I don't think it is that simple when it comes to seeing the health of a person. Genetics can play a huge role. There are very fit martial artists who get overweight in later years simply because of metabolism. Likewise, some are very skinny or even muscular but are not fit. The true test is to see if the students, or, especially the teacher, has stamina. If they are out of breath from 30 seconds, for example, of cardio then clearly they are out of shape. For style it depends on the school as you said. Aikido is taught to Japanese cops and they must become proficient in it as part of their training. And Taikwondo is taught to body guards in some countries. Kali is used sometimes in teaching special forces. Whatever the style is it has to be tested out, at least once in a while in a more intense application to make sure that it works. But the slow learning definitely has an effect which helps the faster application testing. For example, Wing Chun slow drills help you to become confident in the moves until they become engrained in your muscle memory. I had tried classes for a few weeks to see if I liked it. I remember being surprised when a friend jokingly attacked me and I did a bunch of hand movements without thinking. And it worked. When I say 'without thinking', I don't mean that my conscience was not involved. What I mean is that I didn't have to reason out what I was going to do to defend myself, because within that quick decision of saying yes to self defense, my body reacted based on the drills. Imagine what years of proper training would accomplish.
I don't think it is that simple when it comes to seeing the health of a person. Genetics can play a huge role. There are very fit martial artists who get overweight in later years simply because of metabolism. Likewise, some are very skinny or even muscular but are not fit. The true test is to see if the students, or, especially the teacher, has stamina. If they are out of breath from 30 seconds, for example, of cardio then clearly they are out of shape.
For style it depends on the school as you said. Aikido is taught to Japanese cops and they must become proficient in it as part of their training. And Taikwondo is taught to body guards in some countries. Kali is used sometimes in teaching special forces. Whatever the style is it has to be tested out, at least once in a while in a more intense application to make sure that it works. But the slow learning definitely has an effect which helps the faster application testing. For example, Wing Chun slow drills help you to become confident in the moves until they become engrained in your muscle memory. I had tried classes for a few weeks to see if I liked it. I remember being surprised when a friend jokingly attacked me and I did a bunch of hand movements without thinking. And it worked. When I say 'without thinking', I don't mean that my conscience was not involved. What I mean is that I didn't have to reason out what I was going to do to defend myself, because within that quick decision of saying yes to self defense, my body reacted based on the drills. Imagine what years of proper training would accomplish.