My deadlifts are feeling pretty good overall - no lower back pain whatsoever - I think that it's the dragging the bar over my knees part that occasionally goes wrong. The pain under my kneecap was a little scary. Aspercreme and rest will hopefully do the trick.
Re sparring -
It's pretty fun, actually. For testing, our sparring is really just for demonstration of that level's kicks - blue: jumping; purple: jump spinning; brown: multiple kicks in air. There's two people aiming their kicks towards one another, but the emphasis is on technique.
Tournament sparring is another matter. We score points if an attack - hitting or kicking - is within a certain distance - 8 inches or so for white belts, an inch or so for black belts. As an example - Gina's opening roundhouse kick to the head would have scored had she stopped the kick and rechambered within a few inches of her surprised competitor's head. So it emphasizes the self-control tenet. I still smack and get smacked once in a while. If serious contact does occur, both competitors are held to blame - the hitter for not being under control, and the hittee for not dodging the blow. Though the hitter can be penalized for total lack of body control or blind technique.
I know that many martial artists think that this style is a waste of time .... That's okay .. I'm still very new to all this and am happy where I'm at now. We get into controls and breakaways sometimes, and I realize that I want very little to do with joint work - one loss of concentration could really screw things up...
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