Tim,
When you teach sparring do you advocate the type of sparring that develops specific moves. For example, let's say you want to develop a basic deflect and punch. You would have the person throw everything at you, including the kitchen sink, and all you can use is that basic deflect and punch.

I've been told that this is the way to develop skill in using your style in actual combat. In my opinion though this seems like the long way of training combat. It would take forever to acid test EVERY deflection in your boxing regimen. Agree or disagree?

Classico,

Limiting sparring to only using certain techniques is a good way to practice as it forces the students to focus on specific techniques they might otherwise not adequately develop.

The sparring must be contextual and within certain parameters though. In your example, allowing one partner to "throw everything" while the other is limited to one type of deflection and punch isn't really possible, no single technique will be applicable against every possible type of attack.