Luo De Xiu

[Ronin.74]

I would agree that Luo is legit although I can't speak for those students. Since the website claims that they don't teach-for-profit, I would guess that this is anything but a mcdojo (pure speculation).
Nonetheless, bagua is not the quickest way to become a fighter. If chinese culture is really attractive to you, then taoist arts certainly have it in spades. However, even a really good bagua teacher is going to need several years of really intensive work to turn you into a good fighter.
If you want the best of both worlds, go train at a good kickboxing/muay thai gym for a year or so and then come back to this. You'll get much more out of bagua if you are already a capable fighter...

Quoted for truth

[D Dempsey]

I think (but could be wrong) that in training under Hung I Hsiang, the training was Tang Shou Do, followed by Xing Yi, then Ba Gua with Tai Chi (martial) learned after much experience. Well, anyway, that's suggested by the BBC tape and Robert Smith's writing. But what do I know?

That sounds like the standard Tang Shou Tao curriculum. The only difference is that Luo didn't learn Bagua under Hung, well sort of, he learned most of his bagua from another teacher who he trained with without Hung's knowledge. As a side note, Luo got good at Bagua by fighting in lei tai matches, which was a major part of the TSD's original training.

[jleeger]

Hey there, not sure if you already got your answer, but I'd say you should definitely try this school out. I have never worked with Bill or anyone from the Colorado school directly, but I have trained under George Wood in VA, another of Luo Dexiu's students, and found it to be the best martial art/martial arts training I've ever experienced.

My only lamentation is that I moved to San Francisco.