Tim,
I'm finding in my martial arts school that a student's interest starts to wain after only a few years. There "indoor disciples" learn supposedly cool things and that is used as a carrot of sorts for students to reach as a goal. Few reach it. People complain that the "higher" level stuff is the same and boring.

My question is this: How do you keep things interesting in your school for long term students? I know you have belts and that must have something to do with it(no belts in my school). What does Shen Wu offer in terms of "higher level" material if such a thing really exists as other than a different interpretation of form? Is level at Shen Wu measured by individual accomplishment or more with BJJ belts or both? I'd imagine that with competitive sparring daily it's hard to get bored. Even with that do you find students get bored of doing that when the same people end up against each other continuously?

"How do you keep things interesting"

I hear "role-playing" works wonders for some couples.

I think in most martial arts schools interest wains in a relatively short period of time regardless of style. Most people will not stick to any discipline long enough to master the respective art, the time and effort required is too great for the average person.

Motivation must be self generated for the most part. Also, the school needs to have a well rounded and complete curriculum, at least for the particular skills sets offered.

In my academy, there is a lot of material to learn. I don't teach forms in my group MMA or BJJ classes, "higher level" training involves better and better mastery of the body method and greater and greater proficiency at applying technique under realistic conditions.

You are right about sparring, it's difficult to get bored when presented with constant challenges. Sparring is also the best gauge of actual individual ability, so students can recognize their progress and assess where they need to put in more work. Without realistic training drills, sparring and competition, I imagine students would get bored of repeating the same forms for years on end without any feedback on why they are practicing as they do in the first place.

All skill should be measured by individual accomplishment. Comparing oneself to others can be a useful tool sometimes to measure relative skill, but the real measure of accomplishment is how much improved you are as an individual compared to yourself over time. The correct question when it comes to advancement in any discipline that has self-cultivation as a primary purpose isn't "who am I better than?" but rather "am I better than I was compared to myself as time goes on?"

As usual, well put Tim!