For what it's worth:
One of my best teachers (albiet, I only trained with him for a short time) was Dave Gould -- someone who would be considered, easily, one of the best Filipino Martial Artists in the United States, foremost authorities on the Lameco Eskrima system, and by far the "toughest" Martial Artist that I've ever met, seen, or heard of. The intensity of training with him was unlike anything else, as was both his technical skill, and raw speed and power. By all measures, he's as close as it comes to "the real deal," and posses a wealth of technical knowledge, stories, and experience to boot, which he freely shares.
Lessons, if I recall, were something like $15 for an hour. Something absurdly cheap. And they often ran well in excess of an hour. The Dojo was his front yard. I don't think he does it for the money, but for the love of the art and in order to have people to train with. By far, the lessons I did with him were the best value that I've ever had, and I wish I had lived near him long enough to become much more proficient in the system.
Great teachers like this training out of their back yard are obscure and hard to find. I learned about him from a contact on this forum. But, if you seek it, you will find it. Just do what you can with what you have. I spent a tremendous amount of effort and money to seek out the martial arts, and martial artists that I wanted to learn (from), and in no case have I ever driven less than two hours to go train -- usually just once a month, if that. If you can go out and train with someone once or twice a month and form a local group to train with, your options broaden substantially.
