You know what comes next. You know which student is ready and which needs another month. You know why the syllabus is ordered the way it is, even if nobody has ever written it down.
That works, right up until you are ill, or you take on a second class, or an assistant covers for you, or you want to sell the club one day. This course is about getting what you know out of your head and into a form that survives you.
Lesson two is called What Your Students Are Actually Learning, and it is deliberately the first real lesson of the course, because everything after it depends on being honest about that gap.
Almost every club has one. The techniques that get drilled every week because you enjoy them. The ones on the grading sheet that get ten minutes in the fortnight before. The theory nobody has covered since 2019 but which is still, officially, required. The white belt who has done more sparring than the green belt purely because of which nights they attend.
None of that makes anyone a bad instructor. It makes them an instructor without a curriculum, which is a different problem and a fixable one.
Eighteen lessons across six modules, finishing on a final examination. Our longest coaching-craft course, and the one that changes how a club runs rather than how a single session goes.
The uncomfortable starting point: the gap between the syllabus you think you teach and what your students are genuinely learning.
Capturing an entire art in a form somebody else could teach from, then building a progression framework that holds together.
Schemes of work across terms and blocks, the rhythm of introducing and embedding, a full library of drills and theory, and writing a lesson plan that comes out of the curriculum rather than out of the air.
Skill acquisition applied to the mat, and how progression has to change between a child, a teenager and an adult beginner.
The problem every club has and almost no curriculum accounts for: designing for access from the outset, structuring a genuinely mixed-ability class, and running the same drill at different demands.
What senior grades do once the syllabus runs out, how to use assistant instructors properly, and reviewing a curriculum so it evolves rather than calcifies.
This is not a beginner course and it does not pretend to be. It sits above the single session and asks what the whole thing is for.
Very few clubs have the luxury of streamed classes. Most have a hall containing a nervous beginner, three intermediates, a brown belt and somebody returning after two years off, all at seven o’clock on a Tuesday, all expecting to get something out of it.
Module Five is entirely about that room. Inclusion designed in from the start rather than adapted for afterwards, structuring a genuinely mixed-ability session, and differentiation in practice: the same drill run at different demands so nobody is bored and nobody is drowning.
It is the module most likely to change what next Tuesday looks like, and it pairs directly with our SEND and Coaching Children awards, which come at the same room from different angles.
Lesson nine is Writing a Lesson Plan From Your Curriculum, and that is precisely the point at which most instructors stall. Not because they do not know what to teach, but because building a scheme of work in a notebook, term after term, is genuinely tedious and the first busy week kills it.
The BMABA Lesson Planner is the tool for exactly that job, and it is free with every membership. Build sessions on a visual timeline, keep a library of your own drills and warm-ups so nothing is rebuilt from scratch, and use an AI assistant grounded in your own material rather than in generic sports content.
The two are designed to meet. This course produces the curriculum; the Planner is where it becomes a term of actual sessions, and where reflection after each one feeds back into the next review.
Explore The Lesson PlannerLesson sixteen is Working With Assistant Instructors, and it is the hinge between this course and the rest of what we do. You cannot hand a class to somebody until there is something to hand over.
Once the curriculum exists, the Instructor Training Pathway gives you the framework to develop the person who is going to teach it: your own required CPD, your own competencies, your own hours, logged and signed off, with a certificate at the end that a national framework stands behind.
The Instructor Training PathwayA governing body that never changes its own qualifications is not being consistent, it is being inattentive. Our CPD catalogue is reviewed on a rolling cadence rather than left to age, and reviewed again out of cycle whenever something material shifts: new legislation, updated statutory guidance, a sector-wide review, or clubs telling us that what we teach no longer matches what they are dealing with.
Curriculum design used to sit as scattered material inside the coaching pathway, a section here and an example there. It became clear it was doing a different job from the rest: the coaching qualifications teach you to deliver a session, and this teaches you to decide what the sessions are for. It is now a course in its own right, sitting above the single lesson.
Our workforce of instructors, assistant instructors and volunteers is who this is for. When their job changes, the training that supports it should already have changed, rather than catching up afterwards.
Pedagogy is a field with a great deal of research behind it and a great deal of confident nonsense in front of it. Here is what sits behind ours.
BMABA is a CIMSPA Endorsed Training Provider, and we map our qualifications to a recognised professional standard wherever one exists. Mapped is not the same as endorsed: a course is only formally CIMSPA Endorsed CPD once it has been submitted, reviewed and certified, and we say so on the course itself when it has.
We are listed on the UK Register of Learning Providers under UKPRN 10098149, the government-maintained record of organisations delivering learning in the United Kingdom. Check our listing.
Skill acquisition and curriculum theory are borrowed from education and sport science, but the application is ours: grades, kata, sparring progressions, mixed-ability halls and the transfer from junior syllabus to adult.
Certified under UKAS accreditation via the British Assessment Bureau. There is a certain symmetry in a course about reviewing and evolving a curriculum being written by an organisation required to review and evolve its own.
Also UKAS accredited, with zero non-conformities at our most recent audit. Your training record and personal data sit inside a certified Information Security Management System.
We hold a seat on the Martial Arts Safeguarding Group, sit on a CIMSPA advisory board, hold Cyber Essentials certification, and are named in Sport England’s own safeguarding guidance for martial arts.
Straight from the membership inclusion handbook, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Our qualifications and awards are delivered entirely online through our own learning platform, on the website or in the BMABA app. Phone, tablet, laptop, whatever you have in your hand.
Your place is saved as you go, so you can do a lesson on your lunch break, another while the kids are at training, and finish the exam on a Sunday evening. Nothing expires part way through and nothing has to be done in one sitting.
Eighteen lessons is our longest coaching-craft course, and most people take it a module at a time over several weeks while rebuilding their syllabus alongside it. Your place is saved and there is no deadline, which is exactly how it should be studied.
Eighteen lessons, six modules, an exam and a certificate the same day. Included with Silver and Gold membership.
This is one course out of more than thirty in the library. Every one is written for martial arts specifically, delivered online, mapped to CIMSPA professional standards where a standard exists, and included with membership rather than sold separately.
Well 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.Facebook recommendation
Been 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.Google review
A 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.Google review
Simply 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.Google review
Previously 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.Google review
Having 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.Google review
Great people to work with.Facebook recommendation
Having 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.Member review
I 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.Member review
Found 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.Member review
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.Member review
I 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.Member review
As 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. 💙🐺👊Member review
As 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"Facebook
As 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!!Facebook
Always 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 highlyMember review
Simply 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.Facebook
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CPD Built To National StandardsBMABA CIC is a CIMSPA Training Provider Partner. Our courses are developed in line with CIMSPA professional standards, with programmes submitted for formal endorsement and confirmed course by course as approvals are granted.Explore The Course Library →Award winning, completely free, with no per-student fees. Not now, not ever.
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