History
NAAMA Karate stands for the North American Alliance of Martial Arts and was founded by our Great Grandmaster, Edward Copley, who found his love for martial arts in the 1960s while serving his country in the United States Marine Corps, as a member of the First Force Recon. In order to better understand why Mr. Copley fell in love with martial arts, here is a little history of his youth.
As a pre-teen in Detroit, he took up boxing and quickly gained traction. After much training and competitions in the ring, by the age of 16 he had reached light-weight golden glove level and fought at the Michigan State Fair, where he won by knock out. This feat drew the attention of a United States Marine Corps recruiter. While in the Marine Corps, Mr. Copley eagerly continued his boxing career. His assignments brought him to places like Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and all over Asia. One day a Korean Tang Soo Do master wanted to see American Martial Arts - “Boxing” - and Mr. Copley happened to be his opponent. This encounter inspired Mr. Copley to begin studying the martial way. Mr. Copley would spend most of his adult life traveling the world through government connections and studying different martial arts. When he came back home to the United States, he decided to open a martial arts school using Tang Soo Do/Soo Bahk Do as the base and taking the most effective techniques he learned to create NAAMA. Our style is strongly rooted in the Korean art of Tang Soo Do but has techniques from Japanese Karate, Chinese Wushu, Okinawan Karate, Western Kenpo, and Boxing.
Outside of the martial arts world, while working with NATO, Mr. Copley was a big influence and force in helping with the dismantling of child trafficking around the world. He created the Kids Safe Network, teaching 911 ABCs, code words, going bananas, pry bar escapes, and more. That is why at NAAMA Karate we pride ourselves on making sure students can escape and evade possible attack situations and keep safe from all types of threats that could arise.