Originally Posted by
David Jamieson
technique demo and sparring are two different things.
Yes, it looks ritualistic by that measure.
Yes you should wear gear and freestyle and try to maintain the style through your sparring in order to get you using the style in a realistic manner and understanding what is high percentage useful and what is not.
Why gear? Because people make mistakes and you want to be as injury free as possible. Gear allows you to give it a little more to get a little more out of it.
There is not a single reputable fighter out there who trains sparring without gear. there is not a single reputable fighting club out there that promotes injury by not wearing some protection.
Dentistry costs a lot! (I have exactly 7 teeth left in my head and I know this intimately) losing sight in an eye can be a drag when all you wanted was a work out and so on.
demo technique is not sparring, drills are not sparring, low engagement is not sparring.
It's all good when it is put into a format that allows for the flow to get natural. Protecting yourself only makes sense.
On the street it's about survival. No one is on the streets when training, so it makes sense to approach it as realistically as possible and to be safe in the doing of that.