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

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

The Perfect Fit In Home Personal Training

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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

Calasanz and One-on-One Personal Training: by Calasanz

Over the last four years, I briefly departed from solely teaching on a one-on-one basis and ventured into small group classes. I began teaching martial arts in the early 80’s and built my reputation by training students one-on-one. I am pleased to say that I have decided to go back to my roots and concentrate on One-on-One Personal Training.

For 25 years, I’ve privately trained Wall Street executives, CEOs from major corporations, professional athletes like the Hartford Whalers ice hockey team, tennis star Ivan Lendl, best-selling authors Cathy Cash Spellman and Patty Davis Reagan, as well as Henry Kissinger’s personal bodyguard, and members of the military and law enforcement services.

I have decided to make this change because this is what I enjoy most and it is where I see the most progress with my students. Understanding that private martial arts training can be a costly, I have offered packages over the last 20 years packages for one, two, three, and even four years at a considerable savings for a long term commitment. A package avoids the high cost of private lessons, which can individually run from $95 to $380 per hour.

Many of you have been comfortable purchasing long term packages not only for the savings, but with the knowledge that I have been in business for over 30 years and am not some “fly by night” operation that is going to close its doors and leave you flat.

I am currently offering long-term packages at great prices for those of you interested in embracing the martial arts as a hobby or as something special that you just do for yourself.

If you are interested in working toward the goal of earning your black belt for instance, you can commit to one year with a savings of more than half of what it would cost you in a month-to-month program. If you have already committed to a 3, 6, 9 month or one year program and would like to enroll long-term, you can still take advantage of the discounted program. Just see me and we can easily make an adjustment to your program.

For those of you who decide to take advantage of a package, I’d like to sit down with you and determine your ultimate goal. Would you like to:

Become proficient in Wing Chun?

Train like a fighter?

Box? Spar? Point fight? Kickbox?

Lose Weight? Get fit? Try our Physical Arts program?

Many of you want to learn self-defense and how to be more self-confident. This is and has been our specialty for over 30 years. I not only focus on the physical aspect of learning street defense, but also how not to “lose it” in a confrontation. Remember that Ted Bundy killed over 100 young women and was stopped by the one who fought back and got away! It was her description of this monster that finally put him behind bars. Bundy didn’t expect her to fight back…but she did and stunned him with the element of surprise.

My system is designed for the real world, for real people. It is practical enough to teach you the skills you need without brutal training regimes that serve you no purpose. For whatever your goals, I can work out a long-term package for you that will motivate you and save you money at the same time. Just make an appointment with me and we can work out the details. A good example to be aware of If you sign for a package to finish it on 6 months, if you decided to finish on 4 years still you don’t have to pay extra while you have lessons left, which is why a package is designed to be paid in advance, that is the purpose of the commitment and that is why you are saving more than half of the cost.

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave.Norwalk,CT06851

1-800-414-9544

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on July 25, 2011 at 9:31 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, black belt, Calasanz System, conditioning, Exercise, fighting, Kickboxing, Kung Fu, Martial Arts, Self Defense, Sparring, 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

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

Published in:

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

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