#5 - Hometown Feature News
Geoff Trisollini talks to Lions Club about training the future of Ouachita County
Geoff Trisollini from Tribe Gym & Martial Arts spoke to the Camden Noon Lions Club on Wednesday, September 10th, about the work he does to make the community a better place using his outlet and his business.
Trisollini, being a native from Camden, spoke to club members about his personal relationship with martial arts even from an early age, and the lessons he learned from it that helped shape his lifestyle.
“I started martial arts when I was 6 years old,” said Trisollini. “The typical, 80s-90s kid that watched Karate Kid and wanted to do it. I was getting picked on in school and mom put me in karate – they wanted me to defend myself and I just never stopped martial arts.”
After graduating from Camden Fairview, Trisollini served in the army working as a respiratory therapist. He then started working as a teacher for the El Dorado and Camden Fairview high schools.
During this time, Tribe Gym was founded, and since then has trained many world class athletes in the sports of kickboxing, MMA and other martial arts. According to Trisollini, Tribe Gym is currently home to Trey Frazier, the No. 1 ranked amateur welterweight MMA fighter.
However, Tribe Gym & Martial Arts does not just train fighters and martial artists.
“One of the things that makes us a little unique, we’re not just training kickboxers, MMA fighters like you see in the UFC,” said Trisollini. “We still have the traditional martial arts programs, basically a mixture of karate and taekwondo.”
Trisollini says his goal is to use what he learned from martial arts at an early age, especially in self-discipline, and share these lessons with his students of all ages, bettering the community and creating a workforce for the future.
Trisollini said his students begin every class with a pledge to “Be polite, be patient, be alert, be brave, do our best, respect each other and ourselves.”
Trisollini said many youth sports have taken an entirely winning focused approach, but he takes a different approach with Tribe Gym.
“We try not to do that,” said Trisollini, about the winning-only focus. “Yes, we have competition teams, but we’re more about developing the people that are participating in our programs instead of just developing athletes.”
Trisollini said he has worked with students of all physicalities and ages and that he has had many success stories with people becoming healthier through working out or training at Tribe Gym.
Trisollini said he takes the role of being a positive reinforcement in the lives of his students to help them in areas like self-discipline.
“We just try to be that voice of help regardless of whether you’re a kid or whether you’re an adult. To remind you that we all have that same struggle.” said Trisollini.
According to Trisollini, Tribe Gym coaches work in the community, as well as hold Women’s Self Defense seminars, Law Enforcement defensive tactics, and hosting an active Senior Fitness Program run by his mother, former Camden Mayor, Marie Trisollini.
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