Honorable fighting or honorable combat

[Grenadier]

In the classroom, where my job is to bring people along, and sharpen their skills, sparring is done in a civil manner, where full effort is being expended, but impacts are controlled with distancing. The amount of impact received depends on a number of variables (physical size of the individual, conditioning, experience, rank, etc).

In cases where we're preparing people for tournament sparring, we'll allow decent contact to the body, and light contact to the face / head at the more advanced levels. There really isn't anything to be gained by allowing people to smash their fists and feet into each other's faces at full force. All you end up doing is discouraging people, and having them quit on you.

Even the Kyokushin practitioners don't allow full contact punching to the face, which should be a pretty good indicator here.

In situations where a criminal is seeking to inflict bodily harm, I whole-heartedly agree with Big Don, that codes of fighting honor go out the window. The way I see it, criminals don't really have a sense of fighting honor, and will be the recipient of everything that I can throw at them, whether it be fists, feet, head butts, biting, blades, bullets, etc.

[Hollywood1340]

It's not about who's right, but who's left.

[Twin Fist]

If it has to be me or you, trust me, it is going to be you, no matter what I have to resort to.

Quoted for MF'ing truth

[sgtmac_46]

How do you define honorable fighting or honorable combat (whichever you choose to call it)? As martial artists, we believe to some extent that violence is appropriate. In what forms do you considering it appropriate and/or honorable? Do you ever consider it honorable?

Before answering the question, one needs to define 'honor'.........sometimes we make the mistake of thinking it's something like morality. The reality is that honor is about duty and obligation.

Therefore, our sense of honor is about our ability to fulfill our duties and obligations, whatever they are.

At it's core, what is fundamentally honorable is what is considered the fundamental aspect of manhood........at it's fundamental, manhood is about the ability to protect ones land, women and children..........hence, those obligations make actions toward those ends 'honorable', and actions that are detrimental to those ends 'dishonorable'.

Add to that in a larger society many take on roles and societal protectors.......military and law enforcement, for example, have taken the responsibility and duty to protect the society and uphold a code of conduct.........actions that further those ends are 'honorable'.......those actions that are detrimental, such as cowardace, are 'dishonorable'.

Is fighting every honorable? Certainly, if it is engaged in as a furtherance of duty or obligation.

Not all physical confrontations are about 'honor'.....self-defense, for example, wouldn't strictly be about honor.......defending another would.......but not being an issue of honor doesn't necessarily make them 'wrong'.........self-defense is absolutely moral and just, it's just not strictly an act of 'honor'.