Our Instructors & Staff Members

Our Instructors have spent many years devoted to training in the martial arts and have attained a certain level of expertise to qualify them as teachers and also mentors.

Through extensive testing, certification and tournament level competition, our staff has attained mastery in this martial art and now enjoy sharing their skill and passing it on to their students. Here are a few of Martial Way Academy's instructors and other staff members, starting with Larry St. Clair:

Larry St. Clair  (Head Instructor)  Larry St. Clair has been taking martial arts for over the last 20 years. Starting in Tae Kwon Do at an early age, he began exploring many arts with friends from all over Austin. Branching out and cross training in Kung Fu, Wing Chun and even Karate, Guro Larry found his home with Muay Thai or Thailand Kickboxing before he could even get his permit to drive. After a few years of continuing to share techniques and train with others from various arts he found himself reading more and more of Bruce Lee's notes and philosophies. Continuing on with training, Guro Larry began expanding out and attending seminars to get closer to some of the people that held many of the hands on translations in Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do. This included Larry Hartsel, Burton Richardson and Dan Inosanto. About this time he also began his study of the Filipino and Indonesian Arts. After a few years training with many of these great instructors, Guro Larry met Sifu/Guro Ron Balicki. In one seminar he was "hooked". As Guro Larry says, "We started doing a drill and pushed it up to what felt like 60 miles per hour. It looked pretty cool and to be honest I had no clue what we were doing. He just got me there, fast!". Guro Larry continued his training formally under Ron Balicki from that moment forward. Taking every seminar he could attend in and out of Texas. This eventually led to regular trips to California to train with Guro Balicki privately as well. Now after 13 years Guro Larry has been double and even triple promotioned which led him to finally receiving his Associate Level Instructorship in both Jun Fan Gung Fu (JKD) and the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) in January of 2007. During this process, Guro Larry has also been promoted to the level of Kru in Muay Thai under Balicki and the United World Muay Thai Council. Under Guro Balicki he has also been recommended and promoted by Guro Dan Inosanto as an Apprentice Instructor Level 4 in both Jun Fan and FMA as well. Guro Larry has traveled through Europe and all over the United States to assist Guro Balicki at numerous seminars and demonstrations. He has also created and ran the Martial Way Academy for over the last 12 years. Over these years he has been able to hold many accomplishments including expanding the Academy from 525 square feet to now well over 3000 square feet. He has motivated and grown the student body to over 200 students and now has trained and promoted 10 Black Belts in the arts of Vale Tudo, Advanced Kickboxing (Thai-bred), Kali and Jun Fan. He continues to teach, coach and compete even to this day. After years of coaching people to first place and winning championships, Guro Larry enjoyed competing in September 2007 after a two year lay-off and a broken arm. He not only competed but also won the 2007 Cold Steel Championship Belts for both Spear as well as Sword and Shield Fighting. This made Guro Larry, not only the first Texan to bring the belts home; but also the first person to bring more than one Championship back from Cold Steel!!! Larry's advice to new students: "Everything is good, better and best! It is good because you are doing it right now. It will get better because you are planning to do it more often. It is the best because we strive for that with every training session. Keep training because it only gets more fun everytime. Cya sweatin!"

Matt Mangum  (Storm Team) Matt has been practicing martial arts since 2005 and has been at Martial Way the entire time. Matt is a student of Impact Kickboxing, Advanced Kickboxing. He currently holds a blue belt in Advanced Kickboxing, he has also tried Jun Fan. He is also a Storm Team member, teaching Ut students and writing out lesson plans. Outside of the school, Matt enjoys running, skiing (outside of Texas), music, multimedia, and design. Matt's advice to new students: "The first day is the hardest. It gets a lot easier after that."

Jamie Smith  (Storm Team) Jamie has been practicing martial arts since 2006 and has been at Martial Way the entire time. She is a student of Impact Kickboxing and Advanced Kickboxing, Jun Fan JKD, and Kali. She is a Storm Team member as well as Assistant Office Manager for Martial Way. She has pushed through several different levels in her arts as well as cross training. Recently completing Fit 2 Fight, she ponders... whats next? Jamie's Advice to New Students: "Go in ready to workout, leave with a smile on your face, sweat on your brow, a new family in your heart, and the desire and will to become more than just in shape. Its a way of life not just a thing to do."

Ed Sparks  (Storm Team) Ed has been training with Martial Way 2005, and has trained ever since, nonstop. He currently has a Black Belt in Advanced Kickboxing!! As a Storm Team Member and Black Belt holder he has started to even write lesson plans for our Advanced Class! You will normally find Ed and his wife Lynn supporting our Martial Way family functions, and you may even catch him behind a camera! Outside of Martial Way Ed likes to travel with his wife and scuba dive!

Steve Lay  (Vets Plus Team) Steve started kickboxing last November 2006 through a friend and has been going strong ever since. His great attendance and love for the art excelled him into Advanced Kickboxing, where he is working towards his Gold Belt. Steve has recently joined our Bag Class, and Vale Tudo Class, all while making time to have private lessons with our Instructor. If you could ever have a good partner or trainer this would be the guy you want.

Jeb Kirubakaran  (Vets Plus Team) He started Kickboxing in August of 2006, and has attended a wide variety of classes. He has advancd himself to Yellow Wraps and has continued on with his training in Advanced Kickboxing, Jun Fan and our Certified American Top Team. He is also currently completing Fit 2 Fight. With his great attitude and enjoyment of the arts, he is a great partner with lots of experience. These qualities have led Jeb into becoming one of our greatest staff members. He helps push each student to have a better workout by being an awesome example to follow. This shows in many areas like even in our KICKATHON, where Jeb completed over 5,600 kicks for charity!

Hector Gonzales  (Vets Plus Team) Hector is currently involved in Impact Kickboxing, Jun Fan JKD, Kali, and fight training when theres a Weapons Tournament available. He is new to staff but not to students, seeing he completed Fit 2 Fight and restarted the trend with Naveena Spitz. Currently reaching certain heights in his training he is pushing towards Black Belt. Hectors outside activities are hanging with friends, watching movies and being involved in producing and directing movies.

For more information about the Martial Way Academy staff or training programs, please contact us at 512-821-3637 or by clicking here.