Calasanz Remembers Moy Yat

Taken from an audio Recording of Calasanz

 

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I remember I was looking for northern styles of Chinese kung fu.  I already had read about Wing Chun Kung Fu and I knew that two of the main styles in China were Long Fist, that is Cheng Chuang Long Fist and of course Wing Chun I knew about because of Bruce Lee.

My friend Angel said to me, "No, no, no.  Go to Moy Yat.  He was a classmate along side Bruce Lee."

Moy Yat

So I went to Moy Yat.  I went to his school in China Town and immediately paid $50 dollars.  They put me in front of the mirror...  I remember it so clearly.  We were in front of the mirror and they put me into a stance like a pigeon, the traditional Wing Chun stance, and showed me the first few techniques.  The lesson was Tan Shuo, with the left hand, heun, and chamber and then the same with the right hand.

"Okay, that's it for today."  they said.  I responded almost in disgust, "That's it for today?  You must be kidding.  You must not know who am I."
I started doing pushups, exercises... the incredible, doing all these things.  They got angry, but they let me stay there.

You see, when I came to this country with that dream of being Bruce Lee nobody was going to stop me.  Nobody stopped me.  I was the craziest little bastard, little gorilla, chimpanzee, black cat, cheetah... unstoppable.

During my first few weeks at Moy Yat's school I became well known very quickly.  People would come in to fight the Chinese; you know back then it was different from how it is now.  I remember specifically two occasions.  There was one guy, he must have been about 6' 4, easily 3 times my size.  He came in and we ended up doing Chi Shuo.  We were trapping and hitting each other for over an hour, but neither one of us said 'Uncle'.  It was one of the only times I would take punishment, I delivered a fair share of punishment to him as well.

While I was doing Chi Shuo with this guy the Chinese were all around looking, talking, murmuring among themselves out of the sides of their mouths behind open hands.  You see, at this point I was new at Moy Yat's school and didn't have any training in Chi Shuo, I was just reacting to him.  Fortunately, I already had the necessary skills involved from training with George Wood.  He would hold two sticks and I would rotate with the two sticks as he held them for me.  So that gave me the ability of chi shuo.  I must have ended up winning because the guy never came back. 

The other occasion took place, when a guy came in, again, to fight the Chinese.  He was sweeping and flipping them onto the floor like nothing.  They were landing very hard.  Luckily it was a wooden floor because they were landing very, very hard.  He was unimpressed.  "I come to Moy Yat and this is how they fight?"  Understand, a lot of the people training there had never even seen the dummy, let alone hit it.  They never did anything but Siu Nim Tau and rotating in chi shuo, so they couldn't take a shot, they could not fight.  He came over to me and I said, "Try doing that to me. "  When he came and delivered that kick to sweep me I did exactly what I did in the Dominican Republic.  I grounded my leg.  He came to sweep me but failed because I had grounded my leg so well and immediately I countered him.

*Boom*  

You should have seen the Chinese when I came through the door the next day.  They started whispering; I remember one lady, this one little girl in particular, I will never forget.  She was the best of the best, probably only 75 pounds but she moved like a little cat.  She watched me non-stop, but I hear her murmuring still to the others, 'wshewsewshs... 10th degree black belt.' as she looked at me out of the corners of her eyes.  "This guy is black belt, he's 10th degree black belt, watch out for this guy shwhshsh."  They just talked and talked and talked.

Later on, Jon, a guy who worked for Moy Yat and who was responsible for bringing some of the bigger names in Martial Arts at the time to the school, came to me and said, "Go talk to Moy Yat."  So I went to the office and sat down there.  Moy Yat tells me, "Calasanz, we already know the skill you have."  He said, "Pay me this much and in 3 months you can teach, in one year you will have a certification and a picture with me."  It was exactly like that.

I went directly to Steve James, my boss at Victoria Station.  I said, "Steve, if you give me Saturday opening at 7 am and closing at 5 in the morning I can take wing chun with Moy Yat."  At that point I was the number one bus boy / waiter / employee there.  He said, "Of course Calasanz."  And I worked.  I worked all day and night, 22 hours.  By the time it was 5 in the morning I had about 7 or 8 hundred dollars cash plus whatever my hourly pay was at the time.  I had made the money for Moy Yat working at Victoria Station on a Saturday in just one day.


So I paid Moy Yat what he asked along with a $500 dollar fee which was what he charged anyone just to touch the dummy.  Normally nobody can see the dummy.  It was kept in a back room; maybe you could see it looking through a crack in the door, but it was kept away from the main area.  The minute anyone gave him the payment he led them to the room, took a key and locked the door.  I remember he led me there and locked the door and turned to me and said, "Okay Calasanz.  Now we go."  I'll never forget that.  At this point I am being trained privately by Moy Yat.  A lot of people who used to go there say, "But I never saw Calasanz there."  It's because I was in the back room working on the dummy.  The first day he gave me 'section 1' of the dummy and said, "Do section 1 as many times as you can.  Spend one week on section 1, then I can give you the entire dummy in 1 day if you want."  Exactly like that.

Here, this is a real story now.  This is real.  This is exactly how it happened.  When I finished there I spent 3 days just hitting the dummy.  I looked down at my arm there was nothing there.  It's all gone, all the hair on my arm gone, the skin almost gone.  It looked exactly how it looks when a snake peels its skin.  All the skin is gone, just peeled.  Think about it... hit the dummy for 1 day and still that is not going to happen.  I spent three days hitting it.  So now maybe you can understand what was the extent of the obsession that I had, that I hit the dummy enough to peel my arms entirely.  That was me Mr. Alan.  This is how, and that is the obsession that I had with being better than Bruce Lee.

Once I had completed that year we went to this cannoli place in Chinatown.  He was supposed to bring the picture and the diploma but he must have forgotten them.  Years later in 1988 I had him here for a seminar and even after calling him again and again to remind him,  "Make sure you bring the diploma."  he still didn't bring it.  You know, maybe if we do everything we can it could be that it is still over there.  Maybe someone in his family or someone over there has it because I know he would not break it or get rid of it.

Later on I figured out why he didn't want me to go and get the diploma.  Previously I had paid him no insignificant sum of money for a video of him on a projector doing the 3 forms.  Siu Nim Tao, Chum Kiu and Biu Tze.  I have the projector sitting right here in my office.  Not too long ago a good friend and long time student of mine, Mario, went to take a video of it from the projector so we could have it digital or whatever.  Ends up that on it was one of his students, a child maybe 11 or 13 years old, who was studying there at the same time as me doing siu nim tao.  So it wasn't even all three forms or done by him.  I wouldn't mind getting the forms from a kid anyway but that was a lot of money for Moy Yat to do it.  Anyway, probably he didn't want me coming and asking about that too if I went to get the diploma. 

Moy Yat, he was a good instructor.  He did what a good instructor does, you know.  He realized who I was.  He did not go and say, "Calasanz let me try to give you a lesson." and beat me up, not that he could have anyway at that point.  I respect him but he never had the capacity of giving me a lesson like that.  But he could have said that.  Instead he called me and said, "I'm gonna teach you."  That's what a good instructor does.

It's like me now.  When I see someone like that, dedicated and has passion for the Art I don't go trying to beat them up.  I want to raise them up.  For example, now I am building some of the youngest and most well rounded martial artists, the youngest masters I call it.  It's tremendous what someone with that sorts of mind-set, dedication, passion, desire and devotion to the Art is capable of learning and achieving even at a young age.  It's Incredible.

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Smart vs. Mindless Training

Taken from an Audio Recording of Calasanz

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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.

You see, there is the difference.  You can do an hour of any sort of training without learning anything or you can do something smart for one hour and learn something.

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Training the Best Defense and Not Getting Hurt

Story and Philosophy Taken and Developed From an Audio Recording of Calasanz

"Again and again I repeat it.. and I say... My people never got hurt"

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"If you go to the reality of it, I could see Martial
Arts the first time that I went to a Martial Arts school.  I was 14 and it was not human."  The people were there punching each other all over the place. 

"I mean, it was NOT human."  what I witnessed in the Dominican Republic and what was happening down there.  The baseball stadium was full of people training day in and day out wearing the same clothes, sweating.  The smell was almost unbearable.  The  biggest thugs  and the  fighters  all gathered and they were fighting in these stadiums in Santiago.  It was not like it is today guy.  

People were violent, training, not caring who they hurt, punching one another.  "Seeing these guys hurting each other, and hitting each other. And I said, 'You're not gonna hit me.' And at that point I closed the gap.  I raised my front leg; when they throw a punch it bounces off the leg, when they throw a kick I cover and all cover came from something I practiced myself on the farm as a 5/6/7/8/9 years old [kid]."  

Then of course came the counter.

Why didn't my guys get hurt? Because I had that belief since day one. 
"You're not gonna hit me."  and I taught my guys that.  Close the gap.  Head Movement.  And that is part of my belief.  I say, "Don't go to the ground. Learn
body anatomy."

 

For Example, if you put the idea into your head that you are going to go through the 20 Arms Dummy [... just for a number...] 2000 times; the leg chi sau 5000 times, the traditional dummy 2000 
times...


"Getting on the ground?... don't even think about it [after that]..."  Doing the 20 Arms alone that many times puts striking distance as identical to your entire range of motion.  You can deliver something heavy from anywhere.  But if you are a fighter it is different.  Just understand not everybody can fight no matter what they train.  You have to understand that... NOT EVERYONE CAN FIGHT no matter how many techniques they have.  But if you are a good fighter and you do that (the 2000/5000/2000) you are ready to go at any time.

[I'll never forget when [Roger Mayers] fought a 6th degree Judo Black
Belt that tried to bring him down.  He did something that no one, not even
me, had ever seen before. It was such a reaction...  I'll never forget the fight.  It is on Youtube with Roger Mayers.  When he is on the ground the first thing that you'll hear ...it is a kick landing on the head of that guy that took some... took some time for him to recover from.] 

[And that is all just striking.  
 My guys are taught to strike on the 
 ground. To use the core.  You do not understand that if you have a good core you can strike at 1 inch from the body on the ground as hard as you can standing, it's as simple as that.  What did they call it when Bruce Lee was here? ... they called it "death touch" or whatever, 1 inch punch.  But "death touch" is only applicable if you can use it at any time.]

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Inspired by; Lived by Calasanz

Evaluate Your Training and What to Look For to Find A Quality Instructor

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.

 

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Commit Yourself To REAL Learning and REAL Fitness

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."

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Calasanz Physical Arts                                         www.calasanz.com
Norwalk, CT 06851
507 Westport Avenue
203-663-6651
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Taken from an Audio Recording of Calasanz
Transcribed and Developed by Alan Wedell 

Calasanz Takes a Hit : «Be Alert While Training­«

We recount an unfortunate training accident which occurred at Calasanz Physical Art and Martial Arts Center.

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A guy, [we call him J for confidentiality purposes], he was here training for over 5 years.

He is a kid that just wouldn't grasp the lesson when someone was teaching him, either out of incompetence or stubbornness... at least any lesson involving martial art.  There was nothing you could do.  So what I did was I remembered the system.  "We can teach anybody."  "We can teach ANY body." and J was somebody, so we taught him.

What did I put J to do?  I put him to get stronger.  I gave him techniques to build power.  He got over here at age of 16.  He had been training here for 5 years, he was 21 years old now.  Just knowing the kind of punch that this guy capable of delivering after 5 years of training with me.  And I prepared him to do it.  I trained him to throw a punch like that.

He would come to the school and he would hit the bag non-stop for over one hour... bare fist.

Just imagine I have you hitting that bag here all the time because you cannot learn the form, you cannot learn the kata, you cannot learn the dummy, so you know what I said... "I'm gonna make him good.. I'm gonna make him as good as anyone."  Because you know he cannot learn the kata, but with this training at least he can survive, he can kill the person.  So that's what I did with this guy.

And then all that turned.  Turns out he was preparing.  The reason that the punch got up so...  Because the punch was so hard... 

 

It was.. I was just in the office and I came out to explain something to the boxers training here because I was watching them from the office.  But you know, if you are like Bruce Lee, if you are like me and you love the martial art you want to help no matter what.  So I came out to explain to them a little bit about blocking, about closing the gap by showing them blocking different techniques.

I put J to demonstrate, for the others to help me show them something in training, in calm training.  But here I was sitting on the ring and he was in front of me with no weight on his front leg.  I saw that at the time, that he was waiting, getting ready to deliver something big, getting ready to unload a punch, just to see if I could block an unreserved shot delivered purposefully, hard and fast towards my head.  But even that was not enough,  as my gaze shifted to one of my boxers to explain the concept J goes and throws the punch.

He throws a punch like he is in a fight; as if he was in immediate and express danger even, as if his life depended on that punch.  He throws that punch so hard, and fully extended with everything he had, it was 100%, nothing held back.  He threw every ounce of power his body could generate into that punch.  With that power I had helped build for him, that I had taught him how to build over the last 5 years.  That amount of energy was thrown straight at me in that punch. If my head wasn't in the way it would have finished well behind my head, that punch was ready to go through my skull, but then it landed, it landed straight into my eye.

There has not been one person who did that ever before, who punched like that in training, in that cool  atmosphere.  That punch was so hard, he threw that punch to pass through.  It was a punch, he was trying to test me.  He was delivering this punch trying to test me.

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 (Perspective Shift)

As an outsider and witness to this event, [call me K for confidentiality purposes] I was stretching on the low table when it occurred not 20 feet in full view in front of me.  I can assure you this was no ordinary punch.  It caught Calasanz just in they left eye socket as he was turning his head to speak to another student, a boxer named Nick, seated on his right.  Calasanz reacted as a blind man to a silent punch, meaning he did not react at all.  (and as we all know the first thing he'll teach you is "head movement" plus he's always made it look the best with that hair)  But no, he did not react; with vision averted it could properly be labelled a 'sucker punch'.  Without movement of his head it landed solidly.

It sounded like a car accident.

It barreled him backwards from his favourite seated position on the outside of the ring into the ropes then swaying back forward slowly.  He grabbed his head immediately, almost curling up, and did not move for several breaths.  He went to the bathroom as he was ready and re-emerged to ask me how bad it looked.  Somehow he kept his composure with student J.  There was a small cut on his eyelid which was bleeding slowly and a slightly swollen redness began to emerge around his eyes before my very own.


He would heal from this punch over the next 4 weeks or more wearing an eye patch to hide the injury.  Every so often he would adjust it to reveal a rainbow, ranging from deep purple to an almost indistinguishable yellow-green radiating outwards from the eye.  Still sometimes when he is tired you can almost see something lingering about that area.  This was no ordinary punch.

As a first hand witness observer I can assure you this punch was purposefully thrown the way that it was thrown, but I also believe the pugilist was oblivious himself as to why he performed it suchly.

Perhaps he had built someone up so much in his head, perhaps he'd seen too many Dragon Ball Z episodes and just somehow forgot he was dealing within tangible reality, facing a fallible human and not an immortal, fictitious, super-powered psychic-warrior.   The world may never know, but this was no ordinary punch.

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Taken from Audio of recording with Calasanz

Developed and Transcribed by Alan Wedell

What the F*&! is so Great About Calasanz?

Here is Calasanz showing one of his best exercises based on Physical Arts under his self-titled 'Calasanz System'.  Physical Arts is Martial Arts, but Martial meaning in a general balanced term.

The Calasanz System - What is it?

Calasanz has spent a lifetime studying various martial arts and fitness trends. Over the years, he has dissected the best parts of each and combined them into what has become known as THE CALASANZ SYSTEM – a unique and effective style that has wide range appeal. THE CALASANZ SYSTEM includes a physical conditioning program that improves your overall strength, flexibility and endurance. This conditioning program builds a more functionally fit body than traditional weight lifting programs or other fitness routines.   

Calasanz has spent the last 30 years here in the U.S. developing and perfecting his system of martial arts and fitness training.  His unique teaching methods have helped countless men, women and children of all shapes, sizes and fitness levels enjoy the martial arts while getting fit.  His professional expertise and unique approach are why people like you have made Calasanz their number one destination for superior martial arts and fitness training.

 

We're Unique, - What Makes Us Different? 

Many martial arts clubs have a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. Calasanz tailors an individual program specifically for each single person that walks through the door.  Whether you’re a seasoned martial artist looking to improve your skills or a beginner looking for a great way to get fit, Calasanz and his team will work with you in creating a program that meets your fitness and Martial Art goals. In this system a natural athlete can be passed on to more challenging feats while extra attention can be spent on developing the abilities that will help advance those at the dawn of their athletic experience. Our One-on-One training is the most superior method of enhancing your body and your skills.

Combining the Three Aspects

First is breathing.  Next comes awareness of the breath.  Then comes control of the breath.  Afterwards the breath is forgotten.  Followed by remembrance of the breath.  And finally a return to just breathing.

The three aspects of martial arts are the Physical, Mental and Spiritual.  Discussed in an earlier entry rudimentarily we will now delve deeper into these different facets and discuss the interplay between them for a deeper understanding and more open discourse about them.

At all times these three realities are present and are constantly being expressed, independent of the user's being aware of it or not.  In fact, it is not possible to consciously express all of them at once, for the simple reason that as soon as consciousness gets involved the moment becomes primarily mental.  For example, at this moment the processes leading to comprehension of these words puts the mental understanding of their meaning at the fore-front of the current experience which is being used to affect spiritual change within; all the while this comprehension is only achievable with the assistance of the physical events of eye-movement, sensory input, and brain synapse activity.  These physical happenings are combining with the mental capacity to understand in order to produce an amalgamation ending in a significant and inner spiritually altering experience.

This "three way amalgamation" is at all times occurring to create the present experience in which genesis and conclusion are in exact equilibrium through what is properly called time.




The concept of Nirvana within the Indian Tradition is described as a state of pure bliss or "ultimate reality".  It's opposite being "samsara" or a state of "non-nirvana".  Yogis and gurus have discovered certain methods of achieving this state of "ultimate reality" (most are based on awareness and control of the breath) and here I will let the proverbial cat out of the bag and let you all in on the big secret.  Nirvana, again might be described in this discourse as an instantaneous and simultaneous realization of the association of the three aspects: physical mental and spiritual.  Nirvana, however, cannot be experienced through solely a spiritual, mental, or physical means by itself.

One reaches Nirvana through a combination of mental and physical stimuli affecting the entity in the present to induce a spiritual realization and mental state.  It can occur at any moment, either through extended practice or even by surprise for no explicit reason, or anywhere there inbetween.  The moment of realization culminates into what has been referred to by Alan Watts as the "cosmological experience". and this experience is embodied by two different extremes at opposite ends of a spectrum.  One may feel as if he is the Omnipotent himself, a feeling that one is simultaneously producing and maintaining the entirety of reality (sometimes leading to delusions of grandeur among the unpracticed) or as if he is completely subordinate to reality under complete control of his surroundings / environment. (sometimes leading to a more nihilistic outlook or a feeling of ultimate surrender).

This state, however, is as temporary as anything else and does not usually last very long.  Understand that as one approaches an extreme, eventually there will only be one way to go.  As a great teacher once told me, "Something that turns so far into itself will begin to turn into its opposite."  This reversal can happen both spontaneously, or over a duration of time, just the same as the achievement of Nirvana.  However, the effect of the user achieving this state or having this realization is ever-lasting and never forgotten.

The first time Nirvana is achieved the experience is baffling, after which the user is often confused, amazed, unsettled and shocked all at the same time.  However, through practice and repeated achievement he will come to a realization which is what all religious traditions in the world today are paraphrasing in their own ways.  It is that Nirvana and Samsara are identical.  That they are, in the end, a simple pair of symbiotic opposites used to symbolize and conceptualize the contrasting perspectives of reality we experience.

In the Christian Tradition these are named "Heaven" and "Hell".  Here we refer to "heaven" and "hell" in the sense that they are not ethereal, postmortem destinations, but are instead the perceived, readily tangible and (fortunately) malleable expressions of reality here within.  For example, someone who is suffering is, at that time, in hell and someone who is experiencing joy is, at that time, in heaven.  The defiant, wayward rebellion of Adam and Eve within the Christian tradition being representative of our capacity to change and shape our own reality for better or worse towards heaven, or hell.

So how can I explain this interplay to you?  It is perhaps difficult to explicitly lay it out.  We are, after all, talking about the interaction between physical reality and abstract realms which is an incredibly complicated topic and one that is exceptionally challenging to understand intellectually. (Good on you if you are following this!)  This interplay might be described as a trinity of ever-present realms unified in concept; in which each aspect separately retains its certain individual properties while constantly adapting in accordance with the others and concurrently influencing them outwardly.  This interaction implicitly results in life and in harmony.  A harmony who's 'tune' and beauty originates from the balance between the three.

First is breathing.  Next comes awareness of the breath.  Then comes control of the breath.  Afterwards the breath is forgotten.  Remembrance of the breath follows.  And finally a return to just breathing.


Thanks for Reading and Share it if this helped you or spoke to you in any way!


Concept Develped and Written by:
Alan Wedell

Presentness Through Life and Kung Fu

When it comes to training the body for the long term, for the dedication to a prolonged life and for real longevity we are, in the end, talking about Kung Fu proper.

As a term that is thrown around in Western culture, often mentioned only in passing and almost never actually discussed or explored in any real depth, as if a joke or a farce, "Kung Fu" is very much a part of every day life and is an important practice for those living in those areas where Kung Fu was birthed and developed.  As life continues so too Kung Fu continues to develop along with it, independent of geographical location.  Do note, however, that the expression of Kung Fu in different geographical locations differs vastly from one place to the next and does not necessarily involve the complicated forms or movement sequences often brought to mind upon the utterance of the words "Kung Fu" (note: the existence and practice of said forms classically denotes a highly developed but still changing expression of Kung Fu).  For example, eating is Kung Fu, training is Kung Fu, sleeping is Kung Fu.  If you are breathing, if you are living you are in fact doing Kung Fu.

So, if we can agree that Kung Fu is synonymous with life it is also understood that any action taken which delays the Reaper's inevitable scythe is good Kung Fu, and any action which quickens the dark and final blow is directly at odds with the natural inertia of existence.  The good practitioner has a harmonious aptitude and a complete understanding, even without the understanding of every particular.  The good practitioner visualizes his life's path knowing that his present action affects his course directly.  It is difficult to consistently keep this vision front and center in sight and in mind, especially with the ever multiplying measure of external stimuli in today's world.

The good practitioner can develop and hone his ability to keep this vision at the forefront through meditation and more specifically control of the breath.  It's amazing that even the most minuscule lapse of judgment; the most concise, fleeting moment can cause a resounding deviation from the envisioned path.  Situations where this is the case might be called "accidents".  A mental consistency of awareness and a grounded recognition of reality must be maintained to a certain degree at all times to curb the likelihood of "accidents"actualizing themselves.  Reducing their possibility is best done by avoidance of the prerequisite conditions necessary for the accident to occur and using foresight to recognize those conditions.

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As we live there is a perpetual culmination of circumstances occurring at every moment in a constant fleeting genesis and it is here, within the moment, where lies the potential for all that is present to affect (for better or worse) the immediate circumstances towards a future reality.  Again, the potential there lies, in the moment, for us to bend our reality to a new extreme, or more likely to a new moderate circumstance as time passes.  Whether an extreme will actualize itself or not is uncertain, and the likelihood of a situation's development into an extreme reality a priori (meaning before the entrance of any empirical information) can properly be modeled by the mathematicians bell curve.  As we are great effectors of our own circumstance we must remain focused and resolute to ensure that as long as we are in control we do not breach over into an extreme displacement unless absolutely necessary.  But, if a breach of extreme does occur either by "accident" or through willful, deliberate action we must do our best to maintain control using our wisdom and intuition to characteristically proceed with magnanimity and honest virtue to reestablish equilibrium.

So we bring it back now to the topic at hand which is longevity.  Physical development is something that is also perpetual throughout a lifetime until death, so it is important that one understands how to develop safely and without injury as injury is properly a physical regression, which is the opposite of the desired outcome of development, progression.  So please!  Don't get hurt!  Our Physical Arts Exercises with the anatomical logicality of its holistic movements all centered on the core are the most simple and most effective exercises to promote longevity and real, internal power.  These exercises, when performed correctly and safely (meaning not with excessive weight) promote coordination, dexterity, power, proficiency and skill simply through their execution.  With this system the physical realm can be mastered in record time leaving the mental and spiritual realms ready to be conquered.

A Master of Kung Fu lives longer through dedicated physical training, spiritual serenity, and mental patience all contributing to a stressless life and ever-present mind.

Live Longer, Live Better, Kung Fu

Inspired by Calasanz
Written by Alan Wedell

What is Martial Arts?

So..  What is it?  Let us explore the topic in more detail so our readers [thanks guys :D ] might get a deeper understanding of what we are discussing here.

Martial Art is not something that can be defined with any absolute certainty, but here we will attempt such an impossible feat.  Martial Art.  It is an art form that is never stagnant, always moving and as long as one lives one is always a participant within it.  A musician, for example, plays a piece from beginning to end.  A painter applies pigment to canvas to create a painting to a conclusion.  A writer thoughtfully scribes a story from beginning, to middle, from middle, to end.  Martial Art, in contrast, is in constant practice.  Even if one is not training traditionally or even "training" at all, one is constantly in the act of producing their Martial Masterpiece simply by their propagation of life.  Every act we engage ourselves in is a stroke of the brush, a crescendo, a poem.  Understand, this is not said to downplay artists of other mediums, but to point out that musicians, painters, writers, artists of all kinds, and all people in general are intrinsically practitioners of Martial Art.  In a sentence, Martial Art is Life.

Now, something interesting happens when we open the topic to the three aspects.  We speak of the Mental, Spiritual, and Physical (Mind, Spirit and Body respectively).  Let us discuss each individually.

The Physical aspect of Martial Arts demands much respect as it is the realm in which bodies interact and the realm in which bodily injury occurs.  We look now at fighters.  Fighters are people without fear of physical harm or even those who harbor a love of it.  Fighters are dedicated to the mastery of the physical domain and set out to build their bodies to compete.  They train to take punishment and to unleash it upon their opponents.  It is the most visible and easily altered realm.  Also, realize now that the physical realm is controlled through the mental and spiritual aspects of the user as each of these three aspects are interconnected and act on one another through symbiotic relationships.  (A topic that deserves much further discussion, but is best reserved for a composition where it is the center of focus).  

The Mental aspect is the side of analyzing a movement or a technique.  It is the quiet pondering and conscious deliberation over the physical movements.  The samurai, for example, before they would practice would go through a fight sequence or exercise, sitting quietly, executing it purely mentally first before even picking up the sword.  This is as important as physical practice as it allows the user to critically and creatively experiment with the technique or exercise prior to its execution, the fudging of which may end up being physically harmful if not performed well.  Don't be fooled though, physical practice and mental analysis can occur simultaneously and in fact should be exercised both in tandem and independently.  This sort of 'cross-training' is critical to becoming well-rounded.

The Spiritual aspect is the understanding of purpose.  Mindless training without understanding will no doubt produce a physical result, but in the end is properly brutish and nonsensicle as it is not conducive to wholesome constructive development, but instead actuates ignorant stasis.  This understanding is not easily attained however.  The user will naturally have some sense of purpose to begin with and his understanding will deepen ever deeper through continued physical practice, mental analysis and meditation, unending.

Martial Arts is the dedication to these three aspects and most importantly the wisdom to balance them harmoniously. 

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Inspired by Calasanz

Written by Alan Wedell