Covid-19 And UK Martial Arts

Our Pledge To Our Members

Coronavirus has had a devastating impact on UK martial arts collectively. It doesn’t matter what style in which you teach, the association you hail from or the disciplines you promote. We’re in this together.

The UK Martial Arts sector has always been fragmented and disjointed. This has led us to a point where independent instructors and clubs have become particularly vulnerable to the unstructured, under-regulated and near completely nil-funded way in which martial arts clubs ran pre-lock down. Now we begin to emerge from the most acute and severe restrictions on participation we will have ever seen, the British Martial Arts & Boxing Association believe it is a time to pull togetherput aside differences and rebuild UK martial arts.

With this in mind, we have made a pledge to our community and members to leave absolutely no room for question or doubt surrounding our intent and obligations.

Our Pledge

We will ensure all of the below actions are actively provided and supported until the impact of Covid-19 and it’s damage to UK martial arts has been completely healed.

  1. We will ensure that every instructor, volunteer and trainee coach will be provided with free access to our Covid-Aware Instructor Qualification with full certification upon completion. LEARN MORE
  2. We will continue to update and develop our Covid-19 Recovery Toolkit, providing everything from Covid-Aware posters and distancing material through to the latest Government Guidance, Covid Risk Assessments and Liaison Services for Venues & Councils. LEARN MORE
  3. We will continue to curate our entire online training section which provides guidance, advise, template risk assessments, legal considerations and commercial help setting up and running effective remote, live and online training. LEARN MORE
  4. We will work with instructors, clubs and associations from any part of the UK martial arts market without prejudice, to ensure the vast resources and knowledge we have accumulated running at full-service during lockdown can be passed onto as many clubs and participants as possible. LEARN MORE
  5. We will speed up the release of our industry-first Student Portal, which will provide direct access to a named student liaison officer to assist with matters surrounding confidence and safety returning to training, amongst improved access to training resources, online content, insurance guidance and safeguarding assistance. LEARN MORE
  6. We will lower the cost of every single service we provide until the industry has fully recovered, pledging in-excess of £60,000 in subsidies on insurance, licensing, membership, safeguarding qualifications, first aid training and more – ensuring there are no barriers to the delivery of safe, professional martial arts. LEARN MORE
  7. We will provide pioneering technical guidance for matters surrounding gradings, syllabus adjustments, staggered progressions, safeguarding provisions and the staged return to full contact martial arts. LEARN MORE
  8. We will continue to champion the heights of UK martial arts, working in collaboration with GB Taekwondo’s Olympic Talent Pathway and other elite-level development routes, to ensure no child looses the right chance to be recognised for their talent. LEARN MORE
  9. We will provide as standard with any BMABA insurance cover for online live-teaching, online pre-recorded content, outdoor training and – when permitted – indoor training. LEARN MORE
  10. We will provide £1,000,000 Professional Indemnity insurance and £250,000 Abuse Extension Insurance at no extra cost and as standard with all martial arts instructor public liability insurance combined with membership. LEARN MORE
  11. We will ensure we are contactable 7 days a week to provide support and to help members get their money’s worth from membership, providing access to telephone, SMS, live-chat, video-conference and email contact. LEARN MORE
  12. We will continue to provide access to the latest guidance and best practice, curated and referenced against industry-leading sources like the Sport & Recreation Alliance. LEARN MORE
  13. We will not delay or slow down progress on any other key provisions or services in the pipeline, such as our new cluster of qualifications and training, or our delivery of new membership features and tools. LEARN MORE
  14. We will continue to fund innovation for the way in which we provide access to resources, insurance and certification to help clubs big and small access the best possible services and provisions. LEARN MORE
  15. We will continue to offer the UK’s most comprehensive martial arts association membership including as standard a free fully hosted club website, access to stock grading certificates, template documents and forms, business support, technical guidance, safeguarding advice, instructor qualifications, national club listings, advertising assistance, the Safeguarding Code for Martial Arts, martial arts print and design, health and safety guidance, DBS checks and more. LEARN MORE

Free Covid-Aware Qualifications & Certification

Every instructor, assistant instructor and volunteer will have completely free access to our industry-first Covid-Aware Martial Arts Qualification to ensure BMABA clubs can make informed decisions about the safest way to return to the mats, inline with Government guidance. This is essential in ensuring venues are happy to allow you to lease their premises, and to reassure parents you are taking your obligations toward health and safety seriously.

Covid-Recovery Toolkit

Access everything from Covid-Aware qualifications and training through to Covid-Aware marketing material, social distancing signage, floor plans, risk assessments, Covid-19 Policy template, communication templates, government guidance and so much more. Constantly evolving as the rules change, our recovery toolkit will provide your club with everything needed to make an informed decision about the safest way to return to training.

Online Delivery Resource Hub

It’s not easy producing live online lessons or pre-recorded content for your members. That’s why we put together our online delivery resource hub free of charge for all members. It provides access to tutorials and reviews for the best software and tools needed to deliver online (live) and pre-recorded content to your members. We also cover risk assessments, insurance implications, commercial matters, health and safety considerations, marketing guidance and more to help you make a real success of the power of online.

Our Door Is Always Open

Whether you’re a club or instructor with another association or indeed another organisation that could be considered ‘competition’ – it doesn’t matter. We’re in this together, and we’ll help however we can. We appreciate that we have built up a substantial and successful Group and we intend to help anyone from any background who needs it. No politics, no squabbling, no power-struggles. Martial arts as a collective is too important.

Industry-First Student Portal

Student retention matters now more so than ever before, and it’s moving online. We know there is no other association in our field offering as much content for students and parents already, but we will take that further. We will rapidly speed up the full release of our student portal to ensure there is a trusted source of news, updates and reassurance you can point parents and students toward. We will help with training guides, safety advice, Covid-matters, insurance and more. All free.

We Will Subside Everything, For As Long As It Takes

From insurance and key membership provisions to licensing, safeguarding qualifications, printing and web hosting. We will subsidise absolutely everything we have on offer to ensure it is as affordable as it can possible be. What’s more, we will keep our pricing as low as is humanly possible for as long as it takes for the UK martial arts sector to recover and for clubs to rebuild.

We Will Continue To Provide Leading Technical Guidance

We know you’ll have lots of difficult decisions ahead around gradings, syllabus adjustments and other material differences in the way you deliver classes. Rest assured we have developed a full set of Covid-Policy guidance documents to help you navigate this within a well regulated framework, and this guidance will evolve as the pandemic changes parameters surrounding contact and close-quarters training.

We Will Continue To Provide Access To Elite-Opportunities 

Martial arts should not be held back because of Coronavirus. We have already completed the ground work allowing BMABA members access to programmes like GB Taekwondo’s Fighting Chance talent pathway, which gives young people from any martial art the chance to audition for the GB Olympic Pathway. This is just one of many opportunities we will continue to pursue to help you champion martial arts at a grass route level.

Our Instructor Insurance Will Provide Cover For Online & Outdoor Training At No Extra Cost

Exactly as it says. We will provide insurance cover to protect you for delivering lessons online (both live and pre-recorded) as well as outdoors at no extra cost and as standard. All conditions and requirements will be clearly communicated.

We Will Continue To Improve Our Insurances, At Our Cost

We are automatically uplifting all BMABA instructor insurance to include as standard £1,000,000 Professional Indemnity insurance and £250,000 Abuse Extension Cover in addition to the standard Public Liability amount. This is just the start to on-going improvements to our group cover provisions.

We’re Not Run From A Bedroom. We’re A Professional Organisation Available 7 Days A Week.

Too many instructors put their trust in a part time association. We have a dedicated office with permanent staff and can provide access to text, email and live chat communication 7 days a week, with telephone access 6 days a week and the ability to arrange Zoom or other video conference calls whenever required.

We Will Continue To Provide & Improve The UK Martial Arts Industry’s Largest Collection Of Tools, Resources & Membership Features

We as standard provide access to free club websites, guidance and advise, marketing material, template documents and forms, stock grading certificates, national advertising and club listings and so, so much more. We will continue to deliver these resources and improve the tools we make available to members.

What is your association doing to help you?

We know it sounds a bit aggressive, but these are difficult times. If your association has sat on it’s hands and has not come through to deliver support for you and your members when you need it most, we welcome the chance to change that for you. You can talk to us in confidence to assess whether or not we’re right for you. No pressure, no obligation.

You can even join us for free for 6 months to see what you think.