Style Development (Pt. 1)

When it comes to developing a style or more accurately when it comes to developing YOUR style we are not talking about a certain school of thought or training regarding Martial Art.  We are talking more broadly about expression.

As you undertake, for example, the study of a traditional Martial Art such as Karate you will learn how to express a punch in a certain way.  Someone who is learning from a boxing coach will also learn how to throw a punch but it will be expressed differently according to the rules and norms of boxing.

Students of any Martial Art can show you a leading hand attack within the realm of that Martial Art be it a closed fist punch of Karate, open hand strike of any particular Kung Fu or the darting finger of Wing Chun.  Each strike has its purpose and usefulness in any given scenario yet the core movement and basics of each strike remain the same while the differences are expressed in the delivery into that space to be occupied furthest from the body.  That means that 98% of the movement is the same.  The difference is the hand or structure that is breaching that open space and initiating contact.

Strict adherence to a particular style is necessary when formally learning Martial Art and should be followed if tradition is where you place value.  After all, many schools and masters have been training within certain parameters for quite some time and their practice and knowledge is not to be brushed away without thought.  However, it is important to separate formal learning from the reality of a fight.  A formal Karate practitioner would have a great time getting his teeth kicked in if he were to go into a fight and expect to win by going through the specific set of movements executed in the specific order he learned in training.  Remember, traditional forms are simply the building blocks and tools to be used during a fight.  It is up to the practitioner to put the proper movements and techniques in their proper place and in proper time during those fleeting moments of combat to become victorious.

But this still begs the question.  How do you develop YOUR style?  The best advice I can offer is that you start with something that interests you.  Start with something that you like.  Don't get hung up on the usefulness or lack there-of of a particular style.  If you like it and you are practicing with focus there are more personal benefits that come with regular practice than can be written here.  Master something.  It takes time, patience, drive, discipline, determination and consistency; all of which are necessary in order to express something well and all will be useful qualities when/if you do decide to branch out to other styles or schools.


One pitfall that is very common, especially within those formal traditions, is the strict adherence to said tradition.  You cannot develop a style within a person unless they want it.  Yes, you've been perfecting your boxing punch for years and it is phenomenal. But that does not discredit or devalue the expression of a Karate punch.  It is not a question of one being wrong and the other right.  They are both right within their own realms.  Despite their being at least 80% the same they are just different punches.


So when you go developing it is important to use what you've learned and apply it to anything else you might take up.  You meld them.  Can you be a great boxer and go through a beginner Karate form?  Yes.  It doesn't make you any less of a boxer, it just means you have more tools at your disposal mentally and physically.  If you take boxing lessons and close your mind completely to the possibility of another style being valid or valued it is like a self inflicted lobotomy and only limiting development.

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Alignment through Bodily Awareness and Martial Art

It is no secret that Bodily Awareness and Martial Art go hand in hand.  From continued practice any student can develop proprioception, exteroception, balance and grounding to an astounding degree over time.

Hand-eye coordination will become greatly enhanced.  Awareness will be amplified.   Awareness not only of yourself but also of your surroundings will pour in and be reflected through your action.  Confidence will radiate from you naturally through how you carry yourself.

When it comes to Calasanz' Physical Arts exercises these qualities are being absorbed and developed during concentrated and focused training.  Again, you must be careful.  As you train pay attention to your body and the signals it is giving you.  While a bit of "pain" normally accompanies the exertion and eventual exhaustion of muscles and tendons it is important to remain cognizant of what is too much or too far or too incorrect.  Stubbornness, ignorance and negligence will lead to injury.  Train smart.  Listen to your body.  Make adjustments.  Keep your wits about you and do not take anything on blind faith or false belief alone.  Revisit your technique regularly with honesty and integrity towards improvement and perfection.

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Calasanz' Contemporary Recounts the Past

"I was on the circuit myself for years and was competing in tournaments and that's how I got to meet a lot of people throughout the country.  Some were real while some were just tackin' 'em in there."

An Ex-Instructor Describes His Experience with Calasanz

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Over the years we would host tournaments at the local YMCA for forms, fighting, weapons and breaking.  Calasanz would perform in the breaking events to demonstrate his breaking ability which was pretty fantastic.  He performed an incredible amount of breaks.  At the time he did Ed Brown's tournament he did the most amount of breaks I have ever seen at any point in time in my life, it must have been some sort of record.  I believe he broke a baseball bat with his shin and generally, anything I heard about Calasanz I usually took as true because I had seen what he would do and could do in real life.

Ed would run these tournaments twice a year which would draw in the top competitors locally, and more than that.  People would come from all over the North East.  It gave the top competitors quality competition in those disciplines of: forms, fighting, breaking and weapons without having to travel into New York City.  I first met Calasanz at one of these local tournaments.

Calasanz, as long as I've known has always been an innovator when it comes to martial arts.  He was always working on developing new programs and classes; always trying to do something to better the martial arts.  I remember he called me over to his school years ago to have a look at a new class he was running.  He wanted to know what I thought about it.  Today they call it "cardio - karate".  He was an innovator of this and he had it going before all those names came out which I thought was really interesting, and again Mr. Calasanz as far as I was concerned was a quality, was a real martial artist.  He was a guy that just kept doing, kept training, kept making his art and is someone I've always respected.  He teaches martial art as something to be real, not just a place to pay money and get a 5th / 7th / 10th degree belt.

One of the hang-ups I had years ago was that you could have a school and if you were a real "traditional" martial arts instructor you weren't going to make any money.  So a lot of those real teachers left the industry.  The reason was that everyone wanted their kids to look like a black belt.  They wanted their kids to be able to throw 55 different leg kicks.  People didn't want to take the time to do what they needed.  They needed forms, meditation, exercises... the real stuff.

Most places having anything to do with martial arts at that time was more for show and tell than anything else because it was such that in those times you could only survive by teaching a lot of kids, and that meant doing a lot of things that weren't so much the traditional way.  There are still a lot of those places around that want to get 1000 students and keep them coming in for prizes [belts].


There were, however, at that time other instructors that really were teaching traditionally.  I call them traditional martial artists, that really stuck to the old ways.  They knew how a martial art was performed, how it was received and how it was really taught.  I always think of "Karate Kid" you know, 'paint the fence'.  I've always respected that Calasanz taught Martial Art as something to be real.  But let's say you went to Japan to learn martial art.  You would sit outside for months to get in and you would just sit outside waiting to get in.

So there was a difference between Martial Artists even before I was there.  What I saw in Calasanz was a REAL martial artist.  He was always real.  He meant to perfect his craft, always trying to progress it.

He was a for real guy is what I am trying to say.  A good guy.  I really like him.  He was one of the guys that had real fighting going on back then.  He was having full contact fights at his school, [similar to MMA today],  "Friday Night Fights" I think they called it.  It wasn't so big because the laws of the times wouldn't allow you to openly do what they were doing; but I remember that at one time he was trying to get that going.  The boxing commissioner was giving him the hardest time because they didn't want it to take away from Boxing's lime-light.

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Coaching 3 Lady Martial Artists

 Commentary taken from an Audio Recording of Calasanz:

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Coaching vids:

 

The movements when I coach them, the movements.  

Remember head movement is 98 percent of the battle of you not getting hurt.  That is head movement.  That is why no one who trains within our system gets hurt.  Its because of head movement.  Closing the gap, the best defense, the best grounding, the best balance, that is the Calasanz System.  To see them doing a Thai boxer's block so well.  The balance they could present.  To see them clenching a fist or doing a side kick or breaking a board, they were and they are excellent.


But then as you watch these 3 girls, Jenifer Lee, Lisa C., and Amanda P. .. to see these people getting coached, Lisa, with beautiful front kicks and round kicks.  That is martial art.  There is a kick over there delivered by Amanda, it even nearly got me.  I mean, she is a lady that can fight that the kick was so hard, so well delivered that anyone who gets hit by it.. oh my!  Her leg is so powerful and the kick is delivered so well according to body anatomy, it is passing through someone, it is not just making contact.  I mean, just.. Wow.  And that is done by Amanda P.  The same thing with Jenifer and Lisa.  Some of those attacks they were delivering to me, and am I just to trying to imagine what they are really capable of if pushed too far.. I don't even want to think about.  Anyone getting hit by those strikes is in serious trouble.

Just describing and following and watching what these ladies are doing in that video, during that show during one of those Saturday Night Fights that we used to have.  That alone makes any instructor or anyone, any audience member to get excited, to get inspired.  Incredible.  And that is what we did and what we had back then.  Because we were at that time when we did those shows, we were beyond, and we did not understand, we did not care, leaving everything other than the reality of what is beautiful, the reality of Martial Arts.

  And that is the story of that video, of those 3 girls. 

 

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Inspired by Calasanz

Developed by Alan Wedell