TECHNIQUE; SUB-PRINCIPLE: Equal Rights

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This sub-principle is not about equal rights before the law or human rights or civil rights but about that which makes karate and martial arts technique principle unique. It is more about assigning equal rights of an adversary in their ability to react just as we react to them. IT is about the rights we shall assume in training whereby the tori-uke relationship relies on the right to present training methodologies that are realistic to real conflict and violence. 

We all have equal rights that our attackers will do everything in their power to do us harm and to avoid personal harm. It is about assuming both participants have the right to action, reaction, defense, movement, and intelligence. 

For every action of an attacker we must grant them equal and opposite ability to react against us, just as we react to them. At every action there is the equal right, the assumption, the adversary gets to act or react. 

In the dojo, equal rights does not necessarily exclude an instructors option to train students by starting with unrealistically deficient adversary’s. Such pedagogy could prove valuable with respect to focusing on methodologies, coordination, posture, etc. We must make the distinction in the dojo that in reality our adversary’s will be unpredictable, random, crafty, and a whole lot of other qualities we don’t want to face but will if attacked. We cannot predict what an attacker will do and therefore cannot train directly to those assumptions. We do know that regardless of what the adversary uses they will all be based on what principles are involved. Principles made no distinctions between types of attacks, methodologies and techniques, no distinctions between types of adversary’s and no distinctions between circumstances. Principles never vary.

Never hinder our tori and uke in training to certain attacks and/or responses (drill/technique based training models) as many self-defense courses do but allow them to use whatever they want and apply unpredictability, randomness, and craftiness in their scenarios. A real life violent conflict and/or attack will never be unpredictable or random in their principles.

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