NAPMA Martial Arts Professional Lifetime Achievement Award
The Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest honor conferred by the National Association of Professional Martial Artists. It recognizes a lifetime of contribution to the martial arts and to the profession of running martial arts schools.
NAPMA has presented the award since the late 1990s, most often at the association’s Extreme Success Academy. It is not a competitive award and it is not given annually. It is presented when the association’s leadership concludes that a career, taken as a whole, changed the profession — through competition, through teaching, through the building of schools and organizations, or through work that raised the standing of the professional martial arts instructor.
Eleven people have received it. Two were honored posthumously.
The register
| Year | Recipient | Recognized for |
|---|---|---|
| First | Joe Lewis | Competitor and full-contact pioneer |
| 1999 | Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee | Father of American Taekwondo; school-building pioneer |
| 2000 | Fumio Demura | Master instructor and ambassador for traditional karate |
| 2003 | Ernie Reyes, Sr. | Instructor, performer and school operator |
| 2003 | Stephen Oliver | School owner, coach and industry organizer |
| 2003 | Tony Robbins | Contribution to the personal development of school owners |
| 2008 | Grandmaster Jeff Smith | World champion and chief instructor |
| 2009 | Grand Master J Pat Burleson | First national karate champion; American Karate pioneer |
| 2010 | Brian Tracy | Authority on sales, achievement and leadership |
| 2015 | Nicholas P. Cokinos (posthumous) | Founder, Educational Funding Company |
| 2026 | Chuck Norris (posthumous) | World champion, ambassador, founder of Kickstart Kids |
The recipients
Joe Lewis
World champion; pioneer of full-contact karate
The first recipient of the award. Lewis was among the most influential American competitors of his generation and a central figure in the development of full-contact karate.
Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee
Father of American Taekwondo
Grandmaster Rhee brought Taekwondo to the United States and built one of the first genuinely professional school organizations in the country. The Jhoon Rhee Institute in Washington, D.C. became the model that a generation of school operators learned from — including several later recipients of this award.
Fumio Demura
Master instructor; ambassador for traditional karate
Recognized for a lifetime of teaching and for carrying traditional karate to a mass American audience without diluting it.
Ernie Reyes, Sr.
Instructor, performer and school operator
Recognized for building a major school organization and for a body of performance and demonstration work that widened the audience for the martial arts.
Stephen Oliver
Founder, Mile High Karate; CEO and Chairman, NAPMA
Recognized for building a multi-school organization from a single location and for two decades of work — through NAPMA, through Martial Arts Professional, and through direct coaching — spent making the business of martial arts instruction a profession rather than a hobby that happened to take money. More about Stephen Oliver.
Tony Robbins
Authority on personal and professional development
Recognized for contribution to the development of martial arts school owners as business people and as leaders.
Grandmaster Jeff Smith
First PKA World Light-Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion; Chief of Instruction, NAPMA
Recognized for a championship competitive career and for a still longer career developing instructors. Grandmaster Smith earned his black belt under Jhoon Rhee and has spent five decades teaching the people who teach.
Grand Master J Pat Burleson
First U.S. National Karate Champion; pioneer of American Karate
Recognized as one of the founding figures of American Karate and as the instructor of a generation of champions, among them Chuck Norris.
Brian Tracy
Authority on sales, achievement and leadership
Recognized for a body of work on sales and achievement that a large number of martial arts school owners credit with changing how they run their businesses.
Nicholas P. Cokinos
Founder, Educational Funding Company; pioneer of professional school management
Cokinos came to the martial arts from the professional dance-school industry and brought with him a complete understanding of how an instructional business actually operates. Working alongside Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee, he helped put professional business systems around a martial arts vision, then founded Educational Funding Company and used it to teach a generation of owners to know their numbers. Read the full account.
Chuck Norris
Six-time undefeated Professional Middleweight World Champion; founder, Kickstart Kids
Recognized for a competitive career, for a lifetime of teaching and school ownership, for carrying the martial arts to hundreds of millions of people, and above all for founding Kickstart Kids, which places martial arts instructors inside public schools and has reached more than 120,000 young people. Read the tribute.
Common questions
What is the NAPMA Lifetime Achievement Award?
It is the highest honor given by the National Association of Professional Martial Artists, recognizing a lifetime of contribution to the martial arts and to the profession of operating martial arts schools. It has been presented eleven times since the late 1990s.
Who selects the recipients?
Recipients are selected by NAPMA’s leadership. There is no public nomination process and no competitive judging. The award is presented when a career, considered as a whole, is judged to have changed the profession.
Is the award given every year?
No. It is presented only when the association concludes that a recipient merits it. There have been gaps of several years, and in one case a gap of more than a decade.
Where is it presented?
Most presentations have taken place at the NAPMA Extreme Success Academy, the association’s annual event for school owners.
Can the award be given posthumously?
Yes. Nicholas P. Cokinos was honored posthumously in 2015 and Chuck Norris in August 2026.
Where can I read the full citations?
The complete induction citations are published in Martial Arts Professional, the association’s magazine: martialartsprofessional.com/lifetime-achievement-awards.
NAPMA — the National Association of Professional Martial Artists — has served martial arts school owners since 1994. About the association · Thirty years of NAPMA