I've been involved in martial arts since 1973. I've worked on a lot of techniques and have done a lot of tournament sparring. Most of it has been "no-contact" or "light contact," although most of us who have done this know that there is a lot of contact, and it takes self-control to avoid excessive contact.

The skills that it takes to beat a black belt who is trying to punch and kick you are some of the same skills it takes to win on the street. I was in enough fights growing up to know. But at that time, I wasn't as knowledgeable as I became later. Fighting was always hard, but I always sort-of enjoyed it. I stood up to a lot of bullies over the years. Once a fight started, you never really knew what to expect. There was something I loved about that type of pressure. It was real life. And sometimes the smartest guy won, not just the toughest.

Traditional martial arts taught me a lot. In the beginning, I had the false confidence of a beginner, thinking I knew more than I did. As I got older, I knew how dangerous a self-defense situation could be as an adult. I learned how to avoid dangerous situations and to be ready for anything. And as I have evolved in the internal arts, I've seen the value they hold, but only if you approach them realistically.

I came across a book on One-Step Sparring from 1978 that illustrates one of the reasons traditional martial arts have fallen out of favor in place of MMA. This series of photos (above) shows a partner stepping and punching -- what we would call a "lunge punch." The instructor blocks from WAY outside, pulls back and does a knifehand, pulls back again and does an elbow to the chest, all while the attacker stands frozen like a statue. 

Bull droppings.

This is fantasy. A motivated attacker is going to take you out -- or take you down -- as soon as you pull back after the block.

Practicing one-steps is a good method of training, but the one-steps have to be realistic. We practice fighting techniques and applications from Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua. We begin by walking through it slowly, getting the angles right, the footwork, the body mechanics -- then we work them faster against a partner who is using multiple attacks without a pre-arranged choreography. And you keep doing it free-style. Then you pad up and do it with a little more force -- not enough to hurt your partner, of course, but enough to get the idea of how to use it against someone who isn't going to make it easy.

I did a point sparring DVD years ago that showed techniques and how they work in real tournament action. It was different from most sparring videos.

One-steps that involve multiple techniques should be a two-way street -- maybe we should call them "two-steps." If the defender is going to throw multiple techniques, the attacker should throw multiple realistic techniques.

A fight is always changing. Your opponent is going to surprise you and try to pull off techniques to take advantage of your weaknesses. Or he's going to overwhelm you and take you down. He's not going to stand there while you pull off two or three techniques.

I think a lot of us who do traditional martial arts have gotten a little more realistic over time. I hope so for your art's sake.