Over the past nearly 20 years, KOMA Taekwondo+ has seen steady growth.
Founder Bronson Ko opened the company’s first studio in Leawood in 2006, within a week of graduating from the University of Kansas.
In seven months, the studio had 100 students, eventually relocating to Overland Park and then expanding with an additional location in Olathe.
Now the company is growing even further, with a new Prairie Village studio. KOMA Taekwondo+ opened to students at the Meadowbrook Shopping Center at the end of January.
The studio opened at 5320 W. 95th St.
- KOMA moved into a space at the Meadowbrook shopping center, just off 95th Street and Nall Avenue.
- There, it operates near ice cream shop Betty Rae’s and beef retailer Booth Creek Wagyu.
- KOMA generally offers classes from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
KOMA offers ‘the ultimate extracurricular activity’
Students can begin classes at KOMA at age 3, and class offerings go up to “adult” ages (16 and older).
KOMA also offers one-on-one lessons for students with developmental disabilities. Ko said the studio caters toward all types of ability levels and, often, toward people who don’t resonate with typical sports like soccer and baseball.
“This is very individual focused, and we’re very much a merit-based academy,” he said. “Instead of having to rely on your team to win, you can win on your own.”
Some of the top benefits Ko said can come from consistent taekwondo lessons are leadership skills and confidence building, along with physical benefits like mobility, flexibility and building balance.
“I really believe in what we do,” Ko said. “And I really believe there are so many people, whether they’re 3 years old or 80 years old, that could really benefit from what we have to offer.”
Ko’s background with taekwondo goes back to childhood
He grew up inside his father’s taekwondo studio, Ko’s Black Belt Academy, in Overland Park. He started lessons at age 4 and later earned his black belt at age 7.
Then as a teenager, Ko discovered he had a knack for teaching and began to take on more and more instructing and curriculum-organizing responsibilities.
“I was doing everything from answering the phone and teaching all the classes to collecting money, and I was barely 18,” he said.
Even throughout college at the University of Kansas, Ko continued commuting back and forth from Johnson County to help teach classes multiple times a week.
After graduating, he promptly returned to and eventually purchased the studio off 143rd Street and State Line Road from his father — making it the first official KOMA Taekwondo+ location.
In 2009, KOMA Taekwondo+ relocated from Leawood to 148th Street and Metcalf Avenue, into a space three times the size of its original home.
The studio later opened its Olathe location in 2015, and then built and moved into its current Overland Park space at 15030 Antioch Road in 2016.
In looking at where to expand next, Ko said Prairie Village made a good fit because of the families in the area who seemed aligned with the KOMA Taekwondo+ mission of maintaining good health.
“(Prairie Village) has a really positive vibe of people who seek to be healthy,” he said. “Ultimately, it just felt right.”
Ultimately, Ko said that the primary takeaway for students at KOMA is that they are more capable than they might think. In his time operating the company, watching students make that realization is a big part of what makes it worth it.
“It’s been almost 20 years, and that in itself is why I keep doing what I’m doing,” he said. “Those transformations are like fuel.”
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