Jimmy King

I've trained seriously in Bak Fu Pai and Je Ying Kuen styles of Kung Fu. Both are southern styles... lots of close up, incredibly fast hand work, very little kicking, and stances that make you wish for death while training, because a good base makes a HUGE difference in your power and ability to take a hit.

Je Ying Kuen was geared towards more of a general self defense style whereas Bak Fu Pai was very traditional with emphasis on all out viscious fighting ability. Bak Fu Pai especially felt geared more towards larger people, such as myself. Bak Fu Pai = White Tiger style. One of the elder monks, Fung Do Duk (sp?) fled to the mountains of southern china where, to make things short, got captured and seriously beat down by even the worst of the fighters in the White Tiger clan. The clans in this area, including the White Tiger, were generally larger than your average chinese people (hence being geared more towards larger people). He asked them to train him, he worked with them and incorporated their techniques into his traditional style, and there you've got Bak Fu Pai. There are only maybe 5 or so schools for this style in the US that I have come across in my searches, though.

Je Ying Kuen is highly based off of Wing Chun with other styles mixed in. My Sifu is the creator of the style. He originally studied under Wing Chun Grandmaster Yip Man. He came to America in the 70's for college and ended up living here. During his studies he read a story about a style where a man used paint brushes and based his techniques off of Chinese caligraphy. My Sifu thought this was cool idea and tried to do it with real moves. He traveled back to China to speak with his Grandmaster and refine the art and got permission to start teaching it here in America and now runs a small school in Iowa.

I prefer these southern styles to others because I personally find them more applicable in terms of defenseon the street than many other martial arts due to the emphasis on hand work (hands are closer to anything worth hitting on your opponent than your feet are) and emphasis on not kicking... one leg off the ground means you're easier to knock over, etc. Of these, Wing Chun is what you are most likely to find a local school for, and it is certainly worth looking into.

I have also played a tiny bit with Tae Kwon Do, although not seriously and spent a little time doing Capoiera, which is very cool, but incredibly difficult and not really good for a standard fight (it had it's use and was designed for that, but you're unlikely to encounter the situation these days).

I also recommend trying to find a smaller school. I find that with the smaller schools you can usually get much cheaper rates, my Je Ying Kuen school was $25 for 2 months and my Bak Fu Pai school was $30/month. I also find that the teaching is usually better at the small schools. You can get more one on one training with the instructor and higher level students and for the most part small schools are not going to be run by some hack who is just in it for the money whereas you run that risk with the big schools.