You can see that besides Swordsmanship, Shining taught Spike martial arts as well, Shining did made arrangements for Spike to come to the Crystal Empire many times to train but he couldn't come all the time, by following his teacher's instructions Spike did some training back in Ponyville City on his own, Spike started at age 11 and during the next four years he started improving, his agility, speed, strength, and everything, Sometimes he and Shining have sparing matches to test how far he has learned. Although they are Student and Master they do have a brother like relationship with each other something they haven't had before.