"I have spent 25 years watching people discover they are more capable than they thought. That moment never gets old."
Change how you move through the world
People come to SIMA looking for self-defense skills, or for something different from the gym they've been going to for years. They leave with something they didn't expect.
A calmer nervous system. A clearer mind. A sense of physical capability that changes how they show up in their work, their relationships, and their own skin.
One student calls it "impact therapy." Another calls it the one thing keeping them sane. Some come on the recommendation of their therapists.
Most are working professionals in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. They already take care of themselves. They come here because something is still missing: the kind of calm, embodied confidence that a gym or yoga studio doesn't build.
Where it comes from
I learned these arts from the people who shaped them.
I've been a certified instructor in Filipino Martial Arts and Jun Fan Gung Fu / Jeet Kune Do under Guro Dan Inosanto since 2005. Guro Inosanto was Bruce Lee's training partner and protégé, and has carried Lee's art forward for more than fifty years.
I've been a certified instructor of Muay Thai under Ajarn Chai Sirisute since 2007. He is widely credited with bringing Thai boxing to the United States.
I hold a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and I'm a Washington State certified Defensive Tactics and Use of Force instructor.
Bruce Lee's idea was that the art should fit the person, never the other way around. That idea came to me through one teacher. It is the foundation of everything I do here.
Training one-on-one
For people who want a practice built entirely around them, I take on a limited number of private students. It begins with a conversation and a Practice Assessment. See The Personalized Practice
What I study
I have spent 25 years watching people discover they are more capable than they thought. In that time I've worked with hundreds of students in classes and dozens one-on-one.
What has shaped me most is watching what these arts do to people over time. The anxiety that quiets. The confidence that builds slowly and then holds. The way someone moves differently after six months, and carries themselves differently after a year.
That is what I study. How stress lives in the body, how it hijacks decision-making, and how a practice that challenges the nervous system, instead of just tiring it out, trains you to move through pressure instead of being stopped by it.
The art serves the practitioner
No two people who walk through this door are the same. Different bodies. Different histories. Different reasons for being here.
A school with one style has one answer for everyone. I teach four arts, and each one challenges you in a different way. Kali demands coordination and focus. Muay Thai teaches composure under impact. Jiu-Jitsu teaches you to stay calm and think in close contact. Jeet Kune Do ties them together.
My job is to read what you need and build a practice from the right pieces, at the right pace.
Credentials
Filipino Martial Arts Instructor under Dan Inosanto
JunFan/Jeet Kune Do Instructor under Dan Inosanto
Kali/JKD Instructor under Rick Faye
Muay Thai Instructor under Ajarn Chai Sirisute
Brown Belt in BJJ under Brian Johnson
WA State Defensive Tactics/Use of Force Instructor under CJTC
Women’s Self Defense Instructor under MKG International
…or contact Bob directly to learn more.
As featured in USA Today
WA State Certified
Defensive Tactics/ Use of Force Instructor
Internationally Certified
MKG Women’s Self-Defense Instructor
25+ Years
Civilian and professional training
Your Practice, Your Path
Instruction adapted to the individual practitioner