Does your martial arts club have these in place? We certainly do.
These 5 things below are an absolute minimum requirement for any martial arts club, and without them, you should think twice about signing up with them.
Check out this important page from our association for some independent advice on what to look for in a martial arts club, can your club provide you all of this information?
1 – Are the instructors black belts?
Anyone teaching should at least have the skills and knowledge to teach others, and a minimum requirement of a black belt is a national teaching standard. Being a black belt does not automatically make you a good teacher, but it does mean you will have many years of training behind you.
2 – Have they had proper training?
Have they had martial arts instructor training? if not, then why not?
Teaching is more than just teaching people to kick and punch, there is a lot more that goes into a nationally recognised instructor training programme and all of our instructors follow that to ensure the highest standards are met. We follow the MAIUK Training programme as set out on the CMAA website.
3 – Do they have the proper insurance?
Clubs and instructors have to be insured, and they should be able to show you a copy of the insurance document with the instructors name on it (not a club or general name). It is worth noting that if the instructor is not of a black belt level then chances are they are not insured, as no insurance company will insure anyone to run a club that is not black belt level.
We always share a copy of the insurance certificate on our website, so you don’t have to ask.
4 – Are the instructors DBS Checked?
This is an absolute must for anyone teaching and does not just cover teaching children, it covers adults as well, as some are classified as vulnerable and the enhanced DBS check requirements are the same. All of our instructors are enhanced DBS checked, including the chief instructor, Wayne Timlin, and we also share a copy of the DBS check which must be done every 2 years.
5 – Is there a clear pricing policy?
You shouldn’t have to ask the prices for anything, or what is costs to train, and you should be able to find all of this on the website somewhere easy and clear. In a number of cases it’s hidden and people are unable to find it, often because it’s very expensive and they don’t like to advertise this openly. Ours is here.
If any of these are not in place then you need to ask yourself why.
Our organisation, the cobra martial arts association, our national governing body, makes sure we have each and every one of these in place if we want to be part of this group.
