I want to enroll in a martial arts school in my neighbourhood. The lessons are given by a shaolin monk and the few lessons I followed were really intense and interesting. When I asked if we were going to do sparring exercises, I was told that we were only going to practice on punching bags.

The reasons for this are:

• sparring is considered 'playing'
• Kung fu doesn't focus on fighting, but tries to avoid a fight. Only when no other option is available a 'fighter' finishes it with one blow.

These are reasons that I think are valid, but still it seems strange to me, because if you never 'practice a fight', how can you be prepared?

So my question is, can you effectively learn Kung Fu without sparring?

I want to stress that I don't want to learn it to 'kick ass', but that I do want to be able to defend myself when (if ever) needed.