# Where is GM Cal Carrozzi?



## MeatWad2 (Jan 12, 2007)

Where is GM Cal Carrozzi?
This one GM Villari's high ranking BB who left in the 90's.
What happened to him?


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## Carol (Jan 12, 2007)

He heads up his own flavor of the art, United Shaolin Kempo and teaches in downtown Peabody, Mass.


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## Mark L (Jan 13, 2007)

I remember him being a ring judge when I was competing at a Villari tournament at BU in the early 80's (I lost :shrug, he's a pretty colorful guy.  My current teacher was his student to shodan.


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## shaolin ninja 4 (Jan 20, 2007)

Mark L said:


> I remember him being a ring judge when I was competing at a Villari tournament at BU in the early 80's (I lost :shrug, he's a pretty colorful guy.  My current teacher was his student to shodan.


You study with villaris way back in the day?
How far did you get?  What was the training like back then? Why did your instructor quit working with Grand master Cal?


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## Mark L (Jan 22, 2007)

shaolin ninja 4 said:


> You study with villaris way back in the day?
> How far did you get?  What was the training like back then? Why did your instructor quit working with Grand master Cal?


I studied with Villari's from '79 - '84, I was a first brown.  Training was fun, in sparring heavy body contact was expected, although strikes to the face were discouraged.  If you weren't into getting hit the solution was easy: block.  No protective gear except for a cup.  Testing was difficult, very stressful by design.  Put you under lots of pressure and see what comes out.  Failures occured, though most passed.  You wouldn't test if you weren't really ready.

I don't know why my instructor left Carozzi, he was in his late teens then (mid 70's), Villari's was the first stop on his journey.


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## shaolin ninja 4 (Jan 25, 2007)

Mark L said:


> I studied with Villari's from '79 - '84, I was a first brown.  Training was fun, in sparring heavy body contact was expected, although strikes to the face were discouraged.  If you weren't into getting hit the solution was easy: block.  No protective gear except for a cup.  Testing was difficult, very stressful by design.  Put you under lots of pressure and see what comes out.  Failures occured, though most passed.  You wouldn't test if you weren't really ready.
> 
> I don't know why my instructor left Carozzi, he was in his late teens then (mid 70's), Villari's was the first stop on his journey.


Thanks.


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## Jdokan (Feb 23, 2007)

Mark L said:


> I studied with Villari's from '79 - '84, I was a first brown. Training was fun, in sparring heavy body contact was expected, although strikes to the face were discouraged. If you weren't into getting hit the solution was easy: block. No protective gear except for a cup. Testing was difficult, very stressful by design. Put you under lots of pressure and see what comes out. Failures occured, though most passed. You wouldn't test if you weren't really ready.
> 
> I don't know why my instructor left Carozzi, he was in his late teens then (mid 70's), Villari's was the first stop on his journey.


WHo was your instructor?


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## Mark L (Feb 24, 2007)

Bob Nohelty in his Burlington dojo for the first year, Fred Bagley on Comm. Ave. for the rest.


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## Jdokan (Feb 25, 2007)

Mark L said:


> Bob Nohelty in his Burlington dojo for the first year, Fred Bagley on Comm. Ave. for the rest.


Bob was good I believe he left Cal to open the Burlington School.  THey remained freinds long after that, until the split of Master when Cal went on his own...I think they're still on talking terms....I spent  a few weeks in the Burlington Dojo when I was preping for my Nidan.....
That school is now owned by Kevin Pence..another of Cal's students...Nice guy very active in the World Martial Arts Federation.


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## Jdokan (Feb 25, 2007)

Bob Nohelty is teaching out of Wakefield in the old YMCA...I bumped into Laura Caradonna one night and I think that is what she said....


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## Carol (Feb 25, 2007)

Jdokan said:


> Bob was good I believe he left Cal to open the Burlington School. THey remained freinds long after that, until the split of Master when Cal went on his own...I think they're still on talking terms....I spent a few weeks in the Burlington Dojo when I was preping for my Nidan.....
> That school is now owned by Kevin Pence..another of Cal's students...Nice guy very active in the World Martial Arts Federation.


 
Kevin Pence is a very nice guy.  Very very dedicated to the art and its history as well.   He's shared a few stories with me about his school when we've had a chance to get on the mat together at MARI.  He taught one of his sets at our overnight workiout las year (this onderfully insane evening where our instructor-level students share a bit of what they know with the rest of us)...not only is a really nice guy, he is a very good teacher as well.  He's thorough, humble, and very inspiring.


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## Mark L (Feb 25, 2007)

Jdokan said:


> Bob Nohelty is teaching out of Wakefield in the old YMCA...I bumped into Laura Caradonna one night and I think that is what she said....


That's interesting, I followed the link at Masters Centers website to the Wakefield school.  An 8th dan co-leading a small chain and teaching Karate for Kids with a maximum of 15 students per class, I bet he can't wait to go to work every day. I'm truly envious.

Though I was only at that school for a year, it was the perfect introduction to the MA.  He's very skilled, as were a few of his instructors (Phil Hardcastle(?), Piero).  I remember the day I signed up he had a copy of Grey's Anatomy on his desk, at the time I thought that was kind of weird.  I have a pretty tattered copy myself that I keep with my notebook.  Both of my younger brothers went to brown with him, and loved it.


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## Matt (Feb 25, 2007)

Mark L said:


> That's interesting, I followed the link at Masters Centers website to the Wakefield school.  An 8th dan co-leading a small chain and teaching Karate for Kids with a maximum of 15 students per class, I bet he can't wait to go to work every day. I'm truly envious.
> 
> Though I was only at that school for a year, it was the perfect introduction to the MA.  He's very skilled, as were a few of his instructors (Phil Hardcastle(?), Piero).  I remember the day I signed up he had a copy of Grey's Anatomy on his desk, at the time I thought that was kind of weird.  I have a pretty tattered copy myself that I keep with my notebook.  Both of my younger brothers went to brown with him, and loved it.



It used to be a much larger chain, but suffered a bit of an implosion in about 2003. None of the schools left due to Bob Nohelty or Jim Bryant's skill level. I always felt that much of the cohesiveness problem at MSDC was due to the fact that it was essentially, 'the people who leave clubs club'. It was formed by people who felt that they couldn't best serve their students in the confines of the FVSSD chain. When schools almost immediately began splitting off, it shouldn't have been too big a surprise. 

Matt


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## shaolin ninja 4 (Mar 1, 2007)

How many schools does Grand master Cal have?


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## student68 (Mar 12, 2007)

GM. Carozzi has no other schools but the one on Main St. in Peabody MA. However he has some control over the Waltham dojo on Moody St.
(VILARI's 1st. Local) Paul A. one of his old students runs the dojo there in Waltham. 

At one time there were 5 dojos but it was short lived for the groups togetherness, all of them where owned by the men who ran them but they did fly the Carozzi flag of U.S.K.K. (United Shaolin Kempo Karate).

TIME est. 1998-2001 or 2002 from ME to NH and three in MA.


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## Jdokan (Mar 13, 2007)

student68 said:


> GM. Carozzi has no other schools but the one on Main St. in Peabody MA. However he has some control over the Waltham dojo on Moody St.
> (VILARI's 1st. Local) Paul A. one of his old students runs the dojo there in Waltham.
> 
> At one time there were 5 dojos but it was short lived for the groups togetherness, all of them where owned by the men who ran them but they did fly the Carozzi flag of U.S.K.K. (United Shaolin Kempo Karate).
> ...


 
Actually the school locations were: the Burlington school (now Pence Defense) The Waltham School  / Paul Alagna, Bruce Cross in Maine...Bill Buresh also flew Cal's flag....Each school was independently owned....But none in NH..He was attempting to open one in Ipswich and I thought he did have a guy in Gloucester that was going to join him not sure how that turned out....Paul  is the only school that is operational and still with Cal...Kevin has moved on, both Bruce and Bill closed out I belive Bruce still has a small following...As far as short lived...just the opposite they were pretty cohesive since the split from Masters....


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## Roman (Mar 20, 2007)

Jdokan said:


> Actually the school locations were: the Burlington school (now Pence Defense) The Waltham School  / Paul Alagna, Bruce Cross in Maine...Bill Buresh also flew Cal's flag....Each school was independently owned....But none in NH..He was attempting to open one in Ipswich and I thought he did have a guy in Gloucester that was going to join him not sure how that turned out....Paul  is the only school that is operational and still with Cal...Kevin has moved on, both Bruce and Bill closed out I belive Bruce still has a small following...As far as short lived...just the opposite they were pretty cohesive since the split from Masters....



I don't know about the rest, but I know Master Bruce Cross runs a small dojo in North Yarmouth, Maine.  He was muscled out of main stream business by competitors, mainly because the dojo he ran was far more strict and harder to advance in than others.


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## Jdokan (Mar 21, 2007)

Roman said:


> I don't know about the rest, but I know Master Bruce Cross runs a small dojo in North Yarmouth, Maine. He was muscled out of main stream business by competitors, mainly because the dojo he ran was far more strict and harder to advance in than others.


Roman:  DO you talk with Bruce on occassion?  If so Please tell him that I said hi....
Jeff,


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## student68 (May 7, 2007)

While not still with Gm Carozzi, as an "affilliate dojo" Sensei Bryon Pence just opened a new dojo in Beverly MA. www.RedFistKempo.com . He still teaches Carozzi's brand of kempo "San Chai Na" Kempo. 

Yes he's The brother of Sensei Kevin Pence of Pence Self-Defense in 
Burlington MA. www.BostonKarate.Net


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## Carol (May 7, 2007)

student68 said:


> While not still with Gm Carozzi, as an "affilliate dojo" Sensei Bryon Pence just opened a new dojo in Beverly MA. www.RedFistKempo.com . He still teaches Carozzi's brand of kempo "San Chai Na" Kempo.
> 
> Yes he's The brother of Sensei Kevin Pence of Pence Self-Defense in
> Burlington MA. www.BostonKarate.Net



So that's where the other Pence brother is   

I see Kevin at MARI from time to time...he's mentioned his brother a lot but I never found out what he was doing.  Thanks S68 :asian:


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## SKKnidan (Jan 24, 2012)

Mark L said:


> That's interesting, I followed the link at Masters Centers website to the Wakefield school. An 8th dan co-leading a small chain and teaching Karate for Kids with a maximum of 15 students per class, I bet he can't wait to go to work every day. I'm truly envious.
> 
> Though I was only at that school for a year, it was the perfect introduction to the MA. He's very skilled, as were a few of his instructors (Phil Hardcastle(?), Piero). I remember the day I signed up he had a copy of Grey's Anatomy on his desk, at the time I thought that was kind of weird. I have a pretty tattered copy myself that I keep with my notebook. Both of my younger brothers went to brown with him, and loved it.



I studied at the Burlington school for about 10 years before college.  Bob, Piero and Phil were great instructors. I have alot of great memories and still draw on the skills i learned from them almost daily.


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## LawDog (Jan 31, 2012)

I did not know that Cal was still teaching, I haven't seen him in decades.


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## Julia Buresh (Oct 16, 2017)

Long shot - posting on very old thread here but I am looking to get in touch with GM Cal Carrozzi. Per YELP his school in Peabody is closed. My dad was Bill Buresh who studied under GM Carrozzi. My Dad passed away two years ago and I have since taken up martial arts in Cambridge MA. I would love to connect with GM Carrozzi and perhaps take a lesson from him. He did come to my Dad's wake but I didn't have the chance to ask him for his contact information. Any leads are appreciated!


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## Jdokan (Feb 15, 2018)

Julia I was a long time friend of your Dad's we worked out together at Cals' for years. - My deepest sympathies for your loss of him. I do think of him often.
Probably the best way to see him is at a seminar at Paul's' school in Waltham - he does conduct them periodically.  After Cal shut down his Salem location I don't think he has re-opened anywhere else....
You can respond to me here: jeffjones54@yahoo.com if that is easier...


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## SKKnidan (Feb 18, 2021)

SKKnidan said:


> I studied at the Burlington school for about 10 years before college.  Bob, Piero and Phil were great instructors. I have alot of great memories and still draw on the skills i learned from them almost daily.


Anyone here from the old FVSSD or Masters Self Defense in Burlington?


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