Sensei Tom Gillis has been involved in martial arts since taking his first boxing lesson at 10 years old. It wasn’t until much later however at the age of 16 in 1994 that he found an instructor to train with regularly.

In 1996 Tom discovered Bujinkan Ninpo Taijutsu (commonly referred to as Ninjutsu) and has been training in it ever since. He currently holds a 5th degree black belt. Tom has been certified in over 60 different systems of police combatives and fitness training.

He’s cross-trained in Muay Thai, BJJ, Wing Chun, Jeet Kune Do, Hapkido, WTF Tae Kwon Do, and various other arts.

In 2008 Tom was officially introduced to the Filipino arts by Guro Joel Huncar while they were both instructing at a seminar. Immediately hooked he started pursuing FMA regularly. Now he uses FMA as a platform to mix and match the various things he’s learned in his 20+ of martial arts and combatives training into his conceptual, mixed classes.