Calasanz' School Places #1 in Martial Arts Tournament

Calasanz Recounts a Tournament his School Attended in New Canaan circa 1986:

 

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The local YMCA was hosting a childrens' martial arts tournament in New Canaan.  There were schools coming from all over with instructors originating from various locations spreading the globe including Japan, Korea, China.  At that time I was very young, and I looked even younger.  You can see pictures of me back then, I looked very young, around 17 or 18 years old... maybe younger.  I remember when it came time for all the instructors to give their rank or whatever and I was very embarrassed.  They were much older, 70 years old, 80 years old... Grand Masters from Japan or Korea giving their rank, "Grand Master.  Black Belt 7th Degree." "Grand Master Black Belt 10th Degree."  And there was I, "Black Belt."  It was very intimidating. 

You see, since day one in our system we can get anyone to attain the ability of an average black belt very fast.  Besides, anyone especially in the U.S. can get an 8th degree black belt, but it doesn't always really have the weight behind it that the name seemingly implies.  In our system our belts don't have ranks.  That's not what we want to make the Martial Arts look like, like some sort of ladder or pyramid.  We first get someone to the level of "black belt" and after that we get them certifications or diplomas towards the different skill sets or styles.  Our black belt students can go on to earn 20, 30, 40 diplomas in their desired directions of study.  So imagine me there looking 18 years old standing next to these stoic instructors over half a century older than me, "Grandmaster 'so and so' 10th degree black belt."  I was up there and feeling so out of place, so uncomfortable, hearing all these 'black belts' and being so young.



Now, picture the overwhelming surprise taken over me and the rest in attendance when at the end of the tournament my name would be repeated again and again for #1 in every event.  Points, coaching, everything came to Calasanz.  Even at my young age those older instructors were calling me master.  The people there gave me so much respect even at my young age, but not because of me, it was because of my student's behavior over the other kids.  Most notably, Edger Velez.

At the end of this event mostly my students ended up fighting one another, except for this girl from Puerto Rico.  She was maybe 14 years old to Edgar's 11 or 12 years of age and she was much further developed to maybe even twice his weight.  Edger looked like a baby compared to her.  When it came to the final fight for 1st place Edgar had to fight her.  She would come after him and jump at him and he would, in order not to hit her, step out of the circle.. he was losing points.  I remember he looked at me and we locked eyes.  I blinked and said "Go for it."  After that moment something happened that anyone who was there watching and saw it will remember it for the rest of their life.  The girl jumped at him to take the next point, Edger picked up his leg and went with the system side kick straight to her core.  Edgar put that side kick into her stomach so well placed, so deliberate and with such power.  She went down almost crying.  I thought they were going to disqualify Edger for the kick he put on her.  Instead they gave Edgar 1st place over 2 other black belts his age.

That was a great day, all of our students won.   

We were competing there, but we were not point fighters, we were real fighters.  That is just one of the many stories about how we made the name, who we are and what we do. 

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(Taken from an Audio Recording of Calasanz)