Founded by Grandmaster J.K. Chung in 1980, the Korean Academy of Taekwondo, LLC is located at 16850 E. Mississippi Ave and is Aurora’s oldest continually operating martial arts school. KAT has taught students of all levels from special needs to competitors at the 2012 London Olympics and all ages from 2 to 70+.

Many students and instructors have opened their own branch locations, which are separate legal and financial entities. Most of the school’s intellectual property (cirricula, logos, etc) are open source, and thus all businesses share a common branding as the KAT Network.

For more information see what we teach or the KAT school history.

Community Service

KAT has always stressed the importance of giving back to the community and making it a healthier place. At the highest level we serve the community by training leaders and giving our members the ability to succeed in life. At other levels we directly serve the community. All black belt candidates are required to do a Black Belt Service Project. You can see several recent examples at https://www.coloradomanews.com 

We also host charitable events. We hosted a kickathon that raised nearly $2,000 for Gabriel Nofsinger, the brother of a KAT student who suffered brain damage and needed money for treatment. For more about this kickathon and the news coverage we received, visit the press section.

Our demo team performed at the Colorado Autism Walk and raised nearly $2500 for Autism Reasearch. That same year, we also received a $1000 Community Grant from Walmart to give scholarships to students who could not afford training.

KAT Logo and Philosophy

The KAT logo embodies the philosophy of the school. It is a blend of traditional symbols and modern materials and rendering. The base of the logo is the  concept called Yin-Yang in Japanese and Um-Yang in Korean. This concept signifies the essential balance in nature between light/dark, day/night, male/female, positive/negative, etc. For our school it represents our philosophy of ‘a mind in the future and a heart in the past.’ The Um-Yang is interrupted to represent the blue sky and snow-capped mountains of Colorado.

The tiger in the middle represents strength, stealth, and explosiveness. It is also a play on the initials of our school.

The three symbols are the Korean words of Tae, Kwon, and Do.

The logo has many forms and colors. You can see the students showing their creativity on the Student Art album. The KAT logo is ‘open source’ and may be adapted for many different situations and programs.

There are many different versions on the Facebook Kat Logos Album.

Mascot – Toko the TKD Tiger

TOKO (Tap Out/Knock Out) the TKD Tiger is the official Mascot of KAT. He’s known for showing up at special events, tournaments, and demonstrations. He’s also known for being awesome.

Here is a picture of Toko with all of the Denver Nuggets Cheerleaders and another one with the Denver Outlaws Cheerleaders. Somehow, Instructor Jacob always manages to get in the pictures as well.