Point Sparring

The following post is excerpted from my article No Point: The Case Against Competition in the Martial Arts, which was published in the January 2001 issue of Taekwondo Times magazine.

Many martial artists involved in tournament competition incorrectly interchange the terms “sparring” and “fighting”. This can be a dangerous practice since sparring is very different from fighting, and in some cases the improvement of one’s sparring skills can actually be a detriment to one’s self-defense skills. The reason for this is that there are certain techniques that are deemed “illegal” in sparring, such as groin and knee kicks, and excessive head contact. The reason that these techniques are not acceptable in sparring is due to the fact that they can be very dangerous, which is exactly the reason that they are so effective in extreme self-defense situations. The truth is that “the tournament [competitor] doesn’t have to cope with reality.” [1] Tournament competitors who train to hone their sparring skills and remove “illegal” techniques from their personal arsenals in favor of more effective point-scoring techniques are not going to be able to call on these techniques to protect themselves on the street.

“In sport karate, the emphasis is on speed, not focus, and the techniques are often not valid; it’s all who can touch first. Tournament techniques are designed for one thing: scoring points. Therefore students are being rewarded for executing invalid martial arts techniques.” [2]

Self-Defense and Legal Implications

“When martial arts become sports, they emphasis techniques that are inappropriate for a self-defense situation. Often, someone who trains in self-defense will hesitate while his mind is attempting to adapt his martial arts repertoire to the rules of a point tournament. But this is far less dangerous than the tournament [competitor] who doesn’t understand the need to protect his knees or groin because he has been working within an environment that doesn’t stress such protection. It’s been said ‘As you train, so will you react.’ Anything which creates confusion in the mind of the practitioner causes a barrier between thought and action.” [2] Effective self-defense is not the ability to beat somebody up, rather it is the ability to avoid getting hurt yourself. A competitor’s mindset is often to strike first in order to score, which is actually contrary to the tenet that martial arts is for defense only. This approach is more likely to start fights than it is to end them, and even if you only get one bruise, it’s one bruise more than was necessary if the fight could have been avoided. “Real fights are only the ones you cannot avoid. Those are the only fights in which you’re in real danger.” [3] “If you can avoid a fight, you have conquered the situation. You have achieved victory.” [4]

“The ‘first-strike’ attitude of the [tournament competitor] goes against the ethics of most martial arts. On the street, a martial artist shouldn’t strike without provocation, yet sport karate forces the competitor to do so. This creates an aggressive, competitive, must-win mentality. In other words, in self-defense, if no one hits, everyone wins; in sport karate, if no one hits, no one wins.” [2] This problem also has legal implications as well. “The truth is that you stand a reasonable chance of facing criminal penalties for defending yourself using the knowledge you learn from the martial arts. For you to make a successful claim of self-defense, you must convince the police, judge or jury that you reasonably believed that you were in imminent danger of bodily harm from an unlawful attack by the assailant that you used only the force necessary to neutralize the threat. So in effect the burden of proof shifts from the prosecution to the defendant in cases of self-defense.” [5]

Benefits of Sparring

This is not to be interpreted as a case against sparring; on the contrary, sparring can be a useful tool, if done properly. Consider this analogy: Sparring can be to self-defense what skating is to ice hockey. Clearly skating is a crucial foundation skill for a hockey player to possess, but the ability to play effective hockey goes well beyond the ability to skate. Sparring can be used to improve balance, timing, distancing, reaction time, stamina, and many other qualities that an effective martial artist must posses. However, if these foundation skills are not built upon concurrent self-defense training, then they will not be useful for personal protection. In any event, “the role of modern martial arts training should be to improve the quality of a practitioner’s life, not fashion him into a lethal weapon.” [6]

---------------------
[1] Wong, Scott “Genghis”. “The Theoretical Martial Artist.” Martial Arts Training. September, 1993: 28-29, 70.
[2] Meyer, Lynn. “Can Sport Karate Ruin Your Self-Defense Skills.” Black Belt. November, 1989: 46-59.
[3] Blaur, Tony. “Where Do You Stand?” Martial Arts Training. May 1997: 45.
[4] Nardi, Thomas J. “Winning or Victory.” Martial Arts Training. July, 1993: 56-57.
[5] Bishop, James. “Guilty or Not Guilty?” Black Belt. February, 1999: 174-179.
[6] Plott, Michael J. “The 10 Dumbest Statements Martial Artists Make.” Black Belt. February, 1997.