It began as a personal tragedy, and became a social movement driven by a calling

 

Our Social Mission: 

"Empowering ordinary people with realistic personal protection skills."

 

Kapap Academy Singapore was started by Master Teo Yew Chye in memory of his demised brother Moss who was first attacked on the streets of Johor Bahru at around 2000.  After 7 years in coma, he passed on  - spurring Master Teo to formally start Kapap Academy Singapore in 2008 after 4 years of planning and intensive training with a number of world-class self defence experts like Colonel Chiam Peer, Gracie Academy (US),  and later, fearsome street fighters like Richard Ryan (Dynamic Combat Method), 'Hooker' Tony Cecchine (Catch Wrestling) etc.   Borne out of a personal tragedy, Kapap Academy Singapore was never meant to be a pure business enterprise but a social enterprise with the single-minded mission of 'empowering ordinary people to learn realistic self-defence skills'. 

As a life long martial artist, Master Teo was also acutely aware that traditional martial arts as we know have lost much of its self-defence elements or focus.  Many styles exist today either as a combative sport or as a stylised art form that is more admired and practised for its beauty and acrobatic prowess.  There was, therefore, a need to 'separate the wheat from the chaff' and identity the more self-defence arts that still remained focused on what martial arts was originally designed to do - uphold justice and defend the young, the weak and the old from the brutalities that they may otherwise be subjected to.
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This quest eventually led Master Teo to a select few arts that have a proven track record in a number of contexts: namely, the systems and philosophies of Kapap (Founders: Colonel Chaim Peer ), Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (Founder: Helio Gracie),  Dynamic Combat Method (Founder:  Richard Ryan) and American Catch Wrestling (Tony Cecchine).  There was, however, one interesting exception: it was the inclusion of certain elements of Bas Rutten MMA for stand up fighting.  Bas Rutten, a former UFC champion and MMA legend, had developed such an incredibly unique style of stand-up engagement, that with some adaptations, was found to lend itself to street fighting better than most combative sport styles.

Forging ahead with our social mission, the Kapap brotherhood of Singapore is intent on spreading regionally our blended fighting systems to more communities in this region.  Having achieved the reputation of being the top realistic self defence school in Singapore (as evident by our market penetration and presence in more organisations and schools in Singapore than any others), our 'band of brothers/ sisters of social activists'  are currently working tirelessly at opening more academies and training centres in selected countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan and China.

 

Today, the eclectic system developed by Master Teo based on Kapap Combatives, American Catch Wrestling, Gracie Combatives, Dynamic Combat Method and several other street style systems is referred to as Modern Street Combatives.  Testifying to its growing acceptance as a serious street style system, it is currently taught in Africa and Malaysia.