Anyone familiar with this Teacher/Shcool?

[Kymus]

I was glancing through this months KFQG and I noticed the results of the Hong Kung Fu Tournament and saw that there was a Kung Fu school I've never heard of that is actually in the same town as me (5 miles from my house actually). So I googled, and came up with this site: http://chaantzu.com . It's head instructor is Mr. Ismail Saadat, who is said to have learned from: GM Art Sikes, Master Kai Sung, and Dr. Wu Min An (anyone heard of them either?). I looked around on the website and it looks like a pretty good school. The only thing I find a little odd is that there are fines issued for lack of uniform or repeated absences. I understand the severity of these, but I have never heard of fines being issued for such problems. Perhaps it's a way to earn extra income? The school seems to be leased from some basement or something. They offer also lessons in Chan meditation, which I find great since I follow Chan. Mr. Saadat has also had some articles in different magazines, including one I remeber reading in KFQG. The school itself placed higher than my old Green Dragon Kuoshu school, which I find rather impressive (however I percieve tournament rank as better instruction and performance, not the better I'll learn to kick ass). So is anyone familiar with this guy or any of his instructors? Also, it seems that Mr. Saadat goes by the title Chaan Tzu. Any clue on what that means? I am unfamiliar with that title. Thanks in advance for any info.

[Ben Gash]

When I've seen these guys in magazines they've always seemed a bit goofy to me (Do a search on the forum for Ismail Saadat and you'll find a previous thread about him). As far as I can tell, Chaan Tzu would mean Zen Ancestor :confused: That's assuming that Tzu is the same as in Sun Tzu, Lao Tzu and Song Taitzu.
My Sifu technically bills you for a class if you don't tell him in advance that you won't be there, although he is pretty lax about enforcing it. The idea is to stop students from not going simply because they "don't feel like it tonight".
At the end of the day, go along, ask to see a class, have a chat to the Sifu and see what you think. That's the best advice I can give about most schools.