Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

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

full contact vs point sparring point sparring pulling punches real life self defense self-defense Oct 16, 2025

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 nev...

A Good Point About Self-Defense

real life self defense self-defense xingyi self-defense Apr 11, 2008

My good friend and loyal visitor Evan Yeung wrote this in an email:

"I'm thoroughly enjoying your latest DVD release. I'm halfway through the Beng Chuan section. The applications you've presented are straightforward and applicable to real life situations and some tournament sparring as well. I suppose the magic of Hsing-I is that the base moves are simple (relatively speaking, of course), but are remarkably versatile. John Painter, in his book on Combat Baguazhang, says that in a true fighting situation the complex moves rarely work... when the adrenaline is pumping, tunnel vision is occuring, and tactile sensitivity is going to hell, it's the simple moves that have been drilled that rely on larger muscle groups that take over. I think Hsing-I fits that bill."

I agree with Painter -- in a real-life self-defense situation, you won't have time for a lot of the complex movements. I've thrown out some chin-na movements because they were so impractical in a fighting situation that ...

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

A Good Point About Self-Defense

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