Kaizen Ryu training is a process of change. A weak person trains to become strong. A strong person trains to learn how to control that strength. An aggressive person trains to learn self-control, while a passive person should try to develop confidence in their abilities. Many of the benefits of Kaizen Ryu training only become apparent after a number of years of training, and can be understood only by those who have had similar experiences.

Kaizen Ryu will not only improve your ability to defend yourself against physical attack, but will also improve your speed, timing, awareness, mobility and striking ability. Sparring prepares you for a fight by exposing you to an opponent, so enabling you to experience the nerves or 'adrenaline rush' caused by facing a higher-grade or more skilful person. Our Self-Defence classes prepare the student for attacks other than sparring whether they be from a Choke, Grab, wrestling on the ground or even if attacked with a weapon.

Kaizen Ryu training will see improvement in your strength, stamina and suppleness. At the beginning of class it is common practice to spend up to fifteen minutes going through a series of exercises designed to prepare the body for training by warming up muscles and stretching the joints. These exercises, combined with the effort involved in performing the punches, kicks, locks, throws and other techniques of the Martial Arts, have the effect of improving your level of health and fitness.

Kaizen is a traditional Japanese word that means CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT and the word Ryu means School. The full meaning behind KAIZEN RYU is:

The School of Constant Improvment

As a freestyle karate art, Kaizen Ryu incorporates the best of many fighting systems mainly Australian, Japanese & Filipino, but also from, Ju-Jitsu combat arts, Western Boxing, Judo and Wrestling etc. Our traditional kata`s are Japanese but orientated towards a modern application for today’s society. However, as a no-nonsense, practical Martial Art, its principal fighting philosophy remains: `IF IT WORKS USE IT’. You could say that Kaizen Ryu Freestyle is the art of truth, because it grabs the best from all things and turns them into a very simple and effective Self-Defence system.

In Kaizen Ryu Freestyle proficiency is the only limitation to progression. We are different from other schools as we have a very open minded approach to training. Although our philosophy is hundreds of years old, and as history has shown us we are constantly improving every day of our lives, men and women have always strived to be better, and to truly progress one must be adaptable to change.

Kaizen Ryu Freestyle is a system which will improve you physically and mentally, as well as to make each student a more positive person by developing a good character and self image. Through constant training you will be educated in fitness and health and how to defend yourself. Growth in Martial Arts is a discipline everybody can use in everyday living, it’s ethics are good and all of us can grow in our own way. To follow the principals of Martial Arts and understand them is to know the true meaning of Bushido.

Kaizen Ryu has evolved over many years in to the style that it is today. It mainly incorperates Karate, Arnis, Judo, Jujitsu, Kickboxing, Muay Thai but takes anything of use from any martial art so techniques used in styles other then these are also practiced, this is what makes Kaizen Ryu so effective, its ability to adapt.

The main history of Kaizen Ryu is its karate heratage this can be traced easily back to the late 1800's, Chojun Miyagi (Pictured right) and Goju-Ryu from Okinawa. His mentor was a well-known instructor Kanyro Higaonna. Kanyro Higaonna had studied Chinese boxing in Fukien province in 1873.

Master Miyagi's skill became well known throughout the islands and in demonstrations he displayed his unique strength and skill by his squeezing of a bamboo and breaking it and using his fingertips thrust into a side of beef hanging and penetrating the flesh. The benefits of karate were recognized by the Department of Education and became part of the physical education and a cultural activity curriculum.

In 1931 Master Miyagi visited the Japanese mainland as karate's popularity had grown. This expansion had been assisted by the propagation of the art in the universities. On this trip he visited Retsumeikan University in Kyoto and instructed Gogen Yamaguchi a student of Goju Ryu. Gogen Yamaguchi would go onto to become the leader of Goju Ryu on the Japanese mainland. In his youth Yamaguchi sensei trained in several martial arts, and it was during this period he was introduced to Karate by a family friend a carpenter, Master Murata. This involvement was to change the course of Yamaguchi's future development as a martial artist. After World War 2 Yamaguchi sensei returned as a former prisoner of war from the Manchurian campaign to find the Goju school nonexistence as many of the instructors and students were casualties of the war. Secondly the Allied occupational forces restricted the practice of martial arts.

Yamaguchi sensei was instrumental in the reconstruction of the Goju School. He traveled throughout Japan reorganizing Goju. He consolidated the Goju School in Japan and created the Goju-Kai. Initially training was conducted in secret; but his persistence and efforts were rewarded with not only a successful organization in Japan but also an organization that has spread worldwide propagating the ideals of Master Miyagi.

Tino Ceberano, an Hawaiian who was a dedicated student of Gogen Yamaguchi, was given permission to open another dojo. In the mid 1960’s Ceberano migrated to Australia where he established his own dojo in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1966. Tino Ceberano is recognised as having been one of the main influences upon the martial arts scene in Australia.

Bob Jones, who is also acknowledged as a pioneer in Australian martial arts, became a student of Tino Ceberano. Jones utilized his knowledge as a street fighter to improve some of the more traditional techniques that did not appear to be as effective in western society. Bob Jones founded Zen Do Kai in Melbourne in June 1970, and revolutionized martial arts by incorporating traditional philosophies with the more practical dynamics of modern self-defence. Bob later added the techneques of western kick-boxing and Maui Thai to the mix giving Zen-Do-Kai a powerful arsenel of techniques.

In 1993 a small group of students left the tuition of Bob jones's Zen-Do-Kai to from there own style Kaizen Ryu, this group become lead by Peter Kirkwood in Newcaslte New South Walse. Kaizen Ryu's philsophy is if it works use it for this reason over the next 10 years Judo, Ju-jitsu and Arnis were added to the style. Kaizen Ryu means the school of constant improvment and dose exactly that adding more techneques for other styles of martial arts as it continues to evolve and grow.