Building Confidence, Self-Esteem And Courage
Robinson building positive environment in Pooler community
Mike Robinson
To build true confidence through knowledge in the mind, honesty in the heart, and the strength in the body.
To keep friendship with one another and to build a strong and happy community.
Never fight to achieve selfish ends, but develop might for right.
- Mike Robinson’s Mission Statement
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” Nobody knows that better than Mike Robinson.
It’s been 36 years since Robinson first learned what the martial arts could do for him. He was a young boy from a small town west of Atlanta, and he was unknowingly, at the time, searching for the very thing that would send him on his life’s journey.
He was a 14-year old struggling with a horrible stuttering problem that manifested into a lack of self-confidence. He loved to watch Bruce Lee movies and when he heard about karate classes being offered at a local recreation department, he decided to give martial arts a try. Two years later he was enrolled at a true martial arts academy in the city, and from that point on, Mike knew that he wanted to be a karate instructor one day.
He kicked the stuttering problem, and today he owns Robinson’s ATA Black Belt Academy in Pooler. Recently celebrating their fourth year of business, Robinson’s ATA focuses on fitness and words like honor, perseverance and goals.
As one of a thousand American Taekwondo Association schools, which are individually owned, the ATA family includes more than one million members and is the leader in the martial arts industry.
“What separates us (ATA) from the average organizations is we don’t teach just a single martial art,” says Robinson. “We also teach 26 different weapons, self defense, avoiding conflict, short and long range self-defense, and grappling.”
Tae Kwon Do has evolved over the years, according to Robinson, garnering much interest and attention from children, youths and adults alike.
Often times martial arts has been improperly tagged as a fighting sport, but nothing could be further from the truth, according to Robinson. And though martial arts is also sought for self defense reasons, Robinson maintains his academy is more about well-rounded and healthy individuals.
“We really focus on the physical fitness end of martial arts. “The most important self-defense we do is fitness,” says Mike. “More people lose their lives or become disabled due to heart disease, cancer and stroke. So we really focus on getting in shape and leading a healthy mind, spirit and body.”
At an early age, Mike learned that kickboxing was one of the fastest ways to get somebody in shape. “That’s why we also have kickboxing classes,” says Mike. “If you every want to get in shape fast, kickboxing is the way to go.”
The other thing that separates Robinson’s ATA from the average martial arts school is in their children’s program. “We are a character building school. Without a doubt it is more important to build a well rounded person than it is to build the best fighter in the world,” Mike said. “We want to achieve people who can function in society and not just be the toughest guy on the block.” He continued. “We definitely want to be a part of the community, and hopefully whatever we contribute to the community is going to be a positive thing.”
Perhaps one of the strongest attributes at Robinson’s ATA is with the manner in which they approach the kids. “Our instructors follow our philosophy that every kid is a winner,” says Mike. “Our goal is to introduce your child to an ongoing lifetime sport and not to teach them to fight or be a bully.”
For Robinson the martial arts has been a 34-year journey which has led him to much of the happiness in his life. He met his wife through the martial arts when he was 21 years old, while teaching a self defense class that she was attending. Now the couple has been happily married for 30 years. His two children also followed in his footsteps in practicing the martial arts, and his daughter Jennifer works for him as an instructor at his academy.
The popularity of the martial arts has increased rapidly over the years, and Mike attributes that to many different reasons. “Americans are much more conscious about their health today,” says Mike. “Physical Education programs either don’t exist or aren’t taken as seriously as they used to be in our schools. Benefits of the martial arts are so wide. It’s a whole big package people can get ranging from mental confidence to physical health.”
Robinson, a third degree blackbelt, epitomizes the philosophy instilled by the ATA’’s founder Grand Master Soon Ho Lee. By providing state of the art training facilities, a comprehensive martial arts curriculum and highly skilled and motivated instructors, Robinson’s ATA and the thousands of other ATA’s across America have helped people in reaching individual goals that were never before thought possible. There’s an old saying that says, “If you can help enough people achieve everything they want, then you’ll achieve everything you want.”
“A good martial artist will put someone else’s needs before his/her own,” says Mike. “It’s not only a fun activity and a way to release stress, its really a something you can pattern your life after.”
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