- Sifu C. Michael Hall -

Sifu Hall began his training following a path he would eventually embrace as a lifestyle: the path of non-conformity. Uncomfortable with the institutionalized mainstream system, even as a child, he instead began training in combat Jujitsu and Muay Thai under a friend of the family...and trained under such old-fashioned, pre-marketing conditions for the rest of his studies. Sifu Hall learned early on that the training being provided by many mainstream schools was actually inferior to the training he was getting, and began to see that eventually the marketing would get worse and could eventually threaten the arts' future. As he became more interested in the history of the arts, he learned that long ago, there were NO schools, and that most masters came from humble roots as he did, learning from whoever would teach them. By 1985, his mission had begun...but he did not know it yet.

His founding of SIMA is the realization of that mission.

Sifu Hall has studied Shaolin Long Fist, Muay Thai, combat Jujitsu, Classical Japanese (Nihon) Jujitsu, Kendo, Iaijitsu, Combat Escrima, Brazilian Jujitsu, Shaolin Chin Na, Shaolin Five Animals, and Krav Maga (as well as other police and military combatives). He is an ordained Chan (Zen) Buddhist minister of the Universal Life Church (since 1997), a writer and martial arts historian, and founder of the Hsu Ch'uan San Shou system of modern street-combat kung fu. He has also been a stunt coordinator and fight choreographer for the medieval combat recreation performance groups The Clan of the Four Winds and the Outlanders (in both Asian and European fighting styles), and is Chairman of the Guiding Council of the Society of Independent Martial Artists. He has also served as a physical trainer for the SCA and private individuals as well.

The title of Sifu is traditionally given when any Kung Fu practitioner begins to form his own system, provided he can satisfy his old instructor that he has indeed mastered the original systems...Sifu Hall started developing Hsu Ch'uan and was given the title by Sifu Wu.)