Podcast 346 – Karate Atlanta Builds Confidence and Leaders in Life – Bonnie Rhodes & James Devins

Karate Atlanta Builds Confidence and Leaders in Life

Karate Atlanta Dunwoody has been teaching taekwondo in Dunwoody, Georgia, since 2005, and Chief Instructor Bonnie Rhodes and ATA Brand Ambassador James Devins III sat down with me to talk about what really happens on the mat. Their students range from four-year-old Tigers to a beginner who started at 72, and every one of them is there for the same thing: confidence.

In This Episode

• Bonnie Rhodes, Chief Instructor at Karate Atlanta Dunwoody, started taekwondo as a shy adult and has stuck with it for 16 to 17 years.
• James Devins III, ATA Brand Ambassador and Morehouse College senior, went back to martial arts after a shift at a Papa John’s next to Karate Atlanta Sandy Springs.
• Kids earn their uniform, then earn their white belt on their third class by listening better at home.
• Karate Atlanta teaches six life skills through its Black Belt Club, Leadership and Legacy levels: belief, communication, honesty, discipline, respect and self-esteem.
• New students can try a two-week trial for $49, uniform included, at 5576 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd. in Dunwoody Hall.

My Family’s History With Karate Atlanta Dunwoody

My son was a student here, and I can tell you the exact date I was last in the building: August 22, 2015.

My older son, Micah, trained at Karate Atlanta Dunwoody, and he had class that morning. When we left, my wife Sasha went home and I went to work. Before I left, Sasha told me, “I think this is the day the baby’s going to come.”

I went to work anyway. Oops.

A few hours later, I got the call that Sasha was on her way to the hospital. I left work and met her there, and our second son, Samuel, was born that day. I have heard about that work decision for a long time. So here’s my free advice to every husband in Dunwoody: when your wife tells you the baby is coming today, DO NOT go to work.

The reason I put Micah in karate in the first place was to gain confidence. I didn’t know much self-defense, and I wanted him to learn it young. Honestly, I don’t know how much of it stuck. Maybe we need to come back up there.

How Did Bonnie Rhodes Go From Shy Beginner to Chief Instructor?

Bonnie Rhodes didn’t start martial arts as a kid. She started as a mom, watching two of her kids train.

“This might be good for fitness,” she remembers thinking, “’cause, you know, I’m kind of fat.” Then she corrected herself. “I’m five three and I weighed almost about 250.” She said she couldn’t go up a flight of stairs without losing her breath.

What held her back wasn’t just fitness. “I was very shy and I didn’t have any confidence, even as an adult, to say, hey, I want to try this.”

So she found a way to get herself there. At Christmas, the school was giving out gift certificates for a free month of classes if you donated to Toys for Tots. Bonnie handed the donation to her youngest son and told him to put whatever they gave him in her Christmas stocking.

That’s how she started. Her instructor used to tease her that she was “kicking Papa Smurf” because that was as high as her kick would go. She had to hold on to something so she wouldn’t fall over.

Her kids have since graduated high school, graduated college and moved out on their own. Bonnie is still on the mat 16 or 17 years later. And as she told me with a big smile, “By the way, I don’t weigh two fifty anymore.”

That’s what showing up looks like. That’s what changing your life looks like. Now she’s the one changing other people’s lives.

Why Does Bonnie Care So Much About Confidence?

This was the underlying topic of the entire podcast episode, and I’m here for it. My boys are in 5^th and 9^th grade, and I’ve spent the past 15 years trying to instill confidence in them.

Bonnie’s mission is simple: she wants kids to start out with more than she had.

“I didn’t have this growing up,” she said. “I grew up in a very negative environment where I was worthless. I was no good. If I didn’t succeed, I was a failure, and a failure is a bad thing.”

She carried those hang-ups well into adulthood. Even now, she says, taekwondo is still teaching her that it’s okay to mess up.

“I don’t want kids to go through their life like that,” she said. “I want them to start out with more tools than I had as a child. So that’s my passion.”

That’s why she talks about falling down so much. Everybody messes up, and a lot of kids lose their confidence and self-esteem when they do. Bonnie wants them to learn one thing early: you get back up and you try again. If you can do that, she says, you have a good self-concept.

Listening to her, I told her this is basically life training. She agreed. “Absolutely life training.”

It’s pretty cool when someone finds their calling in a place they never expected. Bonnie found hers at Karate Atlanta.

How Did a Papa John’s Shift Bring James Devins III Back to Martial Arts?

James Devins III started taekwondo at five years old in Palm Harbor, Florida, and he’ll tell you exactly why. “I wanted to be a Power Ranger, wanted to be a Ninja Turtle.”

He also has ADHD and calls himself “a bit of a rambunctious kid,” so his parents signed him up. He trained from age five through middle school and earned his second degree black belt. He admits he didn’t take it too seriously back then.

In high school, he stepped away from martial arts to join an elite music ensemble. Then he came to Atlanta for school, and he’s now a senior at Morehouse College.

During his sophomore year, James was working at a Papa John’s that happened to be right next to Karate Atlanta’s Sandy Springs location. “One day something just told me, the Lord told me, was like, hey, go in there. You wanna do martial arts again?”

He walked in. The instructor looked up his ATA number, and after about two weeks of training, asked James for a résumé. “Now I’m on a totally different career path,” he said. Fun fact: that instructor is now the CEO of the ATA.

As a fellow pizza guy, I gave James props for swapping his Papa John’s gear for a uniform.

What Does “Leaders in Life” Mean at Karate Atlanta?

James doesn’t call his students students. He calls them athletes.

“For me, two biggest things,” he said, are “making them leaders of life, and of course, champions of life.” That means the mental game as well as the physical side.

For the Tigers, the four, five and six year olds, the focus is listening and staying still. James says that’s the biggest thing parents want. The kids get to have fun and burn off energy, but they also learn discipline, focus and memorization before they head into kindergarten and first grade.

For the Juniors, fun is still a big part of it, along with fitness. That means proper push-ups, proper sit-ups and real cardio.

Then there are forms. In Songahm Taekwondo, the style taught at Karate Atlanta, traditional forms build hand-eye coordination, discipline and memorization. The kids have to do this move with this hand, then that move with that leg, in order, all by themselves.

James loves watching a kid go from not knowing a high block to stringing together a jump front kick and a backfist strike two months later. “You get to testing and they’re like, ‘I don’t need you, Mr. Devins.’”

I remember Micah going through exactly that with his forms. He’d do them in the wrong order, but it was regimented, and he eventually got it. He was so proud of himself.

How Do Kids Earn Confidence at Karate Atlanta Dunwoody?

At Karate Atlanta Dunwoody, confidence comes from earning things. That starts before the first class.

New students visit the school first so they can see the layout. Bonnie says that’s especially important for kids, because new situations make them nervous. I remember that part from when we brought Micah, and it really helped.

Next, kids earn their uniform. “We want them to realize you’re gonna earn everything you get here,” Bonnie said. “The only thing we’re gonna give you is maybe a kick to the head. But other than that, you’re gonna earn everything you get.”

Beginners start in dedicated white belt classes with kids their own age. On their third class, they can earn their white belt. The catch? They have to listen better at home, ideally the first time their parents ask. When they show improvement, they break a wooden board and get their belt.

“We want to be partners with parents,” Bonnie said. As a parent, I can tell you we loved that part.

After that, students test about every two months, as long as they’re ready. They work through the color belts on the way to black belt. Bonnie calls black belt “the beginning of a black belt journey and the end of the color belt journey.” There are nine levels of black belt, and most people never make it to number nine. That’s okay.

What Are the Black Belt Club, Leadership and Legacy Levels?

The life skills at Karate Atlanta come in layers, and students move up when they’re ready.

Bonnie used listening as the example. In the Black Belt Club and Tigers, kids learn to do what’s right the first time their parents ask.

The next layer is Leadership. Now they’re learning to do the right thing without being told, because it’s the right thing to do. Leadership students also work on public speaking, which Bonnie calls the number one fear people have. When an instructor asks a question, kids stand up and answer it. There’s even a dedicated leadership class with a little book they work through together.

The top layer is Legacy. That’s when students teach other people how to listen the first time. I told Bonnie that’s the best way to learn anything: teach it.

James counts six life skills in the program: belief, communication, honesty, discipline, respect and self-esteem. “I really believe in those and it really helped me,” he said.

Bonnie’s list adds focus and what she calls good communication. She thinks we’ve lost the art of it to phones, texting and email, so active listening is a big one for her.

Why Martial Arts Is Not Just About Punching and Kicking

James has proof the leadership training works outside the school.

His high school music ensemble took him all over the country. He performed at Lucas Oil Stadium, did the Macy’s Parade and did the Rose Parade. For the Rose Parade, he was in an honor band as the center snare. That meant helping lead a 400-person band he’d just met, from all over the country, after about a week of rehearsal, through a very, very long parade.

“I would not have gotten through that experience without the leadership training that I got through martial arts,” he said.

That’s what he wants every student to take home. “It’s definitely not just about punching and kicking. It is so much about going out into the real world and being a proper member of society.” He wants that for everyone, “whether they be three and a half or seventy-two.”

He also told me this isn’t the job he pictured. “I didn’t see myself doing [this] originally, but now I can’t see myself doing anything else.”

The Whisper Kid Who Became an Instructor

Bonnie’s favorite proof is a student who could not speak above a whisper.

“He had no confidence, none whatsoever,” she said. As a white belt, he’d whisper his answers to the instructors.

Now he’s an instructor himself. When his little brother started and showed up whispering too, the big brother looked at him and said, “Brother, speak up.”

“It was just like a full circle,” Bonnie said. “It was amazing to watch.”

That’s exactly what James’s story is, too. You walk in as a student, and you end up working there.

Bonnie told me everyone’s welcome to try. They have special needs kids and adults with special physical needs. There’s a foundation curriculum, but she likes to tailor it to each person. One kid needs confidence. Another needs something else.

What’s the Difference Between Taekwondo and Karate?

I’ll admit it: I didn’t know. So I asked them to break it down for me.

Karate, taekwondo, jujitsu and Muay Thai all fall under martial arts. At Karate Atlanta, the martial art is taekwondo. It’s Korean, and the name means “the way of the hand and foot.”

“We are known for our high kicks, very, very exuberant,” James said. “We like kicking people in the head.”

Karate comes from Okinawa, Japan. It’s more grounded, with more focus on hand techniques, and the kicks don’t really go above the belt. Taekwondo kicks do. Both have forms. In Korean they’re called poomsae, and in karate they’re called kata.

So why is it called Karate Atlanta? Karate Atlanta Dunwoody is one of 15 Karate Atlanta locations around Metro Atlanta, including Sandy Springs. Karate Atlanta was started in 2000 by three friends, and the Dunwoody school opened in 2005.

All of them are licensed through the American Taekwondo Association. Grand Master H.U. Lee, who taught taekwondo to the American military outside Seoul, was invited to bring it to the United States. He started the ATA in 1969.

Is Karate Atlanta Dunwoody Good for Adults?

Yes, and adult class might be the most fun on the schedule.

Bonnie says adults make up about 15% of students, and James agreed. He’ll take “quality over quantity” any day, because teaching adults is his “greatest joy.” At the end of the day, they’re there to sweat and work, and they want it.

The adult class usually packs the floor, with teens and adults training together. Sometimes, James says, the teens get sent to the side for knuckle push-ups so the adults can do their thing. Adults love the memorization part, which gets that brain work back, plus the fitness.

Bonnie gave a shout-out to one adult student who struggled with right and left. The instructors came up with a driving trick, gas and clutch, then gas and brake. It helped a lot. That student is Patrick Duncan, and he’s actually the one who introduced me to Karate Atlanta Dunwoody. He’s a good guy.

In full transparency, my kids and my wife have a hard time with left and right sometimes too. Patrick, if the gas and brake trick works, I may tell them to give it a try.

What Should Dunwoody Parents Expect?

Here’s the practical stuff for families living in Dunwoody or thinking about moving to Dunwoody.

Classes are grouped by age:

• Tigers: ages 4 to 6
• Juniors: ages 7 to 12
• Teens: 13 and up
• Adults

I had to ask the Seinfeld question: do you have adults sparring a 12-year-old like Kramer did? No. Bonnie says it’s also based on age and not just skill level.

Each group gets four core classes a week to choose from, plus specialty classes. Bonnie recommends at least twice a week for consistency, but you pick the days, because you know your schedule better than they do. If something comes up, you’re always welcome to switch to another day.

They don’t expect anyone to walk in and sign a long-term membership. Instead, there’s a two-week trial for $49, and that includes the uniform. You try some classes, see how it goes, and they meet with parents about memberships around the second week.

Connect With Karate Atlanta Dunwoody

If your kid needs a little more confidence, or you do, go see Bonnie. She’ll set you up.

• Address: Dunwoody Hall, 5576 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd., Dunwoody, GA 30338 (the Publix shopping center by Moe’s)
• Phone: 770-828-0400
• Website: karateatlantadunwoody.com
• Trial offer: karateatlantadunwoody.com/trial-offer
• Facebook: facebook.com/KarateAtlantaDunwoody

Thanks again to Bonnie and James for making time for me, and to Patrick for making the introduction.

What Is What’s Up Dunwoody?

What’s Up Dunwoody is a local media platform created by REALTOR® Matt Weber, focused on living in Dunwoody, moving to Dunwoody, and staying connected to the community. It began as a podcast and has grown into social media content, local guides, and two of the largest Dunwoody-focused Facebook groups where residents share recommendations and stay in the loop. Matt has expanded slightly outside of Dunwoody and now covers the entire top end of the Perimeter through his Top End ATL channels.

Matt is a Dunwoody REALTOR® who helps people navigate buying, selling, and moving in the area. Stay in the loop with local updates, listings, and insights by signing up here: whatsupdunwoody.com/email

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