Cape Girardeau, MO
573-225-0777
we meet in St. Mary Cathedral School Gym at 210 S. Sprigg Street
Teaching kids
since 1990
Class for children ages 8-17.
Wednesdays - 4:00 - 5:00 PM
Accepting new students!
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The Simmons Family
Michael, Lisa,
Ryan, Laura and Caitlin
At Simmons Family Martial Arts & Fitness, we’re a family operation that’s dedicated to helping your family. Since 1989 we’ve taught almost 1,000 kids to be Good, Strong and Safe.
We got started teaching in the school gym of St. Mary Cathedral Grade School where we taught kids for 14 years. In 2003 we opened Simmons Family Martial Arts Center as a business so that we could reach even more kids.
Here’s just a bit about us:
Mike has been training in a variety of martial arts and self defense styles for 35 years, and is a master instructor.
Lisa has also been training in a variety of styles for 35 years and has developed special programs for women’s self-protection. She is the business manager and also a master instructor.
Ryan began training at age 8 and has years of experience as a full instructor. After studying physical education at SEMO, Ryan is now our conditioning coach, and specializes in developing age-appropriate conditioning for kids.
Caitlin has been training since before she could walk, and has been a full instructor since she was 14. She teaches classes, keeps the school organized, and tracks student progress in the program.
Our daughter Laura taught with us as an instructor for years, and now has her own personal fitness training business in Northern California. Laura still collaborates with us on proper training methods.
This has become our family mission: helping kids to be good people, who are strong in body, mind and spirit, and are able to protect themselves and others.
In 2015 an online version of fitness training was added as Laura opened her OhMyFitness brand. And in 2016 Ryan started offering adults a fitness workout in Resilient Fitness.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
• We teach from a Christian base to develop character virtues of faith, love, respect and courage.
• We’re not here to ‘create champions’ – there are no trophies in our window. Our mission is to help kids to be good people who are strong enough to deal with life.
• Our focus is on practical self-protection techniques (which vary by age) to help each student develop confidence in their abilities
• We do not teach lethal techniques. We teach students to respond with the least amount of violence necessary to protect themselves.
• We do not teach tournament sparring - in which kids spar or fight one another for trophies - we build teamwork.
• A detailed curriculum for color belt ranks (white through black) is adapted for each student’s needs. There are also character building challenges for each student.
• The class is taught with a balance of discipline and fun – each session has a theme that is reinforced with physical, mental and moral lessons