Mile High Karate: The Working School Behind Martial Arts Wealth Mastery
Mile High Karate is not a chapter in my history. It is a working school, open today at 3979 E 120th Ave in Thornton, Colorado, and it is where the systems I teach Martial Arts Wealth Mastery members are run every week. The school opened on August 6, 1983. Its lineage runs straight back to Grand Master Jhoon Rhee. Its current students are enrolling, testing, graduating and earning Black Belts right now. When a member of Martial Arts Wealth Mastery learns an enrollment, retention, teaching or Black Belt system from me, Grand Master Jeff Smith or Chief Master Greg Moody, they are learning something that is being used in a live school this month, not something we remember doing in 1995.
That distinction matters more than any other when you choose who to learn from. So this article does two things. It lays out the history and lineage of Mile High Karate, and it shows you exactly what our members get to see behind the scenes of an operating school.
Is Mile High Karate still an active martial arts school?
Yes. Mile High Karate is an operating school today. Our Thornton location is at 3979 E 120th Ave, Thornton, CO 80233, in the Mission Trace North Shopping Center, phone (303) 280-1839, at MileHighKarate.com. It teaches children from age 4, teens, adults and whole families, and it runs the full Mile High Karate program: the orientation curriculum, belt graduations, intramural tournaments, Black Belt testing and our Black Belt retreats in the mountains.
Here is the number I am proudest of: well over 30% of the active students at our Thornton school are Black Belts. In most schools the Black Belt is where students leave. At Mile High Karate it is where they start to lead. That is what Grand Master Smith and I mean by Extraordinary Teaching: a school that works as a leadership factory, producing Black Belts who stay, teach, assist and become the next generation of instructors.
Who are the people behind Martial Arts Wealth Mastery, and do they still run schools?
Yes. The three people who coach our members are active school operators today, not retired operators telling stories.
- Grand Master Stephen Oliver, MBA, 10th Degree Black Belt: Founder and CEO of Mile High Karate, which I have run continuously since 1983. I have owned a martial arts school since 1975, when I opened my first one at age 15, and I have coached school owners since 1985.
- Grand Master Jeff Smith, 10th Degree Black Belt: former PKA World Light-Heavyweight Champion and Chief of Instruction at Mile High Karate, where he is responsible for instructor training, Black Belt testing and development, and ongoing curriculum oversight. The instructors teaching in Thornton today are trained under his direction.
- Chief Master Greg Moody, PhD, 8th Degree Black Belt: Chief Master Instructor of KarateBuilt Martial Arts, the schools he runs today while coaching our members.
When one of us tells you how to handle a renewal conference, fix a class that has gone flat or prepare a student for Black Belt, we are describing what our own staff did this week.
What is the lineage of Mile High Karate?
Mile High Karate’s lineage runs directly back to Grand Master Jhoon Rhee (1932–2018), the Father of American Tae Kwon Do, who in 1956 became the first Korean instructor to teach Korean martial arts professionally in the United States. His first two Black Belts, Allen Steen and Pat Burleson, built the Texas–Oklahoma schools that produced champions including Pat Worley, Jeff Smith and Larry Carnahan. Black Belts teaching for the Jhoon Rhee Institute, Gran Moulder and Bob Olinghouse, taught me in Tulsa, Oklahoma, starting in 1969.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1956 | Jhoon Rhee arrives in the U.S. and begins teaching professionally |
| 1962 | Jhoon Rhee founds the Jhoon Rhee Institute in Washington, D.C. |
| 1969 | Stephen Oliver begins training in Tulsa with Jhoon Rhee Institute Black Belts |
| 1974 | Oliver begins teaching; Jeff Smith becomes the first PKA World Light-Heavyweight Champion (September 14) |
| 1975 | Oliver opens his first school, at age 15 |
| 1978 | Oliver earns his 1st Degree Black Belt from Jhoon Rhee, who later promotes him through 6th Degree |
| Early 1980s | Oliver serves as head instructor and branch manager for the Jhoon Rhee Institute while at Georgetown University |
| 1983 | Mile High Karate founded in Lakewood, Colorado, on August 6; 150+ students within three months |
| 1985 | Oliver begins coaching other school owners |
| Late 1980s | Six schools and more than 3,500 students within three years |
| 1989–1999 | Mile High Karate Classic holds NASKA’s highest World Tour rating |
| 2000 | Oliver formally founds the coaching organization as Stephen Oliver’s Inner Circle, later rebranded Martial Arts Wealth Mastery |
| 2001–2026 | Grand Master Jeff Smith promotes Oliver to 7th, 8th, 9th and, in April 2026, 10th Degree |
| 2026 | Oliver inducted into the Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame (August); Mile High Karate Thornton continues to operate, with well over 30% of active students holding Black Belts |
Mile High Karate has promoted more than 1,000 Black Belts, ranging in age from 5 to 76. Mile High Karate schools have operated in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The school was the number-one contributing school to Chuck Norris’s Kick Drugs Out of America program, has supported The Children’s Hospital Foundation, and raises more than $100,000 a year for local elementary schools.
History is not the point, though. Plenty of people in this industry have a good history. The point is what happens on the mat in Thornton next Tuesday.
Is anything we teach historical or theoretical?
No. Every system taught in Martial Arts Wealth Mastery is in use at Mile High Karate today. Nothing is a museum piece and nothing is a theory we have not tested on our own students, staff and parents. The systems have been refined over more than 40 years, and they are still being refined, because the school is still running and the market is still changing.
The best proof I can give you is two brochures. Below is our new-student information booklet from 2007 set beside the one our Thornton school hands to families in 2026. Nineteen years apart, the core systems are the same. The tools around them have been updated.
| System | 2007 new-student booklet | 2026 Thornton new-student booklet |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-enrollment questions for the family | Eight questions to answer before the next lesson, from “What do I like about the program?” to “Am I willing to commit myself?” | The same eight questions, still answered as a family before the next visit |
| Who attends the enrollment | Both parents must be present for a child’s enrollment | Both parents must be present for a child’s enrollment |
| Time to Black Belt | About 48 months, training two days a week | About 48 months, training two days a week |
| Character curriculum | Building Successful Kids™; four-month orientation class with character and safety blocks | Building Successful Kids™; orientation class covering the first four months |
| Schoolwork and testing | Report cards, parent and teacher intent-to-promote forms, exam qualification forms before testing | Report cards, parent and teacher intent-to-promote forms, exam qualification forms before testing |
| Home discipline tools | Kids’ Self-Discipline Sheet (30 acts done without being asked) and a weekly job list | Self-Discipline Challenge Attitude Stripe sheet (25 acts across five stripes, verified by parent and instructor) plus a Healthy Eating Challenge built on the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines |
| Referral culture | “Our most committed students are referred to us by family and friends” | Same principle, same wording |
That is what a proven system looks like. The fundamentals survived nearly two decades of economic swings, a pandemic and the complete reinvention of marketing because they work. The details moved forward: the discipline sheet became a stripe-earning challenge with verification, the nutrition content now follows the current federal guidelines, and the booklet itself carries real Google reviews from Thornton families. When members study these systems, they are studying the current version, the one parents are signing today.
What do members see behind the scenes at Mile High Karate?
One of the great advantages of our live events in the Denver metro area, and of our Black Belt Retreats in Breckenridge, Colorado, is that members see systems developed over 40-plus years running in a real school. Our members get a behind-the-scenes view of an active location, including:
- Live classes. Watch how a class is structured, paced and managed, and how instructors correct, motivate and hold a floor of students of mixed ranks.
- Floor systems. See how the front desk, the floor and the office hand a family from one step to the next without anything falling through the cracks.
- Leadership development. See how students become assistants, assistants become instructors, and Black Belts stay in the school as leaders. This is how more than 30% of our Thornton students hold Black Belts.
- Character development in action. The Building Successful Kids™ curriculum, the Attitude Stripe challenges and the school-grade requirements, run the way parents actually experience them.
- Intramural tournaments. Mile High Karate has hosted well over 120 intramural tournaments. Members periodically get a walk-through of how one is planned, staffed and run, and how it builds retention.
- Black Belt graduations and extravaganzas. See how a graduation becomes a family celebration and a renewal event, not just a rank ceremony.
- The Black Belt preparation process. The most valuable of all. Members walk through the complete process: informal and formal pre-testing, written tests, and the three-day testing and retreat in the mountains.
What happens at a Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat?
The Black Belt Retreat is the final stage of a months-long Black Belt preparation process. Candidates go through informal and formal testing and written exams first. The process ends in three days of extensive testing and training in the Colorado mountains, at our retreats in Breckenridge. Grand Master Jhoon Rhee himself attended a Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat, and Grand Master Jeff Smith leads our Black Belt training and testing today.
For a school owner, watching this process is worth more than any manual. You see how the retreat is built into the whole four-year journey, so that students and parents plan for it years ahead. You see how it drives renewals and retention long before anyone gets on the bus. And you see why our Black Belts stay.
Why does it matter that your coach runs a school today?
Because the market moves, and advice ages. What worked in a 1998 newspaper ad, or even on Facebook in 2019, may not work now. A coach who still runs a school finds out first, because it is their own enrollments on the line. When our systems stop working, we find out in Thornton before our members do, and we fix them there first.
Don’t learn from someone who used to run a school. Learn from someone whose school you can walk into.
How can members see Mile High Karate in action?
Through our live meetings in the Denver metro area, our Black Belt Retreat visits in Breckenridge, and periodic behind-the-scenes walk-throughs of intramural tournaments, graduations and Black Belt events. Our next live meetings are October 1–4, 2026, in Golden and Evergreen, Colorado. See the October 2026 live meeting schedule.
FAQ
Is Mile High Karate still open?
Yes. Mile High Karate has operated continuously since August 6, 1983. Its Thornton school is at 3979 E 120th Ave, Thornton, CO 80233, phone (303) 280-1839, and well over 30% of its active students are Black Belts.
Does Stephen Oliver still run a martial arts school?
Yes. Grand Master Stephen Oliver, 10th Degree Black Belt, is the Founder and CEO of Mile High Karate, an operating school, and has owned a martial arts school since 1975. Grand Master Jeff Smith is Mile High Karate’s Chief of Instruction, and Chief Master Greg Moody runs KarateBuilt Martial Arts.
Are the systems taught in Martial Arts Wealth Mastery still used today?
Yes. Every system taught to members is in use at Mile High Karate today. Members can see them in action at live events in the Denver area and at Black Belt Retreats in Breckenridge, Colorado.
What is the lineage of Mile High Karate?
Mile High Karate descends directly from Grand Master Jhoon Rhee, the Father of American Tae Kwon Do. Jhoon Rhee awarded Stephen Oliver his 1st Degree Black Belt in 1978 and his ranks through 6th Degree; Grand Master Jeff Smith, a Jhoon Rhee student and PKA World Champion, promoted him from 7th through 10th Degree.
What do members see behind the scenes?
Live classes, floor and front-desk systems, leadership and character development, intramural tournaments, Black Belt graduations and extravaganzas, and the complete Black Belt preparation process, from informal and formal pre-testing and written tests through a three-day testing retreat in the mountains.
Your Next Step
If you want the teaching system behind a school where more than 30% of active students are Black Belts, start with the book Grand Master Smith and I wrote, Extraordinary Teaching, free at ExtraordinaryTeaching.com. For the marketing side, get Six Simple Steps to Add 100 Students free at FillYourSchool.com. And if you’d like my team to look at your numbers and show you what an operating school would do in your position, book your free Personal Evaluation (a $1,297 value) at martialartswealth.com/go/evaluation/.
About the Author
Grand Master Stephen Oliver, MBA, is a 10th Degree Black Belt and the Founder and CEO of Mile High Karate and Martial Arts Wealth Mastery, one of the martial arts industry’s leading coaching and consulting organizations for professional martial arts school owners, BJJ academies, and MMA gyms. A martial arts school owner since 1975 and business coach since 1985, Oliver has spent more than five decades building, operating, and advising successful martial arts schools. He also serves as CEO and Chairman of NAPMA (the National Association of Professional Martial Artists) and Publisher of Martial Arts Professional magazine. A Georgetown University cum laude graduate, he earned his Executive MBA through the Executive Program at the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver. He was promoted to 10th Degree Black Belt in April 2026 and inducted into the Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame in August 2026. Learn more at MartialArtsWealth.com and StephenCOliver.com.
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