1.) Imperial training didn't affect the learn rate at all. It did affect the length of the fight and honestly it usually had the affect of making them shorter rather then loonger (since I was actively using it to try and kill).

I specifically used a hit and run fighting style to build up STSF and actually that didn't work out that well. The primary reason being the people I was worried about (giant bashers) could still bash me down really well (they didn't rely much on melee damage so it didn't help a ton). Now the people it was excellent against were shifters. The lion/bear/eagle/wolverine were the only remotly challenging shifter fights and only because they could do a lot of direct damage with rake/furor. Other shifters were pretty unable to hurt me between STSF and Imperial Training.

At the end of the day a lot of my fights resulted in someone dead or fleeing before STSF got two charges in. (There were also a lot of high int people I was fighting against)