User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 447: Escape Battle, Review./@comment-26451407-20150805081453/@comment-7418318-20150805084556

Remember the Phantom Lord arc?

There Makarov said to Jose: "Such power. Impressive in one so young."

Would he say that if mages just stopped getting more powerful at some arbitrary age?

If there is a reason why Gildarts wouldn't grow stronger, it might be a dislike or not caring for training, but we know too little about what he does when he's away to judge that.

For all we know his long journeys are full of hard training only broken up by shot stupid adventures like seen in his solitary journey chapters.