“Tournament fighting is very different to an actual confrontation, which often happens without warning and at close range. We do not practice ‘sparring’ in this fashion.” (End quote) – Taira Masaji 9th dan Goju Ryu
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A technique might work very well against another practitioner in the dojo, using only passive resistance against you. However, does it work against somebody offering active resistance? And I don’t mean consensual sparring.
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A lot of martial arts techniques and applications, in my humble opinion, don’t work against a non-compliant opponent, especially so when applied in the ways that the vast majority of people try to apply it. (Karate on karate type attacks)
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When doing combat drills, you and your opponent should be executing them with the requisite speed and intensity. In other words; stepping, turning, striking or displacing with intent – using the force necessary to deal effectively with a violent encounter (within the realms of safe practice).
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This force is not going to manifest without correct biomechanics, using proper form. Form cannot be acquired or be developed unless you are doing it with the requisite speed and power intrinsically necessary to defend an attack.
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When I am teaching a new principle or technique, I will demonstrate it at full speed and intensity to display that this the goal, this is how you apply it, this is the motion and action when power and intensity is involved. We then practice it slowly. From here, I can adjust a students form – correct their arms or feet, change their position, posture, or grip, etc. Then they can start to perform the movement harder, faster and with intensity.
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I’m not too concerned about having the perfect idealized “form”, or the perfect aesthetic, but only the proper function of their motion.
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For personal self-protection it is nearly impossible to generate the intensity needed to effectively strike out in sudden violence unless a person is accustomed to striking at things with practiced violence. (Again not karate on karate attacks)
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Compliance is a must to learn a technique, and this should be followed by progressive resistance, or non-compliance to add realism and build your skill.
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If your goal in the martial arts is self-protection, then train the way you will actually fight when your life is endangered….. But remember. If your technique doesn’t consistently work with resistance and pressure testing, IT WON’T WORK. PERIOD. 
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