Family Martial Arts proudly serving Sandy Springs since 2012

Family Martial Arts has Classes in Sandy Springs, Perfect for Kids, Teens, and Adults Martial Arts Lessons.

David & Odalys

DAVID & ODALYS

Odalys is a 2nd degree black belt who has been practicing Karate since age 9. For her, it was a lasting bond with her instructor that sparked a passion for martial arts and built her confidence. With a positive mentor guiding her, Odalys began teaching martial arts herself. Odalys is still close with her first Karate instructor, even as an adult with her own studio.

David is a 4th degree black belt who, like Odalys, has been practicing Karate since childhood. Through Karate, David was able to forge lifelong friendships and inspire children that he would have never met otherwise. In fact, it’s their shared interest in martial arts that brought David and Odalys together in business and in marriage. Today they are the proud co-founders of Family Martial Arts.

OUR STORY

IN THE BEGINNING
Not long ago, we were running a Karate studio and found ourselves falling into a lot of common traps. Largely through the influence of a former business partner, the studio focused too much on the bottom line and not enough on individual students. It wasn’t about teaching discipline, building bonds, and encouraging growth. It was about advancing belts and tying families into long-term contracts. That model simply wasn’t serving us, and it certainly wasn’t serving the families who came to us. We wanted to create a studio where families felt welcome and where we could truly make a difference by sharing our passion with our community.
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AND THEN...
We knew what kind of studio we wanted to build, but everything had to be done from the ground up. We were no longer just Karate instructors—we had to learn about web design, marketing, and everything else that went into launching a business. There was also the challenge of adapting business practices to fit into our values. We had left the safety net of having any business partners and now we were truly on our own.
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OUR BREAKTHROUGH
Since our goal was to build a Karate studio that better served our community, that’s exactly where we looked for help. We sought relationships with parents and families who could offer insight and guidance that we could build on. As we started gaining momentum, we found that running our own business was easier than we expected.
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JUST WHEN WE THOUGHT EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT...
The business side was coming together, but now we needed to grow our practice and find instructors who could impart the lessons we wanted to teach our students. Because we’d had negative experiences in the past, we wanted to build a team we could truly trust and that we knew would stick around.
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FINALLY!
As Family Martial Arts has deepened our roots, we’ve been able to build our own team, hiring internally among our own talented students. This has only supported our mission to put kids and parents first in all that we do.
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WE FIRMLY BELIEVE:

  • Family Martial Arts is a safe haven where kids can feel comfortable and be themselves.
    Students don’t compete with each other; they strive to do their personal best.
  • Anyone can choose to be their best self in the face of failure and adversity. Failure is
    inevitable, but facing it head-on is the only way to grow.
  • The benefits of martial arts education extend well beyond our studio doors. Long after
    achieving your black belt, you’ll be left with strong core values in your character.

IT’S NOT JUST PUNCHING AND KICKING.​

One of the biggest concerns we hear from parents is “Won’t all that punching and kicking just encourage more violent behavior?”. And yes, Karate will teach your kids to kick and punch. However, martial arts promote values like self-discipline and respect above all else. As a result, the changes we see in our students are overwhelmingly positive. Kids learn to focus, channel their energy into something positive, and express themselves confidently. As an added benefit, they’ll be able to kick butt too!

David & Odalys