CM John Orndorff

Profile of Presenters

CM John Orndorff – 7th degree

Ohio, USA

Lineage:

CM Orndorff’s first exposure to martial arts was in 1974 at the YMCA in Fremont, Ohio at the age of 10. The training was short lived but picked up again in 1990 with Taekwondo instructor KSN Billy Burel in Clyde, Ohio. KSN Burel owned a school under SBN Kirk Hess’s Oriental Martial Arts in Fremont, Ohio. CM Orndorff trained within SBN Hess’s group of schools throughout Northern Ohio until 1996. He also trained with KSN Stephen Lewis in Taekwondo in Bellevue, Ohio and with SBN Gerald Hill from Clyde, Ohio in Taekwondo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from 1992 – 2014. He has trained with many other instructors of multiple styles through the years, locally, throughout North America and Central America.

Personal History:

CM Orndorff was born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1964. He grew up in Clyde, Ohio and attended Clyde High School. During high school he worked in his family’s performance auto parts business, “The Clyde Speed Shop” from 1978 – 1983. After high school he landed a job at Whirlpool Corp. in 1983. He continued to work at Whirlpool Corp. until 1997 when he began teaching martial arts full time in Norwalk, Ohio. He currently lives in Collins, Ohio.

Achievements:

CM Orndorff began teaching Taekwondo in Bellevue, Ohio in 1993 in place of his instructor, KJN Stephen Lewis. He opened his first school through Kirk Hess in 1994 in Norwalk, Ohio. In 1997 that school became The North American Martial Arts Institute. He opened his second location in 2009 in Sandusky, Ohio which is now owned by long time student and business partner SBN Eric Jones. He also has been certified in and teaches protection programs such as EZ Defense and The Active Shooter Response Program. He spent a year as Ohio State Representative for the NAPMA (National Association of Professional Martial Artists) School Support Network in 1998. He also represented and was a national distributor of IKON Martial Arts products. He was a Century Martial Arts Advisory Board Member in 2004. CM Orndorff has been honored by achieving Dahn ranks in Taekwondo from martial arts instructors such as SBN Kirk Hess, SBN Gerald Hill, GM Philip Porter and GM Rudy Timmerman. He received his 7th Dahn Black Belt in Taekwondo in 2020 from GM Rudy Timmerman.