Michael Miller's martial arts journey originally began in a white crane kung-fu school in his home town in 1990. His best friend at the time had been taking it for a while and Miller decided to go with him since he had a keen interest in the martial arts. Miller knew nothing about the different systems, but loved the martial arts. It was a very short road at the white crane school and they closed down and moved.

Miller then watched the movie, "The Perfect Weapon" and was mesmerized by the way Jeff Speakman could move. Little did Miller know that the system Speakman was displaying would be what Miller would devote the rest of his life to. It was unfortunate that he had many road blocks in his way and many things were left out of his training. Although he was ranked to the 3rd degree black belt in November of 1999, things just didn't seem right.

It was then that Miller went on his own to take one of the biggest steps of his life-become a "true" kenpoist. Miller sought who he thought would guide him and teach him the things that he was missing. The one who had the most important influence in this search was Larry Tatum. Tatum taught Miller a great deal about the system of American kenpo. Miller was very honored that whenever he would contact Tatum about a question, he always got an answer.

Aside from Tatum, Miller was also lead by other inspiring kenpoists including: Bob White, Chuck Sullivan, Lee Wedlake Jr., Dr. Ron Chapel, Huk Planas, Dave Hebler, Ed Parker Jr., and Sean Kelley. Thanks to these men for their sharing of expertise as well as some of the reference material they had created, Miller was able to fill the void he had been missing.

Along this journey, Miller had begun teaching. He taught a program called "Rape Safe" at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford and then began teaching a group of student's kenpo karate. Miller taught privately for approximately five years and has been teaching commercially since early 2005. His full-time American kenpo studio, Miller's Kenpo Karate Dojo, is located in Bradford, Pa.

Miller currently holds a 4th degree black belt in American kenpo and is under the direction of Sean Kelley. He and his school are under the CKF (Chinese Karate Federation). He and his school are also a part of World Black Belt founded by Chuck Norris and Bob Wall (www.worldblackbelt.com).

Along with American kenpo, Miller has studied various other arts including: White Crane Kung-fu, Tai-Chi, Aikido, Ninjitsu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Gracie), Hapkido, Taekwondo, and Chin-na. Miller feels that no system compares with American kenpo for him. His favorite cross training, however, is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame in February of 2006.

Miller is also a freelance writer who has written several articles for "Inside Kung-fu" and "Black Belt" magazines. Along with all his feature articles promoting the art of American kenpo, Miller had a profile published about his world champion student, MacKenzey McNulty, in the August 2006 issue of "Inside Kung-fu." Miller has a Bachelor's degree in writing with a minor in sociology (BA) from the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. For more information about Miller's Dojo please check the website at www.millersdojo.com.