A line from cat stances and tournament trophies to championship belts. The story behind how Rob teaches today.
This is Scott Batey, Rob's father, and the reason this lineage runs in the blood. The Bateys have been fighting men for over a century: John Batey was a bare-knuckle champion in 1880s Iowa, and by the early 1900s Harry Batey was running a gymnasium in Chicago built around jiu-jitsu and boxing. Three generations before Rob ever stepped on a mat, his family was already in the fight game. Scott didn't find martial arts. He was born into it.
Scott started formal karate at twelve, training under Eizo Shimabuku, one of the most respected karate masters in the world. He never stopped collecting disciplines: a 10th-degree black belt in Shuri-te with senior rank across karate, jiu-jitsu, kempo, and tae kwon do, a collegiate wrestler, and a professional kickboxer. He coached Team USA at the 1995 Mediterranean Games and founded the Rising Sun Black Belt Academy, the first professional karate dojo in the county. A complete martial artist long before "mixed martial arts" was a phrase. He was also Rob's first teacher. Everything Rob passes on at Okami started with the man in these photos.
Rob is three years old here, in a gi that swallows him and the same rising-sun headband his father's academy was named for. He didn't choose martial arts any more than Scott did. It was the air in the house, the thing the family did, the next link in a chain that ran back a hundred years. Before he could spell his own name, Rob was already in the line.
That's Scott in the kumite, deep in the elimination rounds of the Mediterranean Games in Greece, fighting under the USA flag against the host country's best. This was the standard Rob grew up under. Not a hobby, not a weekend class, but a father who carried the family discipline all the way to international competition. When the man who raises you is trading strikes for his country, you learn early what the work is actually for.
This is the whole family in the dojo: Scott seated in the middle, his four sons around him, and Rob's own boy in the frame, the next link in the chain. The fight didn't skip anyone. Brian is a state wrestling champion and NAGA grappling champion who took the 205-pound title for Rise FC and fought for the 185 belt. Michael landed his first MMA win this year, and Kevin has an MMA win of his own plus a state wrestling placement. Three generations in one room, one bloodline, and a father who made sure every one of them learned how to compete.
This is the kid from the rising-sun headband, all grown up and headlining the main event: the 185-pound Castro Fight League (CFL) championship. Every angle and counter you see here traces straight back to his father's dojo, the same karate stress-tested under the hardest pressure there is. The lineage was never about trophies on a wall. It was always about whether the art holds up when someone is honestly trying to take your head off.
Rob won the CFL 185-pound title that night, first round, by TKO. But the belt wasn't the whole story. Two of his brothers, Brian and Kevin, made their MMA debuts on the same card, and every Batey who stepped in the cage that night walked out a winner. One family, one bloodline more than a century deep, all of it pointing at a single night under the lights. That's the lineage. That's what Okami students step into when they sign up.
Every fighter in this photo was trained by Rob personally, and for nearly all of them it was their first tournament. Okami brought 19 students to the Southwest Martial Arts Championships and came home with 31 first-place trophies. The only matches they lost all day were to teammates. It's one thing to become a champion. It's another to build them. That's what this whole lineage has always been for: not a trophy case, but the next person willing to do the work. Choose your program below and step into the line.
Select the program that fits your goals and schedule.