Stop planning sessions on the drive to the dojo.
Build proper lesson plans on a visual timeline, let an AI assistant that understands your class do the heavy lifting, then track how your teaching actually develops week to week. Free with every BMABA membership, built by a not-for-profit governing body.
Planning is the part of coaching nobody gives you time for
Most instructors plan in their head on the way to the club, or rebuild the same session from scratch every few weeks because last time it only existed on a scrap of paper. The BMABA Lesson Planner and Pedagogy Tool gives your club a proper home for session planning: a shared lesson bank, a visual builder, an AI assistant that understands martial arts, and the reporting to show whether your teaching is genuinely progressing or quietly going in circles.
It is included with membership at no extra cost, because we are a not-for-profit Community Interest Company and our job is to raise standards, not to sell you software.
Every session your club has ever taught, in one place.
Your club gets its own dashboard holding a growing bank of lesson plans. Build a session once and it stays there, ready to run again, adapt for a different grade, or hand to another coach. No more digging through notebooks, phone notes and half-remembered plans from eighteen months ago.
Start with who is actually in front of you.
Set the basics first: skill levels, session duration, the styles being taught and your age bandings. Everything downstream, from the AI suggestions to the coverage reporting, understands the session in that context. A plan built for a mixed-ability juniors class is not the same plan as one for an adult gradings session, and the tool knows it.
See the shape of your class before you teach it.
Build the session as a visual, colour-coded timeline. Drop in blocks for warm-ups, technical work, drilling, sparring, conditioning, cool-downs and anything else. Choose from a large library of built-in categories or create your own. At a glance you can see whether you have given technique twelve minutes or forty, and whether the intensity curve of the session actually makes sense.
Move it, time it, colour it, reorder it.
Click into any block to change its colour coding, adjust the timing, move its position, or change where it sits in the running order. Restructuring a session is a matter of seconds rather than rewriting the whole plan. Shorten the warm-up, push sparring later, swap two blocks around, and the timeline updates as you go.
Write the plan, and the backup plan.
Every block, whether it is a warm-up, technical work or sparring, has room for your own notes and contingencies. Record exactly what you intend to teach, the coaching points you want to hit, and what you will do instead if numbers are low, the mats are busy, or the group is not ready for what you had planned. The session survives contact with reality.
An assistant that understands the class, not just the words.
Plan with AI and you get a system that reads the context you have already set: ability, skill levels, the styles you teach, session length and your age bandings. Ask it to fill a block, suggest progressions, or rework a session that is not flowing, and what comes back fits the class you are actually teaching rather than a generic template.
Load techniques and drills straight from your own library.
The planner can look across your broader syllabus and load techniques and drills from your own library rather than making things up. If you already use Dojo Manager, your graded syllabus, technique library and drill bank are right there, so a session plan is built from the curriculum you actually teach. Anything you have already specified or written stays yours and gets reused.
Switch to the view you actually teach from.
Flip from the plan tab to the running order and you get a clean visual breakdown: times, colour coding, categories, techniques and everything you asked to include. Read it the night before, print it for the folder, or glance at it on your phone between blocks. No scrolling through a document trying to work out what comes next.
In your pocket, mid-session.
The running order is built to be read at a glance on a phone, which is how most coaching actually happens. Two minutes left on the drill, a quick look down, and you know exactly what is next and how long it gets.
Are you building on last week, or starting again?
The pedagogy tab lets you link any number of sessions or weeks together and see the thread running through them. Build session links so week one leads into two, three and four, and see whether you are genuinely scaffolding a technique or hopping between unrelated material. You can pick a single component, bagwork for example, and track it across your plans to check it is landing at the right point in the session and developing over time.
Repetition or progression? Now you can tell.
The coverage tab shows exactly where your techniques are being taught across your plans, so you can see whether students are being drilled on the same handful of things repeatedly or genuinely building. It surfaces the gaps too: the material you always mean to cover and somehow never do.
Assign plans to real classes on a real timetable.
Schedule classes against the BMABA club management platform and stop guessing. Set classes in a calendar format, assign lesson plans to them properly, and view everything as a calendar or a list. It works alongside the classes you already have scheduled, so your lesson plans sit on your timetable instead of in a folder somewhere.
Anyone with MyBMABA access can be brought in.
Grant access to anyone on your team with a MyBMABA account: assistant instructors, volunteers, other coaches. Everyone can see what is planned, what is scheduled and what is still missing, which means cover for a session no longer starts with a phone call asking what you were going to teach.
The bit almost nobody does, made easy.
Once a session has run, the review tab lets you record what actually happened. We never got to the throws, but we spent longer on grip fighting and it went far better than expected. Next time you sit down to plan, those notes are waiting for you, so the plan you write is informed by the class you really taught rather than the one you intended to. Over a season this is the difference between teaching for ten years and teaching one year ten times.
A coaching conversation that carries across weeks
Planning is rarely a one-off act. Notes, comments and reviews all live with the sessions themselves, so the thinking behind your teaching does not evaporate the moment the mats are stacked.
Comment on what is coming up
Leave notes on an upcoming session before it runs. Flag a student to watch, a technique that needs revisiting, or a change of plan for the coach covering Thursday.
Review what actually happened
Record the honest version afterwards. What landed, what overran, what you skipped, and what you did instead that worked better than the thing you had planned.
Look back before you plan forward
When you next sit down to plan, every comment and review from previous sessions is there in front of you, so the next plan starts from what really happened rather than a blank page.
A journal, if you teach alone
Solo instructors get the same benefit without the team. Keep a running record of what is working, spot your own patterns over a term, and watch your coaching develop in writing.
Coaching feedback for bigger teams
With several coaches on the mat, shared reviews keep everyone working to the same plan and make feedback a normal part of the week rather than an awkward conversation.
Development you can evidence
A written record of reflection and improvement is exactly the sort of evidence that supports coaching development, CPD and your club’s governance standards.
This is not a general chatbot with a gi on.
Plenty of coaches have tried asking a general purpose AI for a lesson plan and got something that reads well and teaches badly. Ours is built and provisioned specifically for martial arts coaching, and it works from the context you have already given it: your ability levels, your age bandings, your session length, the styles you teach, and where you are in your own syllabus.
Scoped to the job
The assistant is provisioned for session planning and coaching, with guardrails suited to the sector. It is not a general assistant that happens to answer martial arts questions.
Grounded in your own material
It draws on your syllabus, your technique library and your drill bank rather than inventing content, so suggestions match the curriculum you actually teach.
Written for UK martial arts
British English, UK coaching conventions and sector expectations, from a governing body that works with more than 6,500 instructors and clubs.
And your club’s plans are held properly
Your lesson plans, session notes and coaching reviews are club records. They sit inside independently audited management systems rather than on a personal laptop or in a consumer chat tool with unclear retention.
- ISO 27001:2022 information security management, certified under UKAS accreditation, covering how your data is stored, accessed and retained.
- ISO 9001:2015 quality management, certified under UKAS accreditation, covering how the platform is built, changed and supported.
- Cyber Essentials certified, with access controlled through your MyBMABA account and granted only to the people you choose.
Better sessions. Less Sunday night.
Join free, log in to MyBMABA, and start building your club’s lesson bank tonight. There is no licence to buy, no per-coach fee, and no upgrade waiting behind the good features.
Multi-Award Winning & Nationally Recognised
Built by a governing body, not sold by a software company.
BMABA CIC is a regulated, independently audited, multi-award winning social enterprise. We hold ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001:2022 certification under UKAS accreditation, we are Cyber Essentials certified, and we are overseen by the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies with a legal asset lock. Income is reinvested into grassroots martial arts rather than distributed as profit.
That is why the planner costs nothing. Today we are trusted by more than 6,500 instructors and clubs, supporting over 100,000 members across more than 200 disciplines.
The planner works hardest alongside the rest of your membership
Everything below is included too, and each one makes the lesson planner more useful than it is on its own.
Dojo Manager
Your graded syllabus, technique library and drill bank. Connect it and the planner builds sessions from the curriculum you actually teach.
Build your syllabusClub management platform
Classes, attendance, grades and payments. Schedule your lesson plans against the timetable your club already runs on.
See the platformWorkspace
A shared digital HQ for your coaching team, with files, wiki, meeting notes and projects alongside your plans.
Explore WorkspaceCPD and qualifications
Curriculum Design and Pedagogy, Coaching Children and Young People, SEND and the full coaching pathway, mapped to CIMSPA professional standards.
Explore CPDInsurance and licensing
Public liability, professional indemnity and personal accident cover, with student licensing alongside rather than bought separately.
Explore coverRegulationReady governance
Our governance and compliance framework, with Club Colours and SCiMA recognition issued through MyBMABA.
See the frameworkMinisterial Commendation And Parliamentary Recognition
“Organisations such as the British Martial Arts and Boxing Association support unaffiliated martial arts providers to adopt the safeguarding code… Providers with recognition under the code can display a logo on their promotional materials to show participants that their safety measures have been vetted.”
BMABA CIC has been recognised at the highest levels of Government for our commitment to safeguarding in martial arts. During a House of Commons debate on combat sport safety, the Minister for Sport, Stephanie Peacock MP, highlighted the British Martial Arts & Boxing Association by name for our work in supporting independent and unaffiliated clubs to adopt the Safeguarding Code in Martial Arts. This direct mention in Parliament demonstrates that our efforts to raise standards and protect participants are shaping the national conversation on safety in combat sports.
Following that debate, the Minister for Sport wrote formally to commend BMABA’s work, praising our role in raising safeguarding standards across the independent martial arts sector. She described our contribution as “extremely useful” to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s ongoing policy development, and thanked us for our ongoing efforts to make martial arts safer for children. This recognition reflects the trust placed in BMABA to help Government address urgent safeguarding challenges highlighted by recent tragedies within combat sports.
For our members and the wider martial arts community, this recognition underlines BMABA’s credibility as a leading voice for independent martial arts in the UK. It demonstrates that our grassroots-driven mission, to promote safe, inclusive, and properly governed martial arts for all, is influencing national policy and gaining ministerial support. Being referenced in Parliament and commended in writing by the Minister for Sport reinforces that BMABA is not just a governing body, but a sector-shaping organisation working to protect participants and secure the future of martial arts.
“I appreciate your ongoing efforts to make martial arts safer for children.”
What Do Our Members Say?
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D Hurt 10 Out Of 10Well I was with another organisation for 4 years and came across these guys. They have great vetting, were really helpful at every stage of my application, the actual app is amazing with training opportunities for members, also student membership. All round 10 out of 10.
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Peter R They Go Above And BeyondBeen a member for a number of years and they go above and beyond to support their members. Everything from safeguarding and legalities to certified courses, websites, club manager software, just to name a few of the benefits.
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Giles H Exemplary OrganisationA huge resource of helpful information and support for those setting up or running a martial arts club. Well put together coaching courses and great safeguarding advice and policies. Really pleased to have access to this exemplary organisation to help me with my new kickboxing club.
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VORTEX Martial Arts & Fitness More Than Just A Governing BodySimply amazing. BMABA are more than just a governing body for martial arts, they are a team of incredible people, always willing to go the extra mile to make sure you feel supported. Incredible customer service, amazing response time, and an honour to be governed by.
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Lena S Professional And High QualityPreviously searched for similar organisations but after speaking to Giovanni over the phone I knew that BMABA was the right one for me. He was very informative, patient and had a lot of time to answer any questions. Extremely reassuring and helpful. Their website and documentation are also very professional and high quality.
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Luke T Far More Helpful Than Any Other AssociationHaving been a part of BMABA for a short while, I can say that already they have been far more helpful than any other association I have been involved in. After 10 years of martial arts, I hope to continue instructing under BMABA for many years.
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Chris J Great People To Work WithGreat people to work with.
Facebook recommendation -
Matt J Can't Rate Them Highly EnoughHaving left my previous association in November, and being very daunted by the prospect of being responsible for all my own compliance and everything else I can honestly say BMABA have made the whole thing possible and even pleasant. The training resources are great, it's been fantastic for me to be able to quickly up skill my team, the insurance is really easy to sort out, the team are super friendly and helpful, the perks on Gold membership are also fantastic.
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John Tomsett Outstanding Club Association and Insurance ProviderI have been a customer of BMABA for two years now, and I am extremely impressed with their services. First and foremost, the customer service provided by BMABA is exceptional. Their team is responsive, professional, and genuinely dedicated to ensuring that our needs are met. Whenever we had a query or require assistance, they responded rapidly and effectively.
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Georgina E Really impressive, 21st century MA organisation. 10/10Found these guys in Martial Arts Illustrated doing a piece on professionalism in martial arts and thought, as an instructor, they might be worth looking at further. Really impressed from the moment I hit their website through to now, 3 months on as a member. Great staff, Giovanni is rediculously knowledgable and our club is now growing under the banner of what has got to be the best martial arts org in the UK.
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Michael Willington Definately recommended. Unbelievable Association.The BMABA are unlike any other org I've come across in this industry. Their honest, professional, politics free and most importantly, they know what they're doing. Website is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest, insurance is comprehensive and their overall customer service is just unlike anything else I've had in 25 years of martial arts. Amazing through and through. Would definitely recommend.
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Jonathan D BMABA – the Martial Arts Association you NEEDI joined the BMABA right in its infancy (I believe I was their second member!). Giovanni is the most helpful, respectful and genuine person who has turned the possibility of a non-political, highly respected and supportive Martial Arts Association into a reality. I could bang on for hours about the BMABA but don't take my word for it – go and visit the BMABA website and see for yourself.
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Fabian Burdett This Team Deserves A MedalAs we all know 2020 has been the year from hell for martial arts. One thing that has come out of that is BMABA have done everything in their power to keep clubs like mine up to date with what's happening and tried to push the government to notice us. Couldn't wish for a better association to be a part of. Once again big THANK YOU to you guys for all the help. 💙🐺👊
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Matthew Robert Cooling-Stones These guys are the real dealAs i'm heading into the brave world of starting up my own small self defence club in our village, i can say with complete honesty and satisfaction that BMABA have been the most supportive and upfront association i have come across. i have seen and had first hand experience with the Mcdojo's offering you the greatest adventures of a life time. but these guys are the real deal… i hold my head high, and say with great pride "i am a BMABA member"
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Anna Martensson Highly IMPRESSED by the BMABAAs someone with 22 years of experience in martial arts, who saw enough big egos and leaders who only look after their own benefits… I am highly IMPRESSED by the BMABA. I wanted to make sure they don't just promise the world but actually deliver. They support us all the way and constantly look for new ways of making our whole industry better for ALL of us. THANK YOU!!
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Adrian Jackson Always quick to respond and thoughtfulAlways quick to respond and thoughtful. Great service delivered at a very reasonable price and very supportive of the community. Been a member for a couple of years now and recommend highly
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Daniel Leaver Simply the best organisation I have ever worked withSimply the best organisation I have ever worked with. Everything is so stress free and I am definitely sticking with them for the rest of my career.
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One drawer in a very large toolbox.
Everything below arrives on the same membership, at the same price of nothing. Most clubs join for one of these and end up using six.
None of this is a loss leader.
BMABA CIC is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company and the independent martial arts governing body for around 1,500 clubs and more than 6,500 instructors across 200+ disciplines. We hold ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001:2022 under UKAS accreditation, we are regulated by the CIC Regulator with a legal asset lock, and we have been named in the House of Commons by the Minister for Sport.
The software is free because the asset lock means there is no margin to protect and no shareholder to pay. Membership income funds the next tool, the next course and the next member service, which is exactly why the qualifications, the insurance and the safeguarding support sit alongside the technology rather than being sold separately.
Plan it once. Teach it properly. Improve it every time.
Join free and open the Lesson Planner tonight. Your first session plan takes about ten minutes.
- Visual colour-coded session timeline
- AI assistant that understands your class
- Techniques and drills from your own syllabus
- Running order built for a phone on the mat
- Pedagogy and coverage across weeks
- Scheduled against your club timetable
- Access for your whole coaching team
- Free with every BMABA membership
