Thoughts of a Well Balanced Martial Artist

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on April 18, 2011 at 10:57 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Calasanz, Calasanz System, Chinese Boxing, Competition, conditioning, fighting, Karate, kata, Traditional, Training, unique and personal

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

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

I had earned the reputation of one of the best waiters at Victoria Station. I was quick, courteous and efficient. One night, I served a table of twenty-five and worked my tail off for them. When they were finished, they got up from the table and went into the bar. They left me a tip of $5.00. I went into the bar and asked if they were not pleased with the service because they didn’t leave me the customary 15%. They were so obnoxious and condescending that I lost it. I grabbed the biggest guy by the hair, brought him to the ground and pressed his face into the carpet with my fist. The police were called and immediately five cops were pulling me off of this guy. Because I had become a fixture jogging through the streets at all hours of the day and night, the police were kind enough to convince the restaurant to return this parties money so that they would not press charges against me.

It was now time to get started on my original plan for coming to the United States. I wanted to become a well-rounded martial artist. My first plan was to spend at least two years of hard work on my Goju Ryu forms, since this was the primary martial art I had devoted the first half of my life to. I next planned to extract three to four concepts from a group of carefully selected disciplines-Wing Chun, Cheng Chuang Long Fist, Hapkido, American Boxing and dance. I made it very clear to all my teachers that my main style was Okinawan Goju Ryu and while I had great respect for their style, I only wanted to learn some basics.

I heard that some of the best martial artists and boxers were in New York City. I was curious to see how my skills would match up against boxers, so I trained at Gleason’ Gym for a while. I also studied tai chi from a master who lived there. As a sign of respect for this man, I paid him $4,000 to come to Connecticut to correct my form. I also studied Cheng Chuang Long Fist and wanted to learn four forms very well. My teacher however, didn’t understand. He was interested in teaching me over ninety forms!! This would take a lifetime and was not part of my plan. While I respected his skill and what he taught me, we started having philosophical differences. Another instructor would call me into his office every two weeks and badger me about my training. I explained where I was coming from and that our deal was that I pay in exchange for lessons. Once I achieved an advanced rank in his school, he started giving me problems. He was under the impression that I wanted to teach his style, but this could not be further from the truth. I wanted to learn some basics. I had already envisioned how my system would look like and I didn’t want to be confined by one style. I shook his hand, wished him well and haven’t seen him since.

I then went to study with Moyat, a Wing Chun master who also had a school in New York City. Challengers would come to the school from time to time to fight Moyat’s students. Many of his students, even those who had been with him for many years, were not allowed to use the wooden dummy. The wooden dummy is a martial arts training tool that is indispensable in learning how to fight. I was not about to back down from a challenge. I went on to fight some of these karate practitioners who wanted to challenge the Wing Chun system. Wing Chun is a very practical martial art and a lot of these guys learned how effective it was when we took them on in the name of our school. Moyat saw my skill and told me that I could be teaching Wing Chun within four months if I applied myself to intensive training. I accepted his offer.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851

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on March 12, 2011 at 7:00 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Calasanz, Chinese Boxing, Disipline, fighting, Karate, Kung Fu, long fist, martial artists, Martial Arts, Moyat, Wing Chun

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

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