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 Jan 29, 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 True Story about the Ultimate Self-Defense Skill

awareness chen xiaowang self-defense zhan zhuang Jan 27, 2019

In March, 2013, Chen Xiaoxing came to Chicago to do a workshop on Xinjia Yilu. Nancy and I stayed for the weekend in a hotel downtown.

After the first day of the workshop, we took a walk from the hotel onto Michigan Avenue. We wanted to do some shopping along the Magnificent Mile and enjoy dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

March in Chicago can be very cold, but we got lucky. This was the warmest day of the year in Chicago after a cold winter.

The photo above shows Nancy as we are beginning our walk. The Magnificent Mile is behind her down the street.

As we got into the shopping area, the sidewalks became more crowded. I was enjoying the people but I noticed there were a lot of young people in their teens to around 20, maybe 21 or 22. We kept walking and there were more people. The young people were scattered through the crowd, in groups of two or more.

As we got deeper into the area, the crowds got a little heavier. I have been in crowds before. New York City is one...

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 True Story about the Ultimate Self-Defense Skill

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