Thoughts of a Well Balanced Martial Artist

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on July 27, 2011 at 3:00 PM Comments (2)
Tags: Calasanz System, fight, fighting, Martial Arts, Self Defense, Training, Wing Chun, Women

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 Comments (1)
Tags: balanced, black belt, Calasanz, Competition, Disipline, Dominican Republic, fighters, Karate, kata, Kung Fu, martial artists, Martial Arts, Sparring, Tae Kwon Do, Wing Chun

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

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

Regardless of my students’ goals, I always like to give them some techniques they could use on the streets. My private training in Wing Chun was the reason why I have incorporated this philosophy into my system. I was not happy with the fact that some of my classmates had spent close to ten years training and had no street survival skills. Many Wing Chun students spent all this time throwing punches without a purpose or sense of how they would use it in real life. For instance, our Wing Chun classes emphasize bringing your elbow to the center, which helps your punch get very hard and learning how to get grounded. I was fortunate enough when I began my Goju Ryu training that my teachers promoted self-defense skills and I have passed these skills down to my students.

Schools that promote black belts too quickly or don’t teach self-defense often trouble me. What troubles me more is the aerobic kickboxing craze. Unfortunately, they give people a false sense of security in believing they’ll be able to defend themselves with a dance routine. Understand that organizations that certify personal trainers often offer short-term courses or clinics that will teach you how to teach kickboxing. This is an insult to all of us who have spent many years training in the martial arts and a scam on the public. In some cases, students who have taken the aerobic kickboxing classes have been injured because of inadequate teacher supervision. While I train students who only want to learn kickboxing for recreation, I always incorporate some realistic movements so they can walk away with something useful. No one leaves my school without at least some basic knowledge of street survival.

The Calasanz System is very simple. Simplicity combined with skill allows us to take the best a student has to offer and improve on it. An example is training women. Because my style of fighting was always unsuited for tournaments, I found that I had to send “messages” of my skill to those who challenged me because I was not a competitor. My favorite type of message was asking a female student to do kicking drills with an obnoxious male! While women’s upper body strength cannot compare to that of a man, women do have naturally strong legs. I take that ability in women and teach them how to capitalize on it. Some of the best messages given here at the school were by women who embarrassed arrogant men!

Teaching a diverse population requires a lot of patience and natural skill. You can train someone to be a teacher all you want. If they don’t have it inside of them, they will never be effective. In this business, you have to help not only the talented and coordinated, but also the uncoordinated, the slow learner and the student with a variety of challenges. It is also a challenge to teach those who are very intelligent. I had this one student who was very smart and had spent twelve years training in a well known martial arts school. I was training him in kickboxing and trying to teach him how to protect his head when fighting at close range. He told me “Calasanz, all I have to do is pick up my hands. This would cause his opponent to look up, and then I could kick him.” This guy with twelve years of experience just demonstrated the skill of a white belt. I recognized was why his instructor had a hard time with him. This guy thought he knew it all and didn’t need help or correction from anyone.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851

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on March 21, 2011 at 11:34 PM Leave a Comment
Tags: balanced, black belt, Calasanz System, conditioning, Exercise, fighters, fighting, Fitness, goju-ryu, Kickboxing, Martial Arts, Self Defense, Wing Chun

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

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

I earned my reputation as an instructor by training about 25 street fighters. I was new to this country and interested in creating a name. I chose street brawlers because they had the confidence and endurance to fight. It was my job to teach them martial arts techniques and self-control necessary for tournaments. It took me about 3 months to get them ready to fight under my school’s name. They impressed everyone who saw them fight or perform. People wanted to know who there instructor was. This was the first step I took in creating a reputation. It was the beginning and helped draw more students to my school and win me respect in the community.

In 1986 I rented space out of a hardcore bodybuilding gym called George’s Gym. It wasn’t the easiest environment to be in. Some of the bodybuilders were obnoxious and believed that a body built by steroids was all they needed to be good fighters. I had no doubt however that it would not take long before everyone respected anyone wearing the Calasanz logo. I told my students that within a few weeks, we would attract a lot of business from the gym. One of the bodybuilders who came through my door was a 6’4” bully who invited everyone in the gym to come to my school and watch him beat me up. I aimed a kick to his hipbone and disabled him in 15 seconds. After this incident, our school was constantly training bodybuilders. The people who witnessed the fight that day and the bully himself sent us business! He even went so far as referring his victims to us. He would tell them “go train with Calasanz so he can teach you how to fight!” By the way, we sold a lot of clothing bearing the Calasanz logo because my school had earned such a good reputation that people wanted to wear our logo. The purpose for wearing our clothes was that no one would mess with you if they thought you trained at Calasanz. This was the name I created.

While I enjoyed training street fighters, it was now time to expand my system to society-at-large. My new philosophy is to meet the student where he or she is and find out what it is that they want to get out of the martial arts. I always ask a new student, “do you want to learn how to fight, are you interested in fitness, self-defense or competition?” Whatever the answer, I tailor a program that will suit a student’s needs. Regardless of the program they choose, I balance their curriculum so they get a complete taste of the system, while focusing on their particular goal. We always work with a goal in mind. I have found that students who train for hours with no particular goal end up getting bored or frustrated. Every time you walk on the floor to train, you must think about what you want to get out of it. Training goals should also be adjusted from time to time to reflect a student’s new interests, lifestyle and abilities. This way, training always has a purpose.

To be continued…

Calasanz Martial Arts and Fitness

507 Westport Ave. Norwalk, CT 06851

Published in:

on March 19, 2011 at 7:21 PM Leave a Comment
Tags: Calasanz System, conditioning, counter attack, fighting, kicking, Martial Arts, Power, Self Defense, Training, 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