Become the coach
you’d want to learn from.
A complete, nationally structured coaching pathway, Foundation Coach through Qualified Coach to Senior Coach, developed in line with CIMSPA professional standards and included free with Bronze, Silver and Gold membership. Ninety-three lessons of expert-built learning, and not a penny to pay for any of it.
Coaching qualifications shouldn’t be a paywall between good martial artists and great teaching. The full three-level pathway is included free with Bronze, Silver and Gold membership, assistants receive the Foundation Coach qualification with theirs, and under-18s have their own dedicated Cadet Coaching Award. No course fees, no assessment fees, no certificate fees: just a nationally structured route from first-time assistant to senior coach, built for martial arts.
Three Levels. Ninety-Three Lessons. Zero Cost.
Foundation Coach
The complete grounding every instructor deserves: professional conduct, the full safeguarding framework, session craft, safety and duty of care, ending in the Foundation Coach examination. Included for assistants too.
See every lesson
- What Coaching Actually Is and What It Isn’t
- Professional Standards and the CIMSPA Code of Conduct
- Ethics, Boundaries, and Professional Conduct
- Reflective Practice and CPD
- The Safeguarding Framework
- Recognising Concerns
- Responding to Concerns
- Safe Recruitment and Managing Adults in Coaching
- Digital Safeguarding and Social Media
- Safe Environments and Emergency Action Plans
- Principles of Effective Coaching
- Communication Skills for Coaches
- Demonstration and Explanation
- Observation and Feedback
- Coaching Styles
- Creating Inclusive Sessions
- Learning Objectives: What They Are and How to Write Them
- Session Structure
- Differentiation for Mixed Abilities
- Equipment Management and Safety Checks
- Basic Risk Assessment
- Adapting Sessions in the Moment
- Duty of Care: What It Means in Practice
- Accidents, Incidents, and Reporting
- Common Injuries in Martial Arts
- First Aid Awareness and the BMABA Martial Arts First Aid Award
- Insurance, Legal Considerations, and Environmental Factors
- Level 1: Foundation Coach Final Examination
Qualified Coach
The science and depth of real coaching: motor learning, practice design, coaching every population from children to older adults, mental health and trauma-informed practice, mentoring, DSL-level safeguarding and your own coaching philosophy.
See every lesson
- Introduction
- How Motor Skills Are Learned
- Practice Design: Making Learning Stick
- Feedback and Motor Learning
- Designing Progressions
- Coaching for Transfer
- Child and Youth Development in Sport
- Coaching Adults: Motivation, Autonomy, and Barriers
- Coaching Older Adults
- Coaching in High-Performance and Competition Environments
- Coaching People with Disabilities and Long-Term Health Conditions
- Mental Health Awareness for Coaches
- Recognising Mental Health Concerns in Your Students
- Trauma-Informed Coaching
- Supporting Students Through Difficulty
- Creating a Psychologically Safe Training Environment
- Supervising and Developing Assistant Instructors
- Peer Observation and Coaching the Coach
- Mentoring in a Martial Arts Context
- Building a Coaching Culture
- Planning at Programme Level
- Long-Term Athlete and Practitioner Development
- Curriculum Design for Graded Pathways
- Tracking and Evidencing Student Progress
- Managing Transitions: Beginner to Intermediate, Junior to Senior
- Designated Safeguarding Lead Responsibilities
- Managing Complex Safeguarding Concerns
- Safeguarding Policy Development and Review
- Safeguarding Culture Beyond Compliance
- Building a Coaching Philosophy
- Advanced Reflective Practice
- Managing Your Own Professional Development
- Preparing for Level 3
- Level 2 Coach Final Examination
Senior Coach
Leadership at the top of the pathway: strategy, governance, high-performance programme design, coach education, organisational safeguarding, policy and legacy, the complete practitioner.
See every lesson
- Introduction to the Level 3 Senior Coach Role
- Leadership versus Management in a Coaching Organisation
- Strategic Planning for Clubs and Coaching Organisations
- Building and Leading High-Performing Coaching Teams
- Change Management in Sport Organisations
- Governance, Compliance, and Organisational Responsibility
- The Research Landscape in Coaching Science
- Expertise and Expert Performance
- Tactical and Strategic Development
- Periodisation and High-Performance Programme Design
- Advancing Your Discipline Through Gold Standard Coaching
- Ethics at Senior Coaching Level
- Welfare in High-Performance Environments
- Safeguarding at Organisational Level
- Whistleblowing and Professional Accountability
- Athlete Voice and Student-Centred Governance
- Designing Coach Education Programmes
- Mentoring at Scale
- The Senior Coach as Role Model
- Coaching Across Cultures and Contexts
- Evaluating Coaching Effectiveness at Organisational Level
- The Sport and Physical Activity Policy Landscape
- Funding and Business Development for Clubs
- Working with Schools, Local Authorities, and Community Partners
- Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion at Strategic Level
- The Future of Martial Arts Coaching
- The Senior Practitioner Identity
- Supervision, Support, and Sustainable Practice
- Contribution and Legacy
- The Complete Practitioner
- Coach Level 3 Final Examination
The Cadet Coaching Award
Young leaders get their own dedicated, age-appropriate qualification covering the role and its boundaries, duty of care, communication and demonstration, helping run sessions, working with different students, and being a role model, feeding naturally into the ITP’s Bronze, Silver and Gold cadet awards and, at 18, the full coaching pathway.
- Welcome to your Cadet Coaching Award
- What your role is, and what it is not
- Duty of care, explained
- Communicating and demonstrating well
- Helping to run a session
- Working with different students
- Being a role model
Expert Content And Tutors, Interactive At Scale
This isn’t a slideshow with a quiz at the end. Every level is built from the latest expert content, delivered by real tutors and quality assessors, and made interactive at scale with specialist AI: scenario-led lessons, rich media, integrated assessment as you go, and a learning experience that genuinely adapts to how you’re doing rather than marching everyone through identically.
- Latest expert-built content across all three levels
- Human tutors and quality assessors throughout
- Specialist AI making learning interactive at scale
Real-Time Feedback That Makes Learning Personal
IVY is our pioneering, proprietary AI-assisted learning system, and the “assisted” matters: human quality assessors and tutors remain at the heart of every qualification, with IVY working alongside them. As you study and answer, IVY provides real-time, personalised feedback on your responses, helping you understand not just whether you were right but why, adapting to your answers and making the learning process personal, adaptive and unique to you, at a scale no human-only tutoring model could reach.
- Real-time, personalised feedback on your answers
- AI-assisted, never AI-only: humans assure every award
- Adaptive learning, unique to every coach
The Whole Pathway, In Your Pocket
Study on the sofa, on the bus, or matside between classes: every lesson, assessment and certificate works beautifully on your phone through the free MyBMABA app, seamlessly synced with tablet and desktop, inside our ISO 27001:2022 certified secure environment under UKAS accreditation.
What’s Included, By MembershipAnd The Rest Of Membership Comes With You
Your qualification is one part of a much bigger toolkit, all included as you climb the pathway.
The Free Club CRM
Student records, registers, safeguarding reporting, incident logging and Return-to-Play tracking, the operational backbone behind everything you learn.
Websites & The Flo Builder
A professional club website built with you by our in-house developers, or build it yourself code-free with Flo, hosting, domain and email included.
Insurance & Licensing
Specialist martial arts cover arranged through our A-rated insurer relationship, with certification issued instantly and verifiable on the national register.
RegulationReady & Policies
Seventeen managed policies and a live governance framework that turns your training into a verifiable club standard.
The Event Hub
Run events properly: compliance built in, dedicated concussion officers, safety advocates and free event insurance.
Resources & Real Support
Model documents, teaching resources, a professional safeguarding team and one-to-one developer time, all a message away.
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ISO 9001:2015 Certified
The world's most recognised quality management standard. Our processes, governance and conduct are independently audited every year under UKAS accreditation, the same benchmark used for hospitals, universities, and major corporations.
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ISO 27001:2022 Certified
The international standard for information security, held alongside ISO 9001 as a UK martial arts first. Your club's data, your members' details and our digital infrastructure sit inside an independently audited security management system.
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Regulated Community Interest Company
We're overseen by the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies, with a legal asset lock that means our income must serve our community purpose forever. Not-for-profit as a legal structure, not a slogan.
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Safeguarding Code in Martial Arts
The Sport England-approved national safeguarding standard. We hold organisational certification and are the only independent martial arts body authorised to issue SCiMA certification to clubs in-house, through our free Club Colours programme.
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CIMSPA Training Provider Partner
Recognised by the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity. Our CPD and qualifications are developed to CIMSPA's national professional standards, with programmes submitted for formal endorsement, confirmed course by course.
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Cyber Essentials Certified
A UK Government-backed scheme confirming we hold essential security controls to protect our systems, data, and users from common cyber threats. A key mark of trust when handling sensitive safeguarding and membership data.
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Certified Social Enterprise
Independently certified by Social Enterprise UK as a genuine business for good. Our income is reinvested into grassroots martial arts, youth projects, and instructor support, not shareholders or private interests.
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UK Register of Learning Providers
A recognised organisation on the UK Government's official Register of Learning Providers (UKRLP), affirming our legitimacy as an education and training provider able to work credibly with funding bodies, employers, and public agencies.
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Registered With The ICO
Legally registered under UK data protection law, meeting our obligations under the Data Protection Act and UK GDPR. Together with ISO 27001, it protects the personal data of every member, club, and partner we work with.
Multi-Award Winning & Nationally Recognised
What Do Our Members Say?
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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 2020 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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From First Class Assisted To Senior Coach. Free, All The Way.
Ninety-three lessons, three nationally structured levels, a dedicated cadet route, human tutors and pioneering AI, all included with membership. Start your Foundation Coach qualification today.
Join Free & Start Level 1


