Update: Had a great workout at ATA MARTIAL ARTS ORO VALLEY in the "Teen and Adult" evening class. Mr. Kim and his staff assists teen and adults to achieve their Martial Arts and Fitness Goals. My original review stands -- BEST PLACE TO TRAIN IN MARTIAL ARTS IN ORO VALLEY! I have children who have been taking Tae Kwon Do lessons at ATA Martial Arts of Oro Valley for the past 4 years and they have always been eager to attend their classes. In fact, on the days they cannot attend...they are upset and cranky, because they miss their good friends and the awesome instructors at the school. Since my children were involved in Tae Kwon Do, my wife and I got involved. As a recently retired military officer of over 22 years of service, I wanted to have an activity that I could participate with my whole family. We all worked up the ranks. My wife and I are 1st degree black belts and our children are recommended black belts. We are still in the nascent stage of learning Tae Kwon Do, despite what other people assume from our belt ranks. ATA Martial Arts has a family friendly environment with many children, teenagers and adults attending classes. I see whole families (fathers, mothers and children....even grandfathers and grandmothers!) taking these classes together. I guess it's true when they say, "the family that kicks together....sticks together!" Also, the parents and grand-parents that are not participating in classes are very supportive of their loved ones attending the school. You can feel the positive energy every time you enter the door. When my children began their martial arts journey, they were 4 years old. They had some self-confidence issues, trouble focusing and listening. I thought martial arts may help my children overcome these issues, remain physically active, and may learn a few "moves" to defend themselves and others. When I read about ATA, I was very impressed with their curriculum and the instructors at the school. The ATA curriculum not only teaches the mechanics of Tae Kwon Do, but also teaches basic life skills such as: Setting Goals, Perseverance, Honor, Respect, Integrity, Courtesy, and Self Control. Through my observations of the classes and the positive reinforcement at home.....I found these skills helping my children in the Martial Arts classes, in school, and interactions with other children and adults outside of ATA Martial Arts. My children had definitely sharpened their focus, are listening more intently, and have gained self-confidence. Additionally, my children had recently been involved in competing in local, regional, and world tournaments. To my surprise, they wanted to get into competitions and pushed my wife and I to compete. They have met many new friends from other towns, states and countries. They have learned good sportsmanship. They know how to be humble when they win and to learn from their losses. Also, they have developed a good work ethic, and found that inner fire or drive to improve. All of this was achieved through the crucible of competition. My wife and I also compete and met many liked-minded parents that have fun with Tae Kwon Do from Arizona, nationally and from different places from around the world. Mr. Kim has helped us to improve ourselves and become better martial artists. We have achieved District and State championship titles. Many of Mr. Kim's child, teen, and adult students have achieved similar distinctions and Mr. Kim had produced some World Champions! These titles are in Form (Poomsae), Weapons Form, Sparring and Combat Sparring. These achievements are a testimony to Mr. Kim's outstanding instruction and motivation. I have personally observed Mr. Kim and his staff effectively interacting with children and adults to help them achieve their martial arts goals. They make learning fun and challenging. Mr. Kim and his staff has trained, mentored and challenged my 4 year old children in a fun and caring way. I see this through a lens formed after over 20 years of experience mentoring children, teenagers, young adults and middle age adults. I believe that anything worthwhile is something you must earn.....and not to be handed to you on a "golden platter". In this school, you definitely earn your belt rank. If your goal is to get a black belt without putting any effort to achieving it, then I recommend you save your money and not come to this school. It will be far cheaper to purchase a Karate uniform and a Black Belt, train from videos and call yourself a Martial Arts expert. Bottom line: I have done my research and I do not regret sending my children to this ATA Martial Arts Black Belt Academy. I strongly recommend Mr. Kim and his staff to teach your loved ones of any age.....It is truly money well spent! read more

I just had to put my 2 cents in for an outstanding business and martial arts school like Oro Valley ATA Martial Arts and for all the hard working students and instructors. I've met and talked with many of these champions Mr. Ian seems to think that have given Mr. Kim an ego of some sort as a "black belt 5 times over" as he puts it in his review. That would be a fifth degree black belt for those of us who bothered to find out what the instructor's credentials were before enrolling out kids here. But I guess "the pediatrician" parent was too busy or something. Mr. Kim teaches humility with every win and losing with grace and not being a sore loser and it shows in his instructors and all the black belts who have achieved those champion titles. So before you get misled down the wrong path of going to another, lesser quality martial arts school, speaking from personal experience, over a review by what seems like from an entitled minded family, come check it out for yourself. He even offers free classes to find out for yourself what happens in the classes. Your child does not just get a mini private lesson in the office like mine did at another school and not know how the classes are run. You get to be apart of the regular class so you know what to expect from day to day, week to week in each and every classes your kids will come to. If you are looking for a great quality martial arts school and instructor who will teach and instil good traditional values such as respect for authority, courtesy, perseverance, honor, loyalty, integrity, and self control, check out Oro Valley ATA Martial Arts and come talk to Mr. Kim. He won't "hurt you" like some entitled, butt hurt parents claim he does. I guess that turned out to be a little more than just 2 cents. Uodate: I just wrote out a too lengthy of a review according to yelp and it totally got cut off! First half of my review was about my take on the Ian review, who wasn't even there to see anything he claims in his "recommended" review by yelp and the lies in my opinion that Vinny tells in his reviews. Lies and more lies, I can tell you from an eye witness who sat and watched the whole fiasco unfold last summer along with at least half dozen other parents. You may fool the uneducated but you can't fool us. It was the dad who told the kid he can quit. Mr. Kim merely agreed with the dad as he's never stopped anyone from quitting before. It was the dad who couldn't convince nor negotiate with the kid to leave out the door after losing his stripe from poor behaviors in class. I remember that reward and consequence talk Mr. Kim was trying to talk to both Vincent and Vinny about. He seems to have a lot of those talks with the newbies. But I'm pretty sure it went right over their heads. The kid played along with the flick and the toe stepping just like my kids did and laughed about it and moved on to the next exercise. I'm so disappointed that my defense of this great place and great instructor got cut off. The review probably won't make as much sense now without the previous part. Nothing I can do about that I guess. read more

I'm a 1st degree black belt who's entire family does martial arts with this dojo and it is absolutely fantastic to be a part of this ATA family. The instructors are patient with the kids. It's amazing to me how the only two negative comments that are recommended are the disgruntled negative comments. As a member since 2012 I have grown as an individual and have had the privilege to train with State, District, and World Champ black belts. My daughter just achieved the rank of first degree as well and we have enjoyed competing at tournaments and fine tuning our skills. The staff and instructors teach with high enthusiasm while reinforcing the ATA attributes of loyalty, respect, honor, perseverance, integrity, attitude, goals, courtesy, and self control. These attributes are strongly reinforced by Mr. Kim and his staff. So if someone's child acts with disrespect, is disruptive, refuses to pay attention to the instructors, has no focus and goofs off they all lose a stripe. It's called discipline. It goes hand in hand with martial arts training. The majority of the kids don't act that way and so the majority are fine and have fun and learn. THIS IS THE BEST PLACE TO TRAIN, get exercise, challenge yourself, step out of the box, and become a martial artist. UPDATE: I read the comments by Ian C. and Vinny K. and I strongly disagree. And knowing the full story of what happened that night, when a five year old, unruly, disrespectful child was allowed to control his dad after class and go stand in the corner and pout for ten minutes while Vinny K. talked his son into quitting; and then they come on Yelp and try to trash Mr. Kim and land in the top comments. It's quite funny because Ian C. repeatedly stated that her child is never disciplined. Read what she wrote! He is "inattentive and free spirited," which translates to unruly and undisciplined, and it was "nearly impossible" for him to focus. What does any person reading that think of this mother and father? My take is this: you don't allow your child to quit when times get tough. You cannot wake up when you're 18 and say "okay, pay me $30 an hour and I will flip burgers for you. " You don't get to decide what you are entitled to in life. And especially when a child is young and impressionable like at the age of 5 you have to lead them and direct them and show them that tough lesson that you can't always have it your way. I, too, have a child who thought about quitting for different reasons, but I encouraged her to keep going. She is now a recommended black belt. All anyone has to do in Mr. Kim's classroom is follow directions. It's very simple and easy to do unless you allow your child so much free spirit that it becomes impossible. My 5 star rating still stands. read more

DO NOT LET YOUR CHILD GET HURT BY A TEACHER/INSTRUCTOR!!! My child has not even been in Mr. Kim's class for 2 months. He is a 5 year old playful, energetic, inattentive, pure-minded, free-spirited boy. Before we signed him up, we had informed the teacher/owner what kind of a kid he is and we were told that they handle them pretty well. My son work so hard and looked up to the instructors and Mr Kim with a lot of respect, tries to so hard to behave even when it was close to impossible, and finally earned his 2 stripes. Today was not the worst of his behavior but enough to tick Mr. Kim off that he had to step on my son's feet because "my son purposely stepped on his," "he was finger flicking my son's head because he was not listening" until the kid said "AW!" and lastly, took off one of his stripes as a punishment! Maybe he could use his words better than his physical actions as a world renowned instructor, black belt five times over, teacher, owner of a "prestigious Martial Arts place 4 Kids" over a 5 year old kid! No one has any right to lift a finger on other people's kids! I am a pediatrician and this is not how I advocate discipline and behavior modification for a child! Very disappointing! You could have pulled the parent aside and advised to drop our kid out of your class because IT IS NOT WORKING FOR YOU! Achievements should not get over ones head! THINK TWICE and many more times before you entrust your child even to "respected people". You just did not hurt my child, you broke his dream and you broke his trust for people like you! read more

Our children have been students at Oro Valley ATA for 4 years and began when they were 4 years old. They love training there and love all of the instructors, including Mr. Kim. He makes the classes fun for the children while, at the same time, teaching them so much about physical fitness, martial arts, and life skills, such as perseverance and achieving goals, just to name a couple. They have improved in self confidence and have learned that if they fail at first, they keep trying until they succeed. Oro Valley ATA has a great family environment. Many families train there together, including the parents, such as my husband and I. I know when I go there I will be greeted with smiles and feel very welcome. We wouldn't want to train anywhere else. read more

My son has been taking karate lessons from Mr. Kim for two and a half years. He has progressed to a brown belt and really enjoys it. We were attending another karate school prior to this one but we were not as impressed as Mr. Kim's. In all the years I've been taking my son to karate I've never seen Mr. Kim mishandle a child. We love the lessons he teaches to the kids, and the guidance and confidence he instils in them. Honestly, I can't imagine finding a better karate school. read more