“Remember, fighting skills aren’t the key to self-protection: fighting is what happens when self-protection goes bad.” ??
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Self-protection, martial arts, and fighting, are not the same, they are related, but they are most definitely not the same.
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As martial artists we need to understand the difference between these three concepts. They are distinctly different, but also overlap one another. Often training can be completely unfocused. So therefore understand the differences, train for each objective and focus on the skills required for each scenario.
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“Sports sparring is not self-defense and has very little to do with it.” ~ Yasuhiro Uema 9th dan Shorin Ryu Shubukan
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No matter how realistic sparring is, it is never real. We are always making compromises in the name of safety. If we didn’t, every training session would result in the majority of students becoming injured in some way. Wearing safety equipment for our, and our partners protection, will always introduce a measure of unrealistic practice.
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When sparring try to ensure that the reality of a street fight stays at the forefront of your mind. Sparring is a means to an end; it is not the end in itself.
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? Photo Credit: Devon Photography ~ with thanks to Iain Abernethy