Recently we came in from our usual run before a session and a student of another class asked us if we just went on a run, we said "yes" and they jokingly asked us if we would be now too tired to workout in our session. Not that this is not a valid question and if we had taken the run to the limit maybe another hour plus workout would be daunting but not certainly not impossible. The reason I mention this is that I feel that a great part of learning skills is to be able to execute them to their highest degree. Fitness should have the same focus as your techniques, forms, striking or whatever you are working on. Conditioning is generally what wins a fight all else being equal. Kicks and punches can be executed well once or twice but how about over and over for round after round?
Anyway, as I run down the road to having at least some conditioning that is decent I always wonder what others are thinking in martial arts that don't associate their rankings with fight records or tournament wins. Blade fighting in particular is a tough one to "rank" because there are few tournaments and real fighting with live blades is impractical so you must improvise. Still, beyond the flashy techniques how long do you last in a sparring match without losing your wind?
