Calasanz Comes Clean : Why He Really Stayed Out of Hollywood

Discourse Taken from an Audio Recording of Calasanz

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 "For the first time in my life I will give you an idea why, why in this world or in the world I could still be here." 

[Norwalk, Connecticut]

Even before my career I was well received and well known.  I was known even as a child for singing and dancing.  It was one thing I did for a little money from one time to another.  I would end up performing lots of places.  When I came to America as a student at University of Bridgeport they immediately asked me to give a demonstration for the Freshman class of several thousand.  The University thereafter allowed me use of their gymnasium to use and to teach in.  They even bought several swords for me including nihontō [and others] to use to perform weapons forms at later demonstrations and events.

So, why...

...as a natural performer being so well known and being a guy like that, doing all this stuff and then being here... why in the world didn't I try to at least travel or at least go by car to California when Ron Howard called me twice to give me an address.  "Just go there."  He told me.  JCVD had someone flown all the way here to give me an audition...

...

All is based on one thing, that I am terrorized of water, and even more so I am terrorized of a car driving under a tunnel.  I don't even know how they'd get you out if it collapsed.  How do you avoid tunnels?  Airplanes.  I am fine in airplanes when it is over land, but when it gets over water it's just pure terror.  Not scared.  Terror.

High rises... when I get to about 4 or 5 floors up I think "Yes, if I have to jump I can survive." After 6 or 7 now I'm not so sure.

So there are a lot of things that have to be said so that people understand when they find me on google or wherever and see that I am doing what I do still.  They come here and say to me, "Calasanz do you know that you are supposed to be more famous than [____________]?  What the hell!"  And I know why, because I stayed in Connecticut.  Why didn't I get out?  And all the time I just tell them "Scared of airplane."

This is the first time that I go out and say it, that I am scared of the outside because I am scared of getting into trouble.  I have a temper.  Back on the island I was known by people, that you do not insult a lady in front of me because I am going to make you suffer.

So when I think about what I am going to encounter on the outside, am I going to confront a jerk?  Will I have to stay quiet to avoid problems because I do not like to be in trouble?  You see, because it takes me 5 or 6 days to recover.  When I see something like that and I have to stay quiet it eats at me and I have a lot of trouble letting it go and that drains me.  Its debilitating.

As I was filming "Crossing the Line" locally in Norwalk a guy was coming down the street and saw me.  He ran for his life because he knew me and he didn't know what I might do to him.  He went into the first hole he could find, a store or a restaurant or something.  Not because he was scared but out of respect.  He did that out of respect not because he was scared.

So when you go to the reality of it and ask "Why isn't Calasanz out of here?" it is much more than just airplanes.

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Calasanz on Pressure, Life and the Afterlife

 Taken from an Audio Recording of Calasanz

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Sometimes we can take a lot.  With life comes certain pressures and it is up to us to alleviate and exhaust that pressure in a positive, non-destructive way.  Imagine you having a brother who is depressed and does something wrong to you because he cannot control it.  What can you do?  It's hard to do anything.  He is your brother.  He is depressed.

Depression cannot be controlled.  The doctor controls it through medicine.  If you are depressed and start to take medicine.. good luck guy you've already taken 15 years of your life.  The minute you take the first pill to control craziness or depression or something you have taken 10- 15 years of your life.  But don't forget, a lot of people don't care.  It's like those guys who smoke.  They think, 'If I'm going to live 90 years unhappy because I cannot quit smoking then let me live 70 years happy and smoke."  I have heard those lines hundreds of times.  Those guys that chew tobacco or whatever, they know the consequences but they decide to partake anyways.

If you love this planet and you believe in this planet and you don't believe in another one after you are gone then you are going to take care of yourself; but when you believe there is something else there you will go about living your life.  In many cases leading to your detriment and demise and in as many others leading to your well-being and happiness.

"Oh yes, Calasanz is going to die and now he is going to another planet and then later on he's going to come back being a snake or a squirrel.  Who cares about being a squirrel.  That I am going to come back 20 years after.. this is what a lot of beliefs are.  Oh you come back being an animal.

"Yes, you are right, you are many animals.  Before you are gone worms are going to be eating you.  So now you turn into worms.  That is all the cells in your body turned into worms.. So yeah, but just for a while, I don't even know how long, maybe next you get eaten by birds and now you are bird.

"I don't believe in that.. I stay here in this one as long as I can."

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Non-Conventional Training : The Martial Artist's Way

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Why didn't they get hurt?  In the early 80's I had my people training in what was called "non-conventional martial arts".  Today the people training are doing the same thing to get ready for MMA and the UFC.  We've been doing it here since our origination.  That is why challengers in the past were so often leaving disappointed.

I trained my guys in only the most basic fighting techniques and let them master these.  After that the fight mostly becomes natural and reactive.  Most of my students were police officers or street fighters anyways, they didn't need the more advanced stuff, but I would teach these to those dedicated and interested students.  That is why I tell my guys, "Learn body anatomy."  Secondary is the "non-conventional" aspect of training, that being our unique Physical Arts exercises.  These prepare the body to produce more power than any other system at a greater range of motion than any other system.  We taught (and still teach) striking that originates from the core for more solid and more effective strikes than what anyone else was doing at the time and still no one else does.  Getting hit by one of my guys is not the same as getting hit by someone else's.

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Now, when I got to this country, my main training was pounding, horses.

I remember one day doing kata taikyoko geden.  We call it "Kata 1" over 100 times at Bridgeport University.  I remember that was when I came to the country, I was at Bridgeport University.  What is repeated in that form over and over?  Horses.  So that is one of the main training techniques to build power, coordination, balance and grounding.

Squatting.  Today they say some of the UFC fighters do over 1000 squats per week as part of their training.  I was doing 1000 squats in one day non-stop.  I would start at 6 in the morning and just do squatting until probably 6 o'clock at night.  Doing nothing but squatting, squatting, squatting.  I built one of the most scary names in the 80's that carries on up to today with these methods.

But we always go one step further.  How did I make squatting MORE effective for my system?  I would put on ankle weights and jump from a rock down onto pavement into a horse or a squatting stance.  It's what people do using tires or platform tables today, but really you can do it with anything.  There was I jumping with weights on each leg up onto a rock and coming down hard on solid cement.  I trained my students to do it with 5 pounds on each leg.  I even did it myself with 60/70 pounds on each leg.  This is something I do not recommend to anyone today. 

 What about the sledge hammer?  I was known for using the sledge hammer.  I would use it in such a unique way, here I was training and did it just to see if I could and it turned out just perfect. [at 2:07]  But again, this is what we are talking about when we say "non-conventional" training.

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You see a guy lifting dumbbells and you say, "Wow he is strong and training very well."  You see a guy working with an iron long-staff, do you say the same?  It is just a different training tool.  Non-conventional?  Yes.  Just as effective?  Yes, and maybe some say more so.


 Taken and Developed from an Audio Recording of Calasanz

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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Calasanz Origins : Childhood in the DR

Taken From An Interview with Calasanz

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?

 

 

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Taken from an Audio Recording of Calasanz

Calasanz Loses Student : Glenn Van Lesser Scarred for Life

Story Taken and Transcribed from an Audio Recording of Calasanz

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Okay, So we already spoke about Roger Mayers and Reggie Blackwell getting 1st place and 2nd place (read more)fighting each other at a 1986 Kyokushinkai tournament in Brooklyn New York.  But now, getting in a little deeper it must be understood that on that day we had about 5 fighters we trained to compete.  And here we arrive at 13 year old Glenn Van Lesser.

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.