Rockford, Illinois native Michael Benjamin is a 32-year veteran of the martial arts. He has been professionally employed in such fields as bouncing, corrections, and street outreach where his skills have been put to the test of reality. He holds a 4th degree black sash in Kang-Nei-Chin Shaolin Chung-Kuo Ch'uan Kung-Fu and a Yondan (4th degree black belt) in Shorei Goju Kempo Karate. He is one of only a handful of people in the world awarded a Shodan (black belt) in Juko-Ryu Jodo (short staff art). He is the only man in Illinois certified as a Level-5 Full Instructor in Grandmaster Kelly S. Worden's Natural Spirit International (NSI), the official hand-to-hand combat system for the U.S. Army's First Special Forces Group (Ft. Lewis, WA.), and as such, is the sole NSI affiliate for Illinois.