Marty Enloe
Senior Instructor
About Shaolin Arts · PeoriaA lifetime of study.
A lifetime of study.
A tradition of teaching.
Learn Shaolin Kung Fu and Chen-style Tai Chi in Peoria with Master Workman and instructors who continue training with him. Whether you are taking your first class or bringing years of experience, we help you build skill and understand the art behind the movement.
Try Your First Class FreeMeet the people behind the practice. Your first class is free, with no obligation.
Our Peoria school
Teaching here since 1997.
Our school is a place to study traditional Chinese martial arts over time. Students learn movements, investigate their purpose, and develop the skill to apply what they understand.
Shaolin Arts has taught in Peoria since 1997. Today, students from Peoria and the West Valley train in Warrior Kung Fu, Chen Tai Chi, Kids Martial Arts, and Personal Coaching. Some arrive with years of martial arts experience; others are taking their first class.
What connects that practice is a willingness to learn. Questions, corrections, and repeated effort are part of the work, whether you are building a foundation or returning to familiar material with a deeper understanding.
Master Chris WorkmanThe question behind
The question behind
a lifetime of practice.
Why does that work?
35+ years of teaching experience
Master Workman began studying martial arts at fourteen. His exploration of Aikido, Karate, Kempo, and Jeet Kune Do developed into a persistent interest in what made a technique effective.
He encountered practitioners who could demonstrate movements with skill. He wanted to understand what happened beneath the visible action: how position, balance, timing, and force combined to produce a result.
Connecting movement and physics
During college, an interest in physics gave him another way to examine his practice. Changing a position or the direction of force could change the outcome of a technique. A correction became something to investigate, rather than simply imitate.
That perspective helped shape his teaching. Students practice, make adjustments, and examine what changes. The aim is to develop an understanding they can bring back to the movement.
Seeking deeper instruction
His search for teachers who combined technical skill with deeper understanding led him to train with Shaolin monks and continue his study of traditional Chinese martial arts.
His study of Shaolin Kung Fu and Chen-style Tai Chi helped shape Shaolin Arts: a school where these traditions can be explored seriously, with room to ask questions and develop through practice.
What that experience brings to your classGuidance that helps
Guidance that helps
you understand.
Know why a movement works
Instruction connects the movement to its purpose. You explore how position, balance, and timing affect what you are practicing, so you can build understanding alongside technique.
Make corrections you can use
An instructor’s observation helps you notice what to adjust and what changes when you do. Questions and corrections give you something specific to work on, whether you are learning a stance or refining familiar material.
Keep developing beyond imitation
As your foundation grows, your instructors help you move from learning a sequence to applying its principles. Familiar movements become opportunities to investigate structure, balance, and timing in greater depth.
Our teaching traditionTradition carried
Tradition carried
through practice.
Shaolin Kung Fu and Chen-style Tai Chi offer bodies of movement, principles, and training methods that take sustained study to understand. At Shaolin Arts, respect for those traditions takes shape in careful practice and examination of their applications.
A Black Sash marks meaningful progress and opens the way to further study. Our instructors continue training and renew their certification every two years, keeping their own development connected to the instruction they give.
Explore how we teach →The people guiding your practiceMeet your instructors.
Meet your instructors.
18 years on average.
Training with Master Workman.
Our instructors have trained directly with Master Workman for an average of 18 years and continue learning from him. That sustained relationship brings a shared teaching tradition into the classroom, helping students make connections, refine their skills, and work through questions in their practice.
That continuing relationship gives students access to knowledge developed through years of practice, correction, and further study.
Trey Neeman
Senior Instructor
Fred Garcia
Senior Instructor
Kyle Turcott
Senior Instructor
Jim Geisbush
Senior Instructor
Josi Anderson
Senior Instructor
Aaron Grieff
Instructor
Judi Smith
Instructor
Tanya Thoms
Instructor
A student’s experience
Teachers who keep learning.
“What's truly inspiring is that they never stop improving themselves and share their mistakes and daily experiences with us to encourage students.”
KIKI · Google review · Excerpt
See Google reviews →
Get to know the schoolSee the tradition
See the tradition
in your own practice.
Read about the approach and culture behind our teaching, or explore the programs to choose a place to begin.
Your practice starts here.
Your first class is free, with no obligation. Tell us which program interests you. We’ll follow up by phone, email, or text to help you find a starting point at our Peoria school. No previous martial arts experience is needed.
Try Your First Class FreeNo long-term contracts