There are many different martial arts schools and training philosophies that appeal to different people, usually based on their goals. There are schools out there that I call "banger" schools. These schools focus on "banging" i.e. putting on sparring gear and punching each other in the face. Learning with this type of training philosophy is very slow as the teaching aspect is not emphasized, nor is individual development apart from "learning your lesson" during sparring. There are a significantly limited amount of students that will actually endure and stick around for this type of training. Usually, they have various mental disorders.
Traditional martial arts schools are better and focus heavy on teaching, learning forms, and various degrees of sparring. Traditional arts are great for discipline and structured teaching. Usually, the training methods are a mixed bag and what you get will depend on the school that you are training at. Some are more realistic than others. I have never seen effective weapons training at a traditional martial arts school. They can teach you flashy forms and techniques with a sword or knife, but if you tried to apply any of this information you would end up in the emergency room or the coroners slab. Traditional schools also operate off of what I call "The Untouchable Master Syndrome" this can usually be seen by a black belt with a gut hanging down to his knees who walks around and barks orders at the students. He is engaged in little of his own training anymore and he doesn't train with his students. He doesn't train with the students because "The Untouchable Master Syndrome" dictates that he has to be some undefeatable guru and his ego couldn't handle to blow of a student landing any sort of technique on him.
Our training philosophy can be summed up in one word: collaboration. Collaborative training means that everyone at Progressive Fighting Systems MN is dedicated to helping each other grow and learn. When we practice techniques you are invested in your training partners continued growth. Collaborative martial arts training means that if you spar you happy when you make a technique work but you are also happy when your training partners make a technique work on you. After all, our techniques are effective so I would expect that if I'm doing my job a student would be able to make them work on me! This is a different paradigm when it comes to training in martial arts. We don't believe in banging each other in the face repeatedly, where injuries are common and you dread your next training session, but rather providing an environment that is safe, fun, and effective for developing self-defense skills and better fitness.