EXCLUSIVE TO BMABA
#PunchLikeAGirl
Empowering Women. Elevating Clubs. Changing the Narrative.
Martial arts has the potential to empower, uplift, and transform — but for too long, women and girls have been underrepresented on the mats, particularly in leadership roles. BMABA’s #PunchLikeAGirl programme is changing that.
Driven by data and built for impact, this national initiative is designed to create safer, more inclusive spaces for women and girls across every martial arts discipline. It champions female leadership, supports clubs in becoming truly welcoming, and offers direct intervention for women and girls at risk.
Our 2025 survey data confirms the need for action: just 8.3% of instructors across the UK martial arts community are women — despite women making up 31.7% of overall participants. It’s clear there’s a new generation of women and girls rising through the ranks, but this momentum can only be sustained with the right culture, frameworks, and support in place.
Of Students Are Female
Are Instructors
Part One: Grassroots Engagement
Helping Clubs Become Genuinely Inclusive
The first strand of #PunchLikeAGirl focuses on helping clubs take meaningful steps toward inclusion — not through box-ticking or token gestures, but through real culture change.
We support clubs in recognising and removing barriers to participation, from language and gender assumptions to club policies and class structures. We fund and provide:
Instructor training and qualifications tailored for working with women and girls
Inclusive policy frameworks, including welfare, inclusion, and safeguarding
Marketing assets and communication templates designed to speak to female audiences
Support for launching women-only classes or safe-space sessions within existing timetables
The goal? A martial arts culture where women and girls feel respected, safe, and empowered to train and lead — not as the exception, but as the standard.
Part Two: Funded Projects
Supporting Women and Girls at Risk
The second strand of #PunchLikeAGirl delivers trauma-informed, self-protection and personal empowerment workshops for women and girls at risk of violence. This includes survivors of rape, sexual violence, and domestic abuse, as well as preventative workshops in schools and community settings.
Our pilot-funded sessions are aiming to deliver impact across the UK, including:
Women-only self-defence workshops for survivors of trauma
Mother and daughter sessions to foster intergenerational resilience
Community outreach in youth groups, women’s shelters, and schools
These sessions are facilitated exclusively by BMABA instructors who are stringently vetted, trauma-informed, and equipped with nationally recognised safeguarding credentials. Everything is designed to ensure safety, emotional care, and professionalism at every level.
While funding is currently limited, we’re scaling toward a wider rollout of micro-grants and financial support to enable more clubs to deliver these high-impact interventions.
Why This Matters
The numbers speak volumes. Nearly one in three martial artists in the UK are women, yet less than 1 in 12 instructors are female. That gap isn’t due to lack of ability or interest — it’s due to structural barriers, outdated perceptions, and a lack of visible pathways for progression.
#PunchLikeAGirl is about fixing that — from both ends. We’re supporting clubs to become more inclusive from the inside out, while simultaneously reaching out to women and girls who might otherwise never set foot on a mat.
We’re not here to tip the scales unfairly or pit genders against one another. Our goal is simple: to make it just as normal to see a woman leading a class as it is a man. Because inclusion isn’t about sidelining anyone — it’s about making sure no one is left behind.
Built on Standards. Driven by Purpose.
As with all of our national programmes, #PunchLikeAGirl is grounded in BMABA’s gold-standard approach to safeguarding, inclusion, and trauma-informed practice. Every participating club and instructor is held to enhanced standards, including:
Safeguarding training
DBS checks and first aid
Trauma-informed coaching certification
Mental health and SEN inclusion frameworks
Clear, enforceable club policies
We’re not just encouraging inclusion — we’re building the infrastructure that makes it meaningful and sustainable. The programme isn’t just open to female instructors either – we encourage and welcome our male instructors who wish to provide dedicated women’s only spaces and classes to get involved, and lead from the front.
Run A Club?
Whether you’re a club looking to grow, a female instructor ready to lead, or a community partner supporting women and girls, we want to work with you.
"I spent years trying to cope with the trauma of rape. I never believed close-contact combat sports would help me recover."
Applicable Programme: #PunchLikeAGirl
"I spent years in an abusive relationship, feeling as if I was powerless. Three minutes into martial arts, and I re-connected with that bit of me that had been shut off for so many years."
Applicable Programme: #PunchLikeAGirl
