When we talk about someone that is new to martial art and 'shopping around' for a quality instructor or simply looking to avoid an inexperienced one we are talking about someone who has little to no idea of what they are really looking for and often not even conscious of what to avoid. We can make the analogy of a carpenter who is first trying his hand at musical composition with no concept of rhythm, harmony, tune or time.
What do you look for in an instructor? Is it size? Is it ability? Is it personality? Do you wonder if they really are knowledgeable? Are their techniques sporadic or is there a certain degree of control? Are you actually learning something useful from your instructor? ...CAN you learn from your instructor?
One should remember that even as an eager student attending a martial arts center one must remain a diligent consumer of self-thought and critical thinking. One must verily be an active participant in his training FROM DAY ONE. While submission to an instructor is a necessary step in order to create the "teacher <> student / student <> teacher" relationship it is not necessary to remain submissive or blindly faithful should the training bring about a grave disagreement, or culminate into either direct or indirect permanent bodily harm.
Should this occur we are now talking about either an inexperienced instructor or a new student not caring about what they do to another human being. So be aware, and remember there are always more schools and more instructors out there.
For example, here at Calasanz Physical Arts we have always taught training without brutality. There is, however, a long history of military and police personnel training here. Some of them have been kind and dedicated enough to help at our school. As officers, of course, they rise to the occasion. They are trained to be like that. To be a force. They have to be like that. They have to have courage. Two officers, each about 250 / 260 pounds were working out together in the ring one day and tried to perform a suplex without any instruction, training, or practice one of these giant men tried to lift the other above his head and fall backwards. Calasanz says, "When I captured that from the office I just could not believe it."
They tried it once.
Still to this day we are told by other officers that still they suffer. Probably that day the officer completely lost his life of fitness. This sort of technique experimentation and training that was brutally done without thinking took his entire life of fitness away from him. Probably he was never physical again, but to this day the guy does not complain.
And we have more stories like that. Another example was with a Kyokushinkai instructor. Not that he did anything wrong, its just that he trained Kyokushinkai. Kyokushinkai guys are different. An instructor would have no qualms about tossing a student down 5 feet onto his head on hard concrete and the student would practically be expected to get up and say "Thank you. Thanks for that."
But the people, especially new people, are not ready for that. This instructor lined up several students. If you don't know, the Kyokushinkai guys during class would yell, "HOLD THE BREATH!" and then as the students are standing there would deliver hard punches to them just standing there. So our instructor did that with a line of students. Two of the students ended up on the floor. Two wonderful private students, gone... Never came back.
Let this be a reminder to those just getting in-to martial art or looking to get started. Keep your head on your shoulders and be sure to really agree with the training that you are signing up for. And for those already in the mix, be sure you agree with the training that you are currently doing.
Calasanz Explains His Approach to Training : Commitment
==========
"The reason that I work through commitment is that
I don't like to hold anything back. I am not Chinese or Japanese. I
am not Asian. I like to give it to you to take it
home with you. I like to give it to you without holding back. That is
one of the reasons why I teach anyone.
"Look, if you are going to spend 12
or 15 thousand dollars a year training here privately I am going to make
sure that you learn. But besides that, anyone can train with me for less; it's all based on what they get, how they get it and
how much they get in a way that they can do it themselves.
"That is the
way I work. By commitment. If you commit to a 1 year program under me I
will train you. If you are committed I will give everything to you, I don't care anymore. But remember, I train you not just by leading you, not just by sitting down and
leading you. We can do it that way if you like. I can give you a personal
trainer for half an hour once a week. I can give you that even for one
hour. The person will lead you and you will get a good workout, and get fit. But me, I don't work like that, I don't lead
anyone because then I am not really teaching them. But this is the American
way... and this is what is called private training. Lots of people spend tons of money every year because they don't want to think. They just want to
be led. Which is good, but that does not mean that tomorrow if they stopped going to their trainer that they know anything. By doing it that way they don't learn or
know how to be responsible and do it themselves. And that is not the Ancient or Asian or Oriental way.
"So I work under commitment. You see with a commitment I can teach anyone. For example, if I
give someone 3 techniques per month for one year at the end of the year they will have 36
techniques. Do you know how much 36 techniques is if you're doing it
for one year on the 20 arm wooden dummy or the traditional wooden dummy? What
else do you need? By that time you have accomplished everything you
need to fight. Again, it is not how many forms or katas or movements you
learn, it is how often you are active and continue to do those movements.
"Another example : hitting the dummy creates
endurance. You can have that endurance with only 5 or 6 movements,
which was what I did or what I was doing before I even knew that Wing Chun existed. I was known as the guy being all over the place, hitting the tree. I was
known even on the farm and most of the kids knew me and saw me getting ready for a fight
just hitting a tree or a pole. I didn't know
that I was doing Wing Chun. There is a secret over there,
that if people discover that 'secret' the game is up.
"That is one of the reasons that when I was training in New York City with Moyat... a story I repeat over and
over... I would go over there and I would over power everybody. I had
more endurance than anyone over there from my time hitting and hitting. The other students had all the techniques and
they would touch me all over the place using Wing Chun, but they had no power, no endurance. Moyat wouldn't allow them even to see the dummy; and there is no Wing Chun without the
dummy. Ip man knew only 3 sections of the dummy and a little bit of Siu Lim Tau when he became the champion in Hong Kong. Because he trained by
repeating sections 1, 2 and 3 on the dummy over and over and over for hours and
hours and hours.
"One thing that I say is that I don't take ANYTHING to the grave.
I leave it here because I know what I have and I know what I could have
been by now if I had been organized. You see, there are thousands of people who are good. That doesn't mean
that just 1 person is good "Oh yeah, Calasanz is good. No body else,
everybody else is bad." No, far from it. There are millions of good talented people around. Millions of champions. You know? So, commitment is my way. I like to get
people committed so they can learn and develop. That they can really get something out of their time here. I hope that by the time that I get a little older
that I can have that established like it used to be.
"I used to have a minimum of 3
years commitment to the school. This gave me the time to really teach someone my martial arts. You know, it used to be very expensive, but only very expensive for those that could pay. For those who could not pay they
would compensate by going and promoting the name by fighting and competing; so they almost got it for free. That was how I created one of the most scary and reputable names in the mid 80's, by training those who could use it and go to represent me. And they did. And they won.
The guy who pays doesn't want to represent anyone. He just wants to learn and to be in
shape. So... that is why I prefer to train by commitment.
"I will
work with anyone and they don't have to spend ludicrous amounts of
money. But, if they want me to lead them then we are back to the old way. Up
until about 2008 I trained people and it was very expensive. But now I've reworked
the prices and the programs and we are back... if you train 1 on 1 at the upper level you are going to pay good money per hour. That is the rules, that is just simple. How many people are out there as personal trainers and say, "Oh I charge $250 per hour to sit down and tell a
person, 'Lift. Do curls. Go use that machine.'" ... Great... Great
learning... $250 an hour. There are a lot of people who
still do that, and there are even more people that still pay for it.
"What I
give people when they train with me for one hour, it doesn't even compare. I remember that when someone came in who I
wanted to sign as a 1 on 1 student all I had to
do was tell them, 'Today I'm going to give you 1 hour at the value of
$380; then you tell me at the end if you want to do a private program or not. Just talk to me after.' Probably 90% of the
people that I have done that with end up signing and making the
commitment in order to get it at half or one third the price.
"But... what will you get in those hours? You are taught to learn, to be
coordinated. Just now I am training a girl. She has
it all. What I did for that girl in 2 weeks is the equivalent of what any other school would give her over 2 years. A guy who has trained with me a long time came in while I was mid-session with her and he didn't know how long she has been training here. I asked him, "Hey [N]. How long do you think
she has been training here?" As she was training, kicking and punching
in front of him. He said, "5 years? 4 years?" and I said, "No, 2 weeks." I did that for her. I had plans for her to do a solo
commercial for us. Just her. It was going to be played on T.V. But then...
Good news Bad news. After doing those two weeks
of hard work with her she found out that her college owns her. She has a scholarship through her college rowing team and they own her. So
unfortunately she cannot do that for me.
"So
that is the story of commitment. I can do anything. I can do anything in the martial art. I can take you further than ever and further than anyone else. Another example, Joe a young student here, his father
signed him up for 3 months. I said, "Give me a year membership and I
will train your kid privately. Otherwise he can come at 7 o'clock at
night for the group classes." He replied, "No, no, no Calasanz I will
sign him up for the year." and then he got trained by me. So, that is
what is going on. Understand.Commitment. You want to see a change in your kid? You want to see a change in yourself and you don't want to complain that you spend 7, 8, 10, 15, 20 thousand
dollars? Commit yourself to a period of time that I can have to work with you and you will see that change. In that time you will understand what real fitness training, real martial art and real learning is."
That you set out to find another man more determined, more mental, more spiritual, more physical, more super crazy than me? You won't find it on this earth. Even if they find people on mars, never can you find it.
We had started testing at 4 in the morning but then at some point Renee decided that she was going to give me the finger and leave because she was angry. I couldn't say why she was angry, its a mystery to me. Why would she go and get angry at a saint like me?
So, she left and I said to myself, "You believe that you're gonna make a mess out of me? No way Jose, there is not going to be a mess."
I had over 100 students testing that day and I did it all. I held boards, picked up
the broken ones; I got the belts, I lead, I coached, I held more boards, I talked to them, I talked about philosophy, I bowed again and again, I gave the exercises. I did it all by myself. I did not use anyone to even write down who
payed. I did it all, collected money, collected whatever. I didn't take any time to eat, just tested. I ran the show, I ran the whole thing. I did it all without even a bite of food.
Then at around 11 o'clock that night I had a vision, I saw the building falling
in on me. I picked up the phone and I pushed the number 9 to dial 911. I didn't know what was happening to me. After pressing '9' I caught a glimpse of the water fountain. I ran to it immediately and began to
drink. I probably drank enough water to drown myself, but after
drinking that water I was restored to some degree of normalcy.
That was when I really found out about the curative properties of water. From drinking that water I was able to come
back to be myself again... and I realized then also that... "Wow, I didn't
drink any water all day." I hadn't eaten or drank at all that day being so busy.
You see, nobody came and told me, "Calasanz, you can do this by
yourself without eating food, but without drinking water, it will kill
you." Nobody told me that. Seems like nobody cared or maybe because I didn't speak up, or I didn't talk about it. I am not stupid, but I was so busy I couldn't even remember 'I am supposed to drink water'. Maybe I could have gotten away with not eating food for that time, but then without drinking water, it nearly killed me.
To tell you the truth, it was one of those times that you remember and go thinking back on and say, "My goodness, they could have found me dead over here."
I remember another incident like that when I was very young.
==========
I was painting cars at one of those well known car dealer repair shops in the Dominican Republic.I
worked therebecause I was going to school and working; working and going
to school. Of course I had to make a little extra money because my father
couldn't pay for everything.
But
that was the purpose, that was in the DR [Dominican Republic], I remember... I have history,
still up to today there, I did so much stuff over at that well-known dealership, Albreo. The car racers in the mid 80's and 90's they were known
all over the world for having some of the best cars and racing in the
DR.
I went over thereand in just 1
hour I would make more money than probably any one over there because I could
paint in 20 minutes or 30 minutes what another person takes 5/6/7 hours to paint. I was so energetic and so focused
that I could do that, so that was me. Like I
said...
Anything I do, I do it with courage,I do it with passion and
whatever, but that day I can never forget because I said after an event... "I'm supposed
to be dead!"... the electricity burned everything around me and left this 14 / 15
year old kid there, alive like nothing had happened. I remember
standing there watching electricity and sparks go all over the place.
It was like
fire works.
I was standing downstairs painting in that auto-shop with cars all around, then... something happened. A loud bang came. Something had broken on one of the cars and all this electricity came from nowhere and was all around me like
fireworks going everywhere. Everything was whizzing, sparkling and
burning, another guy who was working there painting outside came running. There he was and he saw this kid about 14 years old in the basement. He looked
at me and his face said it all. It was saying,
"How this guy is alive? He's supposed to be electrocuted..." Meanwhile the manger was sitting there thinking, "I'm gonna get sued."
The other workers, they couldn't
get into the place because of the explosion, but I just was there, I stepped into the water, I stepped
out of the water and I got out. But no, the electricity didn't come to me... It would have electrocuted anything standing in that water but no, this child lived. I was alive, I survived. Thinking on it now, probably I survived only because I was wearing shoes.
And I have the same feeling, about that day when I had over 120 people testing... I ask myself now... How could you not drink any water??
But I proved my point that day, that I really was a mentally strong, spiritually strong and physically.. forget it... super strong person. And that was me.
Karate, Kung Fu, Mauy Thai Boxing, Recreational Boxing, Chinese Boxing, Wing Chun Kung Fu, Cheng Chuang Long Fist, Ninjutsu, Jujitsu, Fitness, Yoga, Tai Chi et cetera et cetera et cetera...
All of these Martial Arts are expressive and beautiful. They can be competitive. They can be non-competitive. They can be practical in both style and reality. All are viable and all have their own applications, advantages and pitfalls.
So many students and so many regular people believe that the purpose of the Martial Arts is based on defending yourself against someone trying to harm you. Yes, that is the purpose at the root of it, but there is much more than just that taking hold, breaking ground, budding and growing into something much more massive. It is about being successful. It is about improving your personality and learning to walk with pride and confidence. The beauty of Kung Fu and the meaning of it is much more than simple fighting techniques. It is about building Martial Arts around your life, or more accurately, your life around Martial Arts.
The techniques you learn and training you do at your place of practice is only the tip of the iceberg. The techniques and the time spent are meant to train you to protect yourself, yes, but as you learn, that which you learn becomes a part of you that you will carry with you wherever you may go for the rest of your life. You are given great boons to utilize as you see fit in any situation, to build yourself, to be yourself, to become who you are and to help others along the way.
Should this occur we are now talking about either an inexperienced instructor or a new student not caring about what they do to another human being. So be aware, and remember there are always more schools and more instructors out there.
But the people, especially new people, are not ready for that. This instructor lined up several students. If you don't know, the Kyokushinkai guys during class would yell, "HOLD THE BREATH!" and then as the students are standing there would deliver hard punches to them just standing there. So our instructor did that with a line of students. Two of the students ended up on the floor. Two wonderful private students, gone... Never came back.
