Contact in Sparring

[RTKDCMB]

it's been my observation that if a karate guy never trains with contact they don't transition so well when it's needed.

Depends on the training.

 

[RTKDCMB]

So for example if you have never made contact during sparring will you be able to adapt to a situation were you need to use full, or lethal contact on the street, or any dangerous situation?

I don't know about other schools but many people from ours had no trouble adapting in real situations. Also you should define 'no contact'. Do you mean just just stopping short of the targets or no contact of any kind at all The way we do it in my school you use full speed and power and control the distance so that you are a short distance (a few cm) from the target but you still have to block strikes or risk getting hit.

One of our interstate instructors does not seem to have any trouble adapting relative to his opponents (many of which do contact sparring):

As for the possible freezing issue I have seen many students and instructors get hit during black belt test and I have rarely, if ever, seen someone freeze up and stop unless it was because of injury and/or unconsciousness (one black belt candidate stopped when I knocked him out with a heel kick).

 

[Gerry Seymour]

one black belt candidate stopped when I knocked him out with a heel kick

I think most of us will stop at that point.

 

[RTKDCMB]

I think most of us will stop at that point.

I am just glad that I saw it was about to hit him and stopped myself before I hit him too hard.