Blitz - June-July 2017

26 ƫđƫ333ċ(%06)#ċ*!0 | (^) FEATURE STORY
Hong Kong, I would not have
the knowledge I have now —
no way.
My sifu now lives in
Vancouver and I go there. He’s
still very Chinese, but I know
how to handle it. I’m very sure
that other people who have no
experience in that, if they had
the chance to get lessons from
him, they would mess it up.
They would be thrown out, or
after a few days he would not
teach them anymore!
Have you had to go back
and re-learn things as a result
of your discoveries under
different masters?
I got lucky in that I’ve built
on top of each one, so the
knowledge just got deeper and
deeper. Every lineage has its
own set of choreography in
terms of forms; it’s always a
time-consuming thing to learn
new choreography. But engine-
wise, power-wise, energy-wise,
each part always built on the
other, pretty much. So, one sifu
complemented the other sifu.
For me it was very gradual:
Yip Man Wing Chun, Leung
Ting WingTsun...next was
Tang Yick Wing Chun... Okay,
it’s very different in a sense,
but some things are also very
similar. Then there was also
Yuen Kay San Wing Chun
— very similar to Yip Man’s
system, actually, just with some
add-ons. Instead of doing it
like this, all of a sudden you
have to add this [he makes a
series of hand gestures], and
then some rotation to the other
side — just some choreography.
Theoretically, it’s not much
different to the Leung Ting
system, so it was easy. But then,
it got more and more deep...
Check out next issue for part two
of this interview to read Sergio’s
views on pressure-testing, Wing
Chun weapons and physical
conditioning for kung fu. Read
more about Wing Chun force
production, internal exercises,
history and masters in Sergio
Iadarola’s book, available at
sifusergio.com/shop.
PROACTIVE POSITIONING
Faced with an encroaching aggressor,
Sergio’s strategy is to appear passive
while moving to the outside, away from
the rear hand and keeping his leading
hand close to his opponent’s...
...then as his opponent moves
to turn and possibly strike,
Sergio checks the near hand and
explodes in at an angle, his pre-
emptive punch covering the path
of his foe’s rear hand.
From here, Sergio exploits the
aggressor’s defensive reaction,
letting his near arm rise and
deflecting it across to open his
midsection to a strike...
...then
pinning the
arm into his
opponent’s
body as
he steps
through
with chain
punches...
...one always coming forward over the
top as the other withdraws, penetrating
through the target...
...and driving the
opponent’s head and
body backward until
he goes down.
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