All the YouTube on this blog so far has been examples of what we would call "advanced sparring," where kick boxing strikes are allowed in addition to weapon strikes. This advanced sparring is important to do for two reasons: 1) to help people new to the martial arts learn a wider variety of self-defense techniques, and 2) to help people who have martial arts training integrate unarmed strikes with their weapons strikes.
As each round progresses these kick boxing strikes become more frequent. Our safety-weapons we spar with do not have as much impact as a kick or a punch, and as the fighters get tired they tend to do whatever they can to slow down their opponent. To make sure everyone has plenty of weapons-technique practice we recommend that all Tres Espadas fighters practice what we call "basic sparring" (even if they are also doing advanced sparring on the same day.) Basic sparring is basically the same as advanced sparring, only without the kick boxing punches, kicks, or knee strikes. Here is some YouTube of basic sparring from last weekend:
