Guro Blog#3. “KAIZEN” Principles

“Kaizen” is the Japanese word for improvement or change for the better, while this term and practice is best known in the realm of business and manufacturing, it can also apply to our martial arts training. Every so often I will teach my students something I learned outside of our system in order to increase their general martial art knowledge and then help them learn how to apply a DeCuerdas twist to it, when possible.  I feel these extracurricular lessons enhance a student’s understanding of martial art concepts and helps to further familiarize them with other systems, even if these tidbit lessons are rudimentary.  GM Gonzalez has been a proponent of cross training and instilled in me earlier on the advantages of seeking out additional knowledge and improving up our own system and my own understanding.  While our roots originated from GM Gilbert Tenio and Master Instructor John Eliab, both extraordinary FMA practitioners, it was not uncommon to see applications of joint locks and body manipulation techniques that are very similar to other systems blended into their FMA application.  It is for this reason that our art is an every evolving art with a mission to always improve for devastating simplicity. It is this type of training mentality that allows us to pickup other systems fairly well. My goal is to teach my students everything I have been taught and then give them additional information that I may pick up, (while always giving credit to where it came from). We are confident in our system yet wise enough to know that we can always improve. Kaizen!