KwanJangNim Spillmann

9th Dan / Degree Black Belt TaeKwon-Do
3rd Degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (IBJJF 156044)

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Competition Record

All certificates, awards, medals and Trophies can be viewed online and at the academy.

Awards, Achievements & Citations

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KwanJangnim Spillmann / History

GMA Director / Advisor

Grandmaster Spillmann and his wife have fostered children, worked with many youths in poverty-stricken areas in the USA, India, and throughout the world, assisting them in becoming outstanding citizens and future leaders. He has also raised thousands for charity over the years with his amazing block-breaking strength and even holds a record for breaking over 411 concrete blocks for Saint Jude’s Children's Cancer Research, shattering all his previous records.  In late 1987, he broke 250  (3x8x16)  Endcap Blocks in under 48 seconds for D.A.R.E.  He also continues to help raise funds for local charities, schools, and fundraising events.  KwanJangNim  Spillmann, overcoming many struggles and a challenging childhood, has received many trophies and medals for competing in martial arts competitions and awards for his dedication to martial arts and teaching.

He has also written several business manuals and a martial arts business book to help other school owners teach, structure, and run professional academies.  KwanJangNim Spillmann has served on the advisory boards of a University and several private companies, and because of his skills, has held several vice president positions for several major martial arts organizations. He has won many martial arts competitions, received community awards, a state commendation for public service, and even a national and a state senate award. KwanJangNim Spillmann additionally received many other citations for dedication to the martial arts community.

KwanJangNim Spillmann has worked hard to achieve the levels of Grandmaster 9th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo, 7th Degree Black Belt - Master in HapKiDo, 4th Degree Black Belt Master in Karate, 3rd Degree Black Belt in Rocian Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (IBJJF), and he holds a ranking in several other martial art styles.  KwanJangNim  Spillmann is also Vice President of several organizations and is one of the highest-ranking Instructors in the country; he has produced hundreds of Black Belts, champions, and many school owners worldwide.
 
If you have the golden opportunity to learn and earn a Black Belt under KwanJangNim Spillmann or one of his certified masters, it will be a life-changing experience.  KwanJangNim Spillmann has produced many superior black belts, national champions, top competitors, and life champions, and has changed many children's and adults' lives. Through his black belt leadership methods taught at his academies for several decades, students have gained wealth, happiness, and health, and have gone on to many top universities and fantastic careers.
 
He says his program works best when parents treat his program as a life education, not just a seasonal sport, and when students attend regularly and work hard to achieve a black belt.

My Family - My Students - My Friends

By: KwanJangNim Spillmann

Looking back, the past was a terrific teacher, but I do not live in the past. If you spend your time in the past, there is no room for your future. I am not perfect, and I have fought my own demons, many challenges, and had to overcome so many obstacles and prejudices in my life to rise to my current level and become vice president of several top organizations. I am a good martial artist, a great teacher, a loving husband, and a loving father. I am not rich or poor, and even my family, like many others in this world, has experienced many hardships. However, I am blessed not with money but with my wonderful martial arts family, my wife, children, foster children, grandchildren, and many wonderful friends.
 
My heroes are my parents (my father passed in 2015)  they tried their best during tough times and always loved us. I was also blessed with my Grandmaster's military toughness and philosophy, which helped me survive and overcome so many obstacles. Then there is my wife, who is my strength; she has been struggling for several years with serious asthma and food allergies. She has a big heart and is a blessing to everyone who knows her, and she has the true never-give-up attitude. Even with all her struggles, she is a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, and martial arts master instructor. Even on the worst days, she continues to put on her uniform, ties her belt, smiles, and runs an excellent demonstration team to this day. To me, she is an example for all children and adults of the never quit or give up attitude.
 
I am additionally blessed to have wonderful children that helped and given up so much and worked hard to be the best they can be in the dojang and academically. They always did their best to set an example for others. Even with life's struggles, our family will never lessen our dedication or sacrifice towards our martial arts family, friends, school owners, or any of our thousands of students all over the world.  We sleep well at night, knowing we have always given our best and have been more than fair and kind to everyone we have met.
 
We always tried to share everything we made and sometimes even more. Only a business owner understands the struggles of running a family business and the sacrifice required to excel above others. At times, we even opened our home on holidays for instructors and students who had no families, so they would not be alone on those special days, sharing with them what we had. I want everyone to remember that sometimes what one person sees as wealth is not wealth but kindness and years of sacrifice. We take comfort from the love of our family and the respect of our children, friends, students, peers, and the many Grandmasters. Masters and Instructors that we are honored and blessed to know.
 
We, as a family, are mindful that every person who enters our academy does so for a different personal reason. We will continue treating students as family and working to change their lives in a positive way based on each individual’s personality, needs, and goals. Martial Arts are about developing stronger leaders for a peaceful tomorrow and overcoming life’s negativity, evil, and injustice. We will also continue helping the community area schools, the less fortunate children, and sponsoring children's cancer research. We will all do our best to continue improving and growing for our students and seeking to pass on all our traditional martial arts knowledge.  "Peace through knowledge and strength" 
 
My desk and dojang are always open to all my students and all our friends. As a family, we believe in being fair to all our students; so, to be fair, we have all our academy rules and tuition policies posted at all our schools. These rules and policies can also be viewed online on our website and are listed on your registration paperwork.  I expect these polices and rules to be followed by all students to keep fairness and unity among all family members. 
 
"You are our family, you are our friends, my home and school are always open to you if your heart is true," GMS

Area Masters & School Owners

Our Organization of Schools

I invite any school owner who would like to be part of Global Martial Arts USA to join and grow with us as a friendship school. I will help you with all my knowledge and the love I have for martial arts. I also invite anyone to come and sit with me to talk and share ideas; my door is always open to all martial arts masters and students.
 
 GMA - Global Martial Arts Arts USA / American Training Centers USA 

Haters are jealous people who are so obsessed with everyone else's business but their own and thrive off of everyone else's hard work, and they look for negativity. 

Tennessee  Move

In 2012, after decades of working with several large organizations and operating many academies in the United States and overseas, KwanJangNim Spillmann decided it was time to move, to spend more time with his wife, children, and grandchildren, and just operate a smaller martial arts school. So the wheels were set in motion. As his wife also wanted to be closer to her parents, the natural transition was to move their family to Gallatin, Tennessee, to be closer to relatives, spend more time with his family, and live in a close-knit community. They also wanted to focus on Taekwondo/ Hapkido union activities, giving more time to their community and their continued educational and writing goals. This is what brought the Spillmann family to the wonderful Sumner County Area. 
 
KwanJangNim Spillmann's family opened the Gallatin Academy in 2012 to focus on all students as a closer-knit family and push them to become the best they can be.  That is why the academy limits the number of students who can join. This way, the school instructors can focus on students and give them all excellent training while focusing on self-defense and positive growth.
 
The Gallatin Martial Arts School under the tutelage of KwanJangNim  / Professor Spillmann, 9th Degree Black Belt. The school is operated by his wife, sons, and daughter, Master Andrew Davis Spillmann, a 5th Degree Black Belt, and assisted by Sabumnim Joanne Spillmann, a 5th Degree Black Belt, and Master Kurt Spillmann, 4th Degree Black Belt, and his daughter, Instructor Anastasia Spillmann, a 3rd Degree Black Belt.

Family History - Early Years

The Spillmann family from Austria dates back centuries. KwanJangnim Spillmann's grandfather was a famous paleontologist  (Click Here) who named many species and helped to open many museums during the 1930s-1970s.  His father was an architect who worked on many high-rise buildings in New York City and other big cities in the United States and throughout the world.  
 
As the son of immigrants, they were very strict and tough at times. KwanJangNim Spillmann was, at times, a difficult child and needed discipline and focus, so his parents started him in Judo and Korean Karate at the local  YMCA in New Jersey in the 1960’s at the age of four. Learning the martial arts helped him focus and redirect his energy.
 
Because of his family's work, vacations, and KwanJangNim Spillmann's travels, he has visited many countries and practiced several martial arts overseas (Peru, Brazil, Spain, Austria, England, Ecuador, Chile, Korea, Puerto Rico, Panama).  At the age of 8, his family moved to Peru for his father's work in South America.

Living In Peru - The Coup D'etat

Things were tough economically in the 1970's and his father, an architect searching for work and a better life, decided to move the family from New Jersey to Peru for his new job. His parents then enrolled KwanJangNim Spillmann in Markham College, a British boys' academy, causing issues, a culture clash, and further punishments for fighting back against the school bullies.  As an American child in South America, the teasing in the neighborhood grew so bad that a group of boys playing with fire, as a bad joke, set his hair ablaze, causing singed hair. No matter how hard things seemed, he always found peace of mind by training in martial arts and other sports.
 
Due to serious political socialist turmoil in Peru, the Spillmann family hopped on a plane and moved back to New Jersey. Upon landing in New York, the weather was so cold, and his family did not have any winter clothes, a home, a car, or much money in their pockets.  Spillmann remembers standing there with his family, feeling anxious over what would be next.  It was so cold and they had no place to go. At the last minute, his mother, being fearful, told his father to make some calls, and a friend offered his father a job in Florida.  That evening, they boarded a plane and flew to Orlando, Florida.  They eventually ended up in Daytona Beach, Florida, in the 1970's where they stayed many months in a hotel while his father commuted. His parents enrolled Spillmann and his brothers at a private school, and he continued his training in Martial arts school while playing tennis, baseball, wrestling, and football.

Rough Childhood

Spillmann's journey began not in the dojo / dojang (training hall) Spillmann's early life shaped him into someone who understood that strength comes from the inside out. It wasn’t until later that martial arts became his vehicle to overcome the emotional and physical struggles he faced in his youth. He wasn’t always destined to become the person he is today, but the very obstacles that seemed insurmountable early on became the building blocks of his leadership and success. When he first discovered Taekwondo, it wasn’t about fame or accolades; it was about transformation. “Martial arts helped me find my center, ” Spillmann reflects. “It gave me the discipline to face life’s challenges head-on, and the strength to persevere, not just in the dojang, but in every aspect of life. What started as a personal journey soon evolved into a mission: to share the life-changing benefits of martial arts with others, using his experience as a foundation to help people overcome their own challenges. 

As the son of immigrants, they were very strict and tough at times. Spillmann was, at times, a difficult child and needed discipline and focus, so his parents started him in Judo and Korean Karate at the local YMCA in New Jersey in the 1960s at the age of four. Learning the martial arts helped him focus and redirect his energy. Because of his family’s work, he has visited many countries and practiced several martial arts overseas. At the age of 4 in kindergarten / pre-school in NJ, the parochial teachers did not treat him well because of his language issues and focus (ADHD) problems.  The teachers asked his mother to assist in teaching him at home, but at the time, his mother, being Peruvian, was still learning English, and it was tough on her to work with him, because of her frustration, she hit him in the face and he started to bleed, it was tough on her and she never worked with him again.  They paddled him often and ridiculed him in front of the other kids, even one time at the age of 7, bashing his head on the chalkboard, calling him names. Spillmann says, “I understand the struggles of a parent, but the reality was my mother was abusive in many ways and would even go to his schools and ridicule him in front of his classmates, causing more bullying. She also would drop him off at his baseball games and forget to pick him up. There were times when he sat by himself for hours in the cold waiting to be picked up. 

At the age of 8, his family moved to South America for his father's work. Spillmann almost died when he was playing on an 8-foot wall, and he fell, hitting his head, which landed him in a hospital with a serious concussion, resulting in slight memory loss and speech impediment issues. Because of these issues and jumping around schools, Spillmann, as a child, struggled with several languages, and he had no one to talk with at the foreign school he attended. He was bullied relentlessly at times because of his speech and language barrier issues, but he tried to keep positive even during those hard times. He was moved from a German school for defending himself to an all-English boys' school called Markham College in Lima, Peru. Where the bullying continued, and he got in trouble and was paddled for standing up for himself and fighting back.  Things got worse in the area he lived in; kids constantly called him names because he was a foreigner, and those kids even set his hair on fire, with lit rolled-up newspapers. The only inner happiness he felt as a child was from martial arts movies and practicing martial arts. After returning to America and several caring teachers, he moved forward academically, and his speech issues improved. Martial arts gave Spillmann the confidence and strength to defend himself and fight back. 

Formation of Schools - Struggles of health

KwanJangnim Spillmann had to overcome life struggles, serious health issues, and serious allergies.  Due to his allergies and fluctuating weight issues, he was put on many weight loss programs at a very young age, including Weight Watchers, strict organic diets, and many other programs, just to stabilize his health and prevent further hives and allergies. He was taken to Gainesville, Florida, at the age of 10, where he spent time at Shands Children's Hospital because of endocrine issues. Even with all these struggles, he kept pushing forward and maintained his positive attitude.
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Everything in his life was looking great:  a nice company house, a company car, and a great job. In 1988, while training for a fight and weightlifting, KwanJangNim  Spillmann fell very ill and almost died. He was put on a 60-day quarantine and lost nearly everything as the quarantine caused him to drop college classes and lose all his income. He then found out he had liver damage caused by taking a supplement that ended up being pulled from the market several months later. To this day, because of his childhood sickness and with his liver damage, he has experienced struggles in his life and constant weight struggles. Then in 2022, while training, he developed AFIB and had two surgeries in 2022 and 2023.   Due to the two surgeries, he could not train hard for almost 14 months, causing weight gain. Then in 2024, his wife developed cancer and needed two surgeries, and by God's grace, she was cancer-free.  As a martial arts family, they all learned to never give up, and keep moving forward. "Never Give Up"

Moving Forward Is the Key:

As always, thinking positively, they all kept pushing forward with faith, and things eventually became better.  He went back to teaching, training, attending college, and doing what he loves the most: martial arts. In July of 1992, he decided to move to California to be closer to his ex-wife's family. So he took a job at a local academy in sales and teaching. The Master he worked with was a great person, and they worked together as a team. The job was great for several months until the academy owner replaced the Master with a relative. The new academy Master had drinking issues, arrived at work drunk, and was abusive towards the students.  He vented his concerns to the owner and was shocked when he was told to ignore the unprofessional behavior and just focus on teaching and growing the school. So, after just 70 days of working for that company, he gave written notice to the owner explaining all his serious concerns and then quit. 
 
Needing a job, he started interviewing with several companies and was offered a job teaching Kenpo Karate. The school was one block away from the other owner.  Out of respect for the actual owner, instead of taking a job with a local competitor,  Spillmann decided to open his first "Karate" academy 8 miles away in the small town of Aliso Viejo, CA.  KwanJangNim  Spillmann, with his Grandmaster’s blessing, opened his first martial arts school in December 1992. KwanJangNim Spillmann sold his motorcycle and satellite dish to raise the funds to open his academy and negotiated 2 months of free rent. He did not have money for a car or to rent an apartment, so he sent his wife at that time
 to live with her mother, 7 hours away in Turlock, California.  He had no money and knew he only had 4 months to make it or fail; failure was not an option.
 
Spillmann slept in the school and bathed in the sink for almost six months.  He taught all classes and executed all promotions and sales. In 1992, there was nothing in Aliso Viejo but a sandwich shop and a gas station. KwanJangNim Spillmann knew that if he worked hard and pushed forward that he would attain his goals. So he walked miles, did his promotions on foot, and did martial arts demonstrations. His first five students were a 4-year-old named Jennifer,  a 3-year-old named Bobby, and three adults: Scott, Randy, and Chuck. Many of those students still train and rank with GM Spillmann or at his other branches, and they can be found on his academy Facebook page. In a small town of 6000 people, he eventually built his academy to over 300 students and started demonstration and promotion teams.
 
In 1993-94, while running his academy in Aliso Viejo, Kwanjangnim Spillmann met his Jiu-Jitsu brother Rocian Gracie, Jr., who rented him some space and trained with him for many years. On December 12th, 2000, Spillmann received his Black Belt in Rocian Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Master Rocian Gracie Jr. then returned to open RGBJJ academies in Brazil and build a large, worldwide organization. Master Gracie's and Spillmann's friendship has grown over the years. Rocian Gracie and his wife, Roberta, honored  Spillmann by naming their son after him, "Conrado" Gracie.
 
In 1993, KwanJangNim Spillmann tested for his 5TH Dan Black Belt in Taekwondo and received his certification from his Grandmaster.  In 1999, while in Korea, he completed "The World Taekwondo Academy Kukkiwon" Training Course under Grandmaster Lee and then received his 6th Dan Black Belt from his Grandmaster.  He has continued advancing over the years, achieving an 9th Dan Black Belt in TaeKwonDo, 7th Dan in HapkiDo, 4th Dan in Karate, and Black Belt under Rocian Gracie Jr.and a IBJJF 3rd Degree   He continues ranking in other martial art styles (Wing Chun - Kung Fu - MT) and top organizations, all to bring his students the best possible training and knowledge. He worked for over 25 years to build Christian outreaches overseas, large organizations, and a network of professional martial arts schools offering top-tier training. When he has time, he continues to visit Korea, Brazil, and other overseas branches. He taught many self-defense and business seminars in many other countries and within the USA.
 
KwanJangNim Spillmann has had the golden opportunity for the past 50-plus years to train with and work with many famous boxers, fighters, martial arts masters, and grandmasters. He has trained in Korea and spent a couple of weeks studying with monks and grandmasters on his many travels to Korea. To this day, Spillmann continues to work with many of his original Grandmasters and martial arts friends to further the practice of martial arts positively. 
 
Grandmaster Y. K. Kim (Taekwondo & Founder MAW) 
Grandmaster General Choi Hong Hi. (TaeKwon-Do Founder)
Grandmaster S. J. Kim (Taekwondo)
Grandmaster C. W. Lee ( HapKiDo)
Grandmaster K.S. Myung ( HapkiDo)
Grandmaster J. M. Park  ( HapKiDo - TaeKwondo Champion)
Grandmaster K. H. Lee  (Taekwondo)
Khru Ajaran Nelson Siyavong  (Rhythm Muay Thai) 
Grandmaster Don Wilson (Kickboxing World Champion)
Grandmaster M. Lind ( HapKiDo - Kumdo TaeKwonDo)
Grandmaster Prof Bill Dewart (Taekwondo AAU)
Master Rocian Gracie, Jr. ( Brazilian JiuJitsu)
Master E. Beak ( Midori Yama Budokai Judo)
Sensei