It's probably a good thing that I first studied boxing, rather than a traditional martial arts style.
I was also very fortunate to later have a martial arts instructor who appreciated my skill and mentality as a boxer. From day one, I knew I had to hit or get hit, not only in a fight but in my training sessions as well. Unfortunately, many other practitioners aren't as fortunate.
Most traditional martial arts schools focus on point fighting and consequently, they have some interesting drills and sparring sessions. For example, one of my favorite partner drills is a simple distancing drill using the side kick. Two practitioners square off and take turns firing a side kick at each other. One fires, the other defends using distancing and then counters. The drill then repeats.
When I do this drill, my partner and I always wear good protective gear and this allows us to make controlled, medium power contact. This is very important and will give you not only the proper distancing but a very real level of confidence you have never felt before.
However, in most traditional schools this drill is done quite differently. I have seen one Korean style school that had it's student's fire the kick with no conviction, no contact, no counter, and no repositioning. They were standing outside their opponents critical distance line and letting the kick fall short every time, on purpose. And they tell the students this is going to save their lives in a street fight! It will save someone's life in a street fight....the other guy's.
This practice of disallowing actual contact has many severe effects. First, there's your distancing.
You could liken it to practicing on the rifle range and intentionally firing short of your target, thinking this will allow you to hit the target in a real situation. You don't need to be a marksman to see how foolish this is. Similarly, if you constantly let your punches and kicks fall short in practice, they will fall short in a real altercation. You've heard that you play how you practice?
Well, you fight how you practice too.
Then there's the psychological downside to this line of thinking.
When you aren't making real contact in your training sessions, you are being conditioned to react to a kick for the sake of reacting. This stems form a training mentality that I call "cooperative combat". It works like this. A school focuses only on light contact when they train. The students are taught to block or avoid the punches and kicks and they do, even though there is no real contact being made. What happens is that eventually the student will become accustomed to his opponent defending against flaky punches and kicks even when it's not necessary. The two partners are in essence "cooperating" as they fight. If this practitioner then fights someone in full contact or enters a real altercation, this practitioner will subconsciously expect his opponent to react defensively. The opponent, who has no preconceived conditioning to react to a flaky punch or kick, takes it with no effect, and flattens the practitioner in question. I have seen it happen and I have done it myself.
This leads to the third and perhaps most dangerous consequence of training without full contact:
taking a shot. Or lots of them. If you don't condition yourself in the gym or dojo to take punishment, you won't take it in a fight either. Not only will you be beaten down physically, you will lack the psychological training needed to take a shot. Most people who are not used to real contact will freeze up when they get hit and this is all a full contact fighter needs to put you away.
You will also close your eyes. And it's not the punch you see that knocks you out, it's the one you don't see.
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