Tom Clark is building a Filipino Martial Arts program at his Practical MMA Training Center in Baltimore County, MD. Tom was an FMA pioneer in Maryland, participating in efforts to organize full contact weaponry events as early as the late 1980s. Mister Clark has trained in numerous Filipino styles and has lately expressed a desire to interest the MMA generation of martial artists in the traditional combat arts through Filipino weaponry.

The FMA class runs from 7:30 to 8:30 PM on Thursday nights. The focus is on double-stick, single-stick and single-knife with empty hand applications. Tom is very keen on the ‘defanging the snake’ dictum, focusing on passing and attacking the weapon hand. 75% of the class time is devoted to two-person feeder drills. The final 25% is reserved for stick or knife sparring. Tom’s stress on ‘leaving the ego at the door’ serves him well as a weaponry instructor, where level-headed applications are at a premium.

Sifu Clark has a good supply of weapons and protective equipment for students who are not equipped with their own. The class size is at about 10 students [as of March 2013] and is limited to 20. Since one of the students is that ever-deserving-of-a-beating LaFond guy, you might want to show up just to lay a stick into him while Sifu Tom advises you on the finer points of dismantling a human with a piece of fire-hardened jungle vine…

For directions go to the Practical MMA link on our network page