Why we should not do light contact sparring?
Yesterday in our class, we worked on "run your opponent down". After 2 hours of training, we all felt as if we were punched on the body with full power for 2 hours.
If
- you move in toward your opponent with full speed, and
- your body is well connected (your opponent's body contact will not force your shoulder joint or elbow joint to bend),
when your hand push on your opponent's neck (safer than punch to the face), he will feel a lot of power behind it. He can't tell you to take easy on him because the only thing that you can reduce your power is to "disconnect your body" such as collapse either your shoulder joint or elbow joint. By using either approaches, you will develop bad habit.
A XingYi Pao Chuan should be performed as
"the upward blocking arm is like to raise the curtain, you then walk underneath it with your punch".
The "walk underneath it" is important. You are punching with your body weight and not with your arm. How can you do "light contact sparring" if you train this way?
What's your thought?