Inclusive Martial Arts

Making Martial Arts Accessible, Safe, and Empowering — For Everyone

Our Inclusive Martial Arts Programme

Martial arts should be for everyone. But for too long, individuals living with disabilities or additional needs have been underrepresented, under-supported, and sometimes unintentionally excluded. Our Inclusive Martial Arts Programme is designed to change that — not just by encouraging participation, but by fundamentally improving how martial arts clubs prepare, deliver, and uphold inclusion.

This national programme has two clear goals;

1. To upskill clubs and instructors

2. To increase meaningful, supported participation in martial arts for disabled students

Upskilling Clubs — From Good Intentions to Competent Practice

We don’t believe inclusion should be an afterthought or a box-ticking exercise. That’s why we provide BMABA clubs with access to sector-leading qualifications and CPD, built around real-world challenges and practical implementation. Central to this is our Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) for Martial Arts qualification — a specialist training designed to equip clubs with the knowledge, confidence, and structure to support students with a wide range of learning needs and disabilities.

In line with our Regulation Ready framework, every participating club must assign both a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and a SENCO, ensuring that inclusion is not only encouraged but owned at a leadership level. Grounded in ISO 9001:2015 principles, this dual-role requirement helps clubs embed meaningful, ongoing accountability around safeguarding and inclusivity — not just in policy, but in day-to-day delivery.

Encouraging Participation — Ensuring Everyone Feels Welcome

Training staff is only part of the picture. We actively support clubs in making their spaces more accessible, more welcoming, and more visibly inclusive. This includes helping instructors communicate their inclusive ethos to families and carers, sharing inclusive messaging with local communities, and offering guidance on adapting training environments or routines for a diverse range of needs.

Under BMABA’s regulation, inclusive practice becomes more than an ideal — it becomes a standard. Whether someone is living with a physical disability, autism, ADHD, sensory processing issues, or another form of additional need, our goal is simple: to ensure they are seen, supported, and empowered through martial arts. We believe the life-changing benefits of martial arts — confidence, resilience, discipline, community — should be available to everyone.

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Make Inclusion Your Standard, Not Just a Slogan.

Join hundreds of BMABA clubs already leading the way in making martial arts safe, welcoming, and empowering for every student. Get trained. Get certified. Change lives.

"I spent years being told I was different like it was a hindrance. Martial Arts helped me to see it was just another challenge I could nail."

"There's no such thing as 'can't', that's what my Mother used to say. Unfortunately being born with a severe disability made life anything but straightforward and during my time in school, I lost that can-do attitude. It was an opportunistic encounter with a martial arts club in which an instructor had completed disability inclusion coaching that helped me to rediscover my innate 'fire'. My belt is the only thing that differentiates me from other students. It's a place in which I am truly accepted for me.

Applicable Programme: Inclusive Martial Arts

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