Sherman Harrill was born in Falcon, Missouri. As a young child, his family moved to Iowa. He entered the United States Marines Crops in 1958. As a marine, he was sent to Okinawa in 1959. Sherman Harrill began Isshin-Ryu Karate study under Shimabuku, Tatsuo in Okinawa in 1959 while serving with the marines and stayed for 14 months. During his training at the central dojo in Agena, he had the opportunity to train with Jim Advincula, Don Bohan, Tom Lewis, Ed Johnson, Steve Armstrong, Jake Eckenrode, and Clarence Ewing, just to name a few. In May, 1960, after leaving Okinawa, he returned to the United States.

After leaving the service, Sensei Harrill returned to his home in Iowa. For several years, he did not know if any of his fellow servicemen were continuing to study Isshin-Ryu, not knowing that many were teaching and opening up dojos across the United States.

    The story was told: While Sensei Harrill and his family were living on a farm, Sensei Harrill had a certain space in a grove, where he would go by himself each day and train in what he had learned in Okinawa, under Master Tatsuo Shimabuku. It was during these days, regardless of the weather, not only was he giving it a hard physical workout, but he was also doing a lot of soul searching, and trying to figure out what to do with what he had learned in Isshin-Ryu Karate.

    During the time of training alone, he had no one standing over him telling him he could or could not do things in Karate. It was during this time he asked himself, "if I can do a sideblock and other techniques Master Shimabuku showed me, why can’t I do the same thing, except with a different mind set and principles behind it, and turn a block into a joint lock or a take down?" He did not know it at the time, but he had started training himself on the long road of "PRINCIPLES BEHIND APPLICATION TO THE BASICS AND KATA".

    In 1978, the family of Gregg and Gwenn Eggers were visiting with the family of Sherman and Linda Harrill. After looking at some old picture albums, Mr. Eggers discovered Sensei Harrill had been taught Karate when he was stationed in Okinawa. After repeated visits, and asking Sensei Harrill to teach him Karate, Sensei Harrill accepted him as a student. At that time Sensei Harrill knew only one way to train his new student; that being traditional , hard, and rigorous training. He would give his new student something to work on and it may be several weeks before he showed him anything new, or at least until his student came up to where Sensei Harrill was satisfied with the results. Mr. Eggers stayed with Sensei Harrill and became the first person Sensei Harrill promoted to Black Belt. For those who have met and gotten to know Mr. Eggers, they realize, he is very capable and has a lot of knowledge in the martial arts. Those early days in the grove or where ever the dojo happened to be when they trained; taught Mr. Eggers lessons most martial artists only dream of obtaining.

    As young children, the two daughters of Sherman and Linda Harrill, would beg Sensei Harrill to openly teach others Karate. In 1983, at a very young age, their two daughters along with Gregg and Gwenn Eggers daughter was killed by a drunk driver. If you search deep enough, you will find the big drive and the motivation behind Sensei Harrill, lies in the memory of these three very special young ladies.

    Sensei Harrill went on to open a dojo in Carson, Iowa; which he still operates and teaches. Sensei Harrill is the creator of Balance Points (the application of certain pressure points to unbalance a person, to uproot a person from their stance, or to take a person down with). He has in his years of training and study, developed his own method of using pressure points in conjuction with the techniques he uses.

    In 1984 Sensei Harrill started conducting seminars across the United States, sharing the principles and techniques of Isshin-Ryu Karate. In June, 1997, Sensei Harrill went inter-national by doing seminars across South Africa. Karate-Ka from many different styles have been able to learn and apply the principles taught at these seminars. As an accomplished martial artist, Sensei Harrill can make any number of moves work, regardless of style.

    Sherman and Linda Harrill had been married for 37 years when Sensei Harrill died at Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa on November 4, 2002. Sensei Harrill had attained the age of 61 years, 5 months, and 23 days.