About Robert W. Young

Title: Executive Editor

Robert W. Young has been involved with the martial arts for more than 30 years. As Black Belt’s executive editor, he oversees the editorial content and vision for the magazine, its specialty titles, and related books and DVDs. In the 1980s and early 1990s, he wrote numerous freelance articles regarding the historical and technical aspects of Chinese, Korean and Thai martial arts for Black Belt, Karate/Kung Fu Illustrated and other publications. Those pieces were based on nearly six years of extensive field research in Asia.
During his martial arts career, Robert has studied with respected masters of several arts, including taekwondo, kuk sool, tae kyon, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, submission grappling, karate and kickboxing. He served in the U.S. Army from 1983 to 1985 and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Radford University. In 1993, Robert began his in-house association with Black Belt and rose to the rank of executive editor in 1997. Grappling, mountain climbing, camping, running and various outdoor adventures around the globe—as well as spending time with his wife and two children—occupy much of his time outside the office (when he gets to leave, that is).