Elevation Martial Arts

I've been studying here for years and one thing that has always amazed me is how it doesn't matter how bad my day has been, or how bad my mental health is that day, I leave feeling better. Sensei Philip is a great teacher, martial artist, and, most importantly, mentor.
Aug 13th, 2021

I have been learning under Sensei Tolman for 5 years now and it has been wonderful. He is very professional but also lightens the mood whenever possible. If you are looking to learn how to defend yourself I cannot think of any better place.
Apr 7th, 2021

My son just went for his first lesson to his first lesson, a beginner class today. My son has sensory processing issues so he is a visual learner and Phillip was not showing him what to do he was only telling him and expecting a 5 year old to guess what he supposed to do and know his right hand from his left. During the lesson I just mentioned that my son's more of a visual learner and Sensei Phillip snapped back at me in a very condescending way, cut me off and didn't even let me finish my sentence. He wouldn't listen when I tried to explain that my son has hearing and sensory issues. I am quite baffled honestly that he was so impatient when I was very nice. I even tried talking to him after the class very nicely and he wouldn't listen then either. We will not be coming back here! Phillip was condescending, impatient, and disrespectful.
Mar 27th, 2021

My 5 year old daughter begged me to put her in karate. She was excited and looking forward to her classes. 2 weeks in we are not enjoying it mainly due to Phillip Tollman. He is not professional at all. Very condescending not only to the parents but the kids as well. He is instructing the only 2 kids in the class kicks and they were struggling. Instead of being creative and looking for ways to help them learn he decides to berate them for not understanding. They clearly were not visually seeing what he was trying to say. If my daughter froze or looked confused he decides to say “I don’t know how it is at home but here you listen” because he clearly knows how home life is and also can’t seem to recognize his teaching style did not work. Be creative find another way but no he went with the typical cliche karate instructor method..The power trip guy who is in control. After class he high fives kids that are confused and thinks that’s good enough to raise their confidence. I write this only because my daughter wanted to learn karate and was eager and excited only to come home frustrated. My daughter will learn karate just not here. It did teach us now to really look into the instructors and their backgrounds. I told him “we clearly need a lot of work” but he didn’t realize I was talking about him.
Mar 17th, 2021

Great place, owner has alot going for him. Thinking heavily on starting as a student.
Mar 12th, 2021