Max had come to realize that his ability to adapt wasn't entirely limitless; there were certain martial arts and specialized attack patterns he had to witness multiple times before he could truly dissect how they worked. This was especially true if there was a complex sequence of muscle motions or hidden momentum behind the strike.
Through his various street wars, he had mapped out his own cognitive boundaries. He knew it was vastly easier for him to replicate a technique if he had physically fought against it. If a style was trickier or relied on subverting expectations, it simply meant it would take him longer to analyze the mechanics before he could pull off a near-perfect replication.
