Kenji Sato

About Us

We are a traditional Shito-Ryu (shee-toe-ru) school that believes the secret to all martial arts is practice. Confidence and self-esteem are cultivated by earning new belt ranks. You can only find this in the martial arts. Our students not only learn mental and physical self-defense skills, but develop a "Yes, I can" attitude that carries over into school, home and other activities. We hope our site creates an enthusiasm to join, or further study the martial arts.

We emphasize that Karate is only for self-defense and should not be used at school or to showoff to friends. We try to keep our classes fun and taught at the children's level so they can understand. We have skits that we act out to try to help kids learn how to deal with bullies or someone that may be trying to seriously hurt them. We teach the "No-Go & Tell" method. We stress that avoiding a situation or running is the best self-defense.
Our classes are very structured and discipline is very important. We do not allow any face or body contact at the lower levels when sparring or doing drills. We have found that Karate not only helps with physical coordination and balance, but that it also helps to improve self-esteem, self-confidence, motivation, and we have seen a big improvement in school work. We always encourage parents to stay and watch classes to see what their children are learning. As a new student your son/daughter will start with an individual instructor or in a small group of 2 to 4 students. We teach them the basics and beginning drills at their learning level.
We also teach a special four week self-defense class for children and we have summer camps during the summer months. The four week self-defense class is taught on Monday nights at various times of the year. This class teaches the children basic self-defense and helps them to understand the difference between what they see on TV and what the real art of Karate is all about.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call me, Doug Dennis, at (217) 787-9092. You are always welcome to come by and watch our classes.
Thank You Very Much, Doug Dennis