Often times coaches and those not well versed in other Martial Art over-complicate the sport of Boxing. Boxing is not the most complex thing in the world. Defend and counter the punches. The limitation of legal techniques within the sport eliminates a lot of those strikes and combinations that might otherwise be utilized. Here at Calasanz Physical Art we create boxers from every day people in as little as 2 months and all focused on mastering the basics. Good defense, head movement, simple punches and building power. These are the foundational premises of being a good boxer and we train them here uniquely.
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Calasanz and Jenifer Lee worked very closely together during the mid 80′s. Recently we have uncovered some old footage taken during a Saturday Night Fight that used to occur weekly here at Calasanz Physical Art. Please follow here to read more.
(Continued from part 1) Being sent to the city to study and immediately taking this journey of wanting to be the most educated person with just one purpose: to get a good job at a good company. Already having received the news from one of the best accountants in the Dominican Republic, Filiberto Rodriguez, and at this point was teaching all sorts of clerical business on his School (Academia “Las Mercedes”), Calasanz finished high school and was sent to Popular Bank one of the biggest banks in operation.
Calasanz soon felt uncomfortable because he knew that there was something better waiting for him, and did not waste time. Because of achieving so many diplomas, the bank would let me go to study and specialize in English as a second language in order to get much higher position, and this was very early in his career. All in Calasanz mind was going to America and making a movie with this he believed he would be just like Bruce Lee, but soon he realized after coming to the US, that was much more than just being like Bruce Lee.
In the beginning he even yelled and made sounds like Bruce Lee, and then he said to himself; “wait a minute I can be myself and I don’t need any to use from anybody else because of the ability I was born with”.
When he got to Bridgeport University in Connecticut he was the talk of the town. In less than one week he was know all over Bridgeport, and this was all based on his training methods but specifically because of his immense athletic ability which was seen in his jumping kicks and that nobody else could come close to imitate.
One month later he called the bank, I just told Mr Simon Castro who was the Vice-President of the bank, “I am staying in America, the dream is too beyond to let it go, I am making a movie and I will be Bruce Lee or as famous as Bruce Lee”.
Calasanz Life in the martial arts has been completely about showing what is inside the Art of Martial arts. He feels that even still after Bruce Lee brought to the screen a sense of emotion, expression, style, beauty of the martial arts and introduced it to the world before anybody else, today many still can not grasp the concept of this.
Calasanz considers himself as being born with this gift to understand that there is much more to the martial arts. It is not just kicking, punching, going to the ground, shooting, striking somebody with a weapon, etc, but rather, there is reality, beauty, style, balance, grounding, flexibility, endurance, conditioning, posture, stance, reflect, pride, character, success, intelligence, etc. and all of this is part of Kung Fu and the martial arts. Kickboxing, Mixed Martial Arts, Boxing, Mauy Thai boxing, American and Recreational boxing, this is was Calasanz believes and the understanding of the art of martial arts which indeed can be real, but it can be beautiful and stylistic at the same time.
A Calasanz’s Quotation, “Since I was a baby, a kid and a teenager, there was something that was beyond me, because of the age I could not understand, later on I could understand what was inside me”.
What brought the realization to Calasanz that something was beyond him? Calasanz going to the movies with his father and seeing Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon”. It opened a new career direction and a clear idea of who Calasanz was, could and wanted to be. (To be continued!)
For years, Calasanz has tirelessly worked to take care of his students. Back in the day, Calasanz scheduled a big promotion date on a Saturday and those who were scheduled to help at the last minute were not able to attend. Instead of canceling, Calasanz tested 120 students himself. This included coaching, holding boards for breaking, registering, taking registration fees, making change and encouraging each student to do his or her best. Calasanz did the work of 10 people that day and all the students who worked hard and prepared for months were able to test and get promoted.
In honor of Calasanz 30th year of martial art excellence, he will be repeating this feat again and testing all his students by himself upstairs! This kind of event is special and rare. He has only done this a few times over his long illustrious career in the martial arts! Students will be able to schedule their test from 4am to 11pm on Saturday February 16th. This test will be filmed by a professional videographer and still photos will be taken. Internet links will be distributed to corresponding students in order to view your personal results online.
Many students from the past who know who Calasanz really is, will be here in order to honor this special occasion. Some of them will be testing and or participating in a 5 minute video recording. This day should be about ours students and their test with Calasanz.
Bruce Lee was and is still my inspiration in the world of martial arts. When I came to this country a friend of mine brought me a copy of Lee’s book, “Tao of Jeet Kune Do,” and when I read it, I said I wanted to be as good as Bruce, especially because everything he wrote, all his notes, and philosophy was what I believed and was what I was already doing.
Even many years ago when I was just a child, a strong child growing up on a farm, I figured out how to bring a cow to the ground by looking how the animal was proportioned. I noticed this gap on the cow’s belly so I used to step towards the cow by stepping with one foot behind my other, then I exploded into the cow with a heel kick knocking it down, sometimes for over a minute, then it got right back up and went about its business as usual eating hay and such.
I could not believe the same kick I used on the cow was the same kick I saw Bruce Lee performing in a film clip while demonstrating Chinese boxing. When Bruce would strike, he put his hips and body into every strike, which is something I have been doing all my life, and right there and then I knew I had a natural gift for martial arts.
Another trait of mine that follows Bruce’s way of thinking is that I never followed what everyone else was doing. A great example was when I went to a karate school and noticed a couple of guys striking each other. They were going blow for blow without any real attempt to block. So I said to myself “you are telling me the person with the strongest gut was going to come out on top?” To me, that was not what the martial arts is all about, so I left for three months to train on my own and work on the things I deemed important as opposed to what everyone else was doing. When that time was up I was able to easily challenge and beat anyone in that school, including the instructors.
Calasanz came to this country with a dream and knew what he had to do to achieve it. Coming to the U.S.was a long journey. Even though Calasanz worked at the most popular bank in his home country of the Dominican Republic, some of his earliest stories in America came while he worked at the restaurant Victoria Station. He went there and applied for a busboy position, only the chef, a Peruvian man named Carmelo was working in the kitchen, and they did not need a busboy, but rather someone to wash dishes since they were expecting 600 customers that night. Carmelo could not do everything by himself and asked Calasanz to do the work that five people would normally do since the restaurant was shorthanded. Good thing for Calasanz that he was able to understand and write in English. It was the beginning of his career in the states and he made a lot of money. During the first three months, Calasanz did almost every job in the restaurant including cooking, bussing tables, waiting tables, and soon he was the top waiter and eventually a bartender.
Calasanz never forgot a woman he met at the restaurant named Joan, who was studying to be a journalist; she was one of the most beautiful human beings he ever met. She thought Calasanz had a great personality even though his spoken English was not perfect. There was no doubt that she was any man’s dream girl. Calasanz came here with the ultimate goal of making a movie and for eight years he did not look at anyone, all Calasanz did was study and train, hoping to emulate what Bruce Lee did in this country, and felt like there was so much left to accomplish. With Joan it was different, even though he was nervous around her; it was hard not to glance in her direction.
Around this time, Calasanz was in the U.S.A. for less than one year, but was very popular already and had a body that was possibly better and stronger than Bruce Lee at his peak. Calasanz trained day and night, with two percent body fat and 135 pounds, just like Bruce. Calasanz wanted to model himself after Bruce Lee so much, that if he weighed more than that 135 pound limit, he locked himself inside a car with the heat turned up to act as a sauna to sweat off the extra weight.
Even though Calasanz does not drink, Joan once offered him a glass of red wine, so this one time, he made an exception. He could not say no because she was such an impressive and engaging woman. Personality, intelligence, humor, good character, she had it all; guys would just stare at her. Joan really saw something in Calasanz and believed he would achieve anything he set out to accomplish.
With all the hard work Calasanz had to do to get the recognition he so desired, Joan was a bright spot, she always believed in his success. If she is out there somewhere, reading this, Calasanz would like to say “Thank You” for everything.
Having good character is very important to Calasanz. He is the son of Eugenio Martinez, one of the most respectful, respected, and serious men in the Dominican Republic. Calasanz’s father raised the best 11 kids in the country and raised them all to follow his good character and respectful ways.
Another incident in the restaurant involved a manager that showed poor character involving a man who worked there as the general manager. The waitresses were very scared of him, he terrorized everyone, especially the ladies, but not when Calasanz was there. This person finally got fired for his behavior and was never to be allowed to ever enter a Victoria Station restaurant. Even though Calasanz believed this was a harsh punishment, he should not have treated people the way he did.
Calasanz enjoyed his time at Victoria Station and that is why he is sharing these stories. That company treated him very well and was a building block to get to where he is now.
What is it about a man like Bruce Lee that has made him a martial arts legend? While the fancy stunts of Jackie Chan and Jet Li provide us with heart stopping entertainment, most of these feats employ the use of trick photography, strings and trampolines. What is so intriguing about Bruce Lee is that the man was real and so were his martial arts. Regardless of who comes and goes at the box office, there will never be another Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method: Basic Training was released by Bruce’s wife, Linda Lee Caldwell, in 1977. During his lifetime, Bruce was hesitant to publish his training material because he wanted to avoid people learning from his books and then misleading the public into believing that were personally trained by him. It is important when reading Basic Training not to get sidetracked by the antiquated training equipment. These photographs were taken in the late 60’s and do not depict what we modern day martial artists are used to by today’s standards. What does require your attention is his training philosophy and the means by which you may improve your overall body conditioning. While following his training guidelines will not turn you into another Bruce Lee, you will improve your skill and fitness level if you put in the effort.
One of the key ingredients to being able to handle yourself on the streets is good physical conditioning. It is also important to master simple, effective strikes that may be accessed during a time where adrenaline is flooding your body and clouding your mind. It is in these moments that simple is best. All the fancy, rehearsed combinations fly out the window. This book prepares you for that reality.
Basic Training wastes no time in getting to the heart of Bruce Lee’s training philosophy. Chapter One launches into the importance of increasing your aerobic endurance and then proceeds to show you how. This is followed by Chapter Two, entitled The On-Guard Position. A detailed discussion of the importance of maintaining a proper on-guard stance also includes an analysis of classical fighting stances and how many of them hinder efficient defensive movement. Correct body alignment and the importance of maintaining proper balance is also addressed in this chapter. Basic Training then logically proceeds to developing proper footwork in Chapter Three. Bruce Lee’s evasion principles are introduced as they show martial artists how to get out of the way of an attack.
The next two chapters look at power and speed and how to achieve both with the use of training equipment. Bruce Lee’s famous one-inch punch is discussed in Chapter 4 and readers are taught that generating such awesome power requires the coordination of everything from the right way to make a fist, to the proper way to pivot your hip. Using the hands and legs to strike objects like air shields, heavy bags, focus mitts and the makiwara is also demonstrated. Speed Training talks about the importance of building lightening speed without giving your technique away to your opponent. Bruce Lee learned about the importance of not “telegraphing” by observing the art of fencing.
Since opening his doors in 1979, Calasanz has sold over 1,000 copies of Basic Training. “This book inspired and helped me realize the depth of Bruce Lee’s skill,” says Calasanz. “He wasn’t a tournament fighter who fought for a fancy plastic trophy. Bruce Lee was someone who could survive on the streets.” Without degrading or upgrading any particular style of martial arts, Bruce Lee trained intelligently, dispensing techniques that were impractical for street survival. Bruce Lee’s methods are useful to any martial arts practitioner regardless of their chosen style and our students are still adhering to his training philosophy in the new millennium.
Basic Training does indeed get to the heart of its title. This classic is easy to understand, logically sequenced and fundamentally sound. Bruce Lee’s legacy lives on because he was …REAL…in all respects.
My vow to make a movie in the U.S.caused me to go this far with this film. I should have known to back out when the director could not come up with a script. I never stopped saying to all my students, “I am making a movie.” I gave myself a timetable that by 1994 I must finish this goal in order to move on, otherwise I cannot start anything. I remember Stew Leonard asking me, “Why you don’t take that money and open another school?” and I said, “Stew I must do it, I have spoken too much, now I am forced to do it, it is just ego, but everyone is starting to make faces like Hahn!”
I have come to the conclusion that I do not blame anyone other than myself. It makes me angry and I will never forget as part of this process we owed a person $105,000. This man was not working, he was sick, and owed creditors hundreds of thousands of dollars. He came to work for me on the film and even when I paid him, he still would have had to file bankruptcy and later did. A few years after he filed, he was rebuilding his home in Greenwich. To this day I still find that hard to believe. What makes me the angriest is that the wife of this person told her husband that he would lose money and talks bad about me still. She failed to be an honest person as I paid everyone. Some of the people that received checks asked, “What for? “You lost out with this movie, dummy.“ I kept my word that everyone would be compensated.
This movie turned into the biggest humiliation of my career. This low budget movie went from costing around $250,000 to over $1 million. I could have taken the easy way out and just filed bankruptcy but I chose not to. I could have just as easily gone back to my country, taken a great job, and lived the “good life,” but I chose to stay and do what I know and love and that is teaching martial arts. I knew that 3-4 years down the line, this movie would promote my name regardless if it failed in the past.
Marcello ran the master trailer which was the best part of the movie and a box of the most memorable pictures of me. When Marcello tried to hire someone to work with him on the movie, while interviewing this prospective employee, a man named Andrew had a dog bite him on the ear in Marcello’s apartment, and even after tried to get money from us. That was just another speed bump during this whole movie process. Nothing went the way it was supposed to go. I know now that Marcello did nothing wrong, he felt sad and ashamed that he let me and many others down. I never wanted to blame Marcello because he did so much work on this movie to try to get it right but he lacked the experience. Marcello felt that he made all the mistakes but I feel that the mistakes were all my fault and not his. Marcello’s issues were not having a solid plan and not taking the time to learn his craft.
So many people who believed in what I was doing were let down. I did nothing wrong other than trust those that were my friends, and that is why I believe that I deserve the blame for all that happened during the making of this film. Crossing The Line was a nightmare for me. Marcello has since vanished and we have not heard from him. I would like to thank all my students that stuck by me and showed their support during this time.
Two years before the movie process, Marcello started writing the script and Richard Venture, a script writer from Hollywood, trained with me. Venture was the first to write this movie for me, he got busy and still gave me a good draft but not enough to make a movie. That is where Marcello came in. Marcello wrote many drafts but none could be used. He said, “Calasanz, the China Town script was redone more than 30 times and that was why it became the best.” He convinced me that nothing was wrong. Many obstacles happened even before starting the movie. For example, I got hurt; it was one of the biggest blows to my career because the injury did not have to happen. It could have been prevented by these people who convinced me that I was safe in the place they brought me to, but they could not help me escape from a demonstration with someone who almost cost me my life and my dream. I built my name by doing demonstrations for people. I never had to hurt anyone and no one hurt me. But on this day my skill was so beyond my opponent’s. I got pushed to stand up and do a demonstration with a chef who was a Thai boxer. I humiliated him so much that he could not take it. The people with me knew that I did not want to participate in any more demos, not until I finished my movie. I built my name by humiliating people, especially street fighters, without hurting them.
As I got to this restaurant, the only thing that I could think of was that I did not want to participate in any demos until after the movie. I already knew that many people were jealous of my skills plus, I had a popular show on Cablevision’s public access channel. The chef was following the Calasanz Show for a long time and recognized me and planned for a demo. His intentions were to humiliate me. In the end he was the one who became the victim of humility without me having to hurt him. The chef set his mind to wanting to hurt me no matter what. He was cooking for us and as I go to sit down, this guy, at close range, delivered a kick so hard to my ankle that I injured my tibia. I tried not to go to any bars or restaurants until the movie was complete and I did anyway. These people who convinced me to go had the also persuaded me to do this demo at the restaurant, all I was really there for was to convince someone to train at my school, but the people with me wanted to see me in action. I am sure they wanted me to prove myself, which was the last thing I needed, by this time I proved myself enough. Someday I will get into the rest of what went on that day at the restaurant.
This injury caused a delay in the making of the movie and lots of money but not compared to the money that Marcello cost me. The day we started filming the movie we did not follow a script, I took my story away from him and he came up with something that was done at the spot. The script was no more and it was mostly improvised. The movie was supposed to be a low budget film and already $350,000 was spent during the first two weeks. By the time the movie was finished over $1 million dollars had been spent and we owed money to everyone. I knew that I would pay up, but the toughest part to take was all the people that we let down, including grocery store owner Stew Leonard who helped us the most. But Coast Entertainment Corporation did not have to file bankruptcy. Everyone, one way or the other got paid. Some were compensated with a membership to my school, some of them received a membership and a cash settlement. Many of the investors came to me and asked why I did that, or that I should close the company. I did not close, but I paid everyone personally.
You should know that in order to pay everyone faster, I came with these ideas. Every time something has gone wrong, I have proved that I can come up with some sort of idea or advertisement in order to recover. I have never been wrong, but 95% of the time, those that I have dealt with let me down. It does not mean that those people did it purposely. Those that know me are aware of my strong personality and loud voice, sometimes I make people angry. Those two things have cost me a great deal. Today, I understand that I overwhelmed some of those that worked with me, including my students that I have always done business with since day one.
