Zimbabwe’s Wing Chun maestro, Leonard Nyamukapa, is on cloud nine looking back through the struggles he underwent to earn the title “Sifu Leo” in the martial arts circles.
After his achievements, he has embarked on a mission to keep youths off drugs and violence through martial arts training.
Sifu Leo hails from Murewa, Mashonaland East province but is now domiciled in Chitungwiza, since 2006. This is where he started training Jeet Kune Do (JKD), a hybrid martial art style developed by the legendary Bruce Lee.
JKD is rooted in Wing Chun, a traditional Southern Chinese martial art , a style under Kung Fu.
The name Jeet Kune Do is derived from Cantonese Chinese language translating to “the way of the intercepting fist.” It is a fusion of various martial arts styles including Wing Chun, boxing, fencing, and wrestling among others.
“As you know Jeet Kune Do was introduced by Bruce Lee,” said Sifu Leo.
Inspired by Lee, Sifu Leo embarked on a mission to research and adopt other styles which Lee trained starting with Wing Chun as student of the Ip Man Wing Chun School.
Ip Man was a legendary Grandmaster of this style, best known for teaching Wing Chun to Lee. His school is now led by Ip Ching and Ip Chun, his sons who are both Grandmasters of the style.
Sifu Leo got interested in the style designed for close combat and started training through YouTube tutorials but he encountered financial challenges along the way rendering his dream futile.
He said due to dedication he got an opportunity to go to China in 2016 where more doors opened to make his dream come true.
“It was very expensive to train online and this almost set me back. However, with luck I managed to go to China and that’s where I met Wing Chun masters. I got help from other students to start training with Master Wong.
“In 2016 I got a chance . I learned traditional Wing Chun but it had not much impact ,so I started to learn again on my own by copying the Master Wong Wing Chun System which is very effective for me. Master Wong saw great potential in me so after paying for my first lessons he promised me to learn everything from him for free.”
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Come year 2022, there was an instructors course and he participated to become one of the best JKD instructors. Currently, Sifu Leo has adopted a stance to keep youths off drugs and violence by training them in his style of martial arts.
“As you know, martial arts is a way of life, discipline and health. That is the main reason we train martial arts. It being a discipline I have since started spreading this ‘gospel’ to our youngsters who are losing direction by abusing drugs and intoxicating substances.
“I preach about zero tolerance to drugs, to our youngsters. Through this discipline we undertook an anti-drug campaign which managed to change the lifestyles of some who had become addicts. They have since started training with us as we speak,” he said.
He said it was also wise to stop the scourge of violence among youths and the rest of Africa.
“We say no to violence though people, especially here in Africa, think that if they see someone training he/she wants to fight someone. Fighting is not what we preach but discipline. Fighting is the last option, the best win from an argument is to make sure you avoid fighting. My mantra on this is if you need peace you have to prepare for war,” he said.
Besides being a Wing Chun Maestro , Sifu Leo has a passion for security where he trains personnel in the security sector. With his qualifications in self defence, Sifu Leo pursued qualifications in Close Protection.
Sifu stated that he did his Close Protection course in South Africa at Milites Dei Academy, were he also received a Head Student Instructor certificate in Close Quarter Combat (SWAT).
