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!
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?
Get into a good martial arts school that teaches you how to survive! Don’t spend years learning useless forms or how to use weapons that were popular in ancient societies. Who carries around a staff or sword in the real world? Find a school with a curriculum that emphasizes overall fitness, self-defense and survival!
Most martial artists will tell you that your chances of surviving abduction once an attacker gets you into his car are slim to none. Their advice is to fight for your life because statistics show that the consequences are grim. On Wednesday, July 28, 2004, Larissa del Mar Fiallo, Miss Dominican Republic, was assaulted by two men who tried to kidnap her in the parking lot of a shopping mall.
What is interesting us about this story reported by CNN.com (July 29, 2004) is that Ms. Fiallo was able to escape her attackers because of her judo training. She explained how she fought back when the two men tried to get her into their car and how she knocked over the larger one three times. Her attackers eventually left the scene. While Ms. Fiallo suffered deep cuts and bruises to various parts of her body, she survived the attack and was released from the hospital several days later.
Most people are concerned with their safety in an increasingly uncertain world. They want to be prepared to defend themselves and their loved ones. Ms. Fiallo’s years of judo training paid off. Are you ready to fight for your life?
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.
Staying true to yourself. I have heard this phase many times over the years of my life. However, very few people actually achieve this. Over the past 13 years I have trained in the Calasanz System, and have not encountered someone who embodies this phase more than Calasanz himself. While many martial arts schools come and go, Calasanz has strongly endured for over 30 years because of his unwavering passion and devotion for the martial arts, and his own personal vision for the development of the Calasanz System. Calasanz has achieved his level with hard work (training and working 24/7 around the clock) and has never accepted short cuts or taking the easy way out as far as his training or business. Calasanz has received multiple offers where he could have just closed shop and taken off. For example, Ron Howard wanted to use Calasanz in a movie directed by Jean Claude Van Damme, But Calasanz was determine to fulfill his dream to make his Own movie “Crossing the Line” on his own terms. In the early 90’s, against great odds, Calasanz achieved his dream and the film premiered on the east coast and his home land of theDominican Republic. Many people have goals and dreams, but few actually achieve them on the highest level, staying true to yourself is how Calasanz achieves his goals and dreams, and will continue to do so.
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!
When I opened my first martial arts school, a lot of barroom brawlers and street fighters came through my door. Some grew up in environments where they had to fight to survive while others just liked looking for trouble.
I wasn’t necessarily targeting them in my “marketing” plan. Most of them were there to challenge me or one of my students to a fight. I earned their respect with my martial art skill which was gained partly through traditional training and partly through my own experiences with street fighters in the Dominican Republic.
Many of them stayed on as students. As an instructor, I had to integrate these natural fighters into a class with the average martial art student who just wanted to exercise and learn a little self-defense.
I had a few challenges dealing with street fighters in the dojo. Some are there to prove a point and you have to worry about them causing a lot of trouble, both physically and legally. So I recommend strict supervision on the part of the instructor.
In addition, fighting outside of the dojo or tournament setting lacks rules and regulations. Basically, anything goes for these guys, so the first lesson for the martial arts instructor to convey is the ethics of training in the dojo. Every martial art style has some form of ethical code and it’s the instructor’s job to make sure everyone in the dojo adheres to it or they’re out!
There are a lot of positive aspects about training street fighters. They show up with something that you can’t teach…guts! Just because someone has a black belt doesn’t mean they could fight. There are a lot of black belts out there who would be demolished in a street fight or a real self-defense situation. They may have a lot of technical skill, but no toughness to carry it out.
Street fighters have a fighting spirit and that enthusiasm can often encourage and inspire classmates who lack that quality. I have seen many of them push their more timid classmates to come out of their “shells.”
Street fighters make good full contact fighters because they have the raw talent needed to get into the ring. The instructor’s job is to polish the skills they had when they walked in the door, introduce them to new ones and channel that talent and raw aggression into the ring.
We Americans love affiliations and endorsements… The Good Housekeeping Seal, Better Business Bureau etc. They lend credibility to a business or product. They assure us that our chosen product or service has received
some type of validation from a higher authority.
Martial arts are no different. Look at most generic articles entitled “how to choose a good martial arts school.” A piece of advice you will often see is that you find a school that is affiliated with an “accredited organization.”
Membership in a martial arts association has a lot of benefits. Some martial art schools are part of a franchise. This means that they are affiliated with a larger company that has licensed its name and methodology for a fee. The advantage here is name recognition along with some management assistance.
Another advantage is that martial arts associations set curriculums and provide rank certification. They establish governing boards that promote the art and quality control. They provide smaller schools with recognition and the appearance of being “official” because they are linked with a larger group. Associations organize tournaments, camps and special events. They provide its members with networking opportunities and may also maintain a website with links to its affiliates.
Martial art associations are wonderful marketing tools in a culture that loves the “seal of approval.” You are warned by a lot of websites to be leery of an unaffiliated school because they may not follow an “established’ curriculum and there credentials might be in question.
Well, I’m here to provide you with another warning…*membership in associations, organizations or affiliations will not necessarily guarantee you good martial arts instruction. *There are a lot of dedicated, competent martial arts instructors who are sick of the politics of some martial arts associations and have decided to remain independent or break away.
There is also a financial component to being part of an association. Schools pay fees to belong to the association. Students are often required to pay initial membership fees to the association and are charged by these entities for rank advancement or testing fees. In addition, some schools have to fork out thousands to have some “master” come to affiliate member schools and give special seminars. Students are pressured into attending and have to pay in for these seminars on top of their monthly or yearly dues.
Instead of putting too much stock in affiliation with an association, the best way to choose a school is to ask around in your community. Very often, several schools will be recommended. Word of mouth is often the best advertising.
Find out how long they’ve been in business. Go to each school and ask to watch a class. Talk to the instructor. Do you like his or her teaching style? The fact that this instructor may or may not be affiliated with an organization may be unimportant. Don’t’ discount the school just because you don’t see a wall full of credentials. Membership in outside organizations doesn’t always assure quality.
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.
