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Sifu Clay Pratka

Clay immediately immersed himself into the JKD training and way of life. After only little more than a year Clay had progressed to a level that made Joe decide to promote him from the youth class to the Adult Class. At 12 years old Clay was by far the youngest person in the class (the next youngest being 18).

 

This class brought a change of pace and new challenges and was the first step in molding Clay into the martial artist he is today.

After graduating high school Clay took a few years to travel the country and train in a variety of systems with many different Instructors. He was exposed to many Traditional Martial Arts Instructors, Other JKD Instructors, Reality Based Martial Arts Instructors, and Professional Fighters and Coaches.

 

Some of the instructors include: Frank Shamrock, Erik Paulson, Master Toddy, Big Nog, Ricardo Liborio, Gene Label, Mike Swain, Chung Lee, Tito Ortiz, Renzo Gracie, Bill Wallace, Joe Lewis, Jerry Beasley, Walt Lysak, Mike Lee Kanarek, Mark Hatmaker, Mark Shuey, Hock Hockeim, John Pellegrini, and Joe Hess.

 

Clay spent a week in Las Vegas training with Tony Blauer and was certified as a High Gear Senario Instructor for Blauer's Tactical Training Suit. Clay also spent a couple of weeks in New York practicing screen fighting and stunt work and became certified as a stuntman.

The third and final attempt by Paul to build this elite instructors club came about a year later and once again Clay was immediately selected to be a part of it. This time it was called Descendants of the Masters and was more focused on organizing the system and creating higher quality Instructors. The difference this time was Paul's new second in command, a man who is now our Sifu Singh. Singh was already an established martial artist and a JKD Instructor under Bruce Lee's original student, Larry Hartsell. In addition Singh had a background in traditional martial arts, was a high level athlete and spent many years in the corporate business world. Singh was the missing link to the puzzle and organized a great program. During this time Clay and Singh became close as Singh took Clay under his wing. Clay began to stay around for extra training with Sifu Singh after the regular training with Paul was over. During this time Clay really noticed his skills begin to rise and shortly thereafter he was skipped over Phase 1 Instructor and promoted directly to Full Instructor in Jeet Kune Do and Kali under both Paul Vuank and Joe Soliz.

 

Clay continued his training with Joe, Singh and Paul as well as cross training with other instructors every chance he got.

After completing the course Clay was put on a probationary status in which he had six months to teach everything he had learned to a student and then they would test the student. If the student passed the test Clay would be an official Instructor but if they didn't pass Clay would lose his Instructor status.  After the 6 month evaluation period there were only 8 Instructors posted on Gracie Academy website as official Instructors of their Combatives Program,  Clay being one of them. Clay was already operating a martial arts school in El Campo Texas and under the blessing of the Gracie Family opened the first ever Gracie Combatives / Jiu-Jitsu Training Center in Texas that was licensed by Rorion Gracie and the Gracie Academy Headquarters. Through this new connection Clay had the opportunity to train with Rorion's sons, Ryron and Rener Gracie. Clay brought both of them to El Campo for seminars and even assisted Ryron at other seminars in Austin and San Antonio. Clay assisted Rener at the UFC Expo in Houston teaching Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Seminars.

 

Clay no longer has the Certified Training Center in El Campo however he still continues to practice the skills he learned from them and has plans to continue training with the Gracie Family in the future.

Clay had the pleasure of meeting Sgt. John Riddle while assisting with seminars at his Florida academy. John is a heavily respected SWAT officer and Training as well as an accomplished Martial Artist who was selected as Self Defense Instructor of the Year by Black Belt Magazine. Training with John included Simunition Firearms training, expandable baton, and pepper spray as well as a lot of situation awareness and tactical knowledge.  Other exposures included training Small Circle Jiu-Jitsu with Professor Hunden. Professor Hunden is Wally Jay's (The man who taught locking to Bruce Lee) top Instructor.  Today Clay continues to teach locally as well as seminars on the road.

 

Clay has taught in New York, Florida, California, Chicago and many places throughout Texas.

Clay Pratka began his martial arts journey at the age of 11 when a friend told him about an instructor who was teaching martial arts out of his garage. Clay was introduced to Joe Solis and was eager to try out the class and became more excited when he found out his new instructor was teaching Jeet Kune Do, the art developed by Bruce Lee. Joe Solis holds Instructor ranks under Bruce Lee's original student Larry Hartsell and Bruce's top student, protege, and the man that Bruce left to carry on his art, Guro Dan Inostanto.  

 

Also, Joe Soliz is one of only a handful of Senior Instructors in Progressive Fighting Systems under Paul Vunak. Along with JKD ranking Joe supplemented his skills with a Judo Black Belt and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt along with a background in Western Boxing.

Soon after Clay began to accompany Joe to California to train with his Instructor Paul Vunak. Paul was one of the Top Instructors under Guro Dan Inosanto who gravitated toward the street fighting application of the arts. Through Dan's encouragement Paul created his own organization devoted to teaching his streamlined version of JKD called "Progressive Fighting Systems". This reputation later landed him a contract to create a hand to hand and edged weapons program for SEAL Team SIX. Paul spent 4 years contracted by the SEALs teaching on base. In addition to the SEALs Paul trained groups from the FBI, CIA, DEA, DOD and countless more high level organizations. Training with these elite warriors at such a young age brought out a new level of admiration and commitment for Clay. At age 16 Clay was granted the rank of Apprentice Instructor by Joe Soliz (a rank that was usually reserved for students 18+).

 

At this moment Clay knew that he not only wanted to devote his life to martial arts but also to teaching the arts.

After experiencing many systems he found his way home and continued his training under Paul Vunak. Right around this time Paul was assembling a small group of Instructors who he wanted to provide extra training for to create an elite group. The candidates were hand picked and Clay was one of around 20 selected out of the 5000+ Instructors in Progressive Fighting Systems. The program was called PFS DEFCON and had a new Military-like structure to it. Although a good idea, it had a short life span and was shut down.

 

A re-birth of a new group came shortly after called Executive PFS in which they targeting executive professionals, trying to bring martial arts to the non-marital artist. Again Clay was one of the first selected and completed the first ever Executive PFS Instructor Course and became a Certified Executive Instructor. Like the the one before it, Executive PFS was a good idea and provided Clay with excellent training, however the program never really got off the ground.

One of the cross training days took him to the Gracie Academy Headquarters where he met and trained with the Legendary Rorion Gracie. Rorion was the person responsible for bringing Gracie/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to the US and was also the Founder of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). After a training session Rorion mentioned an upcoming event where they planed to bring out a small group and teach and attempt to certify people in a small streamlined version of their curriculum that they had created for the Army Rangers. Without hesitation Clay signed up and a few months later he received the e-mail with details. Clay had a basic Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu background through Joe Soliz and had even competed and won a few grappling competitions but overall he considered grappling to be the weak point of his skill set. Clay showed up in Torrance California and met a room full of about 40 other people there for a 10 day, 10 hour a day Instructor course. All the training was taught by Rorion, Ryron and Rener Graice and consisted of technical work, teaching strategies, and fight simulations.

 

It was an exhausting 100 hours that ended with several test including having to teach the system with Rorion Gracie watching over your shoulder.

The next major step for Clay began when Sifu Singh asked him to assist him with seminars. This exposed Clay to extra training and teaching methods at the highest level. Later that year there was a split between Paul Vunak and Sifu Singh and caused Singh to create his own organization, the Jeet Kune Do Athletic Association. Clay jumped on board with him and has been with this organization ever since. Clay was eventually promoted to the coveted Senior Instructor Level in Jeet Kune Do and Kali and then the adventure really began.

 

Through training with Sifu Singh Clay was exposed to many other great training opportunities including the Action Strength program which is an organization dedicated to Functional Fitness and Attribute Development. Clay now holds Instructor rank in Action Strength as well.

Clay has taught at the International Law Enforcement Associations Annual Conference in Chicago and he has personally worked with members of the Secret Service, DOD, DEA, Homeland Security, US Marshals, Houston SWAT, Florida SWAT, as well as many other local state departments. In addition to Law Enforcement and Military Clay has been a guest Instructor for Texas A&M University.

 

Clay has modified his programs and taught elderly as well as people with physical disabilities.

 

Clay's latest efforts are being poured into his new organization,

Texas Jeet Kune Do, which he plans to spread throughout the state providing quality JKD training in a variety of cities.

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