The Q of how long people should train at boxing technique before being allowed to spar came up in a coaching course I did on the weekend.

One trainer only waited 3 months but most believed a longer period of time - up to a year was better.

The trainer who put his guys in after only 3 months had safety issues sparring and had actually broken one of his student's elbows throwing body shots because his student had not developed any control yet and he had to go hard to keep him at bay. The coach was only throwing body shots thinking he wouldn't do him any damage but he did.

The coaches who train their students longer in technique before sparring came from clubs who were generally more successful in competition.

I think that there are a lot of partnerwork drills you can do like moving around with jabs and single punch counters etc (at random times rather than in a set rhythm) which would be closer to sparring but not so overwhelming you can't get good technique in.

Still this seems a bit controversial and maybe if you and your partner are not taking each other's heads off in sparring its OK. What's you coach say?