Minden Press-Herald - Profile 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006

Daryn Clark began studying Isshinryu karate as a way to better his health. Not only did he drop 20 pounds and 40 cholesterol points, but now Isshinryu is also a Clark family activity.
Clark and his crew are students of Clyde Stanley. Prior to studying with the Minden sensei, Clark had some training. He studied Judo and Tae Kwon Do for three years during high school and college. He additionally studies Jeet Kun Do Win Chun Kung Fu for two years.
When he began taking from Stanley, "It was like riding a bike," he said. "The moves and defenses learned decades earlier were still a part of me. I was most impressed when I began studying Isshinryu and Ju Jitsu from Sensei Stanley was the extreme efficiency and effectiveness of the Isshinryu."

After four years of intensive training, Clark is rank Ni-Dan, second degree black belt. He is a member of the All American Black Belt Club at Stanley’s allowing him to attend classes up to four times a week, as well as receive four private lessons each year.

Under Stanley’s training, Clark has won local and national fighting and forms and weapons competitions. He won first place in fighting two out of three years at the International Isshinryu Hall of Fame Tournament in Gatlinburg, Tenn. In 2003, he was named the Adult Student of the Year at Stanley’s. He has also been recognized by the Isshinryu Hall of Fame as one of the top five adult karate students in the study of Isshinryu and was awarded the Spirit of Isshinryu trophy in 2004 as the Isshinryu Hall of Fame Banquet.
"Competition is not a requirement of the karate school, but those that choose the path receive excellent training to be successful," Clark said.
Clark’s success with Stanley led him to make karate a family affair. His son, Barrett, brother, Chris, and nephew, Colin, are all a part of the Clyde Stanley team.
Barrett was actually the first to bring the Clark family to Stanley’s. He invited his father to the school to "come and work out with us."

Clark was impressed with the school and invited his brother and nephew to join as well. They travel from Alexandria to Stanley’s school in Downtown Minden every Saturday to train.
Chris recently took second place in the International Hall of Fame Tournament in both Fighting and forms in the advanced below black belt division. Additionally Chris was received recognition as ranking in the top five contributors to the advancement of Isshinryu at the same event.
"You’d be crazy not to give this a try," Clark said. "You rarely see such a talented instructor as Master Clyde Stanley, yet find such a gem like this in such a rural place."
Karate has also allowed the Clark family to meet people from all over the country as Stanley continually brings other talented instructors and practitioners into his dojo.

"Usually instructors are not open to learning and sharing with other highly ranked experts. In the case of the Minden school, the opposite is true, because of Clyde’s quiet confidence in his own abilities as well as the true desire that he has for himself and his students to work with the best in the country," Clark said. "Sensei Stanley is always learning and keeping up with new techniques that complement and strengthen his teachings."
Clark has trained at schools in California, Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas and Louisiana, and said Stanley’s is one of the best maintained schools he has ever trained at.
"Clyde Stanley has, by far, the cleanest and best-maintained physical structure for training," Clark said. "There is never a smudge on the mirror or dirt on the floor. Part of what brings students to stay is the fine facilities that are here in this rural part of Louisiana. This makes coming to class all the better."

Shortly after the Katrina Hurricane Clark and Stanley put together an Exceptional Defense Class, targeting defensive skills for people with different disabilities. The current Exceptional Defense Class has six students, two of which are in wheelchairs. The class gives students the opportunity to gain confidence, defensive skills, get a great workout and learn every week.
"Seeing these folks progress in a martial arts venue brings together two very important aspects of my life - working with people with disabilities and teaching self-defense," Clark said.
Clark is a resident of the Lake Claiborne community where he has lived for 13 of the last 20 years. He has been married to Leslie Banks Clark for 20 years, and they have three children, Barrett, 17, Kathleen, 12, and Mary Laura, 10. He is also an avid musician, currently playing with a New Orleans band. However, their instruments were lost in Hurricane Katrina, so the group is working to get music back into the Big Easy.
The seven years, the Clarks were away from Lake Claiborne were spent in New Orleans where Clark started his own business, Southern Ingenuity, Inc., which is now celebrating its 15th anniversary. The business, which employs 135, provides a wide variety of services to the elderly and developmentally disabled that target those consumers’ ability to stay in their own home versus being placed in a congregate setting such as a nursing home or a group home.
In 1996, the Clarks returned to Lake Claiborne, and developed offices in Natchitoches, Shreveport and Homer. The New Orleans office was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and most of the consumers from that area are now in Claiborne and Webster Parishes.

Martial arts is a sort of get-away for Clark.
The stress of owning a business melts away when I walk through the doors of the school. The school is an island on which all troubles are left behind," Clark said. "The people you study with become like family. You are there to train with other students in sometimes aggressive scenarios and a trust is built that can and will be done with no one getting hurt at all. We watch out for each other in the School. We are teammates and not competitors. We push each other and hold up each other at the same time, which is like glue holding us together."