Well, let this be the last post from me on this subject. Obviously I am doing a poor job explaining myself. What I was trying to illustrate is that "fat" has nothing to do with it, except in that it CAN be a symptom of the real issue. That is why I said there is fat and there is FAT. I mean that one is a result of age, accident, infirmity, injury, what have you, the other is from laziness and sloth. This difference is perfectly clear to anyone who sits through a single class session when researching a school. This is my point.
A few examples - Sensei Hopkins, a personal friend recently passed away. He was in his 80's, and he was a master of jiu jitsu and a master teacher. He was slow moving and looked every day of his age, but he could still do knuckle pushups, and earned a blackbelt in the ABA shortly before his death, testing better than men in their fifties. You wouldn't know that until you saw him teach, but when he did it was unmistakable.
My instructor for most of my life - John Collins. He was overweight, two plastic knees, but walked everyday, trained as much as he could, and I have never met a better teacher of Bando - bar none. There was a time when he wasn't able to walk because they were replacing his knees. We trained in chairs together and developed some intreresting python (grappling) entries out of a seated position. He never stopped training.
Another MA teacher (no name this time) nearby where I lived was a high level blackbelt. He sweated walking up stairs, sat when he taught, didn't demonstrate techniques unless the student was absolutely lost, and weighed almost 400 pounds. His students were very sloppy, but he promoted them anyway. Now he knew TONS of facts and tecniques - talked about them all the time when people should have been training - but honestly, would you train with him? In the five years he used the same facilities I trained in, I never once saw a student stay with him to BB.
These are people that I have trained with and around. It seems that several people have been unable to get past the word "Fat" in my posts, and that I simply have been communicating poorly. For that I apologize. But in fact, the super fit "dancer" who really doesn't teach substance is also someone I would avoid.
And for my last point, I'd like to state that I absolutely understand the power of good teachers and their abilties to teach. Teaching is the highest calling in my opinion, and a great teacher can do more for his / her students than perhaps even you all understand. They can literally save lives and "souls". And, in fact, this is WHY I'm so adamant about a teacher living his / her word. If you're going to demand something from your students you had better walk the walk with them! If you don't you may be doing more harm than good, and that's literally a blasphemy to me. "Do as I say, not as I do?" I don't think so! I guarantee it doesn't work, no matter how much they know, and no matter how talented a learner you are. Martial Arts are a physical pursuit, a Martial artist should always be working to the utmost of their physical abilities.
