Sifu Sergio Pascal Iadarola began practising judo in Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands, at the age of six. He has won several local competitions, and throughout his adolescence, he also developed his skills by training in other martial arts, such as Pencak Silat and Wado Kai Karate.
Following the Path of Bruce Lee
SiFu Sergio was a huge fan of Bruce Lee since the start and used to read and study everything there was to know about him. SiFu Sergio began practising the martial art Wing Chun just as it was for Bruce Lee did.
To learn more about his idol’s specific martial arts development, he spoke with some of Bruce’s early students, including James de Mile and Jesse Glover. Along with friends, he also went to as many martial arts schools in Amsterdam as he could to watch or participate in lessons.
Initial Training
Grandmaster Wang Kiu, a direct student of the late Grandmaster Ip Man and an immigrant to The Netherlands in the 1970s, and Sifu R. Vogel taught Sifu Sergio the Wing Chun system in 1987.
He began reading Grandmaster Leung Ting’s book “WingTsun Kuen” about two months into his training (the last closed-door disciple of the late Grandmaster Ip Man). Sifu Sergio was so motivated by the book that he decided to leave Sifu Wang Kiu’s school after just four months of training and begin looking for a Leung Ting-affiliated school. That same year, Sifu Sergio began studying the Leung Ting WingTsun System with Frank Schäfer.
Training from the Best of their Time
To advance himself and realise his full potential in Wing Chun, Sifu Sergio travelled extensively throughout Europe from 1994 to 1998, attending numerous seminars of Sifu Emin Botztepe in Germany and Italy and taking countless private lessons from Leung Ting Wing Tsun masters like Sifu H.P. Edel and Sifu S. Avci.
Personal Student of SiFu Leung Ting
Sifu Sergio had a dream to one day study personally with Sifu Leung Ting, and thanks to his perseverance, he achieved that dream during a trip to Asia in the same period. His dream came true when he met Grandmaster Leung Ting in Hong Kong. Grandmaster Leung Ting graciously accepted Sifu Sergio as a private student, and plans were made to begin Sifu Leung Ting’s private training as soon as possible.
Sifu Sergio decided to finish and complete the unarmed Leung Ting WingTsun system under Sifu Slavko Truntic, one of Sifu Leung Ting’s master students, before returning to Europe to make plans to stay in Hong Kong longer. This was the right course of action because it allowed Sifu Leung Ting to correct him instead of teaching him the system’s basics.
Completing the system
As the first person to ever learn the Bart Cham Dao from Sifu Alan Fong, Sifu Sergio travelled to New York in November and December 2001 to finish the Leung Ting WingTsun weapon system: Look Dim Poon Kwun and the Bart Cham Dao. Si-Pak Alan Fong promoted him to a 7th-level practician during this trip after noticing his unarmed WingTsun prowess.
Passion for Wing Chun
Shortly after opening all these schools, Sifu Sergio realised that the Ip Man Wing Chun lineage and the lineages descended from it were not the only lineages in China. His passion for Wing Chun, Chinese Kung Fu history, and philosophy fuelled this realisation. He took some time to come to terms with the fact that there were older and more complete lineages.
His consistency in learning more and more each day became his passion for moving upwards in Martial Arts, and this passion is shown in his training sessions, and that’s why he is one of the leading Wing Chun Masters.
Taking it to the Next Level
Sifu Sergio has spent over 20 years travelling and living in Hong Kong and travelling throughout Asia to help gain a better level of understanding of what the complete Wing Chun Kung fu system should be. Travelling to mainland China, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. His attention to detail and his level of research helped him gain the name of the “Encyclopaedia of Chinese Martial Arts”, and drawing from his experience of different lineages, such as Tang Yick, Gu Lao, Yuen Kay San and looking at the ancient scriptures it was evident that Wing Chun dated back far as 1700s drawing from Fujian White Crane and Emei Zhe Zhuang. Which is where the 1700s Internal Wing Chun banner came from.
Return to Europe
After spending over 20 years is living in Asia, Sifu Sergio decided it was time to return to Europe to help spread his teachings and aid the development of the Schools of Kung Fu by IWKA branches around the world. He settled on Madeira an island of Portugal, where he in 2022 he set up the Eternal Spring Institute, helping promote the learning of Internal Chinese Martial Arts as well as being the base for Schools of Kung Fu by IWKA.