Hi guys. Love this board and all of the charactures who populate it! My name is Jake and I live in Phoenix AZ. Sorry in advance if this post is in the wrong section. I would like to know what the area around Tim's school is like and if anyone would know of cheap apartment availability. I would like to live and study my ass off for this upcoming summer out there. I can easily survive bare bones (no furniture, few pots and pans, a blanket and a pillow) for a few months. So if any of you could let me know what the living situation is like over there, and if there are apartments really close to the school and what average rents are I would appriciate it immensely. Any one who helps me out gets free use of my body as a punching bag! (limited time offer)

Cheers guys... thanks!

You're looking at 800 to 1200 a month for an apartment in his area.

You can rent a room for 300 to 400 in nearby cities.

I got first dibs to punch you first. Oh yeah, everyone knows how I love body shots.

Jake,
If you can give a definite time you want to come out to train, we can help you find a place to stay at a reasonable price.

Tim and Meynard,

Thanks guys!

Tim, it starts to get HOT over here in May, so I'm looking at perhaps the middle of that month.
Really all I need is a place to sleep, nothing fancy as I'd like to be putting in 6-8 hours a day at the school and in personal practice. To bad there's not a "Happy Family" hostel nearbye the school.

Would it be cool with you if I made a few weekend runs out there to scope the scene and do some training?

Cheers guys and thanks again.

ps... Meynard.. please take it easy on me... I'm fragile. ;)

Putting in 6-8 hours might be a bit on the optimistic side. First off there arnt' 8 hours of class's, second If your body could take it you'd have the best genes I'd ever heard of. If you really think you can put that much time in you should look into other schools you would like to train at while you are here, south cali is a breeding ground for martial arts right now. You should deffinatly come check it out first. Hey I'm all for the romantic idea of the devoted student, but you should make sure it's what you want first. Where are you from? and whats your martial arts background?

-Chris

Oyama said that you need to train more than you sleep.

Hi Chris,

Please note that in my previous post I typed "6-8 hours a day at the school and IN PERSONAL PRACTICE." Before I fucked up my back (non MA related) I was training 6 hours a day-everyday. In the mornings I would do standing for an hour, circle walking for an hour, then straight line or other practice for an hour. Then classes for 3 hours in the evenings. Some days I would put even more in...some days not. I agree it's a bitch to keep that intensity up... but in my mind it is one more way of YI training. The intention becomes strong as hell. I'm 36 years old now and have practiced MA off and on since I was 10. As with the ups and downs of life, sometimes I've been more into it, sometimes less. I think Cali has always been a hotbed for MA. I lived in Hollywood back in the 80's when my hair was long and the music scene was rockin and even then there where some killer Hsing-I/BaGua people that I knew. I would like to check out Su Dong Chen while I'm out there. 5 years ago when I lived in Minneapolis, I knew some of his guys, (Su's daughter lived/lives there) and it was pretty cool stuff. I've also had the opportunity to live in some different places and study with a few different people, even spent some time in Japan and Taiwan, hence my reference to the "Happy Family" hostel in the above post. I do agree that lineage is really important, but I don't like to drop names becouse I believe that ultimately it comes down to what you can do and not how famous your teacher is. Besides I'm still and will always be just a student so starting from the very beginning at Tim's, I'm sure I'll have plenty to fill my days up.
Hope that helped to answer your questions
Looking forward to meeting you guys!
Cheers!

Shut up, kungfool. Everyone knows that I'm the fragile one. :-)

6-8 hours? An hour of standing and an hour of circle walking and an hour straight line. You have too much in time in your hands. You should think about getting some poon. You need a life. We have a guy who only practices an hour and half a week and he destroys EVERYBODY!

A day in BJJ should cure you of aspirations for 6-8 hours of training. More training doesn't mean better. It's not practice makes perfect. It's perfect practice makes perfect.

See you soon.

Jake,
I'll put the word out and see what turns up.

In the meantime, you are welcome to come and train on the weekends.

ps I'm on the mat 6 hours a day now and I'm old enough to be your big brother.
Those guys are just jealous because they have to work and stuff.

Damn right I'm jealous!!! I hate guys who have all the time in the world to train and rest. They get so much better faster.

Life sucks and I already hate kungfool. Now I have to get back to work. Crap.

I'm not saying it's impossable to train 8 hours a day. People in china used to do it when life was simpler, and apperantly the monks are still doing it today. I'm just saying that I used to be a live in student in an Aikido school, there I was on the mat at least 6 hours a day. However thats differnt then the training at Tims. Lots of calistenics and sparing tends to ware the body down, and if you're not used to it.......

When you spar and actually have to fight it's a different story.

I love it when guys who brag how they can train all day start wheezing after 5 minutes of sparring.

Don't let us discourage you from comming. You should deffinatly check out Tims place, The training is amazing and worth all the time money an effort! You'll likely never meet anouther teacher like Tim, I just think you should be prepaired to come and work hard, don't get discouraged, I was surprized my first day!

-Chris

Cheers *huff* guys! *weeeeez*...

Look..*pant-pant*...Looking forward to it!

I know that with the beatings I'm gonna take I'll need lots o' downtime. And thats cool, I'm down with that. I wouldn't want to train with you guys if I wasn't.

Everything I've ever heard, read, or seen about Tim has always, always been top notch!
I know for a fact I'm gonna learn alot... and hopefully make some new friends.

Cheers guys,

-Jake

i train 25 hours a day. i'll kill meynard if anyone says different.

ps. no sharp pointy things allowed

How bout blunt stick like things?

That's BS nobody can train 25 hours a day. Nobody. Okay, I said it. Now will you kill Meynard for the rest of of us. We will need proof. A photo of his mangled body would be nice. Maybe you could scourge him like the Romans did to Jesus. Everyone knows Meynard needs a beating anyway.

Let me go on record that the Romans were simply pawns in the game. My ancestors killed Jesus fair and square and I'm proud of it. I mean, maybe Jesus did walk on water and ••••, but if he did, his feet would have to have been enormous. But he had holes in them so there goes that theory. What the •••••...I'll just kill Meynard. Pictures coming shortly.

Chris...sticks and stones may break my bones so I don't train with them.

Kill Meynard...that's the greatest idea I've heard.

I hate his punk a$$.