The first thing to point out is that the self defense techniques are not designed to be used in sparring. Sparring is a very specific combat style activity which has very specific restrictions. Self defense techniques are designed for a different situation with different rules.
That being said, I felt the same way while watching people spar in a Kenpo school. It does look like generic punch kick karate, and has very little to do with Kenpo. So I took some kenpo techniques and taught them in my sparring class where my students could drill them repeatedly and try to use them in combat.
Some good examples are using Delayed Sword or the first part of Attacking Mace against a jab, and using Deflecting Hammer against a kick, but changing the elbow strike to what is commonly reffered to as a "reverse punch" or "cross."
The key is to pick one technique, and then have the students spar. One student uses only the attack for that technique, over and over and over. The other student uses only the specific assigned defense. After a few minutes, switch roles. Repeat this process with two or three techniques. Then have the students do the drill, this time using any of the attacks you've practiced, but only those attacks, while the other student uses any of the prescribed defenses. Finally, let them spar unrestricted, but have them focus on using the practiced defenses whenever the specific attacks are presented.
The key here is that the students have to drill these defenses against attacks. If they've practiced kenpo enough, these things will happen naturally, but it's easy, even for an experienced kenpo practitioner to fall into the trap of using basic sparring maneuvers when playing that game. I always insisted my students fire at least two strikes at a time, students firing single strikes were warned, and on some nights when it was our focus, we would drop for pushups whenever we fired one strike with no follow up, even me. One strike will fail 99% of the time. Two strikes have a fifty fifty chance of success, but three or more strikes will succeed 99% of the time. Combinations, practice, and repetition is how you get better at sparring, and working your kenpo into your sparring is the same.
Ultimately, sparring is an intermediate drill. As students progress in their training, they should move past karate style sparring into continuous sparring, and eventually into fully integrated combat style activities, involving stand up and ground grappling as well as street techniques and targets, of course with control. During these activities, you will see more self defense technique material because these activities are more closely related to the arena for which that material was created.
-Rob
