The Contributors
The Contributors
Martial Arts Professional was never written by staff. It was written by people who had already done the thing they were describing — school owners with mats to fill and payroll to meet — and by a handful of outside authorities the magazine brought in when the subject reached past the dojo. This is who they were, and what they left behind.
From the Floor
Instructors and operators writing about their own schools. Almost every practical column in the archive came from someone who was teaching class the same week they filed it.
Stephen Oliver
Founder, Mile High Karate
Stephen Oliver, MBA and 8th-Degree Black Belt, is the developer of the Maximum Impact Program, the director of the one of the industry’s leading coaching programs for school owners and the Founder of Mile High Karate. He can be contacted through his Web site at MileHighKarate.com.
Jim Graden
Martial arts fitness pioneer
Seminole, Florida’s Jim Graden is internationally recognized as a martial arts fitness pioneer. Jim developed Cardio Karate, the NAPMA Fitness Kickboxing Certification, The Ultimate Bodyshaping Course (UBC), and UBC for Kids. He’s also the president of the Project ActionFoundation. He can be contacted through NAPMA.com.
Douglas Adamson
Shorei Kai / Yamani Ryu / Pikiti Tirsha
Douglas Adamson teaches Shorei Kai (an Americanized Okinawan karate system), Yamani Ryu, a classical Okinawan weapons system, and Pikiti Tirsha, a classical kali system. He can be contacted through NAPMA.com.
Peyton Quinn
Chief instructor, RMCAT
Peyton Quinn is the chief instructor at RMCAT in Colorado and the author of the book, Real Fighting, and, most recently, Freedom From Fear. He can be contacted through NAPMA.com.
Chris Dewey
Professor and school owner
Chris Dewey is a university professor and martial artist. He holds Black Belt ranks in Judo, Jujitsu, Taekwondo and Hapkido, and has been training for more than 30 years. He is the owner of the Starkville Martial Arts Academy and is Chair of the United States Judo Association Coaching Education Committee.
Fariborz Azhakh
Team Karate Centers, Woodland Hills
Fariborz Azhakh is the owner and head instructor of Team Karate Centers Inc. in Woodland Hills, California, and produces martialinfo.com, one of the world’s largest and most prestigious martial arts Web sites.
Keith Yates
First Black Belt 1968; SMU faculty
Keith Yates, M.A., is a veteran martial arts teacher who earned his first Black Belt in 1968. He served for several years on the Physical Education faculty at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he introduced the first martial arts program for credit in a southwestern university in 1971.
Elsa Cordero
Jhoon Rhee Institute; Power Kix Karate
For 15 years, Elsa Cordero was involved in the martial arts — teaching (at the Jhoon Rhee Institute of TKD and later at Jeff Smith Karate), competing (seven-time National and International Forms Champion and inductee of the Diamond Nationals Hall of Fame), and finally co-owning three schools in the Washington, D.C. area.
Terry Bryan
Founder, American Black Belt Academy
Terry Bryan is a respected speaker and coach for business owners and real estate investors. During more than 30 years in martial arts competition, he won two world titles and more than 300 first-place wins in the Black Belt and Masters divisions. His American Black Belt Academy grew to become an international organization.
Sang Koo Kang
TNT Martial Arts Centers, Miami Beach
Sang Koo Kang taught 800 students at his TNT Martial Arts Centers in Miami Beach, Florida. He is a 6th-Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and a master of other styles. His columns were co-written with Earl S. Bagan, a student of Master Kang’s for 11 years and a 3rd-Degree Black Belt.
Eric Sbarge
The Peaceful Dragon, Charlotte
Master Eric Sbarge is a NAPMA Maximum Impact and Inner Circle member and, with his wife Hu Wan Chih (Debra), owner of The Peaceful Dragon Cultural Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has trained for more than 25 years in Tai Chi Ch’uan, Pakua, Hsing-I, Shuai Chiao and Shaolin Kung Fu.
Joe Corley
Battles of Atlanta; PKA television
Joe Corley is a 9th-Degree Black Belt who was consistently ranked in the U.S. Top 10 as a point fighter, has managed 40 Battles of Atlanta, produced more than 1,000 hours of PKA kickboxing for television, and trained National Point Champions and World Kickboxing Champions.
Rick Bell
Enrollment specialist
Rick Bell is a marketing specialist and veteran martial arts school owner, considered one of the leading experts on enrollment in the industry.
Rob Colasanti
Former president of NAPMA
Rob Colasanti is the former president of NAPMA, a veteran Black Belt of more than 20 years, a former school operator, and the author of How to Build the Martial Arts School of Your Dreams. He is an ACMA-Certified instructor and a popular speaker on school operations.
Bob Sillick
Trade journalist
Trade journalist. Contributed the long-form Four Keys to Your Future feature, a yearlong series opening on exit strategy — deciding where a school and a career are heading before building anything else.
Invited from Outside the Dojo
When the subject was selling, money, or the owner’s own head, the magazine went outside the industry — and, more than once, found that the expert already held a black belt.
Brian Tracy
Human development and motivation
ACMA board member Brian Tracy is one of the world’s leading experts in human development and motivation, and a martial artist since 1964. He is the author of many of the best-selling audio programs in the world on these subjects.
Lee Milteer
NAPMA Inner Circle success coach
Lee Milteer is a success coach, professional speaker, author and developer of the Millionaire Mindset concept. She served as the success coach for members of NAPMA’s Inner Circle and Peak Performers groups.
Jim Rohn
America’s foremost business philosopher
Jim Rohn was considered America’s foremost business philosopher. He wrote best-selling books and produced many video presentations, including Take Charge of Your Life, The Five Major Pieces and Building Your Network Marketing Business.
Tony Robbins
Peak performance strategist
A Jhoon Rhee Black Belt, Anthony Robbins has served for three decades as an advisor to leaders around the world and is a recognized authority on the psychology of leadership, negotiation, organizational turnaround and peak performance.
Denis Waitley
Author, The Psychology of Winning
Denis Waitley is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers and productivity consultants in the world, and an acknowledged authority on self-development and individual performance. His audio program The Psychology of Winning is among the best selling ever produced.
Jim Edwards
Tax practitioner since 1974
After 20 years in the U.S. Navy, Jim Edwards became a tax practitioner in 1974 and has personally prepared more than 10,000 income tax returns. His focus has always been small business owners and helping them understand the tax system.
Harvey Mackay
Speaker and sales author
Harvey Mackay is an internationally recognized speaker and author who has helped salespeople, entrepreneurs and business managers improve their competitive edge, productivity and bottom line.
The rest of the record. The association’s own history is collected in Industry History, and the video sessions these writers taught are in the Video Library.
Where these writers sit in the record. The association that published them, and the years this archive covers, are set out in Thirty Years of NAPMA.