Our Story
The true story of how one of the UK’s leading martial arts organisations was built from nothing, and nearly lost everything.
The story
Today, BMABA supports more than 100,000 members across 200+ disciplines: a multi-award-winning, ISO-certified social enterprise recognised in Parliament and trusted across UK martial arts. But none of it was given, funded or inherited. It was built from a £20 note, carried through a pandemic on one man’s life savings, and shaped by thousands of instructors who believed in doing things differently. This is how it happened.
"Everyone said it was impossible"
BMABA was founded on 17th September 2012 by Giovanni Soffietto, then just 20 years old, with £20 of start-up capital. £4.99 of it went on the domain name. He had grown up in poverty, found his way through martial arts, and believed instructors like the ones who shaped him deserved better than the closed, political associations of the day.
He was told, repeatedly, that it couldn’t be done. That an independent body could never build a national brand, develop its own technology, or challenge associations with decades of dominance. Our first year ended with twelve members. Giovanni taught himself web design, governance, safeguarding, finance and marketing because there was no one else to do it, all while working a physical day job, seven days on, one day off.
Giovanni’s own account of growing up in poverty, the back-street gym that built him, and why martial arts is the only reason he’s here, is told in his own words.
One Club At A Time
Slowly, deliberately, and entirely on word of mouth, BMABA grew. We built what the sector had never had: modern insurance frameworks open to every style, digital licensing, professional development, and safeguarding standards that treated martial arts like the serious, nationwide activity it is. By the end of the decade, the spare-room start-up had become a national body the industry could no longer dismiss.
Then came the moment that nearly ended us
In 2020, COVID-19 closed every dojo, gym and hall in Britain, and with them, almost all of our income. We are entirely self-funded. No grants, no public money, no wealthy backers. For the best part of two years we could not properly charge the clubs we existed to serve, because they had nothing to pay with.
We faced a simple decision: wind down with dignity, or double down on the belief that martial arts had a future worth fighting for.
We doubled down. Our founder committed more than £45,000 of his personal savings, and the proceeds of selling his home, to keep BMABA alive. And rather than hibernate, we worked: producing return-to-training frameworks and guidance for the whole sector, representing martial arts to DCMS and government when few others could, and standing with clubs through the darkest period grassroots sport has ever known, largely without charge.
We cut our teeth in that fog. When the doors reopened, clubs remembered who had stood with them, and the trust earned in those two years became the foundation for everything that followed.
COVID
Converting £2M+ LTD Into A CIC
BECOMING AWARD-WINNING
Our Growing Team
Becoming what we were always meant to be
Since then, BMABA has matured into the organisation it was always building towards. In 2025, our founder voluntarily converted it into a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, surrendering nearly £2 million in private value to lock its mission in law. We became the only association of our kind certified to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001:2022 under UKAS accreditation. Our work has been recognised in Parliament, our safeguarding standards sit on Sport England’s own pages, and our platforms now provide the quiet infrastructure behind organisations across UK martial arts.
More than £2.4 million has been generated and reinvested into the community to date. Every pound of it earned, none of it given.
Where the road leads next
The story of BMABA reflects everything martial arts teaches: resilience, humility, discipline, and the courage to keep going when the odds are stacked against you. It has been shaped not by one person alone, but by thousands of instructors, clubs and members who believed in doing things differently.
To high places by narrow roads. That’s not just how we started. It’s how we’ll continue.
