Real Combat

To me, real combat is life or death. Real combat is survival. Like the animals in the wild, they fight for survival. If a deer is getting hunted down by a lion, he is running for his life, it is not a game, it is life or death. Like a Police Officer on the streets who's getting shot at, it's not a game, it's life or death. Like a soldier in war, it's not a game it's life or death. Gang members whom shoot each other on the streets, that is life or death. The shooter's in Paris killing innocent people, that is life or death. That to me is real combat. Anything that does not involve real death, is not real combat, it's a game or its a sport.

Sparring is fine, sparring is important for your development as a Martial Artist, but sparring needs to be safe, sparring needs to be intelligent, and sparring needs to be healthy. Like the way fencers spar, that can be done safe and healthy. Like the way people train in paintball or airsoft firearms, that can be done safe and healthy.  

But fighting out of competition, like how Boxers, Cage Fighters, or Street Fighters fight, that is not safe, that is not healthy.

If you are a scientist, you conduct safe experiments to discover truth. A Master in the Martial Arts is like a scientist, he conducts safe experiments through sparring to discover the truth. You never spar with real guns, real swords, or real knives. If you did, then it's not really sparring anymore, then it is a real fight for your life.

People who practice combat sport, they are not really sparring, they are not really fighting. They are in between. A Kung Fu Artist is not in between, he either spars intelligently and safely or he fights for real when necessary.