For Instructors

This is the instructor's reference, for the person currently running the program, and for future alumni who will lead chapters at their colleges and parishes. The long-term vision depends on this being in writing: a college sophomore with no professional martial-arts background should be able to read these pages and run a session honorably. Written plans stand on their own.

Governing Principles

Telos. Defense of the weak, not self-actualization. Caritas expressed through the body. The knight, not the samurai and not the cage fighter.

Fortitude (ST II-II Q.123). Enduring rightly is primary. Attacking rightly is secondary. The Cross is the paradigm.

Hylomorphism. The body is you, formally ensouled. Training the body is training the soul. No mediating energy metaphysics needed. Catholic anthropology is better suited to martial arts than qi.

Community and solitude. Martial practice is relational because combat is relational. You cannot train alone. Drills, games, and assessments all require partners, teams, brothers. Solo martial practice (kata, guard sequences) is not part of this program. Inventing a solitary martial devotional produces something worse at both fighting and prayer. The solo component of formation is prayer. The program does not prescribe specific private devotional practice, but it presumes one.

Proportionality. Just-war proportionality as a technique principle. Apply exactly the force necessary and no more. Temperance as fighting style.

Examination of conscience. Integrated into the training rhythm. Did I train with wrath? Did I enjoy another's pain? Am I cultivating vainglory?