Closing the Gap

Transcribed From an Audio Recording of Calasanz

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When I first came to this country I started exciting people immediately.  I was blocking all sorts of attacks and techniques even from those experienced, well practiced, well established expert instructors and championship fighters.  Those who were in attendance and witnessing me do this were often even confused or baffled.  You see, back then people were so strict to the tradition and the technique of their style that as they would go through their forms or techniques in practice they neglected to focus so much on learning how to be in a fight.  

When a strike comes towards you it is not so important that your form and technique be completely perfect.  It is more important that you actually block the strike.  Taking it a step further, if you go and throw the proper and traditional block during a fight, while it may be the most perfect form and the most perfect iteration of the technique, if that strike gets through to make solid contact then you haven't actually blocked at all.  That is part of Bruce Lee's meaning in his famous quote  when he said, "be like water, my friend". (quote at 4:42)


People would ask me, "How is it that you are doing Karate?"  They were expecting me to block with what they call "middle block" or that I would block by doing a "high block" or whatever.   But no, instead I was doing it in such a unique way that no matter if I blocked like that or not still I would not get hit.  I was doing something that many of them had never experienced, seen or even thought about before.  What was I doing?  Simple, I was doing something called "closing the gap".  

For example, a guy throws a punch at me.  I raise my front leg in front of me, both elbows in to protect my center and both hands open, light and soft to protect my face.  There were countless students and even more challengers who would come at me with a front kick or some other kind of kick but all of them, they would find that it was like hitting a wall.  The knee was up, hands and elbows in the center, fully protected, totally safe, and un-phased.  This is how we built the name of having the best defense.

You see, when I came to this country I had already understood the concept of protecting the center from learning Goju Ryu Karate in the Dominican Republic under the late 'Father of Karate' Tameyoshi Sakamoto.  Little did I know, prior to my coming here, that this was just part of Wing Chun.  When I came here to this country and I discovered Wing Chun I immediately began drawing parallels between the two styles, Goju Ryu and Wing Chun, and I instantly picked up on their similarities.


Going back now, when I was younger, a kid about 115 pounds and standing up across from me was Rafael Martinez.  So there we were; me ready there and Rafael in a karate stance just waiting to unload.  He was at that time like a heavy-weight boxer, very tall and big.  I was standing there looking like just a kid.  He came at me with some sort of kick and at the moment he launched his attack at me I closed up and BOOM! I followed up with a counter-attack.  Every time he attacked I closed up and countered him.  

Following our little bout immediately Rafael Martinez started asking "Who are you?.. Who are you?"  In both excitement and bewilderment.  Rafael told me, "No, no, no you cannot be here getting taught by these guys, these brutal karate lessons, you will kill yourself."  And it was soon enough that he took me to Tameyoshi Sakamoto.  Thankfully Rafael saw that I did not deserve to be in the brutal class like that.  

So, the time came that he took me to meet Tameyoshi Sakamoto.  I remember the first time I saw him there he was sitting down just watching the other people sparring.  The first thing he put me to do was to move around with this kid Victor.  Victor was very short but stocky; built like a truck.  Sparring with him that day I learned a lesson I will never forget.  That was the day that I got kicked.  Victor hit me with a kick I had never seen before and simply could not expect at that point of my training.  The kick was almost a Capoeira style kick.  The kick was, he turned around putting his hands to the ground and as he turned he extended his leg behind him, strong and straight.  It was delivered directly into my abdomen and chest with the heel.  That kick hit and landed so hard that even 3 months after I didn't even know where my stomach was in my body.  It was just sore in certain ways... I don't know how to describe it.  3 months after taking that shot someone could bite my stomach and I would not feel it.  He paralyzed my abdomen for 3 months with that kick.  I mean, it was a shot that could kill somebody, powerful enough to kill anyone, and I took it.  He connected that kick on me and today, all I can say is 'Thanks' because that kick was the best lesson I could have gotten at that point.

As time went on and since I was already just a young kid trying to help and was so competent in working with people they would ask me "Why don't you start teaching?"  Hearing people say this put those other instructors and more advanced students at unease, especially considering the relationships that they had built over the weeks, months, and years of training there.


So, eventually I did start teaching there and after a period of time training this guy, a wrestler, wanted to challenge me even though I was his instructor already.  Everybody showed up there and I had to fight him to decide which one of us was going to take over training the club.  Me or him.  He wanted to defeat me.  His name was Belo.  That day was the last class that Belo ever took in martial arts.  When he came to jump at me I turned around with that same kick that Victor had gotten me with.  But instead of it landing into his stomach, I landed it into his head.  After taking that strike he was bleeding out of every orifice in his head: nose, mouth, eyes, ears.  To my knowledge that was the last time Belo ever participated in martial arts training.

Now, people who saw that kick would keep trying to get me with it, but I had already learned that lesson thanks to Victor.  They could not hit me with it.  Why?  Because of "closing the gap".  Lifting the leg, elbows center, hands up.  Its the only thing that could stop or block that kick... and it was just as simple as closing the gap.

And that was when everybody started really seeing me perform.. somebody throws a back fist, ... close the gap.  Somebody throws a round kick, ... close the gap.  Somebody throws a left hook, ... close the gap.  No matter the technique somebody threw at me, it was a simple solution.  Close the gap.

I remember when the movie Ong Bak came out.  This is very good for you to understand.  I was getting so many calls, everyone said "Calasanz, you HAVE to see this guy!" (Tony Jaa) "The only person we can compare him to is you because of all those kicks!" and because of the way he was closing the gap.  Swinging the leg to block inside, and outside blocking two kicks, then grabbing the guy by the nose.  ... You see, that's the sort of thing you can do with closing the gap that's how much you can do with that simple technique, that simple principle.  

Now, back to the topic.  Closing the gap... there are so many areas.  Just for you to understand... the concept, in principle, has no limitation.  Change the angles, maneuver the guy.  It's fluid and then its just a matter of closing the gap to get inside.  You can do it to any one if you set it up and do it in the right way.  This is why in the 90's nobody wanted anything more to do with me in the ring, because it was so easy for me to hit somebody; that combined with the power I was building through physical art, it was scary.  I would get inside by closing the gap and ...

In the ring, yes it is useful, but even more-so in the street.  These guys, they just couldn't understand what was happening, they didn't know what was going on.  Again... there are hundreds and hundreds of techniques you can perform while closing the gap, it all just depends on how much you see.  Closing the gap is just beautiful in its simplicity.  Even facing a guy with 3 times your training you can out maneuver him with this principle, this concept.  

But what follows after the gap is closed?  Following that of course is counter attack.  But even sometimes just by closing the gap you end up blocking and striking at the same time.  This is the same concept behind Bruce Lee's intercepting fist.  If you really have great balance and great technique and then you use closing the gap, you can be someone very hard, very difficult to deal with.  Especially on the street.  If a street fighter comes throwing wild punches at you there is nothing better to use than the closing the gap technique because it is an easy, easy way of defending yourself, and probably you end up just smacking the guy without hurting the guy and embarrassing him.  

With closing the gap you can do anything, and when combined with the simplicity of Wing Chun it just becomes so natural that at some point you will end up having the guy by his ear or by his nose.  He punches, you close... then you are very near, that is learned from the dummy, this is learned by learning the dummy and it all follows through.  

This is why when you think about Wing Chun it is something still that unfortunately the Chinese try to hide it.  They try to stop it from being taught as a fighting style (like Bruce Lee started to do with "jeet kun do") just because it is so beautiful.  Understand, the Chinese are very bright, very smart, and Wing Chun is indeed beautiful, but it is just as deadly as it is beautiful when applied universally and correctly.  

But then you take a look at the Japanese guys who are preparing for 5 years getting ready for a fight, conditioning the body and really getting ready.  Meanwhile the Chinese are doing Wing Chun forms without contact for 20 years just in case some day they get into a fight on the street.  That is different.  The guy on the street doesn't get ready for 10 rounds.  The guy stepping into the ring, he gets ready for 10 rounds.  Now the Wing Chun guy is going to have problems because now he is in a competition; something he hasn't been training for.  

Wing Chun was not designed, it was not discovered for competition.  It was designed to kill.  It was developed towards efficiency of movement, practicality and intended to be all inclusive using the entire body as a complete, comprehensive and cohesive human weapon without limitations.  A Wing Chun guy overwhelms the average street fighter, but he cannot do that in the ring without further training.  So that is the point.  

Still up to today there are not too many people who speak clear.  This is clear.

 
If you are learning traditionally you may not be able to step in the ring, but you can dominate any fight on the street against an agitated, normal, everyday kind of guy.  First of all, the guy who wants to fight you on the street probably knows nothing.  You as a Kung Fu guy if you meet a guy on the street that wants to fight he must be stupid or drunk.  If you end up in a discussion with the guy who knows something, with a person like that, with a person who is really a black belt or whatever, or a Kung Fu guy, you are going to end up as friends.

[The conversation would go like..]

"Oh!  You do Kung Fu and you want to fight me?  Are you crazy?!  We don't train Kung Fu to fight!  Let's shake hands.  ...Who is your master?"

"My master is this guy with wild hair in Norwalk, Calasanz.  He is Loco."

"AH!  That is my master!  And you call him loco!  Yeah, I agree with that!" 

 

 With no other training someone who knows how to close the gap is already defending themselves better than most trained fighters.  It's an amazing concept, a beautiful concept.


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www.calasanz.com

Calasanz Physical Art
507 Westport Avenue
Norwalk, CT 06851






Recording Provided by Calasanz

Developed and Transcribed by Alan Wedell