The best martial artists are those with open minds. While every person has a style that speaks to them it is hard to be respected as a person or martial artist if there is not acceptance of others' ways and an openness to learning new approaches and methods.
It is commendable and demanding of respect when a person decides to dedicate themselves to a specific art and work within that sect of the martial arts community. Yet it is deplorable when this same person scoffs and sneers at others efforts within a different sect.
While it is no doubt true that certain styles or approaches are more effective there is still validity within the practice of those so-called "less effective" styles. Each person must decide for themselves why it is they practice. After all, Bruce Lee did say that in the end all knowledge is self knowledge, including knowledge of martial arts. Upon continued dedication the practitioner learns about himself in ways of which he was previously ignorant. For example you will learn by taking just one kickboxing class how flexible / inflexible you are.
Getting back on point, when it comes to the different approaches, styles and training methods of different martial arts it is of course still another thing all together to come to blows and to fight. That is to say that there can be a big difference between what you train for and the way a fight can go, especially out in the real world where there are any number of objects within the environment let alone the possibility of concealed weapons or firearms.
Now I could go on and say how useless it is for someone to spend their life learning empty hand forms and that they should instead take krav maga or Aikido to learn about disarming and control through joint manipulation. But it would be against common sense to say that it is useless to learn a form. For it has its own beauty and use there within. Discipline, control, learning body mechanics through movement and developing strength, power, flexibility and muscle memory of technique and perhaps the public performance of this form would even inspire others to seek out and enjoy the world of martial arts.
So what is the best and most effective martial art? It is a trick question. First you must ask yourself, "What is my goal through practice?" From there you poke around and decide which art is a good fit for you. Take note now as well and don't let yourself get brainwashed as so many do within their own space. The first martial art you dive into will forever be a large part of your life but don't let it weigh you down or cloud your mind when branching out to something new or conversing with someone with background in a different style. There is much to be learned but it is difficult for that learning to occur through closed doors.
Take your knowledge from school to school always filling your cup more and more. Remember what you learn and be open to receiving more and more. Again, when two martial artists meet it is not that there is one wrong and one right. They are simply different and it is through appreciation and acceptance of this difference that both can learn and grow.
Under the Calasanz General System which we call the Pressure Points Program, it does not matter where you are located, far from his local center, another State or internationally you can still train and learn from him through our video archives by watching and absorbing the information we have to offer. You can come to train privately, semi-privately, as part of a class, take a camp, under a supervised program etc etc. All of this is based on the fact that many already have heard about the Calasanz System, especially towards the purpose of studying it. Studying under the Calasanz System means that you are doing it in order to “Take something home with you”, this is the real purpose of this system.
Let us give you an example, lets say you know somebody who is very fit, works out everyday and has done all sorts of private training. Now this person comes to Calasanz to learn and he notices he is off or out of sync with regard to his breathing, his flexibility, his coordination, and his body alignment. His posture is wrong, his core is very weak and so on. Now, Calasanz takes this student for one month and as is often the case he is not really sure what he is getting into, but after learning and doing the exercises catered to him he cannot believe how he looks and feels. His posture improves, his core strength is up and he finds himself better coordinated and more in tune with himself. Calasanz has seen and done this thousands of times for thousands of people over his long career as an instructor. There are countless examples of clients coming to Calasanz with sports injuries, sustained injuries from car accidents and from other sources only to find their range of motion, strength and ability improved drastically after learning and following some of his movements and exercises.
Calasanz allows his students to divide his system into items by learning certain, very specific skill sets or movement techniques from different systems to give the student exactly what he wants and what he needs. All of them come together to be a system where you can get what we call a Black Belt Equivalency or Certification. BLACK BELT EQUIVALENCY is based on the main items, of which there can be as many as 400. Understand, certifications are nearly infinite in this system. The meaning of everything is the fact of being able to challenge a student for a life time, yet still you can train more specifically in what you enjoy the most. Calasanz' skill and knowledge allows him to challenge you for life. All of this falls into the most important item which is called Calasanz Physical Arts. It is designed to tailor a training regimen to anybody regardless of age, physical ability, injuries, size, disability ect...
Let us make it simple here. 98% of those who go to a gym or do any other sort of training are not in touch with their age.
If you are 18, 20, 23, etc... you can do anything, but still young people can get hurt if they do not do it right or are careless. What happens here is the fact that there are many people over 40, 50 and 60 years old. If you are older you cannot do all the things that young people are doing here.
Just for you to know, learn how to do it right. Learn about your body. Then remember and don't forget, there is not age. Just train properly. Learn to know your limit. Learn to do it right and take it home with you. It is in fact very important and it is what makes Calasanz and his system so unique. Come to Calasanz because you want to take something home with you.
The first link on this post, I can never get enough of it or her. I can watch it her all day. Why? She is the type of person that listened. She respected what she was learning, she wanted to learn it and she knew how much it did for her. Many others did the same, but she was unique in respect to style and character. She is remembered at Calasanz forever.
Today there are many who have learned and continue learning the skill and concept of Physical Art under Calasanz.
Long ago men started also training and doing these movements the same as the women I trained. Physical Arts for a while was done mostly by women, primarily on the 90's. Today physical art is being done by men, women and children.
"Come to Calasanz because you want to be coordinated, you want to be strong, balanced, poised, grounded etc. Come and Learn Physical Arts under the Calasanz System"
Calasanz as an instructor has always had a unique and real way of training his students. Not only through teaching but also by making each of his students partially responsible and accountable for their own training and learning. Calasanz' approach to teaching created the fiercest and most feared competitors in the world of Martial Arts out of local, every-day people. It is simple fact that he could, can and did take anyone with the guts and dedication to achieve and made them superb Martial Artists. His system and style of teaching continues to evolve further beyond and above anything else out there as it always has incorporating Body, Mind and Spirit.
"Do not forget. Not everyone listens or wants to understand the real meaning of coming to a real and unique system like the Calasanz Physical Arts System." - Calasanz
You can research and answer for yourself how he did it. The way he created the name and the way he trained those who brought the name to the highest level of fighting was by using the people that he trained under intensive training programs. This means action. He did it by putting his most apt and well-trained students up against those who wanted to compete. It is an action based system and Calasanz always knew that discourse based learning within Martial Arts is severely limiting, is no way to become talented and will never make you superb outside of theory.
There are stories upon stories about Calasnaz' students. Those every day investors or scientists coming in looking for a hobby or to get an idea of how to defend themselves ended up being more skilled even than those training to compete. He would regularly pit competitors walking in against his students, even those with limited training, many of those training to compete would then buckle under the trauma of their iron shins, throw in the towel, or even end up hospitalized. Why? ...How? Because this is a system based on reality. Head movement. Power. Coordination. Technique. Grounding. Endurance. The results speak for themselves and show how Calasanz as an instructor knew how to do it then and knows how to do it even better today.
The methods. The training. They're effective. It's undeniable how capable and talented his pupils are and have become through their training and time spent here. The people, the history, the reality, they are impossible to ignore and cannot be dismissed. Understand, this is not like anything else ever seen before, at least on such a transparent and global level. This is the birth of a rooted, universal, modern and evolved Martial System happening before our very eyes without veil, smoke-screen or diversion. Sober up and open your eyes. Calasanz is not teaching some other person's system (although he has many he can draw from). He is creating one. His vast background of study, his lifetime of dedication to The Art, his extensive training and voluminous experience teaching thousands of others are actual facts, not fantastical stories. His experience and knowledge of the Martial Art is something that will be near impossible for anyone to surpass. Calasanz, with the revelation of his system, has completely let the cat out of the bag for the world to see and indeed it is a VERY big cat.
Let me give you the first concept or idea about reality towards this.
If you are a Wing Chun guy and you want to get close to me to do Chi Shuo and we are standing there the first thing I'm gonna say is you can't fight because you have to get to me. Before getting to me... say I'm a guy from Holland, a striker or a Thai boxer or something... I am going to strike, so that gives me the edge towards you.
If we are standing close and both of us are killers then in Wing Chun the guy who is smarter is gonna win because remember in Wing Chun the guy who delivers the first 2 or 3 shots probably will win because it is electricity.
Put two electrodes together and there is an arc, a shock, electricity. You see... If I fight Leung Ting I can be the loser or he can be the loser; with my power I have a little chance. You know, everyone around me always said no matter who it would be, "Okay, Calasanz is gonna win." People would joke, "If Mike Tyson and Calasanz get into the ring who is going to win?"
Everyone said, "Of course Calasanz."
Today I say, "Get outta here!" I never wanted to be against Mike Tyson anyway. Back then maybe it would have been allowed, but with the UFC and MMA being the way they are today that fight would never happen. You see, back then the UFC did not exist and I had done so much that people really thought I was not human. Remember, we are talking about 1986, guy, people believed that I was something from another planet.
'seems like because from then, having been so well rounded at that point in time no one else was so multidisciplinary... and you were.'
"Exactly, Exactly, so that is why today I can put it together so... chi shuo, again if you are a fighter you don't want to start the fight at close range because now the wing chun guy is going to defeat you. That is the difference between being a fighter and not being a fighter.
If you know Wing Chun Kung Fu and you're also a fighter you are the deadliest person on the planet. But if you just know traditional Wing Chun and you are facing a fighter, now you have to be careful. Leung Ting can be against a UFC fighter, but if he is not ready to take the punishment the fight might not go his way. This is what happened in "Fighting Black Kings" when most of the Japanese defeated the Chinese. The Chinese were just regular people doing Wing Chun as regular people. They were not competitors like the Japanese preparing for punishment and training for the fight you know?
Now you're on the street getting ready to fight the person... if the guy knows the same amount of Wing Chun as you, you are not going to fight him. The wing chun guy, the kung fu guys don't fight on the street. The two of you are going to end up as friends. "Oh you train Wing Chun and I train Cheng Chuan Longfist. Okay, you teach me Wing Chun and I will teach you my kung fu." But if one of you doesn't know martial arts then there is going to be a fight. Now the Wing Chun guy is gonna take the street fighter and have him by the nose. This is what you would do to a street fighter with wing chun. But again, the guy didn't know how to fight, and that's the difference.
When you're talking about the guy who is trained to be a fighter going up against a guy trained in Wing Chun doing traditional chi shuo and is a very good martial artist, but isn't a competitor start from far because then you have the edge. You can probably kick or punch the guy. But the minute you touch the Wing Chun guy as a street fighter with no Wing Chun you have to be ready mister. How are you going to block 11 attacks? That is why boxers don't block. They have to cover. If the boxer could block that onslaught they would be blocking, but Wing Chun is more than that. Wing Chun is electricity. It's not just that the Wing Chun guy is throwing 11 attacks, its 11 attacks followed by blocks. Look at the Wing Chun punch, there was no block, but there was a block. The punch is a block and a block quickly turns into a punch if the guy is not going to block. If the punch is thrown he's gonna block. But the guy that doesn't know doesn't feel and ends up getting hit because he just tries to act.
So still some cannot understand why the Wing Chun guy is faster than the boxer. Of course, the boxer defends. The Wing Chun guy doesn't defend. Defense and Attack go together; one technique.
One of my students A. R. (name abbreviated for privacy) said, "I was on the street and all of a sudden I see five guys on the ground, but I don't know what he did." If you know Wing Chun immediately you're going to make the assumption, "That must have been Wing Chun." So this is a real story. He recounted it several times and was disappointed. It was funny, he said he should have taken Wing Chun. Later when he found out, when he saw Wing Chun, he said that was exactly what he saw (Wing Chun). Five guys on the ground that didn't know what hit them.
So yeah, Wing Chun and Chi Shuo are good for the street, but going into a cage against a trained fighter you are gonna want more than just traditional Wing Chun Kung Fu.
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.
"Don’t be afraid to correct perfectionists because you feel it will upset them. An instructor who feeds into this is not really teaching. Constant praise is counterproductive and doesn’t help the student learn."
I appreciate martial arts students who want to do everything perfectly. They are usually very committed and hard working. They sign up for classes ready to train and full of enthusiasm. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm disappears very quickly. The one problem is that perfectionists worry themselves to death. They start off with a very positive attitude, but set the bar so high that they get depressed and disappointed if they can’t meet their expectations often times allowing the slightest error to completely deflate the moment and block reception of the lesson.
Students with such high anxiety also tend to ask a lot of questions and over-analyze the lesson or the techniques. What happens then is that instead of enjoying their martial arts training, it becomes stressful. Some don’t want to take promotion tests because in their minds, they are never really ready. Usually they are of the mind that nothing they do is ever good enough.
I’ve taught martial arts for over 30 years because I love teaching. I've said it again and again, I don’t like to give up on anyone, perfectionists included. They can be superior athletes if trained properly. My best approach is to encourage them to lighten up. I have to constantly remind them not to be so hard on themselves.
I will limit the amount of questions I allow during a class. As a sincere teacher and instructor I can’t ignore all questions because some are legitimate but sometimes the barrage of inquisitions gets out of hand. A martial arts class, however, should not consist of a lot of chit-chat. Most people want to work up a sweat and learn the art; talking simply inhibits the experience. Too many questions can also bore and even agitate the other students so maintaining focus on everyone getting a good workout is important. During open workout sessions, I specifically direct perfectionists on what they should work on for that hour. Some students are so self-directed that they show up to an open workout with an agenda of what they want to work on and can keep themselves busy for an hour. Although, if the Perfectionist needs a plan... Give it to them! They will rise to the occasion.
Don’t be afraid to correct perfectionists because you feel it will upset them. An instructor who feeds into this is not really teaching. Constant praise is counterproductive and doesn’t help the student learn. Make constructive corrections and tell the student how to improve!
Above all, focus on the overall learning experience! When directed by a knowledgeable instructor perfectionists have the potential to be, to become, outstanding Martial Artists. Encourage them to enjoy the journey!
I have what we call upstairs 'science training'. I can change someone in one hour. I can change someone in half an hour. That is how I developed a name, a good name, with Police Officers and Law Enforcement in general. There are countless officers I have trained and given them this short amount of time to dramatically improve their job and ability to perform their duties on the street. It takes me half an hour to teach them how to do the job better in respect to striking, subduing, general appearance, how to look and how to close the gap. Since the 80's I've been known for that type of intensive training.
Not long ago I took in a student who had been attending lessons elsewhere for the past 6 months or more. By the time I had spent 3 hours with him he already learned more than what he had gotten over the past six months.
When it comes to this topic, it is different from the subjects of kyokoshinkai and Mas Oyama, but it can be connected based on what it was that made us win those tournaments. We won those tournaments because of what I could do with a person in 3 months, what I could turn a person into in that amount of time.
What I do for someone in 3 hours other trainers cannot do in 6 months, a year, 2 years, 3 years... some probably take more than that. What I can do for someone coming from a soft business school of taekwondo as a 6th degree black belt earned over 15 years or more... I can give that to them in just 3 or 4 hours of 'science training'. Don't forget, Bruce Lee said, 10 minutes of smart training is better than 3 hours of 'mindless' training or 'dumb' training, however you want to call it.
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.
For any of those who know Calasanz or have spent time with him personally know how his mind works. Here he has recounted a bit of his history and childhood growing up for us to delve a bit deeper into his personality and past so we might better understand where he came from and who he is.
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"When you go to interview my family in the Dominican Republic, probably someday you will go there. You will find out when they tell you that since the age of 3 I was a grown up guy. I didn't dance with the little girls. No, I danced with the 15, 20, 30 years old girls. You see this little baby dancing with the grown ups. ... I remember that. I remember me moving like a little... like I didn't even know where I was. Everyone there they must have been out of their minds watching me.
How can anyone believe this? There would be parties and
there I was, a kid, and you are gonna have a party with the kids over playing around and then there
is Jose. Calasanz is at the party with the adults. You don't find him at the
party with the kids because he cannot be around kids, he was already
beyond. There he was at the party being around with the adults.
How I can talk to a kid? A kid was
too stupid, too dumb. "Look at that.. you're dumb... what is this you
kids are playing with? A doll? ...No, go take up the machete and work.
Milk the cow, go and harvest a plant, cut the tree. This was me even at
that young age.
There was me, this little baby
planting trees, coconuts... Still I believe my father has coconut trees
that I planted there as a child. "The minute I saw rain coming I would grab my
father's tools and go to plant." My mother couldn't find me around
the house.
So I was grown up as a kid since day one. I could have done anything, anything at the age of 3, be whatever I wanted, anything I wanted already.
O my god O my god O my god O my god. I cannot fucking believe this what I am remembering now. Make sure that when you get to this point you probably write about it because... you know that when I went to school they sent me to the afternoon.
When I was sent to school my teacher Natalia moved me immediately to
the afternoon class. In my town, Jessica, we had a school and the older
kids would wake up to work on the farm and attend school in the
afternoon while the younger kids would go in the morning.
I was different, I
went directly to the afternoon class for the older kids. The younger kids were taught during the morning hours and I was probably 4 or 5 years old. On the farm at that age you get up in the morning to go to school and then after 1,
2 or 3 years you mature a bit and go to the afternoon. Not this guy. This guy was immediately transferred to the afternoon because he could not be with the kids
because I could never talk to a kid.
They couldn't put me with the kids because mentally I was an adult already. You see?
Glenn Van Lesser then was just a kid from New Canaan. Glenn trained with us during those times. A very tough kid from New Canaan who had never done or had any martial arts training before, I took him as a student and in as little as 3 months I took him aside to tell him, "Listen, if you are tough I will train you to go and fight in Brooklyn New York in this tournament and you are going to win." and I never told him "if they put you with the right guy."
To be clear, at that point I did not know so much about Kyokushinkai. I personally believe that this was the 1st or 2nd tournament of that kind that we entered. If this would have happened in '96 / '97 we would have been familiar already with Kyokushinkai and Oyama and more knowing of what to expect. By that time we would have seen what was going on at these tournaments and it would be a different story altogether.
Moving on, this kid that didn't have any experience with anything, no combat, no nothing, just trained by me, Calasanz, personally fighting under the sole conditions that he was healthy enough to fight and he could move and had the stamina to do it. But how can I make you understand? This kid had only 3 months in martial arts, he was at the stage of infancy or less in the world of martial arts.
Just go back now. If you know anything about Kyokushinkai, just go back and put yourself in the category of Kyokushinkai in the 1980's. Putting yourself there and being aware of the circumstance you will know that this is an intense, serious and even dangerous situation. Glenn's opponent, a kid 16 years old with a Black Belt coming from Canada, coming internationally to fight in Brooklyn, New York. Think about that, that this kid Glenn was fighting has already competed and won 2 or 3 times these types of tournaments.
Before the fight started I got into the center of the ring. The center of the tournament. Talking, yelling even to all these Japanese to stop the fight. But by that time they did not care. They terrorized, they were terror, I was angry. They did not listen. I said, "How can you do this? No, you cannot allow this to happen. You cannot!" But the problem is that also they pushed me to the limit in front of everyone and said that the kid has to fight. I was trying to take the kid out of the fight. I tried to take the kid out of the fight. I said, "No, you cannot put that kid [Glenn], 3 years younger, only a white belt and with only 3 months training up against someone a Black Belt in Kyokushinkai that has competed for years already and won tournaments."
But do you know what? In Kyokushinkai, if you were below 18 you would be put to fight anyone, from white belt to black belt. Can you believe that? If you today would talk about something like that you would probably ask, how many lawsuits did they endure? You see, in 1980 there were not lawsuits going around like there are today. When you hear about what happened to this kid, you're gonna see that this guy from New Canaan probably should have sued them for what happened, but no in those times people would just take it; not even worrying about that sort of thing. Nothing was organized. If it would happen today you would find attorneys all over to take the case because it was the craziest thing we've ever seen.
So... the fight started. I couldn't stop it. If I would try to stop it there would have been pandemonium at the venue, there would have been a massive fight with them. What was I to do? We were in Brooklyn, New York in 1986 surrounded by hundreds of Black Belt Kyokushinkai guys over there... and we were only 5 or 6 people from
Connecticut. ...When you hear about what happened after they started
fighting you are going to just listen to what this kid did. I taught
this kid to close the gap and deliver one. That was what he was taught. I told him again and again, "No matter what comes, close the gap, deliver one." We are the only system that teaches anyone to survive or even win and defeat anybody out there. Just like the history shows, we have hundreds of my guys not being boxers and knocking out guys with two or three golden gloves championships. A perfect example: Lou Petrillo. And there are many others.
When the fight starts Glenn is there and guy comes to kill him.. I mean this is a guy black belt 16 years old and again Glen Van Lesser is 13 years old. Immediately the guy comes to him. Glenn closes the gap and delivers a hard punch. *BOOM* "One Point" says the referee. (It was a 'hard point' tournament but 'hard point' in Kyokushinkai at that time was no different from a knockdown tournament in Kyokushinkai) They reset and again the guy comes with kicks and punches all over. Glenn Van Lesser defends perfectly, closes the gap and *BOOM* another hard punch to the body. Remember, that in Kyokushinkai competitors can kick to the head but cannot punch to the head. If the fighters could be punching to the head today the story that we are telling here would be different because Glenn Van Lesser would have defeated the guy.
As the fight progressed Glenn has 2 points and his opponent scores 2 points to tie. They reset again and as they recovered and got ready and recovered the guy from Canada 16 came straight at him with all of his experience and delivered the hardest kick he had to Glenn's head and it landed solid. Everybody watching that day thought that my kid, Glenn Van Lesser, was dead. It was something nobody ever wants to see. That we have this story today and have to say that these people, the Japanese, got away with that... It's insane. It's abusive. It's impossible to believe that they could get away with something like that, and they did get away with it.
Today it is 2013, it is August 8th 2013. And by now I haven't heard from Glenn Van Lesser since about 15 years. I don't know what happened to Glenn Van Lesser... All I know is that still he is suffering from that shot. I am confident that it is something from which Glenn Van Lesser will never totally recover.
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Story told by Calasanz
Transcribed and Developed by Alan Wedell
Epilogue:
Now this is what I said not getting hurt, when we mention Glenn van lesser that was not something that counts... okay. For example, do you count that if you are in a shoot-out and you are the best shooter and you are going to have a shoot-out with someone; but the day of the shooting the other shooter has a revolver, and you do not. Now you get shot. Do you count that as a loss if you don't die or a win for the other? No, you didn't have a gun. And this happened with Glenn Van Lesser. He did not belong standing in front of a 16 year old, 4 time tournament champion... its like an unknown-boxer that did a little bit of boxing getting in the ring with Mayweather or Oscar De La Hoya or whatever. Its the same thing.. Alright, and that is not getting hurt.
Calasanz Explains His Approach to Training : Commitment
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"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."
I just finished with a student, [we will call him R for privacy]. R is a guy who comes and works out over here and has signed up on a 3 month commitment. He comes here to work out several days a week. I go giving him several techniques every other day or so. He already has about 9 techniques on the 20 arm wooden dummy. Today I went to teach him one of the techniques where you go into a front stance and block with the bong shou. He has to get into a front stance and block using the bong shou block, the middle block. In karate middle block is a bong shou. In Chinese Wing Chun bong shou is a middle block.
Bruce Lee called it the intercepting fist. You block the fist then you attack. It's also known in Wing Chun as Lop Sau. As I explain to him for about 2 minutes and repeat the movement for him he is looking directly at my eyes, and I am watching that. When I told him to go ahead and replicate it I watched as he went and did something completely differently. I mean, he went and did something really, very different.
Wing Chun : Bong Shou
Karate : Middle Block
I said, "R... How you could have gotten that, because you were watching straight to my eyes." It's like Bruce Lee said, "Don't concentrate on the finger or you lose all the heavenly glory." You have to look, visualize, observe and capture the entire person.
Now, I said to him as a joke, "You want to bet? You know what, we're gonna bet. I need 10 dollars, we're gonna bet 10 dollars because I need it for food." So he laughed and then I said, "All you gonna do is that you're gonna go into a front stance. Look and visualize me. Now, bring the right hand to block the fist. And that is all you're gonna do, in a front stance." It took about 10 to 15 seconds. He went to perform it again; this time it was perfectly done.
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This is a little example about what traditional learning is except as you can see we are
speeding up the process. The Chinese Master would teach the student a technique. If the student did it wrong he would not teach the student more and would order so many more iterations of
the technique until the student became exhausted, gave up, or became proficient and got it right. The master knowing all-the-while that even just spending that time has improved not only the student's ability
to perform the technique & kept the student working out all day; but has also given the
student a slew of physical benefits increasing endurance, balance, flexibility
and coordination just to name a few. Here we don't want to waste that time. We have the best exercises and movements for these benefits and will teach them
to you such that you learn it well enough to take it home with you.
Ancient Techniques with a Modern Approach at:
Calasanz Physical Arts
Norwalk, CT 06851
507 Westport Avenue
203-663-6651
Back since the school's foundation we have always been involved in charity towards the community and other community efforts. Now we run a clothing and goods donation within the school where we send items big or small directly to Calasanz' sister (Cipri) in the Dominican Republic where she supplies them to the farmers and the [much] less fortunate.
In the pastCalasanz Physical Art would hold charity events like the 'Kick-A'-Thon' or the 'Train Like a Fighter for LLS' events. At one such event one of our main instructors at the time, Frank Dux, was scheduled to hold several seminars over the course of the weekend at our dojo, our school, for treatment of muscular dystrophy.
So the story goes that ...
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A student and friend of Calasanz, Bill Smith, was helping to organize, plan, run and promote the event. Bill, the great guy that he is, worked very hard on the event for us even knowing how Calasanz was, how Calasanz would just destroy money. He would make money, but just destroyed it. It came to a point that the school no longer had any money to destroy. But Bill, Bill worked with the school anyways and he continued helping.
At that time Frank Dux was at our dojo regularly. Calasanz says, "Remember, I was the guy who promoted Frank Dux. He was looking for someone to promote him when he was very famous from the movie 'Blood Sport'. Frank Dux knew that I was one of the biggest schools and had one of the most real schools of those times." And it's true. His name, Calasanz, was [and still is] recognized locally and internationally in the martial arts world long before Frank Dux came here.
It's not like today where you see a lot of real schools. Now there are a lot of real schools all over the place since the UFC came out; but again my school is not just being real, its being complete. Good Karate. Good Kung Fu. Good Energy. Good Practical Approach. You don't have to be a professional fighter over here. It's the only school probably that has that, I don't know who else can do that. We could do that and we've been doing that and we have many many names, we have hundreds of names of people coming through here who fought the pros, who could fight anyone, and many of them won."
And so... Frank Duxwas here to do a seminar that we had promoted all over Connecticut. There ended up being 70, 80, maybe 100 people here after spending over $50,000 dollars on promotion. The school didn't even make 25% of the money back. But again, that was Calasanz, destroying money. How could he do something like that? Well, at that time he was so into the passion and the love for Martial Art that the last thing he was doing was planning for anything, he just spent money. He would tell his people, "Here, go to WeBe 108 with $10,000 dollars. Make a deal for promotion." Sending them off with check in hand.
We were the first schoolto do the best commercials of martial arts without a doubt. We even had commercials on Larry King Live. We would spend for those commercials $7,000 or $8,000 to have the best martial arts commercials on television, if not the only martial arts commercials on television at the time. So it came to the seminar, the event. Jenifer Lee was there working with us.
But What Happened with Frank Dux? "It's a long story, it's a story that Frank Dux denies today, but at that point everything went wrong. I tried to keep everything quiet but what went wrong was beyond belief. Nobody put it together but me. Look, after taking thousands and thousands of dollars, writing checks all over the place and to believe I could make that money back out of signing people... only I would think something like that. So that seminar it was a disaster on the fact that Frank Dux left. The next day he came back in the afternoon, everybody had been waiting for 3 hours or more...
Everything went wrong over there.But Paco Prieto and all of the people there were enjoying themselves and there was I, Calasanz, trying to keep faith, to keep a face, to do what I
could. The day of the second seminar all I could do was run the seminar myself, to perform. But since I could ... it's not the thing I like to talk about but that anyone knew I could do 10 times what Frank Dux could do. Besides he had such a conflicting schedule everybody started asking, "Calasanz, why don't you do the seminar yourself?" Because I wanted to keep faith, everybody had been waiting. Everybody asked me that.
"I respect Frank Duxand he is the best. He is a very good guy and he is for real. I respect that. But yeah.. that I had more to offer back then than even him? Yeah... Because I am a guy born with a gift. Because I am devoted 24 hours. So the second and third days it was mostly me doing the seminar, giving techniques, exercises, doing all this stuff with the people. The people were ready and excited when Frank Dux finally came. So the experience there with Frank Dux was not a thing anybody wants to experience but we did it and we had the event."
The Above is transcribed and developed from an Audio Recording of Calasanz
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While the intentions of the event were noble and high minded those most important and trust bearing duties were not fulfilled. Although everybody involved put forward their best efforts, somehow the event fell to shreds. The relationship between Calasanz and Frank Dux is deeper than this and will be brought to light in due time in another entry. Stay tuned.
