For Leonardo Ferri, martial arts represent a journey of exploration spanning thirty years of experience across different disciplines. He began in 1995 with Ashihara Street Fighting Karate, continued with Yang-style Tai Ji Quan, and later deepened his studies of Shaolin Kung Fu and Wu Zu Quan. This extensive background enabled him, upon discovering DECODE in 2017, to recognise familiar principles while also encountering a profoundly different perspective on their practical application.
His introduction to DECODE was driven by curiosity about Zhan Zhuang, a practice presented to him as a means of releasing tension while developing strength and martial abilities. It would become one of the foundations of his training, mastered through what Leonardo himself describes as a journey of “bitter tears and plenty of sweat.”
Through the DECODE Method, previously familiar concepts, such as internal movement and relaxation, acquired a new practical dimension. He gradually came to understand how developing small but fundamental abilities could lead to profound transformations, eventually viewing martial arts forms not as the centre of learning, but as “the icing on the cake” of a much more comprehensive process.
During his first encounters with Master Mauro A. D’Angelo, Leonardo was particularly struck by the “power behind softness.” In his teaching, he recognised an approach grounded in direct experience of the Chinese martial arts tradition, capable of bringing attention back to essential principles, beyond the adaptations and misunderstandings that have accompanied their spread throughout the West.
Already active as a martial arts teacher before discovering DECODE, Leonardo chose to undertake its teacher training programme to restructure and refine his own approach to instruction. Today, he teaches through regular classes, private lessons, seminars, and residential training programmes.
His aim is to offer students the same opportunity for discovery that transformed his own practice, guiding them through a progressive and structured learning journey.