Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

A Martial Arts Myth: If You Do Point Sparring You Won't Be Able to Use Power in a Self-Defense Situation

In my opinion, a highly-skilled martial artist should be able to apply the right amount of force when needed, but in some situations, you should be able to apply no force at all. Being able to do both requires skill.

There is currently a "tough guy" attitude in martial arts, especially online. Here is one argument they make: If you spend a lot of time point-sparring, you won't be able to apply force when you need it in a self-defense situation. Instead, you will pull your punches.

I call malarkey, and I know it's malarkey because of my personal experience. 

Skill Development and Control

Pulling punches and using light contact in sparring teaches fine motor control and precision. This enables you to "choose" between delivering light or heavy contact, depending on the situation, which is crucial in real-life self-defense to avoid unnecessary harm or legal consequences. It is also important to be able to spar without hurting your training partners.

In 51 years of sparring, I have never hurt a sparring partner. Anyone can spar me and not worry about being hurt. 

Training for Power Separately

For power development, I work my punches and kicks on heavy bags, I do pad drills where I punch with power, and I break boards to focus and test the power of my techniques. 

You can practice your mechanics by punching or kicking the air. Even boxers do shadow boxing, but by using heavy bags, Bobs, and other equipment, you prepare for full-force application.

Neuroscience of Training

Motor skills and power delivery are transferable. Your body "remembers" how to generate power when needed because you've trained those mechanics repeatedly on the proper equipment.

The refinement from light-contact sparring and the power from heavy striking exercises reinforce each other, rather than being mutually exclusive.

Mental Conditioning

Light-contact sparring, especially in dynamic, fast-paced scenarios when your opponent is equally or more highly skilled, helps you develop the reflexes to respond to an attack, and the strategies you need to quickly size up an opponent's weaknesses and overcome them.

I have sparred so many times, over so many decades, that I am confident I can instantly call on my skills in timing, distancing, and detecting weaknesses and moments of vulnerability in a real-life attacker. In almost every case of real-life self-defense, I guarantee my opponent will not have the training I have, and the ability to strike when he is vulnerable. Over hundreds of matches, I learned the exact moment my opponent was vulnerable to attack. And nobody got hurt.

Real-Life Examples

I have been in many fights growing up. I never trained in any martial arts before I was 20, but I could still make a bully run with one punch to the face. I knew how to use power when needed.

After 18 years of nothing but point-sparring, I competed in a full-contact match. Because I had done point sparring, I knew when my opponent was vulnerable and I struck him almost at will. Because I had combined no-contact sparring with power generation on the heavy bag and other equipment, I was able to snap his head with my punches. And I did not have even one full-contact sparring session to prepare for my full-contact fight. I didn't need it. You don't, either. Here is one of the photos from the fight, when I caused his head to whip from the force of the punch.

According to the argument the tough guys make, in my full-contact match, I should have been pulling my punches, since all I had done for 18 years was point sparring. But that was not the case because the argument is based on a misconception.

Key Takeaway

I can ride a bicycle. I can go for months without riding a bicycle, but when I get on, I know instantly how to ride it.

I can ride a bicycle even though I spend most of my time driving a car.

Doing one does not mean I can't do the other. My body knows how to adapt. I don't press the gas pedal with the same power I use to pedal the bicycle. 

I can also ride a motorcycle, even though I might not have ridden one in years. My body remembers how.

The ability to deliver power in a real self-defense situation depends on the quality and variety of training, not solely on the level of contact in sparring. A well-rounded martial artist builds both control and power through diverse training.

When I spar with someone, I don't trust the martial artist who doesn't have the skill to avoid hurting me. If he has the ability to deliver power, but the skill to hold back that power and bring his fist within an inch of my face without hitting me, he has my respect.

Self-control is the sign of a highly skilled martial artist.

A Final Point

Anytime you spar and someone isn't going to the hospital, you have pulled your punches. You have taken it easy on your partner. Quit pretending you haven't.

You don't have to prove to anyone that you are tough. The only time you have to prove it is when you are in a self-defense situation. Hopefully, you can live the rest of your life without that happening. Unless you get into a ring and do full-contact. At that point, if you have trained right, your body will know what to do. I know that for a fact.

--by Ken Gullette