I study under Frank Versagi at the Shao-lin Center for martial arts and i've had a very good experience thus far. Sifu Frank is excellent at combining realistic situations with traditional northern shaolin gong fu. We use 50% hands and 50% feet in our approach to fighting.
Sifu Frank is very no nonsense. Dont come to play around; you wont last long. When sifu is talking, we stand is some sort of stance (ma bu, monk stance, etc). We say "yes sir" and "no sir". When sifu is talking or demostrating something, you are not allowed to stand behind him.
Despite all that, he is receptive to learning new things pertaining to Shaolin. I trained with Master Shi DeCheng during the month of october, 2005 in Deng Feng and i brought back all the empty hand and weapon Ji Ben Gong plus 4 forms. Sifu allowed me to teach him what i learned and continues to allow me to teach classes though i'm not at an instructor level.
And Gene, we still lacked running water at various times when i was there
Don't Just Live- Live and Perform
Center for Integrative Health and Perfomance
www.centerforIHAP.com