He started his training in Judo when he was 5 years old at the YMCA in Garland Texas. He was inspired by his Uncle, Lee Holan, who was a 5th Degree Black Belt in Judo. Lee Holan received most of his training in Japan while stationed there in the Marines and later was an instructor at the Seattle Police Dept and a Movie Stuntman.

Master Holan trained in Judo off and on for many years, like most children. Martial Arts were a lot different back then. There were not that many children in the arts. It was a grown up art back then.

He switched to Taekwondo when he was 12 and earned in Black Belt when he as 16. His Family moved around a lot when he was a teen so it was hard to train steady in a dojo during those years.

When he was 17 he joined the Military and spent 6 years in the Army National Guard. Mr. Holan was raised in a Military family. His Father and Mother were both in the Military. His father had over 20 years in and his brother at the time of this article is still in with over 20 years. He often says if he was in the Martial Arts he would have just been in the Army. He loves the discipline.

When he was 23 he got his 2nd Dan in TKD at Universal Martial Arts with Master Choi in San Antonio, TX. He also received most of his Hapkido Training at Universal Martial Arts during the same period.

Master Choi shut down his studios in 1986 and moved back to Korea. When that happened James opened up his own school and called it Texas Karate Do.

Financially he had a hard time making a go of Texas Karate Do and he could only keep it going for about a year. But that didn't stop him from continuing his training. He had always loved the Martial Arts.

When he was 28 he met his wife Rosie. She was in the Martial Arts and from a family who many of them trained in TKD also. So it seemed to be a good fit. They got married in 1995. In 2000 they had their son Kevin who is also in the Arts, who as of 2009 is also a Black Belt.

When he was 29 he was training and competing on the Texas Circuits and hurt his knees training. So rather than just give up on Martial Arts he switched styles to Chinese Kenpo Karate. He trained under Grandmasters Chuck Sullivan and Vic Larou from Karate Connection. He trained with them for Many years. Kenpo was a much harder system to learn plus as an adult it was harder to put in the time to train as he did when he was younger. It took him 8 years to get his black belt. That is the number he always tells the impatient students who want the black belt quickly. He tells them it took him 8 years to get his so they are really do great.

In 1999 he started www.blackbeltshop.com which is an online Martial Arts Supply Company. It took off rather quickly. It started off being a home based business that quickly out grew the home. While looking for a location to rent to get BBS out of his garage he found a location that would be big enough for BBS plus was large enough for him to start teaching Martial Arts again. So in 2002 he reopened Texas Karate Do again but this time in Irving Texas.

The school was a success this time and quickly outgrew the location. He had to move the school to a bigger location in 2004.

In 2004 Mr. Holan was inducted into the USA Martial Arts Black Belt Hall of Fame as Taekwondo instructor of the year. During the same year he was also promoted to 4th Dan Master and was adopted by Grandmaster Dr Ted Gambordella.

Dr Gambordella urged Master Holan to start making Training DVD's to sell to his students. He did and soon was not only selling them to students and on BBS but the Major Martial Arts distributors, AWMA and Century were now selling his DVD's to there customers.

In 2006 he was promoted to 5th Dan and in 2007 he was inducted in the Hall of Fame once more. This time he received the Silver Live Time Achievement Award for being in the Arts for over 25 years.

In 2007 he opened a 2nd school in Grapevine, TX which is doing very well also.

In 2010 Master Holan was promoted to 6th dan by Grandmaster Ted Gambordella.

His current goal is to have a chain of Texas Karate Do Dojo's.