Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kim Yee. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kim, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Our Karate West vision is to share our knowledge of martial arts and our understanding of natural laws to empower others to reach their true potential and live their best life by balancing the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. That leads to our purpose, which is to develop lifelong learners and strivers for excellence, who demonstrate respect for self and others, through well-rounded training in martial arts.

Kim Yee started studying martial arts as a young preteen, at a time when martial arts was not practiced by anyone other than young adult males. There were very few women, and no children. Classes were rigorous and strict, with very little actual instruction or explanation, partially due to language barriers, and also to the tradition of teaching just by making students follow along. Kim attended class daily, and saw improvements in coordination and strength, as well as focus and self-discipline. Friendships were formed that led to additional training outside of formal instruction. Kim loved martial arts and loved the benefits he saw himself deriving from martial arts. He loved the people that he met and decided that this was something he wanted in his life long-term.
He began teaching classes when he was a brown belt. Although he realized that this was actually a responsibility too much for a sixteen-year-old, he also saw the importance of giving actual instruction, and developed ways of teaching that his students responded well to and thrived under. The old philosophy of “teaching” was to make the student figure everything out for themselves, and Kim found that to be less effective than giving the students instruction and more direct guidance.
Kim attended college as an art major, but as he realized more and more that he wanted to teach martial arts for a living, he added in studies in physical education. He learned more about physiology and the mechanics of movement and added that into his “toolbox” for developing better ways to teach martial arts.
After graduation from college and getting married, Kim and Lou Anne moved to Colorado to establish Karate West. The first location was within a dance studio, and the first students were the brothers of girls taking dance lessons. At that time, karate classes were not yet a common activity for children. But Kim had the patience and teaching skills to teach children, and Karate West thrived, with the children and the adult students, men and women. The first women to attend were all wives or girlfriends of men who also took class, but women eventually came in on their own. A large portion of the students were college students at that time.
When the Karate Kid movie came out a few years later, many more children began taking classes, and over the years, people came to see martial arts as a common thing for kids to do, and less common for adults to start. Karate West has always offered classes for a wide range of ages, based in the belief that martial arts is good for everyone. There are many aspects to martial arts, and different ones appeal to different people. We believe that it is important to be balanced in training and in life, so we require Karate West students to participate in some of each of the areas of art, sport, and self-defense, and also to actively develop strength of character. We realize that not everyone will excel in every area, but reaching a basic level of competency in each area helps people gain balance and really learn what their own strengths and limitations are. It is also important for us all to learn what it means to work hard for what we want, to learn perseverance and learn to have a value system.
We believe that training in martial arts helps us all become better people, and we want to help as many people as possible become the best they can be, through training with us.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Much of our story is covered in the previous section. Karate West was established in 1978, by Kim and Lou Anne Yee. We still run the business today, with the help of some part-time staff. All of our staff members are also our students. Our children grew up studying martial arts and working at Karate West. They both moved away for some years but have returned to the area and are again a part of Karate West. We teach martial arts classes for ages 4 through retired adults. Our oldest student was Lou Anne’s father, who earned his Black Belt at age 80. He has since passed away but was very active here for many years. We still have a number of students who are in their 70s, though we do have more 4-year-old students than 70-year-old ones.
Karate West also has a well-stocked pro-shop, selling martial arts uniforms, equipment and supplies.
We are very proud of all of our students. They are all important to us, and we enjoy working with them, for however long they are with us. Some have been with us for over 30 years, and we are now teaching children and grandchildren of some of our students. Everyone who has earned a Karate West Black Belt has worked hard to earn it.
We are thrilled to have been able to work together as a family, making a living doing something we love with people we love.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Over 46 years in business, there have been many ups and downs. We made some mistakes, and there were some obstacles that came up that we had no control over. We have survived health challenges, and we have survived economic downturns in the 1980s and 2008, and we survived the pandemic! We understand that possibly 2/3 of all martial arts schools in the US closed due to the pandemic. It was not easy to survive, but we did everything we could, from teaching lessons on Zoom, teaching classes outdoors, and then wearing masks with limited students indoors, cleaning everything after every touch. We were blessed that we already owned our own building so that the only one we were failing to pay rent to was ourselves. We were also blessed to have some caring and faithful students who kept paying tuition even when we couldn’t hold classes.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Karate West is a family-owned business that is very family-oriented. Our children were present in the business from infancy on. And we always talk about our “Karate West family.” We have always had children as students, and we have found that people remember how their children were treated here, what we did for their kids, and they don’t hesitate to share that with others. We love karate but understand that karate is not always #1 in other people’s lives. We have encouraged our students to do well in their other endeavors, and sometimes they have found their calling in those other areas. We don’t feel bad about that. We are happy for them. We are happy that we got to be a little part of their lives and their success. We have built our reputation on being honest and caring, as well as delivering quality instruction to our members.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.karatewestinc.com
• Instagram: louanneyee Karate West
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/KarateWest
• Youtube: www.YouTube.com/@KarateWestIncFortCollins

Image Credits
Patrick P.C. Hu, Lou Anne Yee, Portraits by Betsy, Amber Kissner