n this clip hard body shots are agreed and head shots with open hands are agreed. Standard rules for this sort of thing.
I didn’t see any hard body shots in that clip.
Gloves relieve pressure because they save you from hurting your hands and they make targetting much less important. Unfortunately they also ruin timing, power generation, and target aquisition. This is why intelligent fighters train often without gloves. Do you train much without them?
I think most schools train the “free form chi sao” sort of sparring/fighting/whatever you want to call it, like that shown in a large number of Phillipp Bayer clips, with bare hands, but wear light gloves, cups, mouthpieces, and shin pads when sparring from outside contact, including kicks, clinching, takedowns, etc. With perhaps occasional forays into heavier gloves, headgear, etc.
There are too many possibilities for accidental injury if you are working through multiple ranges without some form of protective gear. Injuries can be permanent, even career-ending, and treatment, especially dental, very expensive. As a school owner you may run the risk of lawsuits if you are seen to have too cavalier an attitude to student safety. Keeping a level of control that keeps everyone safe while still allowing realism in training is not easy, and every now and then my instructor has to rein people in when they start going too hard.
At one of my post instructor level WC gradings I did “freeform chi sao” with my instructor barehanded for about 20 minutes, weapons sparring with heavy padding, stickfighting jackets and helmets and cricket gloves, and ten continuous rounds of sparring (hard hits to the body, tags to the head per your “standard” conventions) with multiple fresh instructor level students, wearing light MMA gloves, cup, shin pads and mouthpiece.
I finished unable to stand for a few minutes, multiple contusions including a handprint on my ribs that left a bruise so perfectly shaped that three fingers and part of a fourth could be clearly made out, and two black eyes. Nearly all of which came from the “free form chi sao”. It was meant to be hard and punishing and it was.
I think “intelligent fighters” use protective gear as appropriate, and there is absolutely a place for it. I’ve had enough experience with both bare hands and light gloves to be able to function well enough with either.
Over the last five or so years I’ve had about $65000 of dental work, some of which is martial arts related, including two implants. I don’t spar any more due to the potential financial implications. I can still kick and move pretty well for a guy my age, but my goals these days are about remaining strong, supple and mobile, not being able to despatch mortal enemies or be a bada$$ streetfighter, whatever that means.
Jiu Jitsu, I roll pretty hard for a 60 year old four times a week with just a mouthpiece against all comers including nationally ranked brown belts in their twenties and a masters’ black belt world champion. I’m not sure many on this forum (if there are in fact many on this forum any more) will still be training so often and so pain free at my age if they are not sensible with their training methods and expectations.
I’m not trying to big note myself here. I would expect most decent WC practitioners who have trained for more than 20 years to have similar stories. I would expect to be the norm rather than the exception.