Ethics First?

When training, consider your own ethical limits.  What are you willing to do to an assailant who is intent on hurting you?  How about an assailant who is intent on hurting someone else?  How about an assailant who is intent on taking your life?  The base question here is: what are your ethical limits around force?

If you’re not willing to take someone’s sight under any circumstances, should you be training eyepokes?  If you’re not willing to break somone’s elbow under any circumstances, should you be training armbars?  If you are willing to take somone’s eyesight, how would that affect you after the fact – would it keep you up at night, make for a good story, or simply be another example of someone getting in your way?

Ethical considerations, according to Rory Miller, are an oft neglected but vital part of training the martial arts.  I couldn’t agree more – the training floor is both the time and the space to consider these dilemmas and sort them out because the only thing there is time and space for in the fight is the fight.

Another excellent book by Mr. Miller.  I strongly recommend it.  He talks about more than ethics, in the book, of course but it seems particularly relevant piece to our system as we call ourselves “martial ethics method”.

For those of you who have been waiting for me to film the entire staff form – my apologies.  I hope to get to that soon but for now this clip should keep you hungry for more.