The business world knows him as David T. “Chip” Robinson, Jr., President of The Management Works of Newport Beach, CA. However, the Karate Institute of America knows him by only one name—his call sign—“Hawk!”
Hawk began his martial arts journey at sixteen years of age. His first championship was at the Orange Belt level—the first color belt above White, the color for beginners.
Obviously, winning his first championship as an Orange Belt was a portent of things to come, and oh how they came! Hawk became an extraordinary competitor at every level through 3rd Degree Brown Belt. No other Kiado-Ryu student in KIA history has won more combined Fighting and Forms (kata) championships than the Hawk! After all, hawks are predators. They delight in overwhelming their prey, and my-oh-my how Hawk reveled in not just overwhelming his prey but overpowering his prey!
Destiny, however, put a stop to Hawk’s martial arts ambitions, at least for the moment. In his early twenties life changed for this extraordinary martial arts competitor. College, marriage, children and a budding business career moved Hawk away from the lights of karate competition—for decades. That all changed, however, in his early fifties when destiny pulled him back into the world of martial arts and specifically to the Karate Institute of America and the Kiado-Ryu system where his journey began.
The thing that kept driving Hawk through decades of basic life events and experiences was his desire to ultimately achieve a Kiado-Ryu Black Belt—a coveted title that only 64 aspirants out of over 3,300 students have reached in the forty-four year history of the KIA. That’s less than 2%. To be a Kiado-Ryu Black Belt demands dedication, determination, desire, discipline, commitment, courage, constancy and a will that hungers to succeed. Hawk is a manifestation of that hunger, just like those KIA Black Belts who preceded him—those who are memorialized and honored for their accomplishment by having their names and ranks eternally placed on THE WALL.
On Wednesday, 13 September 2023, David T. “Chip” Robinson, Jr., a.k.a. “Hawk,” became the 65th Black Belt of the Karate Institute of America and the Kiado-Ryu system of martial arts.
CONGRATULATIONS, HAWK! Welcome to the club! You certainly deserve it!