I know that weapons are used but at my school was like home to a succesful point/continous sparring team which had world champions. Every couple of weeks we'd learn these self defense moves which looked ok but we never got to practice them against a restraining partner. It's good for competitions. Do u live in UK well what i learned is that the popular Lau Gar style in Britain is quite different to Lau Gar in China. When u learn the forms you get taught all the applications and stuff. I think it's better than most but i'm practicing for the the real thing streetfighting and i got tired of point sparring