good traditional tai chi or kung in greater tampa area

[silversurfer]

Im looking for advice to any good and skilled teachers in the greater tampa area. Ive seen some Wing Chun Swift not sure if thats a good school and I found a web link to Alan Goldberg but his site is down so I dont know if hes teaching in tampa is he???? I looked at Wah lum and I was surprised by the sheer size of their classes! What are your thoughts on that school??? Also any tai chi masters you know of teaching??? Im interested in chen or hsing yi or bagua.........your help would be greatly appreciated for that Im relocating to that area from Connecticut and Im not sure who to check out when I check out apartments in a few weeks. Also, this guy isnt in tampa but in ocala which i beleiev is in central florida and he teaches pak mei is he any good????? I dont know his name.

later

mike

[mantiskilla]

lungyingjingjung.com

I dont know about the Pak Mei guy in Ocala, but his teacher is the real deal, and he has been with him for many years, so he may be very good. Ocala is a long drive from Tampa. There is a school in north Tampa that teaches Bagua, dont know anything about it. There is a guy in Sarasota that teaches Chen, and is supposed to be very good, but i dont know his name. He does not have a school per se, but i think he teaches in the park, so that is a good sign. Swift does have a school in Tampa still, on MLK I believe. There is a school in Brandon with Art D'Agastino (sp?), and I have seen his chen, and it looked pretty **** good to me, he knows his stuff. There is also Pong Lai mantis on Lois Ave. and few other people around that I have heard about, that dont have schools, but teach in the park or their backyard etc. The link i gave is for my teacher.
________
Jaguar Mark Ix Picture

[Oso]

Sifu Art D. was my teacher's Wah Lum teacher and speaks very highly of his skills. If you are looking for more internal you probably won't go wrong there.

There is indeed Pong Lai Mantis on Lois Ave. It's more 'external' though with lots of body conditioning. Pong Lai also has a new school in Plant City.

www.ponglai.com

[Frogman]

Good morning friends. It’s another beautiful day in Tampa, your can’t go wrong with the weather. It is starting to get hot though. Silversufer, I train at the Wah Lum school in Tampa, I have been there for 6 years and enjoy it very much. Our Sifu has been with Grandmaster Chan for over 25 years and he also teaches Tai Chi. What day did you go to the school? Afternoon classes during the week average 15 to 20 and evening 20 to 25 people. Saturday morning is a good turn out but we have plenty of room. I think this Saturday we had close to 40 people show up. Good class though, my legs were killing me all day Sunday. Still if Praying Mantis is not what your looking for then I suggest you checking out the July 4th tournament in Orlando hosted by Nick Screama (sp?) There is a lot of good Kung Fu in Florida and most of them participate in this event. This is a good chance to see many schools at once. Anyway good luck with you search.


fm

[KungFu Krissy]

I don't know if you decided on a school or not yet, but I just started training at Wah Lum of Tampa with Sifu Tom Haase, and I would highly reccommend that you come in for a class and check it out. The classes are great (and challenging!), and you can tell that Sifu Tom really loves teaching. He is an excellent teacher that will push you to your limit, and then make you go just a little more.

Also, as Frogman mentioned, Nick Scrima also runs a very good school, which is located in the Palm Harbor/Clearwater area.

Good luck finding a school!

[Becca]

Pai Lum has several schools down there, as well as a few up near you now, if you want to check it out before you go...

[Lu Bu]

I highly highly highly recommend the Pong Lai school that Oso metioned, on Lois Ave. I promise...you can't go wrong there. If nothing else, at least check it out. You won't be disappointed.