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Leonardo Terrone was a fencing genius. Through a great deal of disciplined training, he was able to fence both right and left handed. To be ambidextrous is an important facet of fighting. Terrone's influence on good Wing Chun should not be underestimated.
He was not extremely popular in his day. The concept of being equally talented with both sides of the body may have proved that a talented fencer like Aldo Nadi would lose when using his nondominant side. As fate would have it, Terrone was one of the few remaining teachers that had actual dueling experience.
That put him, by itself, in a category that most could never claim, but in a stroke of genius begat by hard work he discovered the most important of anatomical feats. The ability of ultimate neuromuscular control of all the human body by means of equally stimulating the neurology of both the left and right sides of the brain. Sounds simple enough, however, the amount of work required to attain this, much less discover it, is almost incomprehensible.
Leonardo Terrone was the fencing coach at the University of Pennsylvania for 39 years, from 1903-1942 and was the founder of the Keystone FC and the Philadelphia Fencers Club. His success in the US Nationals for both men and women show the command with which he worked in all weapons while he was also coaching full time at the University of Pennsylvania. Terrone was Philip Gonzales' instructor who was instructor to Karl Godwin, a Wing Chun master. Karl believes as Terrone does, that self-defense should be done equally with both sides of the body.
In 1984, Karl began exploring the parallels between Wing Chun and fencing. Bruce Lee had used fencing concepts and terminology as a model to translate Wing Chun theories into terminology easily acceptable to the Western mind. In 1987, Karl and John Cardenas began formal instruction under the tutelage of Philip Gonzales, student of Leonardo Terrone. Terrone trained at the "Scuola Militare Magistale di Schirma" in Rome at the turn of the century. This method of fencing is significant because Terrone, an established duelist, emphasized a touch should be seen as stopping an enemy rather than just scoring a point. Terrone was considered a revolutionary of his time because he strongly felt fencers should be equally skilled with either hand. These two points make this particular branch of fencing especially suitable for Wing Chun technical analysis.
