Chislehurst Kung Fu instructor Steve Leppard is a seventh degree black belt and the founder of Ba Feng Quan (八風拳). Sifu Leppard first started his kungfu journey training in Nam Pai Chuan under Sifu Lai as an undergraduate Mathematics student at Imperial College London, and he started the King’s College NPC centre in 1992 when he began his PhD in Mathematics there.

As a child Steve was always fascinated by traditional martial arts, and he first had the opportunity to study martial arts in 1981 when he started practising karate at his local club in East London. Unlike the other kids who were into Bruce Lee, Steve secretly wanted to be David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine from the 1970s Kung Fu TV series – he kept that pretty quiet though, and still feels a bit embarrassed about it today. Despite aiming lower than the other kids he still feels he missed his target by a long way!

Throughout the 1980s he continued his studies of karate, as well as studying softer styles such as aikido and tai chi, and dabbling with numerous other martial disciplines. Upon discovering Shaolin kungfu he felt like he had “come home” to a style that combined all elements of the martial arts that interested him in a consistent and traditional manner.

Over the years Dr Leppard has combined his practice and regular teaching of kung fu with a career as a commodity structurer, portfolio manager, quantitative analyst, and investment banker. His work in such high-pressure and demanding environments helped him to appreciate the centredness, focus and discipline that the study of a traditional martial art such as Ba Feng Quan can bring.

Sifu Leppard is also a qualified Zen meditation and mindfulness instructor, and he integrates the practice of meditation and mindfulness into his kung fu teaching, as well as teaching the skills as a standalone discipline. 

Steve’s greatest passion is in teaching Ba Feng Quan to people of all backgrounds and abilities, and he is at his happiest when in a sweaty training hall.

We do not wish to indoctrinate our students with any particular set of beliefs, and our instructors do not subscribe to identical views, but it is helpful to examine the origins of Shaolin kungfu to put the art in its proper context. We tend not to articulate our philosophical foundations in words; this is not because we are being evasive, but because Shaolin kung fu was developed in the Ch'an (Zen, as it's known in Japanese) Buddhist temples of China and there is something to be gained from adopting the traditional experiential methods of learning kung fu, and we don't believe it is right to enforce a world view on anyone. These methods may be viewed as anti-intellectual by those familiar with mainstream Western philosophical traditions, emphasising as it does direct experience and transmission of knowledge at the expense of lengthy debate and an attempt to objectify knowledge.

We believe that progress in any endeavour in life is best achieved through hard work ("kung fu" is sometimes translated as "man's effort"), dedication and reflection. The harder the work, the more profound the reflection, the deeper the insight. Among the cultural elements we adopt from our classical origins are the supremacy of direct experience as a substitute for "book learning", a desire to suppress one's ego, the respect for all life, the value of physical effort, and the desire to achieve harmony with other people and one's environment. One can practice Ba Feng Quan purely as an absorbing physical activity with great benefits, and a large proportion of our students do just that. For those seeking deeper insight there is much food for thought in our techniques, and our teaching methods, that serve to act as a direct illustration of these underlying principles.