Not a silly argument for the audience that comes to folks like me. They aren't going to commit more than about 3 hours a week (at best - averages to less than that with vacations). That means there's not so much time for fitness. When a new technique is being learned, it slows class down for everyone involved (even if it's not new to them).
A committed boxer isn't going to the gym just 3 hours a week. That's the key difference.
My only disagreement would be the "never". There are classes where a brand new technique is the focus, and that doesn't always leave room for them to sweat (beyond the 15-minute warm-up).
It depends what the instructor is offering. If he's just teaching an art ("just" not being pejorative), then you are correct. If he's offering training for self-defense or fighting ability, then fitness should be a part of the consideration, even if that were only covered as advice. Some might not like that last point, but I'd be okay with an instructor who said, "Our classes get pretty technical. If you expect to keep up, you need to be doing X to keep in shape."
You can "learn technique" in school. That's the 50% training. You also need to "develop ability". That's the other 50% training.
This brings up another point we actually discussed on here recently. If the classes are 1 hour long, you don't have that much time to do 'fitness' things. If the classes are 2-3 hours, or they go to multiple classes (grappling, technical, sparring, etc.) in a day, there's more time to devote to fitness, without worrying that it's taking away from the technical you want to teach/learn. There's only so much you can learn in a day without overloading.
I also find some students are better at intensity than others. I have one student who is pretty fit (attends a few fitness classes), but rarely breaks a sweat in class, because he's very cerebral. He stops a lot to examine techniques and figure out why things do/don't work. That's good for his ability to improvise, but it means he almost never gets a good workout in class. I was like that some days, and other days I would do a technique over and over, regardless of the number of falls I took or how hard they were. I loved ending a class all sweaty, but it didn't always happen, especially if I was working with a new student.
That's the reason I've resisted the trend (among instructors I know) to move to 1-hour classes. I keep to 90 minutes, so there's time at the beginning to at least pay a bit of attention to fitness. I know some who do no warm-up or exercise at the beginning of class.
Onetime I had a group Taiji class. I intended to teach the 108 move Taiji form within 3 months.
I think part of it is simply a difference in expectation. If someone goes to a boxing gym (and probably to an MMA gym), they expect to be put through fitness regimen. When someone comes to a martial arts school, they may expect rigorous classes, but they aren't expecting fitness classes, unless that's advertised. If I had a full-time school, I'd go get trained more for fitness and offer some classes specifically or primarily around that aim. Some folks would join them, but most probably wouldn't. That's the nature of the hobbyists.
The one thing about this, is that you still have all the technical knowledge. So if you suddenly enter a match with only technical knowledge, you'l probably get manhandled. But you still have that knowledge so once you spend 2-3 months focusing on fitness/sparring/application, you are leagues ahead of the fighters who started in that gym to begin with, and have the same time there as you.
"No time for fitness" doesn't automatically translate to "no time to spar" or "no resistive training".
I even created some forms for folks to practice key movements at home. I end up re-teaching the forms from time to time, because they aren't using them much.
This is why you go to school to "develop and test" your MA skill through partner training and sparring/wrestling. When you are at home, you "enhance and polish" your MA skill through solo drills and weight equipment.
Well what's the rush to learn all the techniques? Also if you haven't got good fitness those techniques will be useless if you're gassed out in seconds. Doesn't need to be a whole class on fitness even just 20 minutes for a warm up would be enough to start with.
No that's why YOU go just because that's what you think it should be that doesn't mean everyone wants that as I've said some simply can't do much at home and don't have the time, the space etc a good instructor should be able to support everyone's needs sure you can teach technique but doesn't mean you can't get a good workout doing so.
i think it rather depends on what people are calling fitness ?
