Opinion of Sergio Iadarola (aka 'Sifu Sergio')?

[BPWT]

Inferring from remarks he made when I first began training with him in 1980, I believe that this is his own personal interpretation based on the very soft and yielding WC he learned personally from the then very elderly Grandmaster Yip Man.

This could well be the case. However, a while back there was a post on a German forum from a Scandinavian guy who spent extended time learning Wing Tsun in Hong Kong, and who now lives in mainland China (studying Mai Gai Wong's Wing Chun). This Scandinavian mentioned the name of someone (I can't for the life of me remember the name... urghh) from the mainland who had a very similar stepping/shifting method to Leung Ting. Their footwork wasn't secret, but it was only taught to people training the system - so not something, typically, that they showed at demos, etc. (ah, the Chinese )

Anyways, he said that he thought Leung Ting had had contact with this line of Wing Chun during his travels to write a book on Wing Chun. He also implied, if I remember correctly, that it was entirely possible that Yip Man himself would have had contact with this line (in much the same way as YM had contact with Yuen Kay San).

This topic came up from a discussion on LT's footwork, and the question was whether LT learned the method he teaches today from Yip Man or from another source. Given how different people in Hong Kong picked up on different things from their time with Yip Man, it is possible that LT's method came from Yip Man. But as Geezer says, perhaps LT ran with the idea he got from Yip Man, and placed greater emphasis on this aspect.

Interestingly, if you look carefully at old videos of LT, you can see that even he weights the front leg more when it suits him. But that's not really so strange, considering that even in his "WT" system, the front leg carries some weight in the Bart Cham Dao footwork. In summary, I take the 100% rear weighting dogma as teaching by overstatement. You know, something you stress at the beginning to counteract our normal human tendency to put too much weight on the front foot. At the higher levels, the rules made for novice students become more flexible and the stance more adaptable.

This is a perfect description of the 'how' regarding LT WT weighting, IMO. The "100%" is an ideal that you strive for at certain times during an exchange. If you watch all of the top WT guys (LT included, of course ), you see that the weighting varies as you step and turn/pivot. These people are never 100% rear weighted at all times. Which makes sense... you wouldn't be able to move if you didn't transfer weight.

So for me, the key is understanding how you change the weighting upon receiving pressure, turning, stepping, etc. All the lessons are in the forms, IMO.

What's harder to achieve, I think, is Kim Sut. This is really hard "to see", but IMO it is the key to handling momentum and 'charging up' via the legs in order to return force.

 

[Vajramusti]

Joy and Marnetmar, here's my take on the Leung Ting stance:

The training Joy mentions would have been pretty early on when LT was still a kid. His first Sifu, and first serious training was with Leung Sheung, but that's not the source of the 100% weight shift that is his "WT" branch trademark. Inferring from remarks he made when I first began training with him in 1980, I believe that this is his own personal interpretation based on the very soft and yielding WC he learned personally from the then very elderly Grandmaster Yip Man.
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Hi Steve. Understood. Interpretation plays a role in what one does.
IMO it's possible to be soft and yielding when needed with 50-50 leg balancing.
On Sergio-he has done a lot of camera work and travelling. But he is no historian.