Meet Michelle Landgren Lee of Lee’s ATA Martial Arts

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Landgren Lee.

Michelle, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I began taking martial arts at age 17 when I was a student at ASU. In my 2nd year, I moved to Japan to major in International Business and Japanese language and fell deeper in love with the arts while training there for several years. After Graduate School at Thunderbird AGSIM, I traveled the world as a salesperson at Consumer Electronic Shows. It was a great life but I ended up very over-weight and out-of-shape due to the fast lifestyle of an international executive. I married my martial arts instructor and helped him when I was in the US; but found myself feel inadequate as a black belt due to my lack of training. Fast forward four years and my decision was easy to follow my passion for martial arts and quit my career.

For 10 years, my husband and I ran one school and then two, three, five, seven, twelve schools were opened during the next 20 years. Being a high ranking martial artist in the American Taekwondo Association (ATA) which is the world’s largest martial arts organization; has truly been a blessing. The ATA provides required continuing education not only in martial arts but more importantly teaching skills for the diverse group of students ages 3 to 78 years old. Just being a great martial artist does not make one a great teacher. Lee’s ATA Martial Arts has trained more than 30,000 students and looks forward to continued growth in the future.

Most managers and instructors at Lee’s have been training and teaching for more than 20 years themselves. We host the largest martial arts tournament in Arizona twice per year with over 1,100 participants and host a 3-Day Camp in Heber for children with hundreds of students in attendance.

Lee’s ATA Martial Arts works several nonprofits in Arizona to provide free classes for children in over 23 school districts as well as raises over $30,000 each year selling Pink Belts to support mothers fighting breast cancer. Yearly more than $11,000 is given to college-bound martial artists to help promote the importance of continued education. Truly Lee’s ATA Martial Arts is a family Academy providing self-defense, fitness, art and leadership skills to Arizona residents.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has not been easy. After leaving my six-figure career to do what I loved the most, my husband and I lived for 10 years below the poverty line. We lived in an 800 square foot dwelling in the desert that we built with our own hands. The continued financial pressures resulted in our divorce and me eventually carrying on with 5 Academies. For a short period of time, my income rose; but in 2008 when the market crashed and many people had to quit martial arts; we were stuck with locked-in lease rental rates for our Academies that created huge losses and almost complete failure by 2012. Through complete restructuring, further education and teaching 75+ hours per week with my new partner for the next decade we more than doubled our size. Our Academies are mature now having weathered many storms and are full of an abundance of black belt instructors working together for the future.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Although only 25% of our students enjoy competition in tournaments, we are proud to have trained more State, District and US and World Champions than anyone in Arizona. We also have a strong special abilities program that both offers smaller size classes to meet the needs of the individual student and offers other classes that integrates all students training together to learn and grow together. With so many Academies around the valley, we have instructors who specialize in traditional martial arts, MMA, Krav Maga, Gun/Knife Defense, Extreme Martial Arts (XMA) which includes gymnastics plus musical choreography; weapons such as nunchaku, sword, staff, kama, 3-sectional staff and more.

What were you like growing up?
Ha, ha, ha…… I was a girl who has only brothers and boy cousins. They were allowed to do martial arts and I was only allowed to do dance and cheerleading. Due to the fact that I was not allowed to participate, it made me want to do martial arts even more. I was a happy-go-lucky girl who never got in a fight much less arguments with anyone so it is ironic that this is my chosen career and passion.

Pricing:

• Classes are offered 5 to 6 days per week and run approximately $125 per month

Contact Info:

• Address: Lee’s ATA Martial Arts – Headquarters
  610 N. Alma School Road #32
  Chandler, AZ 85224
• Website: www.leesata.com
• Phone: 480-831-1111
• Email: leesatamartialarts@gmail.com
• Instagram: @leesata.az or instagram.com/leesata.az
• Facebook: facebook.com/leesatachandler
• Twitter: @leesata

Image Credits:
RJF Photography

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.