The Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat is the multi-day mountain retreat where Mile High Karate candidates complete their Black Belt testing. Founded as a semi-annual event, it became an annual retreat and testing weekend. It was held for many years at SilverCreek, near Granby, Colorado, and later moved to Keystone, Breckenridge and Estes Park. Today Black Belt testing finishes with a three-day retreat in Breckenridge, led by Grand Master Stephen Oliver and Grand Master Jeff Smith. Guests over the years have included Grand Master Jhoon Rhee, Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, Joe Lewis and former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.

What is the Black Belt Retreat?

For a Mile High Karate student, Black Belt is not awarded at an ordinary class-night test. It is the end of a process that runs for months: informal pre-tests, a formal pre-test and a written examination, followed by a retreat in the Colorado mountains. Candidates leave their home schools and train, test and live together with existing Black Belts, instructors and senior leadership for the weekend.

The retreat combines several things in one event:

  • The Black Belt examination: forms, sparring, self-defense, advanced curriculum and physical conditioning, judged by senior Black Belts.
  • Training: hours of instruction from Grand Master Jeff Smith, Grand Master Stephen Oliver and visiting masters.
  • Leadership development: a separate track for leadership students and assistant instructors, part of the Mile High Karate pathway from student to leader, instructor and school owner.
  • Recognition and promotion: new Black Belts are promoted in front of their families, instructors and peers.

Mile High Karate treats Black Belt as a rite of passage, not just a rank examination. Taking candidates out of their normal environment and into the mountains is the point.

How demanding is the test?

The testing portion of the retreat has historically run about 48 hours from start to finish. Records from three different years agree:

  • At the fall 2005 retreat, Bernard Kerik described it as “probably some of the most aggressive training, aggressive testing and aggressive teaching in the arts that I’ve ever seen,” and joked that “nobody is insane enough to give a test for 48 hours.”
  • A 2007 Martial Arts Professional photo caption shows Stephen Oliver teaching “150 black belts on their 43rd straight hour at 8,500 feet elevation, in Breckenridge, Colorado.”
  • The November 2010 Keystone schedule ran Black Belt candidates from 7:00 pm Friday to 6:00 pm Sunday.

The retreat also has a tradition of its own. Each year, Stephen Oliver sits the new Black Belts and their parents down and asks whether they would give back everything they gained on the way to Black Belt in exchange for $1,000,000. By 2007 he reported that all 487 Black Belts and their parents asked had said no.

Semi-annual to annual

The retreat began as a semi-annual event, with Black Belt testing and retreats held twice a year. Over time it settled into one major annual retreat and testing weekend, usually in October or November, supported during the year by intensive training weekends and Black Belt progress checks. Every dated major retreat in the surviving records falls in the fall. At its largest, the annual event drew as many as 400 participants.

As Mile High Karate grew through licensed and franchised schools in the 2000s, the retreat became a national event. Franchise materials listed “annual Black Belt retreat weekends for your students” as a benefit, and the 2007 event was billed as the Mile High Karate national Black Belt Retreat, with schools attending from across the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

The retreat locations

SilverCreek, near Granby

SilverCreek was the retreat’s original and longest-running home. In a letter archived in 2007, Stephen Oliver wrote that “the big event of the year has been held for many years” at the Silver Creek resort before recently moving to Breckenridge, and “has been attended by as many as 400 participants.” The resort is today’s Inn at SilverCreek in Granby. By November 2002, families could register online for “Black Belt Testing / Retreat.”

Breckenridge

Breckenridge has been the retreat’s main home for most of the period since the mid-2000s. In September 2005 the Lakewood school’s newsletter told candidates, “Well, it’s about seven weeks until Breckenridge. Are you ready?” The 2006 Black Belt test there was filmed for DVD. Martial Arts Professional published photographs in 2007 of Stephen Oliver teaching “several hundred Mile High Karate Black Belts during their annual retreat and testing in Breckenridge,” and the 2008 retreat was held there October 17–19, alongside franchise and instructor training. More recent retreats have been held at Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center in Breckenridge, and the three-day Breckenridge retreat remains the final step of Black Belt testing today.

Keystone

The retreat has also been held in Keystone. The November 5–7, 2010 Black Belt Retreat at Keystone Lodge & Spa featured Grand Master Jhoon Rhee, Grand Master Jeff Smith, Grand Master Stephen Oliver, Master Robert Lewis, Master Frank Brown and self-defense author Peyton Quinn, with Mile High Karate school owners and students from Denver, California, Florida, Maryland, Texas, Australia and New Zealand. Video from a Black Belt Mountain Retreat in Keystone in November 2017 also survives.

Estes Park

Estes Park has also hosted the Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat. Mile High Karate is collecting photographs, programs and recollections from Estes Park retreats to document the years and venue (see below).

Notable guests and instructors

  • Grand Master Jhoon Rhee, the “Father of American Tae Kwon Do” and Stephen Oliver’s own teacher, attended a Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat, where he was photographed with Oliver (see photos). He was a featured guest of the 2010 Keystone retreat, leading the Sunday leadership session with Smith and Oliver. See The Jhoon Rhee Lineage Behind Mile High Karate.
  • Grand Master Jeff Smith, PKA World Light-Heavyweight Champion and Mile High Karate’s Chief of Instruction, has been the retreat’s chief examiner and instructor for many years and leads Black Belt training and testing today. See Grand Master Jeff Smith.
  • Bernard Kerik, former New York City Police Commissioner, spoke to Black Belt candidates and families at the fall 2005 retreat, where Oliver and Smith promoted him to 5th Degree Black Belt. He took part in multiple Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreats across two decades.
  • Bill “Superfoot” Wallace and Joe Lewis joined Jeff Smith at the October 2007 national Black Belt Retreat for the “Champion’s Reunion,” a recorded conversation with Stephen Oliver, NAPMA curriculum director Mark Graden, and Mile High Karate school owners and instructors. The three champions also took questions from those attending the retreat. It is one of the last recorded conversations among the three champions before Joe Lewis died in 2012. See photos from the Champion’s Reunion.
  • Peyton Quinn, Master Robert Lewis and Master Frank Brown taught at the 2010 Keystone retreat.

The 2007 Champion’s Reunion in photos

In October 2007, world champions Bill “Superfoot” Wallace and Joe Lewis joined Grand Master Jeff Smith at the Mile High Karate national Black Belt Retreat for the Champion’s Reunion. Alongside the recorded conversation with Stephen Oliver, the champions taught and demonstrated for the Black Belts, candidates and students attending the retreat.

Four Black Belts in blue Stephen Oliver's Mile High Karate uniforms posing for a group portrait at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
Champion’s Reunion portrait, October 2007. The first three uniforms from the left are embroidered J. Lewis, Master Smith and S. Oliver.
Two men in blue Mile High Karate jackets seated by a fireplace; the jacket on the right is embroidered Bill Wallace
Fireside at the Champion’s Reunion. Bill “Superfoot” Wallace is on the right.
Bill Wallace, his name embroidered on his blue uniform, raising his arm high while teaching at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
Bill “Superfoot” Wallace teaching at the Champion’s Reunion.
Bill Wallace, his name embroidered on his blue uniform, speaking to students at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
Bill “Superfoot” Wallace with retreat students.
Jeff Smith, wearing a uniform embroidered Master Smith, demonstrating a defense against a choke at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
Grand Master Jeff Smith demonstrating a choke defense.
Two Black Belts demonstrating a choke defense in front of seated students at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
A choke-defense demonstration for the retreat.
Black Belt instructor in a blue uniform coaching a student through a self-defense technique at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
Self-defense instruction with a student volunteer.
Two Black Belts in blue uniforms demonstrating in front of seated students at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
A sparring demonstration for students.
Black Belt in fighting stance demonstrating for a room of seated students at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
Students watch from the floor.
Black Belt instructor kneeling to talk with young students in blue Mile High Karate uniforms at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
Teaching the youngest students.
Black Belt instructor seated on the floor talking with young students at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
Answering students’ questions.
Students in blue Mile High Karate uniforms gathered around instructors at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
Students and instructors between sessions.
Young Mile High Karate students seated on the floor watching an instructor at the 2007 Champion's Reunion
Mile High Karate students at the retreat.
Wide view of a hotel ballroom filled with students in blue uniforms stretching on the floor at the 2007 Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat
The training hall at the October 2007 national Black Belt Retreat.

Grand Master Jhoon Rhee at the Black Belt Retreat

Grand Master Jhoon Rhee, the “Father of American Tae Kwon Do” and Stephen Oliver’s own teacher, came to the Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat to meet the Black Belts and address the retreat. He was a featured guest at the 2010 Keystone retreat. See The Jhoon Rhee Lineage Behind Mile High Karate.

Grand Master Jhoon Rhee in a dark suit beside Stephen Oliver, whose blue uniform is embroidered Master Oliver, at the Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat
Grand Master Jhoon Rhee with Grand Master Stephen Oliver.
Grand Master Jhoon Rhee with Mile High Karate Black Belts under a Stephen Oliver's Mile High Karate banner at the Black Belt Retreat
Grand Master Jhoon Rhee with Mile High Karate Black Belts.
Grand Master Jhoon Rhee seated at a head table beside a Black Belt in a blue uniform at the Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat
At the head table.
Grand Master Jhoon Rhee on stage with a microphone while a young student demonstrates a kick at the Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat
A student demonstrates on stage as Grand Master Rhee speaks.
Grand Master Jhoon Rhee speaking with a microphone beside a Black Belt in a blue uniform at the Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat
Grand Master Rhee addresses the retreat.

Timeline

Date Location Event
Mid-1980s Colorado mountains Black Belt Retreat tradition begins as a semi-annual event (founder’s account)
Many years, to about 2004–05 SilverCreek, Granby Original long-running home of the main retreat; up to 400 participants
November 2002 — Online registration offered for “Black Belt Testing / Retreat”
Fall 2005 Breckenridge (likely) Bernard Kerik addresses candidates and is promoted to 5th Degree
2006 Breckenridge Black Belt test filmed for DVD
October 2007 National Black Belt Retreat Champion’s Reunion: Jeff Smith, Bill Wallace and Joe Lewis
October 17–19, 2008 Breckenridge Black Belt Retreat alongside franchise and instructor training
November 5–7, 2010 Keystone Lodge & Spa Retreat featuring Grand Master Jhoon Rhee, Jeff Smith and Stephen Oliver
November 2017 Keystone Black Belt Mountain Retreat (video)
2024 Colorado mountains Black Belt Mountain Retreat (video)
Today Breckenridge Three-day Black Belt retreat and testing

The retreat today

A few weeks after the retreat, new Black Belts receive their belts on stage at the annual Black Belt Extravaganza, held every year since 1990. Black Belt testing at Mile High Karate Thornton still finishes at a three-day retreat in Breckenridge, after informal, formal and written tests. More than 1,000 students, ages 5 to 76, have earned their Black Belts through Mile High Karate. School owners who belong to Stephen Oliver’s Martial Arts Wealth Mastery coaching program can also attend the retreat to see the Black Belt and leadership system behind the scenes.

“Nobody does this”

Grand Master Stephen Oliver and Grand Master Jeff Smith with Bernard Kerik, who holds his Mile High Karate Black Belt Diploma for 6th Degree Senior Master Instructor, Keystone, Colorado, with his quote about the retreat and testing program
Grand Master Stephen Oliver (left) and Grand Master Jeff Smith (right) with Bernard Kerik, holding his Mile High Karate Black Belt Diploma for 6th Degree Senior Master Instructor, Keystone, Colorado.

“Nobody does this. I mean, when I tell you nobody does this, nobody has the following he has. Nobody has the camaraderie he has. Nobody is insane enough to give a test for 48 hours—but that’s what makes this so great, so good, so real.”

— Bernard Kerik, former New York City Police Commissioner, referring to Stephen Oliver’s retreat and testing program. Read his Martial Arts Professional memorial profile.

Retreat video

Black Belt Mountain Retreat, 2024:

Black Belt Mountain Retreat, Keystone, Colorado, November 2017:

Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat:

Krav Black Belt Retreat, 2021:

Final words from Grand Master Jhoon Rhee at Mile High Karate:

Help us complete the record

The retreats span four decades, and many early years are not yet documented in surviving records. If you attended a retreat at SilverCreek, Keystone, Breckenridge or Estes Park, Mile High Karate would like to hear from you, especially if you have photographs, programs, Black Belt certificates, T-shirts, video or newsletters that show the year and location. See the Mile High Karate archive to share materials.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat held?

Today it is held in Breckenridge, Colorado. Over the years it has also been held at SilverCreek near Granby (its original long-running home), Keystone and Estes Park.

How long is the Black Belt Retreat?

It is a three-day weekend. The testing portion has historically run about 48 hours, from Friday evening to Sunday evening.

Is the Black Belt Retreat annual?

Yes. It began as a semi-annual event and became one major annual retreat and testing weekend, usually held in the fall.

Who teaches at the Black Belt Retreat?

Grand Master Stephen Oliver and Grand Master Jeff Smith lead the retreat. Past guests have included Grand Master Jhoon Rhee, Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, Joe Lewis and Bernard Kerik.

What happens before the retreat?

Candidates complete informal pre-tests, a formal pre-test and a written examination at their school before finishing their Black Belt process at the retreat.

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