Master Sifu Tom Clark of "PracticalMMA" in Maryland

**DarkAardvark** · Posted On: 3/08/2010 1:25am

http://www.practicalmma.com/instructors
A friend of mine is about to sign up for that place...
I saw that the instructor, Master Sifu Tom Clark, has 6+ blackbelts and has some other ridiculous stuff in his bio.
It sounded like some crazy bullshido to me.

Any way to look into this (or even the other two guys there)?

(from the website)

Tom Clark is the founder of Practical Martial Arts Training Systems and has more than 30 years of training in the Martial Arts. His School was also one of the very first MMA Schools in Baltimore/Maryland.
He has been certified as a Full Instructor in the late Bruce Lee’s art of Jeet Kune Do. He has trained personally under the original students of Bruce Lee – Dan Inosanto, Larry Hartsell and Richard Bustillo. Tom has also trained with former light heavyweight shoot wrestling champion Erik Paulson. Tom holds Black Belts in Judo, Ju-Jitsu, Karate, Kendo / Iaido, Chinese martial arts and several weapons based arts. Tom has studied Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with and was the Maryland State Representative for Carlson Gracie Jr. for several years.

**alex** · Posted On: 3/08/2010 1:28am

that last claim is a pretty bold one. should be fairly easy to verify?

**DarkAardvark** · Posted On: 3/08/2010 1:28am

Originally Posted by Alex

that last claim is a pretty bold one. should be fairly easy to verify?

i have no clue where to start :\

**searcher66071** · Posted On: 3/08/2010 1:26pm

e-mail sent to Carlson Gracie Jr. for verification.

DarkAardvark-you might want to ask MTripp to check the Judo statement.

**Mtripp** · Posted On: 3/08/2010 2:16pm

We need to put this somewhere so I don't have to keep typing it.

IF he has a legitimate Black Belt in Judo, it will be registered with either USJI, USJA, or USJF.

ANY other paper that says Judo black belt, is worthless, and not an accepted and legitimate rank in Judo.

All three groups have web sites, where you can ask if a person is in their data base or not. It is a very easy thing to check.

**DarkAardvark** · Posted On: 3/08/2010 11:01pm

Originally Posted by Mtripp

We need to put this somewhere so I don't have to keep typing it.

IF he has a legitimate Black Belt in Judo, it will be registered with either USJI, USJA, or USJF.

ANY other paper that says Judo black belt, is worthless, and not an accepted and legitimate rank in Judo.

All three groups have web sites, where you can ask if a person is in their data base or not. It is a very easy thing to check.

I just sent emails to the organizations to check it out. I'll post what I find out.
I'm kinda tempted to go to one of the classes with the kid who showed me this and see whats up.

**edtang** · Posted On: 3/08/2010 11:41pm

Um, you guys have noticed that Carlson's appeared to have done at least one seminar at the school in question, right?

**DarkAardvark** · Posted On: 3/09/2010 11:56am

Just got an email back from USJF: not in that database. I'm still waiting for the others.

Originally Posted by edtang

Um, you guys have noticed that Carlson's appeared to have done at least one seminar at the school in question, right?

having one seminar doesnt mean hes his "diplomat" or whatever he said, though. we'll find out, i guess.

***Omega Supreme*** · Posted On: 3/09/2010 12:27pm

Doesn't sound too far fetched to me.

**edtang** · Posted On: 3/09/2010 12:57pm

It's hardly far fetched and the fact that he's been claiming training under / an affiliation with Carlson Jr for a while now and Carlson's running seminars under his current school's banner seems to at the very least strongly imply that things are on the up and up with that.