hiatus, Martinez restarted his twice weekly boxing classes in Gardner's new community center in October. In the center's large multi-purpose room, more than 20 boys and girls ranging from eight to 21 years old learn to box under Martinez' watchful eye.

Martinez is a tough, no-nonsense kind of guy. He teaches with a commanding presence, counting out repetitions and encouraging students to push their bodies. "You're in charge of your body," he barks. "Take charge!"

The students, donned in sportswear and school clothes, punch the air with boxing hand wraps. Their faces range from fierce to lackadaisical, with murmurs of conversation and laughter spotted throughout the room. Students who grow tired of a particular exercise are asked to run in place.

"Pick it up, pick it up, pick it up!" he bellows throughout the room, pushing the students to run harder. But as tough as he is, Martinez does not shirk on praise.

As the students repeat a series of punch combinations, Martinez makes his way around to every student in the room, working with them individually and patting them on the back. "Good, good, good!" he praises the group with a smile.

Many Gardner children come from one-parent families who have to work several jobs to make ends meet. As a result, many children lack discipline and respect, Gardner Community Center director Tony Torres says. Boxing with Martinez instills those qualities, he adds.

Despite a busy schedule directing three San Jose community centers, Torres regularly assists Martinez with his boxing class.

Torres says Martinez' lessons have resonated with him. "When I'm at the gym, I hear Rudy's voice in my head, telling me to keep going, to finish what I started," Torres says.

Boxing student Juan Carlos Aguilar, 16, says Martinez' style is tough, but welcome. "He's disciplined, I like that," Juan says.

Juan wanted to box since he the age of 12, but Gardner's boxing program has been his first opportunity to box. The Lincoln High School student was expelled from his last school for fighting. Today, Aguilar exercises more control.

"Now when people say something to me, I don't care," he says.

As a lifelong fighter, learning self-control is a lesson Martinez still works to master. "You're a better man if you can turn the other cheek," he says.

Martinez believes he can impart this philosophy on his students through the sport of boxing. To instill in students like Aguilar an understanding that it's not just about defending oneself in a fight, but to use his boxing skills as a way to reign in his negative impulses.

Martinez say the exploration of oneself begins with the body. "You'd be amazed at how many people don't even look at their body," he notes.

Once a student becomes aware of his or her body, they begin to understand how it functions—its strengths and weaknesses, he says. They then begin to understand how their emotions affect their actions and can choose how to respond.

Yet Martinez' own interest in boxing was born out of the desire to defend himself as the new "kid" on the block. One of 12 children, Martinez' family moved to Gardner from Gilroy when he was 10 years old.

Within a year, Martinez was training to be a boxer. He trained with Romeo Mendez out of a makeshift community center at Bird and W. Virginia avenues. He lost his first fight when he was 12 years old, but the loss was enough to motivate him, recording many victories in the years to come.

Sparring Partners

Despite Gardner's reputation as a tough neighborhood, longtime residents Martinez and Torres have fond memories of growing up in the community. Their memories revolve around the canneries— including the now defunct Del Monte Cannery—that lured many Gardner families into the area. Torres, who is a generation younger than Martinez, remembers him, even then, as a young man who stood out in a crowd.

Among the many things he did, Torres says, Martinez would help organize fundraisers for Gardner families who could not afford to bury their dead relatives.

"Before it was in fashion to be in a neighborhood association, he did that as an individual," Torres adds.

Martinez' sense of leadership was evident even as a teenager. When Martinez's trainer, Mendez, left the community, 17-year-old Martinez began to train his fellow boxers, filling the void. The boxers didn't have the fancy tassels or boxer's shoes like their San Jose opponents. "We had nothing," Martinez says. "But when we got in the ring, we knew how to fight."

Martinez later trained with Dave Nelson for several Golden Glove tournaments. The Golden Glove tournaments are a stepping stone for amateurs, and Martinez walked away a 1972 and 1974 champion in the middle weight division.

In 1973, Martinez joined the U.S. Marine Corps and became a member of the All Marine Boxing Team, training in San Diego.

But when boxing trials for the 1976 Olympics came around, his former trainer, Mendez, remembered Martinez' skills and offered to prepare him for trials. Mendez then advocated for Martinez, writing to his commanding officer and asking that Martinez be granted special leave to train for the Olympic trials.

With the OK from the Marines, Martinez began training for the Olympic trials with Mendez back in Gardner. He lost his second fight at the trials. But he's never forgotten how glad he was that Mendez pushed him to new heights when he was only 22 years old.

Six years later, Martinez was ready for his next challenge—the professional boxing world. To become a professional, Martinez had to pass a physical and apply for a boxing license with the California Athletic Commission in Sacramento.

At the time, the prime age for a boxer was 26 years old, he was already past the prime age for the sport. But for Martinez, boxing was a thrill. He enjoyed being strong enough to outbox his opponents. He thrived from the attention of large crowds, and the sport had taught him who he was. For many boxers, he says, spotlight becomes addicting.

"I just wanted to see what being a professional was like," he says. "It was terrible. Dog-eat-dog."

After two years and seven fights, both in California and bordering states, Martinez quit.

He returned to all the things that kept him grounded in the competitive boxing world—his mentors, and teaching the sport to younger generations.

Homeward Bound

In his 33 years of teaching, Martinez has watched generations of Gardner children pass through his classes. As in all neighborhoods, their lives met a variety of fates, ranging from time at San Quentin State Prison to an education at UC­Berkeley.

His current class is filled with many students who have been training with Martinez for only two months. As Martinez leads them through more than an hour of cardio-boxing exercises, passersby stop to watch. Some parents even take the class with their children.

Parental involvement is a key element to Martinez. He wants to meet all the students' parents and will go to their homes to get acquainted if necessary. He also encourages all parents to visit the class, to either participate or simply watch their children train.

The class has attracted students like 15-year-old Zoyla Huitron, a Willow Glen High School student. Inspired by her boxer sister, Zoyla visited the new center and was pleased to discover that it offered boxing classes.

"At first it was scary, because I was the only girl," Zoyla says. "But I got used to it."

Today, the class roster boasts a handful of girls, as the male-dominated sport is being cracked by with female boxers like Laila Ali and Jacqui Frazier-Lyde.

But Zoyla already has an athletic bent, having run cross country in school. With a coy laugh, she says, "I want to be tough."

For 10-year-old Bryan Diaz, a fifth grader at Gardner Academy, boxing is a way to defend himself. "There's a lot of psycho people, you never know," he says.

Bryan has been in a schoolyard fight with boys who have called him names and threw the first punch. But mostly, Bryan takes pleasure in the sport, he particularly likes wrapping his hands and practicing the punches. His mother's boyfriend has also taken an interest in Bryan's boxing, teaching him a few tricks of his own.

Jose Lechuga, a painter in Willow Glen, is currently the oldest member of the class at 21. Besides Martinez, Lechuga is the most seasoned boxer in the room, and Martinez often asks him to demonstrate punches or shadowbox for the rest of the class.

Lechuga has boxed for four years and has already had three competitive fights. Lechuga's interest in boxing goes back more than a decade, when he would watch boxing with his father on television.

After working with an unreliable trainer, Lechuga decided to sign up with Martinez. "What I like about boxing is it makes you feel confident, it makes you feel good," Lechuga says. "When I meet people now, I'm more outspoken."

For determined fighters like Lechuga, Martinez will train them to box competitively. Martinez says fights are available locally through organizations like the San Jose Police Activities League. But he'll only send fighters into the ring after they've trained with him for a year. And while training these fighters, Martinez is their only opponent.

But for many, he's a neighborhood icon. His picture was imprinted on one of the local hero murals outside the Gardner Community Center. Martinez, however, downplays the recognition, crediting the neighborhood with enabling him to thrive.

"Once you're in and you do right, there's a bond here," he says. "It's not a community, it's a family."

For more information on boxing classes, contact the Gardner Community Center located at 520 W. Virginia St., at 408.277.4761.