By Randy Capps
Ty Myatt was born and raised in Clayton, and remembers taking his first karate class at 6 — even if he didn’t retain much of it.
“I was a kid in an adult’s program, so most of it went in one ear and out the other,” he said.
These days, as a program director at the Clayton location of Revolution Martial Arts, he makes sure he tailors his lessons for students of all ages, and that commitment to teaching martial arts skills has earned him the 2026 Johnston Now Honors Outstanding Coach Award.
Myatt is the second instructor from the school to win this award, joining Andy Borland, who was honored in 2020.
“I kind of walked into it already, you know, pretty established,” Myatt said of Revolution Martial Arts. “So I can’t take a lot of credit for the culture that was already there. … You know, the culture starts from the top, right? And if we aren’t living by these life skills that we’re trying to get everybody else to live by, then it falls apart.
“I have to give a lot of credit to my boss, my coach, Mr. Scot (Schwichow, Revolution’s founder). He shows me every day the example of a good leader. (He) takes responsibility for his team, makes sure he’s building everybody up. And then that funnels down into (everyone else).”
After high school, Myatt earned a degree in communications from UNC Wilmington and dabbled a bit in acting and music — while retaining an interest in mixed martial arts.
“You know, when I was a kid, I mainly did it because my dad wanted me and my mom to have something to defend ourselves with,” he said. “Then when I revisited martial arts at like, 13 — that was when I started at Revolution — it was more Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu at that point. I wanted to be a fighter, you know, that was my thing. I wanted to be an MMA fighter.
“But training as much as I did, I kind of got just more satisfaction in training and knowing how to do the stuff for myself rather than, you know, having to throw myself into that competitive ring. I still have competed, just not on that same scale.”
His own journey with martial arts has helped him pass that knowledge on to his students.
“With the teenagers especially, you know, the 13 and 14-year-old boys, they get that angry face that happens,” he said. “I’ve been there, but a lot more so with the younger kids. I was a very emotional kid. I was a kid who would cry if something didn’t go the way I wanted to.
“So being able to teach these kids how to overcome challenges and kind of reframe obstacles when they come up and turn them into strengths rather than setbacks, has been the biggest area of impact I’ve been able to apply to myself. I love that part.”
Today, he teaches more adult classes. And each age group requires different coaching approaches.
“You’ve still got to be on your toes with both (kids and adults) because they respond to different things,’ he said. “With five and six year olds, you typically have to be a little bit more visual. And with the older kids and going up into the adults, you can be a little bit more descriptive.
“The sense of humor has to carry over for one. I crack a lot of jokes when I’m teaching. … But, using the jokes or something like that to lighten the tension, especially if it’s a newer student, you have to earn their trust before you can really teach them anything. You got to show them that you know what you’re doing, but also that you care about their development.”
Myatt’s background with stagecraft is also a big part of his coaching method.
“Mostly it’s my public speaking, projecting, you know, making sure I’m engaging the audience,” he said of the crossover skills. “You’ve got to be somewhat entertaining for the kids to want to watch you and listen to you and everything like that. I feel like, for me, they go hand-in-hand. It’s almost like I’m doing a play every day.”
In an era with plenty of extracurricular choices for children, Myatt encourages parents to consider martial arts.
“(Just) for the intangible skills that martial arts can teach you,” he said. “We actually base our entire curriculum off of teaching kids leadership traits and positive characteristics that will translate into them being good leaders outside of the dojo. Things like discipline, confidence, focus, those kinds of things that you’ll always hear people talk about when they start martial arts.
“You want to learn the art for the sake of defending yourself, obviously, but it’s not the progress. It’s the process of learning something, being challenged, facing adversity and overcoming it. That’s going to teach you a lot more about yourself. That’s why I always suggest (martial arts) to everybody, no matter what age.”
That includes adults, too. Even those who didn’t try it out when they were young.
“Absolutely. Try it,” he said. “Regardless of somebody’s background, whether they’re more athletic, they’re not, or maybe they have confidence issues or something like that. It’s a good melting pot to throw all those people into and to kind of build a community around.
“Our adult program is very tight knit. We make sure that anybody coming through that door is welcomed. Everybody’s fist bumping and everything. … There’s this notion that if you train martial arts, you have to want to fight, you have to want to compete. And I couldn’t disagree with that more at all. I just think it’s a very good activity for people to get into. To lose weight, get in shape and make friends — but also to just give them a little bit of a sense of identity.”
