A National Governing Body With A Social Mission At Its Core
BMABA is a social enterprise first and foremost. Everything we do supports clubs, empowers communities, and tackles real-world challenges through sport.
In 2025, our founder voluntarily converted BMABA into a regulated Community Interest Company (CIC), surrendering nearly £2 million in private value to lock in our status as a genuine social enterprise. Every penny we generate is reinvested into grassroots sport and national impact.
We use martial arts as a tool for real-world change. From trauma-informed coaching and gold-standard safeguarding to digital tools that help clubs grow and thrive, our core operations are designed to raise standards and widen access across every community in the UK. But our mission extends far beyond everyday governance. We actively lead a range of dedicated social programmes that put martial arts at the heart of solving some of the UK’s most pressing challenges.
Through Ditch The Blade, we work to prevent knife crime and serious youth violence by creating safe spaces, providing mentoring, and equipping young people with tools to make safer choices. Our Punch Like A Girl initiative empowers women and girls with confidence, self-belief, and personal safety through structured martial arts engagement. With MANtra, we support men’s and boys’ mental health through trauma-aware sport, helping them connect, heal, and grow. Our REBOOT programme offers veterans affected by trauma a route back to purpose and identity through structured martial arts pathways. The Inclusive Martial Arts campaign works to ensure disability, identity, or background is never a barrier to participation. And through the Fighting Chance Scholarship, we offer fully funded access to martial arts training, equipment and support for young people facing poverty or adversity.
This is what it means to be a governing body with purpose. Every initiative is powered not by external fundraising, but by our own infrastructure. When profit takes a back seat to impact, real change becomes possible.
Our Systemic Work
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01
Trauma Informed Coaching
We help lead the national conversation on using martial arts to support trauma recovery. Through instructor education, policy, and awareness, we help clubs adopt practices that are psychologically safe, compassionate, and empowering, especially for students affected by ACEs, PTSD, or mental health challenges.
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02
Safeguarding Leadership
BMABA CIC champions safeguarding as a core leadership responsibility, not a tick-box exercise. We set clear expectations, deliver structured CPD, and embed safeguarding across all levels of coaching, club governance, and national policy engagement.
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03
Raising Standards In Martial Arts
We exist to raise the bar for martial arts instruction in the UK. From ethical governance to technical coaching and inclusive access, our work helps ensure clubs are safe, credible, and professionally supported, with minimum standards that mean something.
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04
Regulatory Reform Campaigning
We're at the forefront of calls for fair, intelligent regulation of martial arts. Our Club Colours and RegulationReady initiatives provide practical, scalable models for accountability, helping protect students and instructors while preserving grassroots autonomy.
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05
Qualification & CPD Development
Our qualifications and CPD pathways are built specifically for martial arts, combining robust educational design with sector expertise. Whether it's safeguarding, first aid, or inclusive coaching, we provide instructors with the tools to grow confidently and competently.
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06
Research & Evidence-Led Practice
We don't rely on guesswork. Our work is shaped by ongoing research, data, and lived experience, ensuring that everything we do, from trauma coaching to programme design, is grounded in what works and where it's needed most.
Our Social Missions.
Six national programmes, funded by our own trading income, not donations, each using martial arts to change lives.
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Fighting Chance Scholarship
Opening access to martial arts for children facing poverty, hardship or exclusion by funding memberships, equipment, and support directly through clubs.
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#PunchLikeAGirl
Empowering girls and young women through martial arts, with a focus on self-confidence, boundary setting, resilience, and personal safety.
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#DitchTheBlade
Using martial arts to prevent knife crime and serious youth violence by engaging young people with positive role models, structure, and safe alternatives.
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Inclusive Martial Arts
Promoting true inclusion by supporting clubs to better serve students with disabilities, SEN, and neurodivergent needs, backed by specialist CPD and our dedicated SEND qualifications.
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MANtra
Supporting men's and boys' mental health through martial arts-led interventions that promote emotional literacy, connection, and trauma-informed training.
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REBOOT
Helping veterans and trauma-affected individuals rebuild purpose and stability through structured, psychologically aware martial arts coaching.
Join The Movement
We can't deliver national impact alone. We need great clubs like yours at the heart of it. Join BMABA CIC and become part of a movement built on standards, safeguarding, and social change. In return, we'll give you everything you need to grow, from powerful digital tools to award-winning support.
Our Mission Doesn't Stop With People. It Includes The Planet.
Fighting Chance Baby Bank
The Fighting Chance Baby Bank is a grassroots project led by our Head of Social Impact, Kirsty, who founded the initiative in 2018 to support families facing crisis, poverty, or hardship. When we refurbished our new office, we donated part of the space to provide the Baby Bank with a dedicated, secure base, helping them store and distribute essential items for babies and young children. We continue to support the Baby Bank with funding, logistics, and resources as part of our ongoing commitment to local, life-changing impact.
