Thoughts of a Well Balanced Martial Artist

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on November 7, 2011 at 2:59 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Breathing, Calasanz System, conditioning, Exercise, Fitness, Karate, Kung Fu, Martial Arts, Traditional, Training, unique and personal

Being a Well Balanced Martial Artist for Self Defense

My main job is to teach students to understand their bodies and themselves. When people come to our martial arts and fitness center, they will take something home with them, knowledge. But above all, it is important to teach students how to do martial arts and exercise without causing them injury. That is my primary focus in my studio.

Since day one, I have met fighters who think they can fight with anyone. When you are a well balanced martial artist, you meet students who are good fighters, but are very tight, meaning their body is not relaxed. It is not just how tight they are but it is their belief of how great a fighter they think they are. Another common problem is that people forget to breathe when fighting. You can be a tough guy when you study at a traditional school, but they will not teach you what is necessary when you actually go up against a real fighter, that in itself is completely different. You cannot trade punches with a boxer who is relaxed when you are not even breathing. You can get away with this when fighting people on the street or at your school, but to step on the ring with a competitor is a different story. Here my school we can help you with relaxation and breathing when you fight.

I had one student that studied martial arts for about six years and nobody taught him how to correctly position and relax his shoulders. It was very difficult but it took me just two hours in a private session to correct this person that was carrying this problem for nearly six years. Do you have any idea how badly you can get hurt when your shoulder rises up and gets tight immediately? Many people, especially women, have the tendency to tense up which lots of times comes from being abused or scared. This is just an example of just one thing we here at Calasanz can help you with among many others.

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave,Norwalk CT06851

1.800.414.9544

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on October 26, 2011 at 2:07 pm Comments (1)
Tags: balanced, Calasanz System, Competition, fighters, fighting, Karate, martial artists, Martial Arts, Self Defense, Traditional, Training, unique and personal

The Story of Calasanz Martial Arts and its Students

Calasanz came to the United States with a dream. That dream was realized after watching Bruce Lee in the movie “Enter the Dragon.” Coming to America to make a movie became a goal for Calasanz. To promote his name, he chose over 60 students, most of which were the best street fighters alive. In the early 80s, the best street fighters were here in Norwalk, Connecticut and were citizens there as well. Calasanz devoted his life to the martial arts because he was born with a gift for it. Calasanz is not a regular black belt, he is more than that and he has proved that, not just in America, but as a 14 year old he went to take a class at a karate school and did not return to the school for three months. Why? He noticed too many mistakes but mostly he did not like the excessive brutality. In his mind, he said “There is no reason for this.” Going back to those Calasanz chose to promote, these students were courageous people, but also they were nice human beings. His students were not thugs; they were good people just like Calasanz.

Calasanz’s students that helped promote the system are Darryl Dash (Dash has a separate blog entry dedicated to him), who was the first black belt in the system, John Courtney (the man who really helped Calasanz to succeed and to get where he is today), but there are many others like Mike Gibson, Roger Mayers, Joe Perreira, Reggie Blackwell, Bill Sullivan, James Cassanell, Tyre Stwart, and Patrick Murphy. They will never be forgotten for their contributions. After 1987, when the business was up and running, many students came along that are great friends to Calasanz to this day. He considers them to be as close as family. Some of them deserve to be mentioned: Robert Sapiro, Grace Luppino, Noram Bloom, Mario Contaccesi, Dee Hohn, Angel Llanos, Peter Valis, Chris Schrade, Gerry Manning, David Been, Dennis Grimaldi, Beth Arthur, Renee Fortin, Rod Kathabi, Dave Tartaglia, Jeff Prescott, Adam Colberg, Andrew Dominick, Luis Vega, Wesley Elizabeth Cullin, Bill Smith, Amy Gery, Tom Barcello, Dalila Willian, Jennifer Li, Rebecca Lyon, and of course Jacquie, Ron Lake, and hundreds of others.

Calasanz can only name so many people since there have been so many students over the years, some of them not only learned martial arts from him, but they helped out. Calasanz will always remember them, and he hopes they will always remember him.

Calasanz came to the U.S., he wanted to promote his name. Two days after being here, his name became very popular in Bridgeport,Connecticut, especially at the University of Bridgeport; they could not believe what he was capable of doing. They asked him to put on an event for the freshman students, and soon after that, Calasanz was called upon to put on a show to be seen internationally on TV, called back then, Miss Venus USA. Being there really helped Calasanz to believe that he would become as good as or better than Bruce Lee.

Today, Calasanz is promoting his system that started in 2001, but also the school is also promoting Goju Ryu is his own way and dubbed it Calasanz Goju Ryu. Students or teachers from other styles of Goju Ryu will learn that this system is one of the most practical and realistic styles in the world today.

Calasanz Main style, Goju Ryu, Wing Chun, Cheng Chuang, Chinese boxing, Wing Chun Ground Fighting, General Kickboxing, MMA, Boxing, and Recreational Boxing are the roots of Calasanz Physical Arts.

This is just an idea of how far Calasanz is going with his martial arts system.

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave,Norwalk CT06851

1.800.414.9544

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on October 24, 2011 at 12:35 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Bruce Lee, Calasanz System, Disipline, Dominican Republic, fighting, Karate, Kickboxing, Kung Fu, Martial Arts, Self Defense, unique and personal, Wing Chun

WHAT MAKES THE CALASANZ KARATE AND KUNG-FU SYSTEM SO UNIQUE?

The basic and founding principles of the Calasanz System are extremely straightforward, intuitive and logical, yet, unfortunately, they are almost universally ignored in traditional Martial Arts training. All techniques must have three fundamental components to be effective: power, speed and focus (a technique that misses the target, is easily avoided, or is simply brushed aside clearly isn’t very effective). In order to develop power, speed and focus it is absolutely essential that there be balance, flexibility and strength throughout the entire range of motion. These qualities don’t mysteriously emerge. They must be systematically and carefully developed.

In most traditional schools, the drills and exercises have been passed from teacher to student and have become part of the “tradition”. The techniques usually require a very advanced degree of training to do well or even partially well. Unfortunately, doing something partially right is obviously doing it partly wrong. The cumulative stress and damage to joints, tendons and ligaments in this process of “learning” frequently results in long term and /or permanent degenerative injury. This is especially true after adolescence, when the body has stopped growing.

There is another equally dangerous flaw to this type of rote practice. When techniques are done incorrectly they are simply not effective. Blind repetition won’t magically transform this or make them work. Calasanz is continually reminding students that practice does not make perfect. Practice makes habit. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

Eventually, the student may approximate something that looks correct, but in actuality, the problem areas and weaknesses have only become much more subtle and difficult to correct. The end result is that the vast majority of students will never progress beyond a very mediocre level. Sadly, more practice will only compound the problem and just increase the chance of injury.

The Calasanz System was designed, among other things, to address these two fundamental and critical failings in traditional Martial Arts training. As stated above, it is a scientific and systematic approach to Martial Arts training and mastery designed to take virtually anyone to their highest potential as a Martial Artist in the shortest time possible without brutality or injury. This is a very strong statement to make, but it has been continually proven again and again with people of all ages (men and women) and in all ranges of physical condition. It is a direct result of how unique and effective the system is that helps explain why we are currently the largest school in the country and the quality and diversity of our students. Calasanz sums up the success of the school and its acclaimed international reputation in two favorite phrases: “Martial Arts for Everyone and Traditional Concept with a Modern Approach”.

Hopefully, the first is clear from the discussions above. With systematic development and skillful practice virtually anyone can learn the Martial Arts. Many traditional schools feel brutality and/or intimidation is essential to develop the necessary physical and mental qualities and stamina required in the Martial Arts. This is simply not the case. There are many ways to accomplish this – brutality/intimidation being among the least effective. Some schools are run, in the name of discipline, as if they were actually para – military organizations. Again, not only is this unnecessary but ineffective for the vast majority of people. Students from other styles find the supportive atmosphere of mutual respect at the school a very welcome change. Calasanz has found over the years that “change” brought about through fear or intimidation is seldom permanent. Change brought about by cultivating and developing the requisite “inner” qualities, on the other hand, is not only permanent, but has a transforming effect that touches every aspect of an individual’s life.

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave.Norwalk,CT06851

1-800-414-9544

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on September 9, 2011 at 1:03 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Calasanz System, conditioning, Disipline, Exercise, fighting, Fitness, Karate, Kung Fu, Martial Arts, Self Defense, technique, Traditional, unique and personal

WHAT IS NATURAL POWER? by Calasanz

Calasanz was about nine years old when he noticed a man insulting a lady. That man was around 22 years old, tall, and physically fit. Even at a young age, Calasanz defended the lady. If no one intervened, the fight may have ended badly for the man. I trapped this man’s head on a fence covered with barbed wire and I was choking him. I was a strong kid and thankfully for that guy, someone broke up the fight.

I was loved and famous since I was two years old with most of my fame coming from dancing, singing, and working harder than anyone else on the farm. At the age of seven I was milking 20 cows. On top of being so strong, I had high energy and my parents could not control me. One particular fight was against a young man named Alvarado who was insulting my cousin Jose. Jose was not fighting back, so I jumped to his defense. Alvarado was older and twice my size and normally would have helped defend me did not have to interfere because I was kicking Alvarado so hard that all he could do was try to survive. This fight even became popular among the neighbors and was talked about for quite some time. I kicked like a mule in that fight. What I did to Alvarado back then was karate. I was able to teach my five year old brother how to counter attack. My brother got into a fight one day and applied what I taught him and at one point punched a kid so hard that he was down for almost three minutes. There were some bad kids around; we were the well behaved, educated kids, who did not take abuse from anyone.

Now I can reflect back to when I played softball. I was young, responsible, popular, and I worked at a bank. The bank had a softball league, so they convinced me to play, knowing that as a kid, I was a very good player. Even though at this point in life, I was dedicated to martial arts and stopped playing other sports like baseball and softball. I decided to play the season and we won the championship. I gained popularity by hitting the ball so hard. All the players would laugh at me when I stepped up to the plate but I always turned those laughs around by getting hit after hit. During one of the games, a teammate and police officer named Brian, who was as big as a football player, and me weighing 120 pounds, both went to catch a fly ball. Second before Brian crashed into me, he screamed and said, “Look who I am crashing into today.” Brian ended up getting the worst of the collision and almost cried. I was 16 years old and just 120 pounds.

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave.Norwalk,CT06851

1-800-414-9544

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on September 2, 2011 at 1:37 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Brutality, Calasanz, Competition, counter attack, Dominican Republic, fighting, Karate, martial artists, Martial Arts, natural, Power

I Am Just Teaching What I Love

Calasanz has a skill in which he is capable of seeing, judging, and understanding the potential of any student at any moment. I was teaching a guy who had the physique of a Marine; strong, aggressive, young, and intelligent. He looked like the type of person that an agent would promote in the modeling industry. Calasanz was judging his toughness and aggressiveness. Then I thought about the early 80’s, when our name was very strong and everyone had tremendous respect for Calasanz’s system. Calasanz would take a student, like the one previously mentioned, and in three months that pupil could easily fight in a black belt tournament like Kyoko Shin Kai. It is hard for us to talk about the name, but Calasanz deserved the popularity back then and even today. Calasanz has a good work ethic and he is still an instructor who uses his mind and coaches 50-70 students each day with the mitts from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m.

You must understand that most of these students were not competitors, but they could beat anyone with Calasanz as their trainer and this is how the name was created. From 1986 until 2003-2004, at least two students per week from all over from all over the Northeast, including New York City, New Jersey, Boston, Hartford, Connecticut and many other areas came to meet Calasanz.

Calasanz often recruited tough guys from the streets. I trained people known as street fighters, bouncers, and boxers. Most of these new students would participate in one tournament or two and they never could lose. With every tournament they entered, they performed well and left a message and thus, good promotion for the name Calasanz. Some of these tournaments were the most difficult in those days including the Kyoko Shin Kai, the New England Open, and the Henry Cho at Madison Square Garden. At one point my students were not training at all but instead they were doing practical training which was sometimes better than sparring. In just two weeks we decided to send 12 of our students to fight in the Olympic trials. All my guys ended up fighting each other and some of them had to face each other for the gold medal.

At one point there was a school where the toughest fighters were coming from, especially those fighting in the Olympics. Later on these fighters found out that all the fighting and all the winning was due to them having trained with Calasanz.

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave.Norwalk,CT06851

1-800-414-9544

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on July 12, 2011 at 11:34 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Calasanz, conditioning, counter attack, fighting, Karate, martial artists, Martial Arts, Self Defense, Training, unique and personal

FIND THE RIGHT INSTRUCTOR

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 Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave.Norwalk, CT06851

1-800-414-9544

Published in:

on July 11, 2011 at 11:08 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Calasanz, Calasanz System, conditioning, Disipline, Exercise, fighting, Fitness, Karate, Kickboxing, Kung Fu, Martial Arts, Self Defense, Training, unique and personal

Physical Arts: Exercises for Any Age, Shape, Size, or Ability

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!

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave.Norwalk,CT06851

800-414-9544

Published in:

on May 27, 2011 at 3:09 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Calasanz System, conditioning, Exercise, Fitness, Karate, Martial Arts, MMA, Training, unique and personal, Women

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

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.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave.Norwalk,CT06851

Published in:

on May 2, 2011 at 11:47 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Calasanz System, Competition, counter attack, Disipline, Exercise, fight, fighters, Fitness, Karate, Kung Fu, martial artists, Self Defense, Training

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