BY BRIAN KIDD for WEEKLY VOLCANO 3/20/26 |
Perched in Tacoma’s historic Stadium District above Commencement Bay, Quantum Martial Arts occupies an expansive 8,000-square-foot dojo inside the old Anway Building on Tacoma Avenue.
When I stepped inside the new dojo, I was struck by its size and calming ambiance. At the far end of the facility, Executive Director and instructor Alison McCaffree was preparing for her “Quarks” class of four- and five-year-old students.
Quantum Martial Arts is a Tacoma nonprofit dojo that blends several martial arts traditions while focusing on personal growth, practical self-defense, and community accessibility.
McCaffree emphasizes that the school is intentionally inclusive and offers scholarships to ensure that martial arts training is available to people from a wide range of economic backgrounds.
“We didn’t want the martial arts to be just for those who could afford it,” McCaffree said. “Our poorer communities need to be resilient. They need all the skills that everybody needs. Our scholarships are a way to interconnect different communities.”
“If you don’t let money be the barrier, now anybody can walk in here and train if they want to,” she added.
Even the name of the dojo’s youngest class reflects the school’s philosophy. In quantum physics, quarks are among the smallest building blocks of matter.
“The Quantum idea behind our style is about how do you break things down into littler and littler components,” McCaffree said. “You might learn gross forms in the beginning, and then every time you come back and repeat it, you find something new in that movement. You break the movement down into smaller and smaller increments.”
Quantum Martial Arts offers classes for all ages, from children ages 4 to 15 to adults ages 16 to, as the school’s website playfully puts it, 116. While students of all ages train at the dojo, McCaffree becomes especially animated when discussing the school’s youth programs.
“There are just not a whole lot of kids programs like our kids program,” McCaffree said. “It’s just so great to start them young. We get them in because they like to kick and punch, but we’re really teaching them social-emotional awareness skills.”
McCaffree pointed to the school’s five tenets painted on the wall: Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self-Control, and Indomitable Spirit.
“For a four- or five-year-old, the wisdom is already there,” she said. “They can tell me what indomitable spirit is. They might not even be able to say the word yet, but they know what it means. They think, ‘I can be me!’”
McCaffree believes the period between ages 7 and 10 is a particularly important stage of development.
“This age group is where they are really trying out a bunch of different personalities and deciding what works for them as an individual,” she said. “It’s an age where people are physically growing very fast, and it can be confusing to not understand your own body.”
“A shy kid learns to kiyap loudly and ask the class to bow to the senior student,” she said. “An aggressive kid learns to have self-control and punch into targets at appropriate times. These lessons will stick with them for their lifetime.”
Quantum Martial Arts practices what McCaffree describes as a “blended modern style,” drawing techniques from traditions including taekwondo, karate, Wing Chun, kung fu, judo, jiu-jitsu, and the Filipino stick-fighting art of Arnis. Internal practices such as tai chi and qigong are also incorporated into training.
The system was developed in 1995 by Master Rachel Evans, whose approach emphasizes refining movements by breaking techniques down into smaller components.
Quantum’s philosophy is also reflected in the school’s mission, displayed on a banner near the entrance: “Revealing personal strengths and interconnecting diverse communities through the joyful practice of Quantum Martial Arts.”
The dojo also offers qigong classes, a traditional Chinese practice focused on breathing, posture, and internal awareness.
“I love how the internal martial arts support the external martial arts,” McCaffree said. “These styles make me pause, slow down, and listen to my body.”
External martial arts require a different kind of focus.
“Coming to train after a hard day, you can’t worry about your job when somebody’s trying to kick or punch you,” McCaffree said with a laugh.
Quantum also offers self-defense instruction, and McCaffree said the program is influenced in part by the framework Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment, developed by Dr. Leticia Nieto at Saint Martin’s University.
Rather than focusing only on physical techniques, the model examines how power dynamics affect everyday interactions.
“Successfully doing a strike or breaking a board in half is an exhilarating way to feel your own strength,” she said.
She recalled asking one long-time student what she had learned in martial arts that she would use outside the dojo.
“She said, ‘No matter how mad I get, I can always walk away.’”
After the interview, McCaffree offered a tour of the dojo’s custom-built sprung floor. At one point I absentmindedly hopped onto the mat with my shoes still on, prompting a quick reminder that shoes are not allowed on the training surface.
The floor system, developed by Quantum instructors over many years, balances stability and safety. Built on a wooden frame bolted to the concrete floor, the structure uses rubber motor mounts, plywood layers, high-density foam mats, and a tightly stretched canvas surface.
“It has enough give to fall without injury, yet it’s stiff enough to provide a solid base for stand-up fighting,” McCaffree explained.
McCaffree said the dojo is meant to function as both a training space and a supportive community.
“The dojo is both the physical location and the community of people that make it up,” she said.
The room itself is intentionally simple. White walls and a white canvas mat reduce distractions, allowing students to leave outside worries behind.
“If you need to sit quietly and recenter yourself, the mat is there,” McCaffree said. “If you want to come in and work hard with your friends, it’s a safe and fun place to do that too.”
As the quiet dojo began filling with young students arriving for class, McCaffree moved easily among them, offering encouragement with a broad smile as parents watched from the sidelines.
The lessons practiced on the mat, McCaffree said, are meant to carry far beyond the dojo walls.
Quantum Marial Arts
445 Tacoma Ave S., Tacoma WA 98402
(253) 729-6813
Quantumtac.org
