[skinkestek]

My father would drill that into me as a kid.

That and the fact that war is not like in books or movies: it is ugly and best avoided.

[Uberphallus]

Also interesting how that's the approach of Krav Maga as martial art. The 1st rule is, run if you can. The 2nd rule is, finish the fight ASAP and run. The rest derives from those two rules.

[im3w1l]

With such a motto, you'd expect them to practice sprinting a lot, but curiously, I've never seen that happen!

[Uberphallus]

Well, you can see the first rule as "try not to use what you learn".

Can't speak for all instructors, but mine went directly to technique for those who ran/cycled to the gym and stretched before the class, letting the rest warm up in the meantime... running.

Also most demonstrations you can see on the Internet always end with running and most comments make fun of that, so it's certainly included in the practice.

[im3w1l]

I stand corrected

[drummojg]

I was taught the same through Shotokan Karate. The credo spoken at every training (called "Dojo Kun") starts with "Seek perfection of character" and ends with "Refrain from violent behavior."