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Originally Posted by Zeraph
"Bruce Lee, toward the end of his life, had actually reached a point where he could no longer spar with anyone; they simply couln't take his punches and kicks."
That's either a lie or worded wrong. Maybe no one was a challenge for him? That I could see, but the better one gets in martial arts the better control one has. So as he was getting better he would have gotten better at sparring, not worse. One never goes full power in sparring, otherwise it wouldn't be sparring. So the above quoted statement makes no sense.
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As someone who's devoted his life to martial arts, it makes
perfect sense. What use would sparing be if you heald back? Would you want to hold back in a real fight? The point of sparing is to come as close to fighting as possible so that when the time comes you are able to give 100%. If you only give 20% in sparing matches, it would be more difficult to reach 100% when necessary. I'm sure Bruce Lee
could hold himself back, but why would he want to? Holding yourself back is a terrific waste of time. I ran into similar problems at martial arts schools. They do something called 'point sparing'. No full contact. You give them love taps on the stomach, or the arms, or the chest (but never the head!). And guess how well people who learn point sparing do in real fights. They generally get one good punch in, then get their asses kicked.