Stewart
(Stewart was taught by Sifu Zopa when he was younger and has retired from training. He kindly wrote this amusing recollection for us).
I met sifu when he was in his late thirties and early forties. I was in my mid twenties and was a doorman and was then training in another martial art. I heard sifu was in town and that he “knew some martial art”. I bumped into him by chance. I’d had him pointed out to me before so knew who he was. Now you need to know I’m a big man by nature and trained hard and worked hard. I’d boxed at Golden Glove level and won all my fights in the first round. So I was a confident person. Sifu was wiry, tall and slim. (He’s over six feet tall). Though he was taller, I was quite big by comparison. I could have been easily mistaken for a fairly decent body builder had I slimmed down and “cut up” as the body builders say.
I asked sifu if he would teach me. At first he was quite hesitant. He was polite but firm in telling me that I already was a good fighter and that he felt I may not want to change my ways. I persisted. I must honestly admit I was a little sceptical I could learn anything that’d be different to what I’d encountered. I guess I was typical of many Australian martial artists. I’d trained in a few arts for a few months, trooped around to some different dojos and training gyms. I’d seen but never trained with traditional teachers as I’d always thought they were too unrealistic for real world fighting. I trained mostly with instructors who had taken what sifu later referred to as the “hunter and gatherer” approach - trying to piece together a martial art rather than accepting a lineage and training fully in one art. My boxing was the purest thing I had.
I finally wrung a concession from sifu that he’d consider my situation. He invited me to join him for his midday training session. At the time, I later found out, he trained three times a day. I went along to the first session feeling confident that there may be something I could learn but felt that it might not be a lot. I was what is probably even today the typical sceptical Westerner. I was certainly a little too cocky, thinking I was a good fighter and all there was out there was all that I’d personally ever heard of or encountered. I guess I was also still stuck in the eclectic model, thinking you need to do dozens of martial arts to learn to fight. That idea was just beginning in those days. I think it’d been imported from the US with the JKD nonsense. Most of the traditional martial art instructors were violently opposed to it and the self-taught and self-promoted ones applauding it as it brought them in some students even if only on a visiting short-term basis. And fighting was all I was interested in. I’d studiously avoided all martial arts with forms or an emphasis on them as I was only interested in sparring. I thought that was the best way to train. I was later to discover that none of the instructors I’d trained with were actually legitimate in that they’d not mastered any one traditional art before tacking together their eclectic bits and pieces.
Several days after, I arrived at sifu’s yard where he trained to find three guys sweating profusely and doing hundreds of strange punches. Sifu welcomed me and explained a little of his art then put me on a sandbag lashed to a curly willow tree. I whacked into it with gusto just as I had pounded into bags in the boxing gym. Sifu was obviously observing me and I knew it, so I thought I impressed him with my strength. Sifu then taught me the stance. I recall thinking: “This is nuts!” Then he showed me how versatile the stance was by turning and stepping. I was beginning to perk up with increased interest. Zopa’s footwork seemed simple but it was fantastic! I began to see that there was more to this humble guy! I noticed now that sifu had been deceptive when I first met him. He was, of course, then fully dressed. Here he was stripped to the waist with a slight but very cut physique and a very impressive set of abs. I was later to discover amidst a great deal of suffering how he got them. I nicknamed his abs training “abominable abdominals” - a name he laughed at, and now tells me he keeps repeating to his later students to this day, apparently.
I discussed my boxing with sifu and showed him some punches. He said he was impressed by my speed and power. He was even open-minded enough to later learn some boxing punches from me. Though he always said he’d have to “wrap them in Wing Chun” if ever he were to use them. Then, he later laughingly admitted it was one of the biggest mistakes he ever made, he offered to take one of my punches, as I had commented on absorbing punishment as a boxer. He invited me to hit him in the stomach. I did. He says he thought he was going to die when I hit him. We both laughed regularly over this. I had a lot of boxing experience, and as I say I was a powerful man so I hit him incredibly hard. He didn’t go down to his great credit and due to his great abs. He said later laughingly it was simply a “miracle”! In fact, I think I actually lifted him slightly off the ground! When he got his breath back he laughed so hard and said that was one of the stupidest things he’d ever done. He said he’d never encountered Western boxing but that this was very impressive. He said he’d taken some punishment in his time now and then but that if we’d been fighting and that punch got in he’d have been finished. However, I was later to find out due to his defences that if it had got in during a real encounter it’d have been a miracle! Then, in a very polite and totally non-vengeful fashion with a great deal of explaining so as to re-assure me he wasn’t trying to pay me back, he asked would I like to see if I could take a Wing Chun punch? I agreed, thinking those little pokes I’d been observing wouldn’t amount to much.
Sifu then said he would punch me lightly on the sternum but the punch would be done initiated from his knuckles actually touching my chest and without withdrawing. To be honest, I stifled a laugh and thought he was nuts. However....... he placed his fist on my chest and sunk down into what I then thought of as his funny knock-kneed stance and then asked if I were ready. Yes. As an after thought he motioned to the other students to stand behind me. I was curious so he explained they might need to catch me. Again I stifled a laugh. I didn’t think so! Then he did it! The short force punch. I couldn’t believe it! Though he said it wasn’t with full power the pain radiated out in waves and I staggered back. I did need to be caught by the other students after all. Phew! Straight away I was thinking add my boxing body weight drop and swing to that and I’d have something special. I was later to learn that wasn’t the way of it at all.
Sifu said if I was interested I could come back but it’d be best if I kept this art separate from my other stuff and didn’t confuse the training as it’d muck up my Wing Chun. I came back and trained for a number of very happy years every day as I studied as a student at a nearby uni. We ran until we gasped (I hated running!), we did supplementary training until I thought I’d cry and then we did hundreds of repetitions of basics until I thought my limbs would fall off. Sifu kept saying: “It’s all in the basics. Good basics. Good art. Good stance. Good art.” It was such a great time. Few people in the world would have had this opportunity. I still get tears in my eyes when I remember my old sifu and how generous and kind he was to us and how totally uncompromising and tough in training. In snow, rain, stinking heat we trained and trained and trained! We went through life’s ups and downs together. We felt immortal! They were great days!
I’m very grateful I have the honor to write this piece for sifu’s first website. I wish you all the best and will say - just do exactly what he says - he knows!