Kung Fu Schools is proud to be affiliated with the International Wing Tjun Kung Fu Association (IWKA). Founded by Grandmaster Sergio Iadarola, the IWKA has a unique mission statement: to promote the teaching of Wing Chun kung fu in its most traditional form.
With links to the some of the world’s leading instructors, the IWKA seeks to promote Wing Chun by tracing the history of the system back to its first creators. Their main aim: to rediscover and disseminate the most original version of Wing Chun.
Master Paul Hawkes set up the Kung Fu Schools Organisation in 2007 after over twenty years as an instructor under various organisations. After years of training under many top martial artists, including Grandmaster Keith R. Kernspecht, Master James Sinclair, Master Hans Peter-Edel, Master Thomas Schron, Sifu Chrisu Hampel and Brian Jacks, the Kung Fu Schools provided Master Hawkes with an opportunity to meet other martial arts talents and to seek to learn from them.
In Master Hawkes’s discussions with fellow Wing Chun experts, one name kept cropping up repeatedly – Grandmaster Sergio Iadarola. With his natural talent and passion for the martial art, GM Sergio is considered one of the most widely respected teachers of Wing Chun in the martial arts world.
After meeting in 2007, Master Hawkes and GM Sergio quickly became friends. Steering clear of politics, they focus instead on training and delivering Wing Chun kung fu as an authentic art form. Together, they seek to learn all about the Wing Chun system – its past, its present, and its future.
A keen martial artist from a very young age, Sifu Sergio grew up and trained in Amsterdam, Holland. After training in Judo and Pencak Silat, Sifu Sergio was inspired by the legendary Bruce Lee to take up Wing Chun kung fu. In 1987, he began training with Sifu R. Vogel, a student of Wang Kiu, one of Yip Man’s original students.
Later on, after reading Wing Tsun Kuen by Grandmaster Leung Ting, the last student of Yip Man, the young Sergio joined Sifu Schafer, who taught under the European Wing Tsun Organisation (EWTO), part of GM Leung Ting’s organisation. In 1994, Sifu Sergio was awarded his 1st Technician (equivalent to a 1st degree black belt) by GM Kernspecht in Germany.
From 1994 to 1998, Sifu Sergio travelled Europe to train with and learn from well-respected Wing Chun masters, including Emin Boztepe and many instructors in the EWTO. In 1998, he was appointed Head Instructor of the EWTO in Israel.
Sifu Sergio continued to progress in the system, completing the unarmed Wing Tsun system under the tutelage of Sifu Truntic in Zagreb, Croatia. On a trip to Asia, he met up with GM Leung Ting, and later became his private student. For three years, Sifu Sergio trained with GM Leung Ting to perfect his unarmed system, often staying in Hong Kong for months at a time.
In 2001, GM Sergio travelled to New York and completed the rest of the Wing Tsun system under GM Allan Fong, an original student of GM Leung Ting. Soon after, GM Sergio founded the IWKA in January 2002. He created a comprehensive syllabus for his organisation, naming the style Wing Tjun – not a new system, but as a means of differentiating his organisation from others.
GM Sergio continues to study Wing Chun, and to trace its lineage back to the system’s origins in the Shaolin Temple. He currently trains under GM Cheng Kwong, GM Tang Chung Pak, Sifu Pak Cheung Kau and Sifu Sunny So.
Today, the IWKA teaches both Yip Man Wing Chun and its predecessor, Siu Lam Wing Tjun, based on an extensive, step-by-step syllabus developed by GM Sergio himself.
