Our Culture & Community

Yes! Asheville Sun Soo welcomes students of all ages, backgrounds, and fitness levels. Our inclusive and encouraging environment helps every student grow stronger, more confident, and more focused—on and off the mat.

Absolutely. Most of our students start with little to no martial arts experience. Our instructors meet you where you are and guide you step by step to build skill, coordination, and confidence.

A martial arts practice is just that…a practice. It is the art of commiting to practicing a set of skills that will cross over into your personal and professional lives. Our students report increased confidence, increased self discipline and improved mental and physical well-being.

A student can expect to increase: flexibility, balance, coordination, reflex, spacial awareness, strength, stamina, quality of sleep, peace of mind, focus.

A student can expect to decrease: stress, anxiety, fear, unhealthy weight, cholesterol, blood pressure.

The benefits of Tae Kwon Do practice are vast. School aged children improve their performance and grades in school. Adults see reductions in stress and anxiety and report a better work life balance. Posture almost always improves for children and adults.

Below are some common benefits of being active in our classes.

Our kids become:

• Excellent students in school
• Happy, responsible and contributing family members
• Excellent, goal-setting achievers
• Leaders among their peers
• Confident and skillful martial artists

Our adults become:

• In the best shape of their lives
• Happy and healthy in their relationships
• Professionally effective
• Clear and stress-free
• Confident and skillful martial artists

Traditional Tae Kwon Do at Asheville Sun Soo for adults is a super rigorous, full-body work-out that works every muscle and joint through biomechanically sound range of motion with great attention to detail, facilitated by educated instructors with many years’ experience and the highest professional standards. Accompanying this rigor is a safe, respectful and inspiring community of high-achieving martial artists of all belt ranks.  The pace of class, the attention to detail, and the overall context of excellence stimulate our students’ entire being in an exciting way, facilitating continuous development in every area of life. On top of all of this, our adults become confident and skillful martial artists – a whole life practice, with a purpose.

Very Low. At Asheville Sun Soo, we practice with excellent fundamentals, self-control and respect for ourselves and our fellow students.

Sun Soo teaches traditional Tae Kwon Do combined with modern strength, conditioning, and flexibility training. Our focus is on personal growth, discipline, and technique—not full-contact combat or cage fighting.

Yes. Our primary curriculum is Traditional Tae Kwon Do, with emphasis on blocking, striking and kicking. It also includes escape and submission concepts from Military Hapkido, hand- and foot-work from Traditional Boxing, and falling and throwing joint-locks from Classical Judo. We also offer a complementary curriculum in traditional Danzan-Rhyu Jiujitsu which includes additional emphasis on rolling, falling, escapes and submissions.

Asheville Sun Soo offers a robust class schedule of 40+ classes per week and growing, which are strategically organized to fit any individual or family schedule and serve students ages 3 to 80!

At Asheville Sun Soo, as a full-time martial arts school of the highest professional standards, we are able to offer many more class-time/day options than the typical martial arts school. We encourage our students to come to class frequently, and allow even our beginner students the opportunity to attend up to 3 classes per week when they first begin their practice (as compared to the 1-2 classes per week that is most typical).

After a short time in practice, we then allow our students to attend unlimited classes per week at no additional cost. We want our students to have an authentic practice rooted in excellence and rigor, and we allow them the opportunity to do so.

In Traditional Tae Kwon Do, there are nine levels, or degrees, of black belt. First Degree is the initial level of black belt ranks –  in what can become a lifelong practice. At Asheville Sun Soo we have the highest technical and character standards, requiring all students to remain up-to-date on their entire Traditional Tae Kwon Do curriculum.  Most of our younger students take between 4.5 and 6.5 years to earn their 1st degree black belts, and most of our adult students take between 4 and 5 years, but the shortest time frame possible is about 3 ½ years and over 500 classes (as compared to many martial arts schools who will award a 1st degree black belt with no minimum standards in 18 months to two years). When our students earn their 1st degree black belt, they truly earn it, and the majority of our black belts continue to practice to higher degrees of proficiency.

At Asheville Sun Soo, we have unparalleled teaching ratios. In order to ensure an excellent learning environment, we maintain a large and extremely well qualified black-belt instruction team in the studio every day, allowing our younger students to experience teaching ratios typically under 10 students per instructor and in many cases much smaller groups. In kids classes, our ratios vary to allow our families to choose which classes to attend each week. Our adult/family classes operate within a mixed-rank model allowing the high ratio of experienced students and continuing practicing adult black belts in each class to provide additional teaching resources for a rich learning environment with lots of individual attention for each student.

Getting started is easy! You can schedule a free introductory class through our website or by calling our front desk. We’ll give you a tour, answer questions, and get you ready for your first class.

At Asheville Sun Soo, we offer so much more than an after school “activity.” We don’t offer martial arts classes, we offer a martial arts practice. Lasting well beyond 6 weeks, we offer a martial arts practice supporting all parts of  life. Our kids want to continue their practice because they are having so much fun and make so much progress in so many ways. And their parents, thrilled and amazed at the progress that is occurring – in all areas of experience – want their kids to continue their practice as a way of life. When soccer season resumes, our students continue their martial arts practice and are even better soccer players because of it!

Yes. Asheville Sun Soo offers after-school programs, summer camps, and special events designed to teach leadership, focus, and self-confidence in a fun, supportive setting.

Yes! Asheville Sun Soo offers week-long, summer day camps – “the coolest camps in town (voted #1 in Best of WNC more than 12 years in a row!).” Our camps include martial arts, “Poetry with a Punch”, water activities, hiking, movies, arts and crafts, team building and character building games, and a talent demonstration showcase at the end. Call Asheville Sun Soo for more information.

Yes! Asheville Sun Soo offers a well-staffed, fun and safe Kids Night Out experience at least once a month (voted #1 in Best of WNC for more than 13 years in a row!). For kids this is the “best party in town,” with team building games, arts and crafts, pizza and a movie – all for less than the cost of a baby-sitter. For adults, this is an opportunity to have a date without the kids – fun for the whole family!

At Asheville Sun Soo, we want our families to have access to a martial arts practice at the highest professional standards. To support this, we offer tuition choices affordable to most families – with discounts for multiple family members. We will cover the details of these choices in your free personal introductory session. Call Asheville Sun Soo today to schedule your introductory session.

New students should practice Traditional Tae Kwon Do at Asheville Sun Soo for all the same reasons that so many other people choose Asheville Sun Soo. We’ve been voted #1 in Best of WNC for both kids and adults for 16 years in a row! Our students drive from all areas of the region, some as far away as an hour-and-a-half to be able to practice at Asheville Sun Soo. We offer the highest standards, superior instruction, and a welcoming and supportive community, all in the largest and state-of-the-art facility and with the largest student base as well as supporting instruction staff in WNC! We are a single-location-destination headquarters (we do not have multiple locations) so that all of our students get to benefit from all of our resources being in one place. Once you’ve experienced Asheville Sun Soo, you will know you are home.