When Calasanz Martinez began teaching martial arts in the United Stateshe taught Karate as he had been taught: traditional and hardcore. He quickly observed that few people could handle this type of training.
Calasanz says, “I knew that the martial arts provided the best type of exercise. There’s no better way to condition your body while acquiring the mental and spiritual benefits of being able to protect yourself. But I had a dilemma. Some people would stay for only 1 or 2 classes and I knew there were others who wouldn’t even step to my door.”
That’s where the creativity began.
Calasanz broke down what he knew about the martial arts, exercise, and the human body. He developed a system of exercises completely unique from other exercise modalities. The exercises were designed to be holistic, conditioning strength, endurance, tone, flexibility, balance, coordination, body unity, mobility, and well-being. All the exercises can be modified to accommodate people with very little or limited physical ability as well as challenge those who are athletically gifted.
“My martial arts system has evolved a great deal since those days of teaching traditional Karate. I’ve studied and incorporated wing chun, northern style kung fu, boxing, kickboxing, and now MMA, so that my students get a well rounded experience. There’s something for everyone. But the biggest improvement to my system has been the creation of the Physical Arts exercises. Those are for everyone,” says Calasanz.
Many different people walk through The Calasanz Physical Arts doors on a daily basis: businessmen, stay-at-home moms, grandmothers, the physically disabled, and professional athletes. While you may not see the soccer mom practicing the same martial arts as the professional fighter, there’s a very good chance you’ll see them side by side doing the same Physical Arts exercise!
Continued from: “Tournament Fighting or Training for the Streets? – Part Five: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography”
I hope these excerpts from “A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography” have given new students some insight into my evolution as a martial artist and as an instructor. I am also hopeful that it has explained the philosophy behind The Calasanz System. I have incorporated the fundamentals of what I learned over the years into this system, sifting through what worked and what didn’t, so my students would reap the benefits without having to walk in my shoes.
Understanding the roots of my system is essential in appreciating its practicality and effectiveness. My legacy in this lifetime is a practical martial arts system that will endure long after I have left this earth. I consider each and every student that has passed and will pass through these doors part of the Calasanz lineage and part of that legacy.
Continued from: “Training Students from other Systems Part One: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography”
In another case, a guy who was a third degree black belt visited me and enrolled in one of our Street Survivor classes. I paired him up with a 16 year old who had been training with us for only one month. I had them do some practical drills and the 16 year old got the best of him. He kicked him in the shin and dropped him to the ground. He got up from the floor and started crying when I told him that the kid who just knocked him down had only been training for one month!
Another problem with training students from other systems is that some lack the basics. There are many good martial art schools out there. The way I can tell if someone has had a good teacher is to look at their basics. Do they have a strong foundation? Can they throw a punch? Can they throw a kick without losing their balance? Are their stances strong and grounded? Some students from other systems know a lot of techniques, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they know their basics. It is just a house built on a very shaky foundation. I had one woman come to my school who failed to mention that she had a black belt from another school. She told another one of my students of her rank, who later told me. I thought training her would be easy. Wrong. I gave her three techniques and asked her to put them into a sequence. Start in a front stance, switch to a horse stance and then switch back into a front stance. It took me 10 minutes to get her to do this right. It should have taken a well-trained black belt 3 seconds to do this properly.
Some experienced students started training in a style that was not particularly suited for them. For example, I have had some students over 40 who started training in a style that emphasized a lot of high kicking and jumping. Other styles demand low stances or too much snapping when kicking. It is no wonder that they come to me frustrated and feeling that maybe martial arts is not for them, even though they really enjoyed it. Any style can be practiced by anyone. It is up to the instructor to tailor the system to fit the student. Unfortunately, many schools have a “one size fits all” approach. This means that you have to keep up with the class with little or no special attention. I like to tailor the techniques to the particular student.
One woman enrolled in my school after 10 years of training in another system. She lacked confidence, could not fight and wasn’t very street smart. I personally trained her for 3 months and saw her confidence and skills improve dramatically. After the 3-month period, she decided to take the group class. I paired her up with another woman who was fairly new and had not had any martial arts training. This bothered her. I was hoping that by putting her with someone new, it would remind her how far she had come in her training. When she first started, she could not block a shin kick without experiencing pain in her leg. I told her that this would soon change and it did. Experienced martial artists who come to train with me are very often asked to assist with lower ranked students once we have taught them the basics of the system. Because there are students with different ranks, everyone learns from someone else. I also expected someone who had trained in martial arts for over 10 years to understand the importance of learning how to teach and assisting lower ranks. She could not see this. All she saw was that we put her to train with someone who was not as good as she was and this upset her. She had a lot to offer and the higher ranks had much to offer her. This is one of the ways we help students improve their skills. Unfortunately, she couldn’t understand it not matter how much we explained it.
This brings me to the case of a student who came to me after he had been hired by the sheriff’s department. He was having a problem dealing at job in controlling the people he was either arresting or transporting. He had taken martial arts classes for a long time and even though he was a good kicker, he had no concept of the streets. He asked his instructor for help and his response was “you’re smart enough to put it together.” So he came to me. I worked with him for 2 weeks. He had a lot to offer, he just needed someone to help him translate it into something practical. His teacher was not willing, but I was. After the 2 weeks, he never had a problem again. This man went on to become a police officer and trains with us to this day and has referred countless numbers of law enforcement officers to this school.
Continued from: “Teaching the Calasanz System – Part Three: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography”
I tell my beginning students to stop focusing on how they look and concentrate on how they feel. Do they have more energy? So they have more confidence? This is what is important. If you stick with something long enough, you will eventually see the physical results. But within a few months, you start to feel more secure in that you’ve learned something about defending yourself.
Our first job with beginners is to work on their coordination. New students sometimes come to this school with misconceptions about martial arts training and their own abilities. For example, I have had many new students who have only worked out on machines. Some of them have a hard time making this transition, especially when they have to rely on their bodies to do the work. I had one woman who enrolled in the school after having spent several years working with machines. She told me that she wanted to take the traditional approach to studying the martial arts. It took me many months to work on her coordination. She was studying for her green belt and had to break a board. She was nervous about this so I arranged for a black belt instructor to help her get ready for the break. Her training required that her instructor to swing at her, she would evade it and then strike the pad with her shin. The next day she came into my office and complained that she had a tiny bruise on her shin. She was very angry and I was even more upset that we were having this conversation. A tiny bruise is inconsequential to what she had learned. I told her that a tiny bruise is nothing in comparison to what she learned here at the school. I reminded her of all I went through just to teach her the basics. She was now coordinated and able to train on her own without equipment. She didn’t want to hear it. She left in the middle of class and didn’t return.
We’ve had many students who have trained here because they couldn’t train anywhere else. We had the patience to work with them and help them develop skills that they never thought they would have. Once they learn how to control their bodies, they go off to other martial arts schools or take up dancing, yoga or some other type of physical activity. Now we have trained them to adapt to any physical activity. We get a lot of students who end up coming back because of the amount of attention we pay to their training. When they return, they find they have forgotten what they worked so hard to attain. Some of them don’t understand that it is the skill of the instructor and their commitment that can help them maintain a healthy body for the rest of their lives.
Continued from: “Teaching the Calasanz System – Part one: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography”
Regardless of my students’ goals, I always like to give them some techniques they could use on the streets. My private training in Wing Chun was the reason why I have incorporated this philosophy into my system. I was not happy with the fact that some of my classmates had spent close to ten years training and had no street survival skills. Many Wing Chun students spent all this time throwing punches without a purpose or sense of how they would use it in real life. For instance, our Wing Chun classes emphasize bringing your elbow to the center, which helps your punch get very hard and learning how to get grounded. I was fortunate enough when I began my Goju Ryu training that my teachers promoted self-defense skills and I have passed these skills down to my students.
Schools that promote black belts too quickly or don’t teach self-defense often trouble me. What troubles me more is the aerobic kickboxing craze. Unfortunately, they give people a false sense of security in believing they’ll be able to defend themselves with a dance routine. Understand that organizations that certify personal trainers often offer short-term courses or clinics that will teach you how to teach kickboxing. This is an insult to all of us who have spent many years training in the martial arts and a scam on the public. In some cases, students who have taken the aerobic kickboxing classes have been injured because of inadequate teacher supervision. While I train students who only want to learn kickboxing for recreation, I always incorporate some realistic movements so they can walk away with something useful. No one leaves my school without at least some basic knowledge of street survival.
The Calasanz System is very simple. Simplicity combined with skill allows us to take the best a student has to offer and improve on it. An example is training women. Because my style of fighting was always unsuited for tournaments, I found that I had to send “messages” of my skill to those who challenged me because I was not a competitor. My favorite type of message was asking a female student to do kicking drills with an obnoxious male! While women’s upper body strength cannot compare to that of a man, women do have naturally strong legs. I take that ability in women and teach them how to capitalize on it. Some of the best messages given here at the school were by women who embarrassed arrogant men!
Teaching a diverse population requires a lot of patience and natural skill. You can train someone to be a teacher all you want. If they don’t have it inside of them, they will never be effective. In this business, you have to help not only the talented and coordinated, but also the uncoordinated, the slow learner and the student with a variety of challenges. It is also a challenge to teach those who are very intelligent. I had this one student who was very smart and had spent twelve years training in a well known martial arts school. I was training him in kickboxing and trying to teach him how to protect his head when fighting at close range. He told me “Calasanz, all I have to do is pick up my hands. This would cause his opponent to look up, and then I could kick him.” This guy with twelve years of experience just demonstrated the skill of a white belt. I recognized was why his instructor had a hard time with him. This guy thought he knew it all and didn’t need help or correction from anyone.
Continued from “A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography:The Early Years – Part Three”
Santiago is a tough city. When I first arrived, I had to quickly become accustomed to surviving in an urban environment. There are two stories that stick in my mind to this day that involved two local tough guys. One was named Calier, the other, Dario. Calier was so bad that the police didn’t even want to deal with him. I remember he tried to fight me one day. I hit him with a right and he went flying over the hood of a car. I was surprised because I barely put a lot of power into the punch. This altercation turned into a nightmare. I was concerned about his bad reputation. Fortunately, things cooled down after a while. The other guy, Dario, thought he was above the law and demanded respect from everyone. Dario was one of the most accomplished mechanics in the Dominican Republic. He worked on racing cars and was the manager of one of the biggest body shop in town. I had gotten a part-time job with him in order to make some extra money. Dario was determined to pick a fight with me. One day he got his wish. Unfortunately for him, he found himself on the ground with two broken teeth. The next day, over 25 neighborhood kids, including two of Dario’s brothers, came to see me and start taking classes with me.
Two months after I started my martial arts training, I was asked by some friends to come to a town called San Jose de Las Matas to perform for them and their girlfriends. I was just a white belt at the time and all I focused on was martial arts, work and school. I put on a comedic martial arts demonstration and even had some black belts come and watch. My performance was very aggressive and funny, and no one even bothered challenging me. I would go on to do many demonstrations in the Dominican Republic and in the United States, including my Super Breaks.
One of my closest friends, Felo, had come with me to the first karate demonstration. He started training in karate on the same day I started. He couldn’t continue his studies, so I became his teacher. Four months later, Felo was fighting black belts. There was a local martial arts club that needed a teacher. Now Felo was in competition with me and wanted this job badly. Felo challenged me to a fight to take place at the martial arts club. Felo was much bigger than me. We started by teaching a formal class. We then had a sparring session were the students fought each other as well as with us. Finally, Felo and I were left standing. He came after me as if he wanted to kill. I threw one of my favorite kicks. I threw an extremely hard kick that landed on his head. His mouth, ears, and eyes started to bleed. Felo retired from martial arts after the match. I had used this kick on an earlier challenger who came after me with the same vengeance as Felo. He was smart enough to quit after he saw me throw the same kick.
As a martial artist, I had no desire to compete in tournaments. There were plenty of opportunities in the Dominican Republic, but I wasn’t interested. I wanted to become a real fighter. This meant fighting without pads, rules or referees. I upset my teacher once when I refused to enter a karate tournament he was sponsoring. I took it upon myself to find out who won the point-fighting category. I was determined to prove a point. I didn’t believe in using gloves. I found the winner, challenged him to a match and beat him.
I came to the United States in 1979 and established one of the most successful martial arts schools in the country. While many schools struggle to keep their doors open, my business has grown every year since I emigrated from the Dominican Republic. My success has not been by accident or stroke of luck. It took a lot of hard work. I had to prove myself as a martial artist and make a name for myself in a country where I was unknown.
From the first day I stepped into a martial arts club, I knew that I was not going to be a competitor in the traditional sense of the word. I knew in my heart that I had a gift for the martial arts and that I was going to devote my life to practicing and teaching. “What if I don’t compete?” I asked myself, “Will I still learn how to fight?” I knew I had to be real and as you will see by my story, went to great lengths to prove it.
When I came to the United States, I would hear some martial artists’ claim that Bruce Lee “couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag.” This is just plain jealousy. If you read Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method Volume 2: Basic Training (a book I highly recommend and have reviewed on my website), you will see that he is a real fighter. These insults regarding a great man made a great impression on me. My goal has always been to prove that I am a real fighter and not one that is manufactured by the tournament circuit. That’s why I made it a point to prove this in my career, even going to the extent of stepping into the ring and fighting a boxer who was sixty pounds heavier than me. This has become part of my teaching philosophy
Those who have followed my career over the last twenty-six years are familiar with my story and reputation. New students however, have lots of questions and tend to ask the same ones over and over again. This is my attempt to give my new students an understanding of where I came from and who I am. I am writing this for the benefit of a new generation of Calasanz students and as an introduction to my history and martial arts philosophy.
Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness located at 507 Westport Ave Norwalk, CT
We teach a lot of students from other martial art schools. The first thing I look for when evaluating them is a strong stance. Some have excellent stances while others are weak and wobbly. A good stance is your foundation. Without a good stance, all the fancy moves in the world are useless.
“Being grounded” means your connected to the earth. In martial arts, grounding is your ability to grip the floor or the ground beneath you in a good, solid stance. If you are grounded, it’s harder for your opponent to throw you down or knock you off balance.
I recall an incident many years ago in my Wing Chun class in Chinatown, NY where a karate practitioner came into our school wanting to fight one of us. Please don’t think that this only happens in the movies, as I’ve experienced a lot of this juvenile behavior over the years from lots of guys who felt they had something to prove. This guy kept trying to sweep me off my feet and he just couldn’t. Every time he came after my leg to sweep it, I dropped into a strong, grounded horse stance, making his mission impossible.
How do you develop good grounding? First of all, do a lot of stance work. The biggest mistake a lot of new martial artists make is to quickly learn their basic stances and then never pay attention to them. Practicing stances, both stationary and moving (forwards and backwards) should be done routinely.
The old-timers loved to see how long they could hold a horse stance. Get into a horse stance and watch the clock. See how long you can hold it until your legs literally start to shake and you feel like you just can’t take it anymore. Log your time and work on increasing your time. See how strong your legs get and how powerful your stance becomes. Remember, martial artists who practice grounding exercises don’t need to do squats, leg curls or leg extensions in a gym.
Practice your stance work with a partner. Get into a stance and have your partner try to get you off balance. This will test the strength of your stance. Another exercise I like to do at my school is to have one partner push their opponent, while he or she drops into a strong stance. This gets you accustomed to grounding while in motion. You can practice this with any basic stance in your style.
Next, pay close attention to your stances while practicing katas. Make sure that with each transition, your stances are strong and grounded. Putting some effort behind your stances not only improves your katas, but you’ll notice that you have more control over your legwork when fighting. You’ll grip the ground better when necessary and your supporting leg will be rooted enough so you can deliver strong kicks with precision and balance.
In The Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi admonishes Daniel-san for not looking him in the eyes. In Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee points to the moon and tells his student not to concentrate on the finger or he will lose all the heavenly glory. Some martial artists, however, spend a lot of time working on their basics, polishing their forms, but little or no time developing proper eye contact and focus. Why are the eyes important in martial arts training?
The eyes are a declaration of your fighting spirit. What kind of self-confidence do you exude if you can’t look your attacker in the eye? Is your sparring opponent going to take you seriously? Are you looking away? Are you looking down? Look him right in the eye at the start. This type of body language says you mean business! This is particularly important in self-defense situations on the street. The eyes can be weak or hold the intimidation factor you will need to defend yourself.
The eyes show respect and gratitude. When bowing to our opponents, we maintain eye contact as a courtesy. When we shake hands before and after sparring or working on self-defense, we thank our partners for their participation in our growth as martial artists. That technique you had to use on the street was honed in a school with the help of a partner willing to practice with you. Look him or her in the eye and thank them for being there. There are no second chances or “do over’s” with that attacker on the street.
The eyes tell you where the attack is coming from. The boxer has to worry about two hands. Martial artists are concerned with four limbs and a variety of attacks. It is important to maintain your eyes on the centerline, drawing your focus on the upper chest or collarbone. This will give you a good scan of the entire body. Developing good peripheral vision is also important. Practice looking out of the “corner of your eye.” This may help you avoid that roundhouse kick headed for your skull!
The eyes can “telegraph” your next move. Don’t look at the target or you might as well tell your opponent where you’re going to hit him so he’s good and ready for you!
The eyes can trick your opponent by looking in one direction and striking at another. “Fake” a glance at his thigh and strike at the head instead. Bruce Lee, for example, deceived his opponent by looking him straight in the eye and dropping him to the ground with his famous foot sweep. They never saw it coming!
So remember, next time you’re in class working on sparring or practicing with a classmates, don’t neglect the eyes. Applying these principles will add a new dimension to your training.
What kind of background must you have to benefit?
It doesn’t matter what you background is, Calasanz has worked and continues to work with people of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, and experiences. From beginners at the dawn of their athletic experience, to professional athletes, seasoned martial artists from any and all disciplines, the physically challenged, athletes of all sports transitioning to (or supplementing their training with) the martial arts, Calasanz can help everyone!
If you study Karate (soft or hard style), Kung Fu (Northern or Southern style), Tae Kwon Do, Ninjitsu, Calasanz can help you improve. If you are into competitive contact martial arts; Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Boxing, MMA, Brazilian Jujitsu, point fighters, Calasanz can help both strikers and submission specialists sharpen their fighting skills. If you’re a performance martial artist (wushu, kata or breaking competitor), dancer, gymnast, or acrobat, Calasanz can help make your form and style more beautiful. If you are in law enforcement, the armed services, fire fighter, body guard, bouncer, or are just looking to defend yourself in the street, Calasanz will improve your self defense skills. If your looking to get in great shape or you’re an athlete (basketball, football, baseball, hockey, tennis, soccer, golf, lacrosse, or body building) looking for superior conditioning, Calasanz has the formula to increase your strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, speed, body awareness, and athletic prowess.
If you’re ready to study the martial arts, you have lots of choices. There are many traditional styles out there to choose from. If you choose a traditional martial art, you study one style where the techniques are taught in their original form. These arts are typically rooted in ancient traditions and include styles like Tae Kwon Do, Wing Chun Kung Fu, Aikido, Judo or Shotokan Karate.
An eclectic martial art is a combination of several traditional martial arts. Some eclectic styles include body conditioning and even some military combat techniques. The main focus is not to study an art, but rather to learn practical self-defense.
As someone who has studied both, I can offer you one piece of very valuable advice. The first factor you should consider in making your choice is to find an instructor places a big emphasis on the basics.
Unfortunately, many consumers of martial art services are more concerned with quantity rather than quality. A common complaint is that “we haven’t learned anything new!” At the end of the day, it is a mastery of the basics that will create a strong foundation.
Whether you decide to study a traditional or eclectic style, the first thing you’ll have to learn is how to control your body. You have to learn how to properly kick, punch, block, evade and fall so you don’t get hurt too much. The only way to get good at the basics is to practice them over and over again. They must become automatic, so that in a self-defense situation, you don’t even have to think.
Many critics of the traditional arts say that the eclectic styles are best if your goal is to learn self-defense. I disagree. Both traditional and eclectic styles teach you how to defend yourself. If you study either one diligently, at a good and reputable school, you will learn self-defense. This is not the issue. Training for self-defense is not the same as training to get into the ring. In a self-defense situation, you want to do the most damage in a short time and then look for a quick way out.
If fitness is your goal, either an eclectic or traditional style will provide you with plenty or opportunities to improve physically. The secret is to attend class consistently.
Another factor to consider is whether has the personality that would enjoy studying an ancient art and all of its ethical and philosophical roots. This may include some form of meditation. Some people want to stay clear of this type of training while others embrace it. If you wish to dispense with tradition, uniforms, foreign languages and philosophy, you’re better off with an eclectic style. Remember, you don’t have to study the art of ballet if you just want to dance!
