Mr. Troy Bates

Mr. Troy Bates started Tae Kwon Do while he was in middle school in Vancouver, Washington in 1982. Over the course of his middle school and high school years, Mr. Bates won numerous local and state championships in the arena of form competition and in full contact sparring. Mr. Bates obtained his 1st degree black belt in the summer of 1987 and was awarded this achievement from Master C. S. Kim of Seoul Korea in the World Tae Kwon Do Federation (WTF).  

Mr. Bates started his teaching career in 1988 and then in the spring of 1989 enrolled in the United States Army. Mr. Bates left for boot camp on October 26th, 1989 and shortly after graduating top of his class, he found himself serving his country in Youngugol, Korea. In 1990-1991 Mr. Bates took advantage of the opportunity to further his training in the martial arts and enrolled himself into an all Korean Tae Kwon Do Academy.

Even though the language barrier restricted verbal communication, his senior instructors taught him by moving his arms or legs in the direction they intended for him to go. They monitioned with their body language and drew pictures on paper the techniques that he soon mastered over his stay in Korea.  

Mr. Bates obtained his 2nd degree black belt from his 9th degree Grandmaster in the World Tae Kwon Do Federation and his brown belt in Hopkido (the Korean equivalent to Judo) before being handed down orders to return to the United States. In the late part of 1991, Mr. Bates (then maried with 2 children) found himself training once again in Tae Kwon Do in the city of Killeen, Texas. After training there for approximately two years, Mr. Bates moved his family to the great city of Atlanta and came in contact with some students from the Hae San Martial Arts Association and enrolled this time with his two daughters as white belts.

Mr. Bates then worked his way back up the ranking system and obtained his 4th degree black belt in the International Tae Kwon Do Association (ITF). Through inheritance left by his beloved mother who passed on June 6th, 2003, Mr. Bates opened the Stockbridge Tae Kwon Do Academy on February 6th, 2003. Mr. Bates has worked extremely hard ensuring that he operates and directs a school which teaches traditional martial arts in full respect of the founders of Tae Kwon Do.

Mr. Bates believes that if an instructor truly cares for their students that instructor will push the student to the limits of their capabilities and not settle for average efforts. If a student is not ready to test, the student will not test is what you will hear Mr. Bates tell his students, as well as having good attendance, proper respect shown to everyone, and a total dedication to Tae Kwon Do. Mr. Bates aims to have the best taught classes in the state of Georgia and he believes that his extensive training in Korea is most definitely an advantage his students have that other students do not, and other instructors can not provide to their students.