United Martial Arts Center (UMAC)

United Martial Arts Center, known locally as UMAC, has been training students in Fort Myers since 1988, which makes it one of the longer-running martial arts schools in Lee County. The school was founded by Grand Master Noah Geun Guak, a ninth-degree black belt who began training in Tae Kwon Do and Hap Ki Do as a child in South Korea and went on to win multiple Korean national championships before opening his own school, Chung Moo, in Seoul. He later taught police and community members in Tijuana, Mexico, before immigrating to the United States and founding UMAC. In 1994 he co-founded Ko Am Mu Do alongside three other ninth-degree grand masters, a martial arts system the school still teaches today alongside Tae Kwon Do and Hap Ki Do.

In 2007 the school moved into its current building at 2500 Crystal Drive in south Fort Myers, a facility the school describes as the largest and most modern martial arts training center in Florida. Today the academy is owned and run day to day by Master David Torres, who brings a background in emergency medicine and military service to his role as head instructor. Over more than fifteen years at UMAC he’s worked with thousands of students, including kids with ADHD, autism, and other challenges, and he talks about the school’s approach as built around meeting each student where they are, saying that everyone is different and that’s something to celebrate.

The program lineup covers a lot of ground. Kids as young as four can start in the youth program, and UMAC runs an after-school program that combines martial arts training with homework help, a nice option for working parents who need more than just a class slot. There are summer and school-break camps, adult fitness and self-defense classes, family training options for parents and kids to train together, and weapons training for more advanced students. The school also emphasizes character development alongside technique, a philosophy that traces back to Grand Master Guak, who has said martial arts is about building people who are stronger in their character.

UMAC sits in a commercial stretch off Crystal Drive in south Fort Myers, not far from the Six Mile Cypress corridor, and the school maintains an active presence on Facebook and X for class updates and community news. For a family looking for a martial arts program with real depth of history behind it, or an adult wanting a serious but welcoming introduction to Korean martial arts, UMAC’s nearly four decades in Fort Myers set it apart from newer studios that have popped up around the area. It’s independently owned, not part of any national martial arts franchise, and the current leadership under Master Torres has kept it a genuine neighborhood fixture rather than letting it become just another strip-mall gym. Grand Master Guak has also appeared on the cover of Tae Kwon Do Times three times over the course of his career, a detail that speaks to how established his reputation is within the wider martial arts world beyond just Fort Myers.