During the early 80'sthere was a wave of influence from Japanese Martial Artists including the well-known, and late, Mas Oyama (1923-1994) In America too there was a fad, cult following of this traditional style going on. Up to today Mas Oyama is credited with the creation and introduction of Kyokushinkai to the world and to the realm of Martial Arts. Our school (Calasanz Physical Arts) in the 80's, in the hay-day of Kyokushinkai karate, defeated the top international kyokoshinkai competitors... that will tell you what Calasnaz did using non-conventional and non-brutal training that he has practiced, taught and developed since the early 80's. What's more is that today, as Calasanz still lives, his system continues to evolve as a way of martial arts, self-defense, fitness and beauty.
Calasanz' students Roger Mayers (who is now a state trooper) and Reggie Blackwell ended up fighting each other for 1st place in a Mas Oyama Kyokushinkai tournament. It took place in Brooklyn New York, 1986.
If you go back and ask, "What was the most brutal martial arts with the best killers in the world in the 20th century within the martial discipline of karate?" In order to answer you must then talk about Mas Oyama's Kyokushinkai. These people did not have so many blocks, they did not train to block so they just learned the traditional blocks. But they trained not to be human. These people would spend in training half-hour to fourty-five minutes just punching each other in the chest with punches that were capable of killing someone instantly. And these people would just take it. Yes, this made them tough, but what happens to them as they lose their shape and as time passes is a different story. A story that has to be understood and has to be said.
When you physically prepare yourself like a body builder or a football player then yes, you are in great shape. But when you stop training, when you stop playing football the whole picture changes. The only thing that stays with you is the spiritual part of it, the mental and spiritual part of it. The physical, you just lose it. That is what happened over time to those practitioners of Kyokushinkai from the 80's until about 2000.
From the 80's until the 90's was probably the best decade of Kyokushinkai and when it had its largest following because during those times Mas Oyama opened a lot of schools in the United States. Hundreds of them. One or two years later most of them were closed because nobody could take the training, especially for extended periods of time. And that is going to tell you what the Calasanz System was in the 80's when these two guys Roger and Reggie went to and won the Kyokushinkai tournament in Brooklyn.
In those times you could not distinguish a knock down tournament from a hard point tournament within Kyokushinkai. Competitors for both trained the same. And there were Calasanz' guys, delivering kicks and punches and winning. One of the things that helped them the most was what we call the "system kick" or "system side kick". Kyokushinkai did not have blocks for a fast strong side kick. Again, we call it the "system kick". And it was delivered there many times by Roger Mayers and Reggie Blackwell.
So they went, and one got first place while the other got second place. That was during the 1984/5/6 era. This particular example happened in 1986. That was one of the toughest days that I ever could mention here in respect to Kyokushinkai and I'll explain why on the topic of another student of mine, Glenn Van Lesser (read more).
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.
==========
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
The first student is Tom Barcello. He is not only a law enforcement officer but also a good friend of Calasanz and the school. Tom has helped us a lot over his time here at Calasanz Physical Arts, as has his enforcement partner Dee Hohn. A quick thanks to you personally for all you have done for us. We will never forget you and please, be safe at work. Tom is somebody that Calasanz will never forget. He remains one of the toughest, most natural and devoted fighters that has ever trained here and deserves to be listed among Peter Valis, Chris Mottola, Kevin Mcantyre, Darryl Dash, Roger Mayers, Rodney Louis, Mario Contacessi, and Robert Shapiro.
They Can Also Be Seen Here Performing Karate Kata
Karate - Taikyoko Gedan
Taikyoko Jodan
Tom was once put to practice partner drills with another advanced Wing Chun student of ours, Rebecca Jane Lyon. The good man that Tom Barcello is, he restrained himself and did not attack Rebecca as a girl. He ended up on the ground defenseless and holding his knees.
The fact is that in China the men were forced to begin practicing Wing Chun because they were being embarrassed by their female counterparts who were practitioners of Wing Chun. Tom's story plays testament to that fact. Wing Chun through its principles is defined by its efficiency of motion and energy use which no other system has bested to date. The male ego was deflated by the female martial artists and had to adapt. In order to compete they had to admit superiority and start learning Wing Chun.
Originally Wing Chun was a female practice, but men have taken it from them. Today, as a result, there are more male practitioners than female practitioners of Wing Chun. As the system develops over time the philosophy and central concepts remain the same. Control of the center line. Parsimony. Friction.
Calasanz history and story is so unique, incredibly unique. He has pursued
the true American Dream as fervently as any immigrant since his arrival. Arriving here under pretense to go to college and instead became [and remains] a world renowned martial artist, coach, instructor and inspiration through unrelenting dedication and an unshakable vision. His tale involves myriad and countless individuals; some unsavory and others the most magnanimous (and many more somewhere in between).
We take a looknow at an unfortunate circumstance surrounding Calasanz in the early 90's and his experience with the Hollywood movie "Only the Strong".
The story as recounted by Calasanz
==========
"I remember getting the part for the movie "Only the Strong" ... I was hired on the spot. When I was doing my audition Sheldon Lettich [writer and director] and Luis Esteban, [writer] who had worked with Jean Claude Van Damme,
stopped me and said, "Wait! Wait! Wait!" And they stopped to look
around for a camera. They said, "I want this guy on camera!" and I will
never forget them telling the people around, "This guy is hired. This
guy, I want him to be the 2nd or 3rd part in the movie." And that was
my audition for Sheldon Lettich and Luis Esteban.
"...Then later on it was another disaster. [read about the first incident here] It cost me a fortune. But those stories are coming up... those stories are coming up. I know that Frank Dux today says that he did not do anything wrong and that's okay, after all we are all infallible in our own minds.
"You don't know what happened after that...
"I went back to Connecticut after the audition and was told to wait for them to call me. That call never came, however, in that time I received a call from Frank Dux and he said, "You don't have to come, we will call you." I was waiting for that call for 1 week. After 2 weeks passed by I finally called to ask,
"What's going on?"
"Sheldon Lettich didn't even want to talk to me. [and understandably so] He said, "You didn't show up." I replied, "But no, Frank Dux called me and told me I didn't have to go there." Immediately I hung up the phone and got on the next flight from Bridgeport. I got on a plane. I hate planes, but I did something I am terrified of because I had to do it. I got on the airplane and went. I got there and once I arrived almost nobody wanted to talk to me because I had done so well at the auditions. I did the incredible, nobody else could do what I did there; I was just doing the incredible.
[Check out at 50 seconds]
"So as I stayed down there I finally made it to the set and Mark Dacascos saw me and called to me, "Calasanz!" Then he came to hug me. It was very late, maybe 2 in the morning when they were filming. You see, many people from Hollywood knew me. At that point I had over 40 or 50 videos traveling and circulating around to people in Hollywood. I sent videos to a lot of people there so many of them had seen me before. Mark Dacascos, the star of the movie saw me that day and he knew me very well.
"That day he was filming his last fight with Paco Prieto. I remember Sheldon Lettich looking at me as they were getting things in order and said "Calasanz, we will put you in the movie".
[Final Fight Scene]
"Back then the producer would have his story board on a clothes line to organize the movie and the scenes. Right then and there they made space and opened a new scene. They made a new space on the clothes line to put me in a fight with Mark Dacascos.
"That fight, I know it didn't go too well, and I know they are supposed to put us in a unique fight but I couldn't perform to my full ability. I was so tired and put-off already from what had happened that I couldn't act the way I needed to. I was going in with a strange taste in my mouth. So, if you see the movie "Only the Strong" you will see me going into the laundromat for the fight scene and then the escalation up to the fight as it is getting ready to start and maybe a few stunts. This is all you will see of me. I had gotten a fight on camera but the footage was deemed unusable. The producer of 20th century FOX decided not to use it
because there was no Capoeira in it. He was right, it wasn't Capoeira, it was real. Maybe too real.
"They gave me a special fight, and that fight I am sure it didn't look so good because I had to wear a big T-Shirt. I looked good you know. I had a
body better than Bruce Lee at that time. Paco Prieto, Sheldon Lettich and Luis Esteban talked with Mark Dacascos for over an hour trying to persuade him to let me fight without the shirt. But no, he wouldn't agree. He refused and I ended up on camera with a big shirt covering, and that was it. If you watch
the movie you see me with 3 people. One in the middle, the guy from Miami Vice, and then the other two guys are on the right and left as we enter the landromat and that was pretty much it.
"But again, this is a long storywith much more that can be discovered. Frank Dux today denies his involvement and action when confronted. But for Paco Prieto to make sure that I made it into the movie, that I had a chance to save some face despite that mishap, that misunderstanding.. I cannot thank him enough. He must have felt that he had to make sure that I was in the movie. I mean, we were advertising all over Connecticut, all over the newspaper, radio ect. Calasanz in Norwalk was jumping and kicking all over the place and then somehow there he was having lost his part in the movie!"
==========
Paco did a lot to help Calasanz to get back on the producers, directors and writers good side, to try to help him get his break; unfortunately the premise and styles featured in "Only the Strong" just weren't quite right to allow for his fight to be featured in the movie.
What might have been had Calasanz not been so deceived or had he been faster to act himself.. the world may never know; but his story continues on and only the future can show his story will develop.
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 ...
============
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
============
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.
That you set out to find another man more determined, more mental, more spiritual, more physical, more super crazy than me? You won't find it on this earth. Even if they find people on mars, never can you find it.
We had started testing at 4 in the morning but then at some point Renee decided that she was going to give me the finger and leave because she was angry. I couldn't say why she was angry, its a mystery to me. Why would she go and get angry at a saint like me?
So, she left and I said to myself, "You believe that you're gonna make a mess out of me? No way Jose, there is not going to be a mess."
I had over 100 students testing that day and I did it all. I held boards, picked up
the broken ones; I got the belts, I lead, I coached, I held more boards, I talked to them, I talked about philosophy, I bowed again and again, I gave the exercises. I did it all by myself. I did not use anyone to even write down who
payed. I did it all, collected money, collected whatever. I didn't take any time to eat, just tested. I ran the show, I ran the whole thing. I did it all without even a bite of food.
Then at around 11 o'clock that night I had a vision, I saw the building falling
in on me. I picked up the phone and I pushed the number 9 to dial 911. I didn't know what was happening to me. After pressing '9' I caught a glimpse of the water fountain. I ran to it immediately and began to
drink. I probably drank enough water to drown myself, but after
drinking that water I was restored to some degree of normalcy.
That was when I really found out about the curative properties of water. From drinking that water I was able to come
back to be myself again... and I realized then also that... "Wow, I didn't
drink any water all day." I hadn't eaten or drank at all that day being so busy.
You see, nobody came and told me, "Calasanz, you can do this by
yourself without eating food, but without drinking water, it will kill
you." Nobody told me that. Seems like nobody cared or maybe because I didn't speak up, or I didn't talk about it. I am not stupid, but I was so busy I couldn't even remember 'I am supposed to drink water'. Maybe I could have gotten away with not eating food for that time, but then without drinking water, it nearly killed me.
To tell you the truth, it was one of those times that you remember and go thinking back on and say, "My goodness, they could have found me dead over here."
I remember another incident like that when I was very young.
==========
I was painting cars at one of those well known car dealer repair shops in the Dominican Republic.I
worked therebecause I was going to school and working; working and going
to school. Of course I had to make a little extra money because my father
couldn't pay for everything.
But
that was the purpose, that was in the DR [Dominican Republic], I remember... I have history,
still up to today there, I did so much stuff over at that well-known dealership, Albreo. The car racers in the mid 80's and 90's they were known
all over the world for having some of the best cars and racing in the
DR.
I went over thereand in just 1
hour I would make more money than probably any one over there because I could
paint in 20 minutes or 30 minutes what another person takes 5/6/7 hours to paint. I was so energetic and so focused
that I could do that, so that was me. Like I
said...
Anything I do, I do it with courage,I do it with passion and
whatever, but that day I can never forget because I said after an event... "I'm supposed
to be dead!"... the electricity burned everything around me and left this 14 / 15
year old kid there, alive like nothing had happened. I remember
standing there watching electricity and sparks go all over the place.
It was like
fire works.
I was standing downstairs painting in that auto-shop with cars all around, then... something happened. A loud bang came. Something had broken on one of the cars and all this electricity came from nowhere and was all around me like
fireworks going everywhere. Everything was whizzing, sparkling and
burning, another guy who was working there painting outside came running. There he was and he saw this kid about 14 years old in the basement. He looked
at me and his face said it all. It was saying,
"How this guy is alive? He's supposed to be electrocuted..." Meanwhile the manger was sitting there thinking, "I'm gonna get sued."
The other workers, they couldn't
get into the place because of the explosion, but I just was there, I stepped into the water, I stepped
out of the water and I got out. But no, the electricity didn't come to me... It would have electrocuted anything standing in that water but no, this child lived. I was alive, I survived. Thinking on it now, probably I survived only because I was wearing shoes.
And I have the same feeling, about that day when I had over 120 people testing... I ask myself now... How could you not drink any water??
But I proved my point that day, that I really was a mentally strong, spiritually strong and physically.. forget it... super strong person. And that was me.
When you physically prepare yourself like a body builder or a football player then yes, you are in great shape. But when you stop training, when you stop playing football the whole picture changes. The only thing that stays with you is the spiritual part of it, the mental and spiritual part of it. The physical, you just lose it. That is what happened over time to those practitioners of Kyokushinkai from the 80's until about 2000.
