Thoughts of a Well Balanced Martial Artist

Calasanz Martial Arts Drills and Point Sparring.

www.westportboxing.com

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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

A Conversation about Basic Hard Striking Techniques

Below is a online conversation between Calasanz and two students discussing the YouTube video “BASIC HARD STRIKING TECHNIQUES” (shown above). The video clip shows Calasanz demonstrating how to effectively block a strong right hand from an opponent and counterpunch off that block with a powerful right hand of your own.

Calasanz: Dariusz, my experience with this is much better now, I have matured more, and now I can do this even faster. One day you should pass by and I will give you a demonstration of this video. You will love it. Even if you are in Norwalk one day, just come and say “hi” and I will talk to you for five minutes. It will be enough to improve your defense on the street. And don’t forget, if you are ever in trouble on the street, try to win the fight without fighting and that makes you not just a better person, but above all, a more skillful individual in the martial arts.

Dariusz K: I support what I believe. You showed me how to improve that power punch and I remember the feeling when the heavy bag sounded much better after only one minute of the instruction you gave me. Good stuff. Thanks.

Christopher C: See also how his feet are positioned after the strike which enables him to block right away!

Dariusz K: Watch Calasanz footwork while power punching. That makes all the difference in the world. Try it on the heavy bag next time to see instant improvement.

Calasanz: Dariusz, thanks for your observation. If you are ever around, pass by and we will elaborate even more on this. Thanks again for your comments.

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave.Norwalk,CT06851

1-800-414-9544

www.westportboxing.com

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on July 20, 2011 at 1:47 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Calasanz System, counter attack, fighting, Martial Arts, Power, Self Defense, Sparring, Training, unique and personal

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 Three: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography

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

I have prepared many students for competition, who could survive a real fight with a street fighter. Not all students however, are able to do this. This doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t train in martial arts. By training, they increase there chances for survival in a self-defense situation. They can also enjoy the martial arts as physical fitness, mind development and as the study of an ancient art. When I mentioned point fighters earlier in this piece, I indicated that real fighting and point fighting are really two separate issues and that successful point fighters shouldn’t fool themselves into thinking that they are reality fighters. This does not mean however that point fighters and other competitors are not true martial artists. It takes a lot of discipline and self-denial to train for competition. Tournament training also takes facing your fears and becoming your own personal best. These people have a place in the martial arts.

I had a few students who came to me with the intention of becoming tournament point fighters. Their names were Mark, Dave and Matt. Because of the reputation I had built with my street fighter competitors, these guys were immediately matched up with opponents who were instructors! I made a deal with one of their mothers and promised her that if she agreed to drive her son to the competitions, I would make him #1 in New England in his division within a year an a half. It happened. Within that period of time, he was #1 in New Englandand 4^th in the nation in sparring and in kata.

As I mentioned earlier, I earned my reputation by training street fighters. They fought not only in the streets, but I also sent them to tournaments so that I could prove myself in the martial arts community. Many of them became popular competitors. When they first started, they would get disqualified because they were accustomed to street fighting. I decided that if we were going to continue going to tournaments, we would have to learn to play by the rules. So I taught them how to play the game. I trained them to score at least 12 points before their opponent scored 3. Eventually, many of them started winning. They did as best as they could, considering opponents went to tournaments every week and they were just competing on a part-time basis.

It was a common practice to match my students with some of the toughest competitors. Sometimes it was even hard for them to register in advance because they would purposely try to stack the deck against us. I had tried point fighting myself and gave up on it because it was more of a game to me than a fighting art. If you learned the little tricks of playing the game, you could win. What I feared about engaging in point fighting, was that my fighting ability would suffer because I would develop bad habits. Point fighting rules that require you to pull punches and make no contact with your opponent are directly opposed to the skills you need to learn to survive on the streets. One guy who trained with me for point fighting tournaments earned the nickname “Flash” because his moves were so fast and fancy. While he was one of the best point fighters, he had a problem when he tried to engage in hard fighting because of the habits he had developed.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave.Norwalk,CT06851

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on April 19, 2011 at 9:52 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Calasanz, Competition, fighters, fighting, Martial Arts, point fighting, Self Defense, Sparring, street survival, Training

Training Students from other Systems – Part One: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography

Continued from: “Training the beginner: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography”

One of the biggest challenges I have found in my years of teaching is dealing with students who come from other systems. It is much easier to teach a student who has come to you with a clean slate because they have not become accustomed to a particular style. I do however, welcome people from other systems and don’t want them to lose what another teacher has taught them. What I do want them to do is to learn my system and appreciate it for its simplicity and practicality. We often have to prove ourselves to students from other systems because they are expecting lots of complicated techniques, one-step, two-step sparring routines and long and involved self-defense maneuvers. For example, we had a guy train with us who was considered a super martial artist from Europe. He had a lot of fancy techniques. I paired him up with a student who had good endurance, hard shins and a good roundhouse kick. After they sparred, the guy from Europe with all the martial arts experience couldn’t understand how a guy with only one good technique was able to hurt him. Once you send a message, then you can get back to the business of training.

A highly ranked instructor and student of Ninjutsu came to train with me. He was very good, but didn’t understand our method of endurance training and conditioning. It is my philosophy to prepare you for an attack and to counterattack using the strongest part of your body-the leg.

I paired this experienced guy with a student who was a bit on the heavy side and had big legs. My student had good basic techniques. I let the two of them go at each other. My student threw one of his hard kicks and dropped him to the ground. He now understood the meaning of our training.

I enrolled this one guy who had trained in a very traditional school for over 12 years. He told me that he hadn’t trained in a long time and wanted to get back into shape. He came to the group class and all he did was question everything we were doing, claiming that there was a better way and that his instructor would have done it differently. I left him alone for about 4 classes. Each time he refused to learn anything and interfered with class. Finally, I decided that he needed to be taught a lesson. I paired him up with a man who had been training with us for just about 5 months and was 3 times smaller than this guy. I asked them to do roundhouse kicks using a pad. He made sure to tell us that they did the roundhouse kick differently in his other school. I then told him to kick his opponent with his roundhouse kick. All of his kicks were blocked. It was impossible for him to hit his opponent with the roundhouse kick he was so proud of. It was particularly embarrassing when his opponent kicked him and he almost was thrown to the ground. While this guy was very good in his particular system, he had no endurance in his legs and arms and could not survive in a fight.

This story had a good ending. He finally understood and didn’t interfere with his classes. He participated and opened his mind to learning something new because he had to experience the value of what we were teaching first hand. We ended up becoming good friends and had an understanding that any disagreements he had with my instructors would be addressed to me after class. I appreciated his years of training and acknowledged that he had a lot to offer. By having a dialogue with me outside of class, I was able to explain why we did things differently in a way that did not threaten him into thinking that we were contradicting the system he had studied for over 12 years.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851

Published in:

on April 11, 2011 at 12:55 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, Calasanz System, conditioning, counter attack, Disipline, fighting, martial artists, Martial Arts, Self Defense, Sparring, Traditional, Training, unique and personal

Teaching the Calasanz System – Part Three: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography

Continued from: “Teaching the Calasanz System – Part Two: A Lifetime of Lessons – Calasanz Extended Biography”

Many of our messages have been directed at students who are very good fighters. One of the messages I have to give over and over is that you don’t have to brutalize yourself in order to become a good fighter. I don’t believe in this type of training. I think that an effective fighter has to train “smarter.” Sending a message or teaching a lesson to a student does not require that you physically injure them. I’ve never had to physically injure a student in order to get my point across. Why? You train in the martial arts to be able to defend yourself. Survival is not dependant on knowing thousands of techniques, but rather on your balance, grounding, power and most of all, heart. Courage and intelligence will go farther in self-defense. This is the key to surviving a life-threatening situation. This is the philosophy behind many of my messages to my students.

I have taught many high rank students from other system, some of them have been very talented martial artists. I enjoy teaching students from other systems because they bring their own special talents. The one thing that does frustrate me sometimes is getting them to make the transition from their style to the Calasanz System. I have designed this system to be practical. With that in mind, I have done away with the tradition of teaching hundreds of techniques and forms. Unfortunately, many students are more interested in quantity, not quality. They haven’t even practiced a front kick to the point they can deliver effectively and they are asking, “What am I going to learn next?” My philosophy is learning a few things, learn them well and make them as automatic as possible. When you are confronted with a life-threatening situation, I promise that a lot of those fancy techniques will go right out the window. In addition, an attacker on the streets is not going to engage in polite cooperation. He’s not going to let you take your time while you respond to a wrist grab.

I have created a course called Street Survivor that teaches simple defensive techniques. I can teach you some effective fighting skills within a relatively short period of time. I once had a man training with me who was hired as a bodyguard for a well-known politician. He was required to train as part of his job, so he was sent to me. While he didn’t understand the difference between the different styles of martial arts, he understood the basic techniques I taught him, especially, heavy leg training and kicking. I programmed him to counter attack with great ferocity. One day, I put him to spar with a Thai boxer from Cambodia. Regardless of the attack this Thai boxer delivered, this man was able to counter attack and hold his own. I finally had to stop the fight because the Thai boxer had taken a couple of heavy kicks to the leg and I was afraid that any more kicks could lead to an injury. The Thai boxer was humiliated and couldn’t eat for two days. This sent a clear message to him. He came to my school with the attitude that he knew it all and that he wasn’t going to learn anything from anyone. I told him after this fight that he really needed to stop being so arrogant and try to learn something so that he could be as effective as the bodyguard. I purposely gave two messages that day; one to the bodyguard and the other to the Thai boxer. A message is more effective than giving a lecture to a student.

I sent a similar message to two other students who had come from another system. They had a lot of techniques, so I decided to put them to spar with a student of mine who at first glance looked heavy and out of shape. They were both hurt by this guy. They couldn’t believe it! This was done with training simple techniques and making counter attacks automatic. This is what we create at Calasanz.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851

Published in:

on March 22, 2011 at 1:56 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Brutality, Calasanz System, conditioning, counter attack, fighters, fighting, Kickboxing, Martial Arts, Sparring, unique and personal

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