| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rudy
Ibarra |
Pedro Martinez |
Lu Yao Qin |
|
|
RUDY IBARRA
Shifu Rudy Ibarra has thirty-five years experience in martial arts. As a child, he first became fascinated with Hong Kong Kung Fu movies such as 36 Chambers and 5 Venoms as well as the American television series “Kung Fu” which is said to be originally created by Bruce Lee. “Kung Fu’’ followed the life of a heroic Shaolin monk armed only with his spiritual training and skill in martial arts. It was in these movies and TV series that Rudy was exposed to Martial Morality (WuDe), Daoist, Buddhist and Chinese philosophy.
Starting in 1985, he began his training in traditional Okinawan Karate and continued when he moved to NYC where he received his second black belt. In 1995, after having researched and understood the roots of Okinawan Karate, he began studying Chinese martial arts with Shaolin Monk Shi Yang Ming from Henan in NYC’s Chinatown. A year later, the Monk invited Master Chen Ying from Fuzhou to teach contemporary Wushu and the rare art of Ziranmen. Chen Ying eventually opened his own school where Rudy became a senior student.
Three years later, Rudy traveled to China for a year to study at the Beijing Physical Education University, researching and practicing both traditional and contemporary martial methods and arts.
In 2001 pursuing further traditional study in Ziranmen, Rudy returned to China spending a semester at Qing Hua University while researching the internal martial arts. He then visited Hunan Province and Fujian Province to seek further knowledge and to meet masters of the Ziranmen style. Through an introduction from the Fuzhou Martial Arts Federation, he met one of Wan Laisheng’s main disciples, Grandmaster Lu Yao Qin who was the first to formally open a Ziranmen school in Fuzhou in the 1980’s. Rudy became the first westerner to be accepted by Grandmaster Lu Yao Qin as a formal disciple and spent over a year with the Grandmaster, training three times a day, seven days a week in: basics, hand forms, weapons, partner sets, nei gong, conditioning and combat.
In 2003, he returned to NYC and started teaching Ziranmen in Central Park while continuing to make annual three-month trips to China to pursue his Ziranmen studies with Grandmaster Lu Yao Qin. Having visited and spent time in Hong Kong on his travels to Fuzhou, Rudy formally made Hong Kong his home in 2013, where he began teaching Ziranmen to locals and expats in various parks.
|
|
|
