Thoughts of a Well Balanced Martial Artist

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on May 26, 2011 at 11:22 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Martial Arts, black belt, Traditional, balanced, fighting, Disipline, Dominican Republic, Self Defense, Calasanz System, counter attack

Tournament Fighting or Training for the Streets? – Part Four: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography

Continued from: “Tournament Fighting or Training for the Streets? – Part Three: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography”

I was often asked by some tournament promoters to come and help out with judging and giving my famous Super Break demonstrations during intermission. When I helped with judging, I saw that a lot of cheating was going on. Judges would show a lot of favoritism and ignore the scoring of points when it didn’t benefit their students. I was very careful to capture every move and to score fairly. I was also very fair when my own students fought and would award the points to the one who deserved it.

At this one tournament where I was a regular, the promoter had tremendous respect for me, my system and my students. I remember the first time they were introducing all of the masters and of course all of their ranks, some included 5^th, 6^th and 7^th degree black belts. Then they called me and I just had a black belt. Everyone looked at me and expected that I would have some high rank. I never pursued a higher rank because I wanted to be a well-rounded martial artist. I didn’t want to get locked into one system for the rest of my life. I wanted to see the whole logic behind the martial arts. In addition, I am of the opinion that a lot of these ranks are artificial and self-created. I remember one guy who claimed to be a Grandmaster of Wing Chun. I found this hard to believe considering he was only 29 years old. He took out an ad in a local newspaper where he applauded himself for being elected Grandmaster of Wing Chun by an association that he started himself!!!

As an instructor, I am constantly asked about my school’s tournament participation and how many trophies I myself have won. I’d like to start off by saying that I have great respect for martial artists who devote their time to training for kata and point fighting competition. It takes a lot of discipline and hard work to pursue these goals. What I object to is the public’s perception that the sign of a great fighter is winning lots of tournaments. Unfortunately, today’s martial art tournaments look more like gymnastics and dance routines. Some instructors who do well at tournaments, but have no street fighting experience try to convince their students that they can teach them how to protect themselves on the streets. A person would have to train for many years in a traditional martial art before he would be able to use it on the streets. Growing up in the rural areas of the Dominican Republic gave me a lot of street fighting experience when I wasn’t even looking. Part of being a man were I come from meant that you didn’t back down from a challenge. This went on even after I started taking martial arts. Men would always challenge each other to knock down, drag down fights. In 1975, one of my first instructors, a brown belt killer, who was twice my size, wanted to fight me despite the fact that I only had a few lessons in karate. Finally, he convinced me to fight. Because of my experience in street fighting, they had to stop the fight by pulling me off of him. No matter how many belts, stripes, degrees or trophies you have, nothing beats the experience you get on the streets.

In 1995, I started making my movie, so we weren’t very focused on sending people to tournaments for about 4 years. Several opportunities did present themselves and they were too good to pass up. One of my students, Jim Calvi, had his own school called Force Three Tae Kwon Do. I was interested in proving my skills as an instructor. I trained a group of 12 students to participate in the 1996 Olympic trials in both kata and fighting. Because we were not a tae kwon do school, we competed under the Force Three name because the competition was limited to practitioners of Tae Kwon Do. Some of my students ended up having to fight each other for the gold medal. I didn’t care that they weren’t fighting under my name. All I cared about was to prove a point and that my skills as an instructor could be applied in a variety of areas.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT06851

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on April 20, 2011 at 9:51 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, black belt, Calasanz, Competition, Disipline, Dominican Republic, fighters, Karate, kata, Kung Fu, martial artists, Martial Arts, Sparring, Tae Kwon Do, Wing Chun

Tournament Fighting or Training for the Streets? – Part One: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography

Continued from: “Training Students from other Systems Part Two: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography”

While some like martial arts competition, I believe that it creates a false impression of one’s fighting skill. As a martial artist, I never wanted to be accused of being a phony. I hated hearing people accuse Bruce Lee of “not being able to fight his way out of a paper bag.” On the contrary, Bruce Lee was for real. Read any of his books and you will see that his philosophy made sense. Does the fact that he didn’t spend his martial arts career in the ring mean that he was not a great fighter? I was never interested in tournaments, so I chose other ways for people to understand my skills. It seems that a lot of martial artists are under the impression that you can’t fight unless you have a bunch of medals and trophies. There is nothing farther from the truth. Some of the best fighters in the world have never set foot in the ring.

One of the ways I proved my skill in the Dominican Republic was to fight the winner of any tournament in the local park or at his home. When I came to this country, I noticed that people put a lot of emphasis on tournaments, so I thought I’d try one. I was watching this point fighter who got beat up so bad. The most disturbing thing was that he won. All the judges and referees were his coaches. This guy had no skill, not even enough to play the game of point fighting. He walked out of there with a six foot trophy with all of his friends congratulating him!!

I talked myself into competing at a point tournament, and it reminded me of playing pool or dominos. It wasn’t about fighting. In order to play, you had to know little tricks. I got in the ring with this guy, threw a technique and waited for the call of the judge. My opponent caught me off balance and hit me. When I was ready to continue fighting, the fight was over. I had no clue what happened, but that was not a fight, it was more like a game of tag. I was so angry that I couldn’t sleep that night. The next day, I found another tournament and the same thing happened. It was the most ridiculous experience I ever had. I thought long and hard as to whether I wanted to continue wasting my time. I decided that I was not going to try to play games. I had come to this country to make a movie and become a well rounded martial artist. I wanted to be real and express myself as did Bruce Lee. I didn’t need to prove anything by winning a trophy. If I wanted to fight for real, like I did in the Dominican Republic, it was not going to happen through point fighting.

I had a friend who came from Brazil and taught Capoeira. He invited me to one of his shows where he asked me to help put on a demonstration. One of the guys who was there was a point fighter from a well-known demo team. He had lightning speed. I’m talking very fast. I learned a lot during my first point fight, so I was ready. We squared off. I closed the gap so fast that his head banged into my block and he almost knocked himself out. This is how you use skill versus flashy techniques.

In 1989, I wanted to test my skill against a boxer. I arranged a fight with someone who was in the top ten of his weight class at Gleason’s Gym. Because I was keeping such a grueling teaching and training schedule, I had to cancel the fight. I was training at 3:00AM and teaching from 5:00AM to 11:00PM. (That’s why boxers need sponsors. Running a business leaves no time for rest and recuperation.) I still wanted to fight a boxer, so I arranged a fight with someone named Vito, who was planning to turn pro. No one in the audience saw him land a punch. Vito was a very tough guy and weighed about 205 pounds as opposed to my 145. He also had fought 100 amateur fights and was never knocked down. I did this to prove to myself and to my students that I wasn’t a point fighter and I could withstand a fight with a boxer.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave.Norwalk,CT06851

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on April 16, 2011 at 4:50 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Calasanz System, Competition, counter attack, Dominican Republic, fighting, martial artists, Martial Arts, point fighting, tournaments, unique and personal

Martial Arts American Style – Part Four: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography

Continued from “: Martial Arts American Style – Part three: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography”

My training in different schools, both here and in the Dominican Republic, has taught me that a martial artist with true skill doesn’t have to fight. He can win respect by his skill and confidence. If you have skill and confidence, you don’t have to lift a finger. Let your training speak for itself. I had another experience in that same Darien school. I had another classmate who I sincerely believe could have beat me if we fought prior to my intensive kicking training. I was able to take on anyone in the class in a full contact challenge now that my legs were super strong and fast. I have to admit however that I would probably lose at point or Olympic fighting, which is a very common form of sparring in most martial arts schools. I was used to full contact fighting, so fighting for points made no sense to me. While I have great respect for those who train hard to engage in point fighting only because I admire their dedication to training, I sometimes think that they are lulled into a false sense that they can really fight full contact.

An aikido practitioner came to class and challenged me to a fight because he heard that I was very strong. He was much bigger than I was, but that didn’t bother me. I grabbed him and he wasn’t able to move my hands. I executing a takedown and sent him crashing to the floor. I had him pinned to the ground and he called the head master of the school, a very talented martial artist. The teacher told him how to get out of it by going with my power instead of going against it. I was very impressed with his answer, but I was angry at this guy for calling the teacher over in the first place.

When I worked as a bartender there was a tall, strong customer who was curious to see how strong I really was. I politely turned him down, but everyone kept encouraging me to do something. One day, the bar was full. He started challenging me again, so I gave in. He grabbed me and I have to admit, he was pretty strong. I could barely move my wrist. I took a deep breath and was able to twist his wrist so hard that everyone in the room heard a “crack.” I ended up breaking his thumb and he had to spend four weeks in a cast. I felt really bad about it, but he just wouldn’t let up.

I eventually got very tired of working in a restaurant. There were a lot of rude, nasty customers to deal with. I remember this one guy who was treating me like dirt while I was waiting on him. He left me a tip that was so paltry it was insulting. I was so insulted I followed him into the parking lot and stuck his tip into his mouth. This was a nightmare for my employer, since this guy was a big shot who later complained to the headquarters. Surprisingly enough, I was not fired from my job. My general manager told the headquarters that he didn’t want to fire me because I was too profitable to the restaurant. In retrospect, I know that I over reacted. I just got so frustrated. It was also a message to me that maybe it was time to move on. I had been getting increasingly frustrated with the customers. I knew that it was time for a change. One of my friends encouraged me to open my own school.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851

Published in:

on March 16, 2011 at 2:22 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Brutality, Calasanz, Dominican Republic, fighters, fighting, Martial Arts, Power, Self Defense

Martial Arts American Style – Part Three: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography

Continued from : Martial Arts American Style – Part two: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography

I also enrolled as a student at a martial arts school in Darien where I experienced one of the biggest challenges of my career. One of my more experienced classmates kicked me. As a got ready to challenge him in a sparring match, someone stopped the fight. Even though I was considered to be a very powerful fighter, I saw this incident as a big wake up call. I was determined to get even. I started an intense training regime. I did up to 10,000 kicks per day, sometimes training for hours. All the rigorous mental and physical training, as well as the counter attack skills I developed with one punch and side kick, were my reward from this incident. This man and I never fought again. He and I became good friends and I won his respect by improving myself. This is what I mean by winning without fighting.

Something similar happened in the Dominican Republic. My classmate, Alejandro kicked me with a hard spinning kick. My teacher stopped the fight because he knew I would retaliate. Alejandro was getting ready for a tournament, so he was using me as a practice target. The next time we fought, I was determined to give him a run for his money. I hit him so hard that he started bleeding from his ears, eyes and mouth. My teacher was furious and almost threw me out of the school. I later spoke to Alejandro and explained to him that while he had to get ready for a tournament by trying to kill me, I had to get ready for him. My teacher never did kick me out of the school because aside from my determination not to lose a fight, I was a helpful, devoted student.

I wanted to look good in the execution of my martial art techniques, so I was willing to “humiliate” myself as a man and study dance. The humiliation turned to fun when I found myself in a class of twenty women!! I studied ballet, jazz, and tap. Dance training paid off because it taught me poise and self-expression. I have incorporated many of the stretching and training techniques I learned there into my martial arts classes. To this day, new students will often ask my more senior students if they ever studied dance. I tease my students, especially the men, by telling them, “Do you know you’re learning dance techniques without having to take dance lessons! You don’t have to do a pirouette in front of twenty women. I did it for you!”

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851

Published in:

on March 14, 2011 at 11:23 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Calasanz, conditioning, Dominican Republic, Exercise, fighting, Flexibility, Martial Arts, technique, unique and personal

Martial Arts American Style – Part One: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography

Continued from: “The Early Years – Part Five: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography”

I arrived in Bridgeport on June 15, 1979. My first introduction to this country was not a pleasant one. While I had studied English in the Dominican Republic, I had a lot of trouble understanding the language. I met this guy who seemed trustworthy at first and helped me translate and showed me around. Unfortunately, I became very trusting of him and he stole $2,500 from me. This was of no surprise to my family. The one character flaw I had to work on was being too trusting of people. I had been taken advantage of many times in my native country because of my trusting nature and it was starting to happen here. After this experience, I worked very hard at perfecting my language skills and depending less on others for help.

I had no desire to get into tournaments when I came to the United States, even though they were very popular and great emphasis was placed in participating in them. I did like sparring with well-known instructors and their best competitors. I went to take classes at this one school were three huge guys were teaching karate. I started training with them and they asked me to help teach. Later I thought about how crazy I was for going to their school in the first place and risking getting beat up!! The next day I scheduled a fight with a martial artist who had a very good reputation. We were supposed to fight in one of the basements at the University of Bridgeport, but my opponent refused to fight me. His excuse was that he forgot his uniform. I won the fight without fighting, just on the reputation I was starting to build in the area.

The first thing I did when I came to the Norwalk area was to find a job. I went to Victoria Station in Darien. Victoria Station was a steak house designed like a train station, which even included a few authentic train cars. I wanted a job as a waiter, but none was available. They did however need a busboy and dishwasher, so I was hired for those positions. The first day I started work, I had to do the work of three people who all called out. I worked so hard and so fast that the Mike, the general manager, asked me if I knew how to write English. I said yes. Within eight months I was promoted to waiter and eventually to bartender.

I worked very hard because I had to fund my martial arts training. It was the money that I earned at Victoria Station that made this possible. I bought my first car in 1982. I remember taking a ride through Darien. The police stopped me and I asked them what I did wrong. I told them that I worked at Victoria Station and they let me go. Eventually, these police officers would come to know me as the crazy guy who jogged on the Post Road wearing a t-shirt in below zero temperatures or jogging barefoot wearing leg weights in the summer. To this day, many of my older students, including law enforcement officers, remember my jogs through lower Fairfield County.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851

Published in:

on March 4, 2011 at 3:59 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Calasanz System, Competition, Dominican Republic, fight, fighting, Karate, Martial Arts, Training

The Early Years – Part Five: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography

Continued from “:The Early Years – Part Four: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography “

I learned early on as a farm boy that when you have a job to do, you do it to the best of your abilities. My father regretted sending me to the city to study because it was hard for him to trust anyone to take care of his land and animals. I was determined however to get the best education I could and that meant moving to the city. My goal was to become the best-educated man in the Dominican Republic. I would spend hours studying in the park. People who knew my father would tell him that I was insane because I spent so much time on my lessons.

In order to help with tuition, I got a job working at a cigar factory. I put the same kind of intensity in rolling cigars that I did in my work on the farm. I made in one day what most of my co-workers did in a month. I worked so hard in my classes that I was able to student teach after a short while. I was a business major, so I taught mostly accounting, shorthand and typing. This brought me to the job that would be my ticket to the United States. It was this job that gave me the opportunity to study at the University of Bridgeport and make my living teaching martial arts.

I worked at Banco Popular in the checking department processing checks. I was taught a lot of banking procedures and was required to absorb them within a short period of time. In my spare time, I practiced martial arts and studied in the park. I did very well in school, except for literature, which was not one of my favorite subjects. Students who wanted to be eligible to work for the bank had to pass all their classes. I eventually passed literature, which required committing numerous biographies of famous historical figures to memory. To accomplish all that was required of me at this time took a lot of concentration and 100% dedication.

It was during this time I saw Bruce Lee’s movie, Enter the Dragon. Seeing this film inspired me to take my martial arts career to the next level. Despite all the classes I had taken, I now knew that this was not the path for me. I wanted to devote my life to teaching martial arts and making a movie. My next step was to get the bank to send me to the United States to study English as a second language. They agreed to send me to the University of Bridgeport. Once I was on American soil, I knew that this was where I had to stay to make my dream come true.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851

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on March 2, 2011 at 12:11 am Leave a Comment
Tags: Bruce Lee, Calasanz, Dominican Republic, Martial Arts, Training

The Early Years – Part Four: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography

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.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851

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on February 28, 2011 at 10:04 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: black belt, Calasanz, Competition, Disipline, Dominican Republic, fight, fighters, fighting, martial artists, Martial Arts, Sparring, Training

A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography:The Early Years – Part Three

Continued from “A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography:The Early Years – Part Two”

I was fortunate at the beginning of my martial arts training to meet and train with some exceptional teachers. I trained with Pacheco, Rafael Martinez, Victor Loraine, Lizardo and my teacher Tamajoshi Sakamoto. I put most of my earnings into my training in hopes that my investment would pay off one day. A lot of my training was private, but I would often join classes for the purpose of working on my sparring skills. Sparring in a traditional martial arts school was not like it is now. We had no protective gear, no mouthpieces, no one to stop the fight, and a room full of guys who wanted to beat the daylights out of you. If you try to do this in this in the United States, you immediately expose yourself to lawsuits and your students will drop out in droves.

I remember one day when I was in class and Rafael called me to spar with him. I had not been in class for about two months. I think he may have been under the impression that I wasn’t training and that he was going to make an example out of me. He was shocked when we started fighting. I held my own during that match and gained even more respect from my fellow students. Rafael was a formidable opponent. He weighed 190lbs, held a black belt in Goju Ryu and was a professional boxer. That night, he came to my house and found me training. He watched me work out until 2:00AM. He could not believe the amount of effort and dedication I had.

Victor Liriano is another man who was one of my greatest Goju Ryu mentors. He was one of the first teachers I had that put a lot of emphasis on developing good counterattacking skills. I told him about the experience I had with the cow and how I reacted immediately. We both agreed that reaction without hesitation is essential when fighting.

Lizardo, the star of the group, decided he wanted to spar with me. During the match, he was very careful to keep his distance. I was so conscious about conditioning and developing power that some people were afraid of my power. One day when Lizardo and I were sparring, he asked me if I would take it easy on him. Lizardo became one of my teachers and also a good friend. From that point on, I couldn’t fight with him any more. It’s always been hard for me to spar with someone I liked and respected.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851

Published in:

on February 25, 2011 at 1:44 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Boxing, Calasanz, conditioning, Disipline, Dominican Republic, Exercise, fighting, goju-ryu, Karate, Martial Arts, Self Defense, Traditional

A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography: The Early Years – Part Two

I recall another incident where a friend of mine was being picked on and he was too afraid to stick up for himself. Again, here was someone larger than me, but I didn’t care. Some of my friends wanted to help me fight him because we were so unevenly matched, but I wanted to take him on myself. I used my legs, kicking him relentlessly. When my father heard that I was yet again in another fight, he was angry until he heard that I won the fight!!

One of my first unofficial students was my little brother. He was being challenged to fight by one of the local bullies. I told him to drop back after the kid started fighting and punch him with all his might. He did just what I told him and knocked the guy out. All the work with the cows taught me not only the power of the legs, but also the advantages of a powerful and speedy counterattack. I incorporated this philosophy into my system, which is largely based on effective deflecting blows and followed with counterattacking techniques.

While my father did not approve of the fights I would get into, understand that I was never the aggressor. I didn’t start fights needlessly, nor was I a bully. When I fought, it was to defend another or myself and in some instances, to prove a point. Where I grew up, it was part of the male culture to be strong and not back down from a fight. So while my father didn’t’ condone fighting, he admired my skill and courage.

I left my family farm and went to Santiago to continue my academic studies. It was there that I was first exposed to the martial arts after seeing a karate demonstration, lead by a man named Rafael Martinez, who would later become my good friend and teacher. I took my first class where I was taught high, middle and low blocks, reverse punch, and a front, side and roundhouse kick. I took these few movements and practiced them for three months straight before I went back to the school again. It was during this time that I focused on developing my power. Three months later, I returned. With just the few techniques that I had mastered, I was able to successfully spar my classmates and gain their respect despite the fact that I was three times smaller than anyone else and that most of them were black belts. These were not your average karate practitioners; they were killers. While martial arts today are more of a recreational sport, back then, you had to fight for your life. There was no referee, no rules, and no pads.

I also learned something about myself in the course of my three months of training. I knew that I had a natural talent for the martial arts. I believe that when you are given a natural talent, no matter what it is, that you should pursue it. I was determined to take the gift that I was given and develop it to the best of my ability. I also knew that I could not abuse my talents and that I would only put them to good use. That is one of the reasons why I decided to make martial arts my business.

to be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851