Piedmont / South Carolina / United States
Here at HMAC we strive to promote self-confidence and personal safety. For over 20 years our talented staff has trained students to be comfortable in their abilities to defend themselves and their loved ones. Our goal is to ensure an environment in which self-defense training is properly taught. At HMAC you will have the opportunity to train in several self-defense styles. The main style taught at our school is Tracy’s Kenpo Karate (a direct descendant of the original Chinese Kenpo Karate). Unlike many other trendy martial arts or fighting styles, Kenpo Karate is not a sport! The combination of five unique cultures has molded our style into a beautiful art with proven street applications. We teach our Kenpo program by OBSERVATION, THEORY, STRATEGY, and APPLICATION. Due to the fact that training in only one style tends to lead to single-mindedness, we also extensively train in Hakkoryu Jiu-Jitsu. While Kenpo has a tendency to be comprised mostly of striking, Hakkoryu Jiu-Jitsu focuses primarily on controlling the aggressor via pins, locks, and throws. We believe that each self-defense situation has its own set of circumstances; therefore, we equip our students with many different tools to comply with the situation at hand. Our objective is to promote confidence and wellbeing through professional self-defense training and instruction. History Of The School: Hall’s Martial Arts Connection was founded in 1993 by Renshi Garrison Hall and Sensei Valorie Clinkscale. Renshi Hall was the first instructor to bring Tracy’s Kenpo (a form of martial arts primarily found in Hawaii and the west coast) to the southeast. With their combined martial arts experience, Renshi Hall and Sensei Valorie opened up HMAC with the dream of a training facility free from the politics, arrogance, and “cash for belts” systems that many other schools exhibited at the time. In 2012, both Renshi Hall and Sensei Valorie stepped down as owners in order to focus all their energy on passing knowledge on to the students of HMAC.
Today, both Renshi Hall and Sensei Valorie instruct at HMAC. We consider ourselves blessed to have these two outstanding martial artists teach at our school.
