I was recently talking with a friend who’s a high-level taekwondo guy. He was telling me about a school he’d visited that really impressed him. It had a large, highly motivated group of students. Most were athletic and pushing to achieve as much as they could, regardless of age or size. The forms were crisp. The self-defense drills were sharp. The school was excellent in every way except one. There was no real contact in sparring, not even among the black belts.