Will I have to get hit?

No. Plenty of people train with me for months and never take a shot to the head.

Striking gets taught on pads and bags. Grappling gets taught on position and control. You can get genuinely good at both without anyone hitting you, and most adults who come for fitness or self-defense stay right there.

Here is how the striking side runs without contact. I hold the pads, you throw, and I move the pads the way a person moves. That is where timing, distance and balance come from. You can build an honest jab, cross and kick entirely on the mitts. What pad work is covers what an hour of it looks like. Defense works the same way: slipping, framing, changing levels, getting your head off the line, all drilled at a pace you agreed on first. See how you learn not to get hit.

Light contact does help eventually. Somebody who has never had anything come at their face tends to shut their eyes and turn away, and that habit is expensive. So if you want it, it is graded. Body only. Then a light touch to the head with big gloves and a mouthguard. Then a little more, if you want a little more. You set the level, you say stop, it stops. That is not a favor, that is how I coach.

Most people find it is far less frightening than the version in their head. The ones who decide it is not for them simply do not do it, and nobody talks them into it. Whether you have to spar at all is a separate decision again.

Training for a fight is a different deal and you will know it. See the competing answers.