THERE’S AN ANCIENT CHINESE PROVERB WHICH SAYS, “IT TAKES YEARS FOR THE STUDENT TO FIND HIS TEACHER, AND THE TEACHER HIS STUDENT” SIMPLY PUT, NO ONE STYLE OF MARTIAL ARTS IS RIGHT FOR EVERYONE. THE SIMPLE FACT IS, DIFFERENT INDIVIDUALS EXCEL AT DIFFERENT STYLES OF MARTIAL ARTS. WITH THE WELL ROUNDED BLEND OF WING-CHUN KUNG-FU, JAPANESE KARATE, KICK BOXING AND FREE-WEIGHT WORKOUT PROGRAM. YOUR SEARCH CAN BE OVER. YOU CAN FIND OUT NOW WHICH STYLE OF MARTIAL ART IS BEST SUITED TO YOU. THAT’S THE DIFFERENCE AT CALASANZ. WHETHER YOU ARE MALE, FEMALE, YOUNG, OLD, NEW OR EXPERIENCED IN THE MARTIAL ARTS, CALASANZ CAN HELP YOU FIND YOUR SPECIAL PLACE IN THE WORLD OF MARTIAL ARTS TODAY!
Calasanz experience in the martial arts has been an important tool for him as an instructor. His study of various forms of fighting arts has taught him how to integrate mind, body and spirit. As an instructor, his goal is to help his students achieve this integration. Many of Calasanz students lead very hectic lifestyles. Whether it is balancing the demands of work, school and family, students are looking for an outlet to release stress. The Calasanz System is designed to help students achieve the inner peace they are seeking. At the beginning stage of training, Calasanz believes that the student must start slowly. The body must become accustomed to a training schedule. The problem with some students is that they are impatient and want instant results. These students will come to class seven days a week and train for over one hour per session. If the student over trains, not only will his body become sore and overtired, but in his mind, he will also become frustrated and discouraged. Students who are training too much can also find themselves suffering from injuries because the body cannot adjust as quickly as the student wants.. Some of them even have been so embarrassed that they never came back. If students train slowly and increase their training intensity when they are physically able, they are more likely to stick with their training on a long term basis.
The integration of mind, body and spirit does not come with throwing yourself into grueling training sessions, but develops over time as the student patiently makes his way through his chosen martial art. As a student progresses in his martial arts studies, the movements become more complex. This requires the student to reach deeper in himself in order to master a new level. Each level requires more patience and more looking into oneself for the strength to reach the next goal. Over the years, a student develops the martial arts maturity and instead of seeing a kick or punch, they now see a way of life. They become more patient in their work and home environment, they become more confident and they also develop the perseverance to achieve their goals in life. When a student has reached this level, the integration has already started to take place.
Calasanz approach to martial arts training is to let students progress at their own pace. An instructor who is too aggressive may find that students either get frustrated and fail to make any progress or give up training all together. The Calasanz System is tailored to the particular needs of the student under Calasanz supervision. Students progress to the next level when they are physically and mentally able to do so.
My goal as a martial arts instructor is to see you make progress. While some measure progress in the martial arts with colored belts, it is really the space between the tests where you make real gains. This is where the hard work takes place.
Any decent martial arts system begins with the fundamentals and can take you to the level of mastery. Success as a martial artist however, depends on two things: commitment on your part and a skilled instructor who not only teaches you the art, but also challenges you.
It has long been my philosophy that you can learn thousands of techniques, but if you are not physically fit enough to execute them; they will be of little or no use. This is why it’s important for a martial arts curriculum to include challenging conditioning exercises in order to propel you to the next level.
Calasanz Physical Arts training begins with conditioning. I take you in any condition and help increase your physical fitness. I structure a workout tailored to your needs and push you to become strong and flexible. As my student, I will encourage you to take conditioning seriously because it is an important part of the whole package. You will be amazed at how only a few exercises produce fantastic results!
Some of you may get upset when I make changes to your training routines. You come to the dojo with your own agenda but it is my job to push you beyond your comfort zone. After three decades dedicated to teaching the martial arts, I know which direction to push you into in order to take you to the next level.
I’m going to intentionally mix up the routine you’ve become so comfortable with because I don’t want your training to get stale. I may ask you to train with someone other than the usual training partner so you will experience working with someone who is totally different than what you are used to. I may ask you to spend some time on your least favorite technique or require you to learn a difficult form for your next promotion test.
So don’t get upset if one day I walk up to you and turn it all upside down. My experience tells me that a stale routine stalls your progress. I want to help you build natural power and the only way I can do that is to force you push past whatever is in your way. Work diligently on what is asked of you. The belt is merely icing on the cake. All the work necessary to progress is done long before the date of your test!
On Tuesday, October 7, 2008 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released new Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. The goal is to encourage the American population to add some type of physical activity to their daily routine.
Daily physical exercise is vital for achieving and maintaining a healthy body. Scientific studies have proven that regular workouts help reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and osteoporosis. Regular exercise also decreases depression and improves the physical and mental consequences of aging.
For adults, the guidelines recommend any where from two and one half hours a week of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity, or one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous physical activity. It also recommended that adults should incorporate some type of strength training into their workouts.
Training in the martial arts offers adults who would like to meet these federal guidelines a complete package. A typical martial arts class includes plenty of aerobic activity. Martial art warm-up routines may include a variety of calisthenics, light jogging around the classroom and jumping jacks. The class then turns to learning and practicing kicks, blocks and punches in repetition, which is a great way to get the heart pumping.
A martial arts class is also full of opportunities to build up your strength. Classes often include push-ups, sit-ups and light weight lifting. Bag work, sparring and self-defense practice with a partner helps develop both strength and cardiovascular health and can also be a lot of fun.
Another health benefit to martial arts training is stress relief. Taking your aggressions out on a kicking pad or punching bag helps you release those emotions. Over time, stress can affect one’s health and cause gastrointestinal problems, acne, weight loss/gain, headaches, insomnia and addictions. Many martial art instructors incorporate some type of meditation into their classes to help students center the mind and relax. This means fewer trips to the doctor’s office!
As a martial artist, you will not only meet the federal guidelines for physical activity, but you also learn how to defend yourself. All it takes is a few martial arts classes a week. What you get at the end of the day is everything that the federal government has recommended to keep adults healthy as well as learning techniques that could one day save your life. Do you get these results from working out at the local fitness center?
Women and girls live with the reality of violence on a daily basis, whether it’s date rape, domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual abuse and sexual harassment. Women have to worry about going out at night, what they’re wearing, where they’re going and who they’re going with. Many can’t even find refuge in their own homes. One out of every four women is a victim of violent attacks and violence does not discriminate. Violence knows no age, marital status, class, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Regardless of the pervasiveness of violence against women, we have yet to see a war against it.
The war against women must begin in the heart and soul of the female population. On a mental level, you must realize that you are worth defending and that you are your first line of defense. On a physical level, you can make your body strong and learn the tools necessary to defend yourself. Why spend endless hours in a gym peddling a stationary bike to nowhere? What utility is there in zoning out on an elliptical trainer? Why not opt for a fitness regime that not only makes you strong and healthy, but also teaches you how to use your body as a weapon?
While many fitness centers offer kickboxing, don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. The class you have been taking will do you no good in a real self defense situation. Many of these courses are taught by fitness instructors who have no idea how to teach the martial arts, let alone apply them in a self defense situation. We have seen a mass exodus from many of these so-called kickboxing classes with women (and men) suffering from a variety of injuries due to a lack of knowledge on the part of these instructors. We have had to undo the bad habits learned in these classes that lead to poorly executed techniques, torn ligaments and even broken bones.
Pick up a newspaper or turn on the local news on any given day and you are liable to hear a report on how Americans are getting fatter. Government statistics tell us that approximately 60 percent of Americans-127 million people- are overweight. Many women who enroll in my school tell me that one of their primary goals is to lose weight. Unfortunately, some expect instant results. They become discouraged and inpatient if they don’t see immediate weight loss. Some even drop out altogether.
In my 20 plus years of training men, women and children of all shapes and sizes, I have learned that diets just don’t work. If they did, we wouldn’t have an obesity epidemic. The diet industry continually makes promises that they can’t deliver and is fleecing the public at the tune of $40 billion dollars a year. The diet industry doesn’t want to tell you the truth. And why should they with the kind of money they’re taking out of people’s misery?
The truth is that weight loss is difficult for many people to achieve. Weight loss is a personal struggle, complicated by an individual’s upbringing, eating habits, metabolism, genetics and psychology. Yo-yo dieting and subjecting the body to strange eating regimes is much more detrimental to one’s physical and mental health than maintaining a steady weight.
I’m not here to sell you the same bill of goods as the diet industry. What I will do is encourage you to develop a healthy lifestyle and feel better about yourself. When you train, come with the attitude that you want to move, breathe and stretch. What is important is that you focus on wellness.
If you want to lose weight, it will take patience, exercise, sensible diet changes and sacrifice. There is no way around it. Focus on fitness…moving, breathing, stretching, feeling strong and enjoying the martial arts.
In order to attract children, many martial art schools advertise that martial arts training helps develop self-esteem. This promise is directed to parents in hopes of convincing them that there is more to martial arts than just learning how to fight. While this is true, I believe that it has been taken to extremes. I don’t intend to criticize my colleagues. This is merely an observation that I have made after dealing with the countless students who have come from other schools.
An injustice is done to students when the instructor offers too much praise at the expense of critiquing technique and demanding higher standards. Students, both adults and children, like hearing nice words. From a business perspective, it’s all about making the customer happy. When customers are happy, they keep coming back. From a martial art perspective, however, it is deceiving. This deception leads to the instructor avoiding corrections so that his student’s ego will not be bruised or offended. For example, one student who had earned a black belt at another school told me that the instructor praised him even when he was hit or knocked down by a lower ranked student. He would tell him that he “did great!” Over time, the student believes what the teacher is telling him.
In reality, it is the instructor’s responsibility to admonish the black belt who should know better. If he doesn’t, then he shouldn’t be wearing the belt. It’s dishonest to promote a student just to boost his self-esteem. This practice is widespread especially when it comes to training children. Some teachers will tell parents that monthly testing is great for their kids’ self-esteem. In all honesty, the only benefit is to the school’s cash register.
Traditional martial arts instructors were hard on their students because they wanted them to learn. In circles that still hold on to this tradition, the tougher the teacher is on you, the more he likes you and wants you to succeed. They show their concern by demanding more from you.
A realistic approach to teaching is particularly important when a student has made it known that he is enrolling because he wants to learn how to protect himself. For the student who wants to study martial arts as an alternative to other fitness programs, I say let them have fun. There is room in martial arts for all types. But if the student wants self-defense or a parent wants to help a child who is being bullied, this is a different story. What good will kind words do them when their personal safety is in danger?
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 Four: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography”
In the 1990’s, we moved our school to 507 Westport Avenue. I purposely wanted a school with a high ceiling so that we could have boxing and kickboxing competitions. We started promoting our Fight Nights on a regular basis. One day, an instructor from New York City sent two of his students to my school to take private lessons from me because they were scheduled to fight some of my people at Fight Night. I was more than happy to have them as customers, but the problem was that they were not interested in learning anything. Their teacher had sent them to me to learn something about my system, instead all they could say was that they could knock anyone out. On the day of the fight, they ran into some trouble. One of them got knocked out 8 times and kept getting up. I gave him a lot of credit. The other guy left here on a stretcher to Norwalk Hospital and was in a coma for 4 hours. He was so arrogant during the fight that he purposely took off his headgear and that cost him an injury that he is still paying for to this day. The most embarrassing part of this story is that he was 34 years old and my student was only 16!
Another incident took place just before our first event. A friend and fellow marital artist came to my school one day with a group of his best students and his challenge was that any of his students could beat mine. I was surprised at his behavior because he and I were good friends and I even helped him organize his martial arts school when he went into business. I had one of his guys fight a student of mine who only had one arm. During the first fight, my student almost killed his opponent. I personally trained this young man in the art of counterattack. He trained hard and absorbed what I taught him. His opponent had been training in karate for 10 years.
In another fight, a couple of my guys were matched up with competitors who participated in knockdown tournaments on a weekly basis. My students were not competing regularly. They were teaching classes and doing some light physical workouts to stay in shape. Both of my students were defeated in this tournament. People started criticizing my school and gloating about this defeat. My goal now was to put an end to their celebration. I challenged them to a rematch and told them to give me three weeks to get these guys in fighting shape. Three weeks later, my students sent one opponent after the other to the hospital. Some even retired three well known fighters and instructors. My mission with these fights was to prove that I could use my skills to correct the mistake of letting students fight who were not personally trained by me.
One match that stayed with me was the case of a young Japanese man who was being trained by one of my students who claimed to be an authentic Thai boxer. I let him take control of the situation and assume responsibility for this young man’s training. On the day of the fight, this young man was beat up because of the poor training he received. After the fight, I went into the office with the other instructors and asked for 3 weeks to train this man myself. This would cost me over $4,000, but I didn’t care; my name was at stake here. Three weeks later, he was able to defeat his opponent in a rematch.
I had to do this again against a group of Kung-fu stylists. I had mismatched my students with this group, partly because their instructor used to train with me and is even in one of my commercials. I let my personal relationship with this guy get in the way of good judgment. My guys lost, which made their opponents very happy. I went through the same challenge. Over the next 2 events, I retrained my students and they were able to retire the Kung-fu instructor and his students. In another fight, I trained a 14 year old student to go up against a guy who had been training for 8 years with 2 excellent boxers. I trained this kid privately for one month and he was able to defeat this guy with 8 years of experience.
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.
