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Jeff Harris: has been a basic gym rat sense the late 70’s, never going too long without belonging to a fitness center of some kind. Jeff started down the path of fitness certification in the late 90’s, but life got in the way and he didn’t complete his certification at that time. Not being deterred from his goal, he returned to this path and passed the NSCA-CPT test in 2008. Jeff has been leading martial-based group classes since the late 90’s.
When Jeff was young, he enthusiastically watched the old Kung fu and Samurai movies and dreamed of one day learning martial arts. However, in the small Michigan town where he lived, there were no martial arts schools. In addition, his parents saw no value in such training, thus did not support his quest. Twenty plus years later, Jeff’s wife Marlene, having a similar dream when she was a child, stumbled onto Shinkendo. Having found this art, not only could he train in martial arts, but he could train in the techniques of the samurai. The samurai were what many of the dramas he watched as a child were based on. He began training in Shinkendo in 1995, and started teaching in 1998. Along with Shinkendo, Jeff has also trained in Bo-jutsu, or long staff, and currently teaches this as well. In the past he has also trained in Shaolin Kenpo, Modern Arnis, and Combat Cane, and has been exposed to other arts through special topic seminars such as Bahalana escrima , Doce Pares eskrima, Shoin ryu, and aiki.
Jeff’s rank in Shinkendo is Ren-e, equivalent to 2nd Dan, and he is Chuden Renshi Kaku, or intermediate level instructor, in teaching rank.