Instructor grades and qualifications are important

When choosing any martial arts club or school, it is very important that you choose one where the instructors qualifications (grades) are traceable and from a legitimate source.

A lot of clubs have in house gradings, meaning their grades are not linked to a national governing body, and a lot of times this makes them worthless if you want to transfer your grades if you were to move to another area.

Just like you should make sure your electrician or gas engineer is qualified, I personally think a martial arts instructor grades are also very important.

Below are the images of the grades up to and including 5th Dan black belt which were awarded to the chief instructor of Impact Martial Arts, Wayne Timlin, through the world kickboxing association (WKA) at a grading panel event in Birmingham, this was before impact martial arts Joined the cobra martial arts association (CMAA) where his 6th and 7th Dan black belts were awarded for time served.

White belt – 15th February 1990 – WKA
Red belt – 20th April 1991 – WKA
Yellow belt – 8th January 1992 – WKA
Orange belt – 10th November 1992 – WKA
Green belt – 7th August 1993 – WKA
Purple belt – 12th April 1994 – WKA
Blue belt – 6th December 1994 – WKA
Brown belt – 9th November 1995 – WKA
Black belt 1st Dan – 5th February 1998 – WKA Grading panel
Black belt 2nd Dan – 18th January 2003 – WKA Grading panel
Black belt 3rd Dan – 21st March 2006 – WKA Grading panel
Black belt 4th Dan – 21st October 2007 – WKA Grading panel
Black belt 5th Dan – 21st October 2007 – WKA Grading panel
Black belt 6th Dan – 12th May 2022 – CMAA Time served award
Black belt 7th Dan – 12th May 2026 – CMAA Time served award

For the eagle eyed amongst you, you will notice that the 4th Dan to 5th Dan were issued on the same day, this was because of a double grading award in front of a WKA grading panel in Birmingham, they obviously thought I had done well and deserved it.

I think there were also some other adjustments made through my Dan grades because of my overall time served from white belt, so some time served awards were made through my Dan grades, which is not completely unusual. 17 years from white belt to 5th Dan black belt is about right for overall training times to get to this level, so I made up a little room in my later training years.

My overall time frame of 36 years training and teaching to 7th Dan black belt is also feels about right as well, but the belts have never been important, learning, growing and sharing as a martial artist has always been the important thing.

Check out the full instructor profile for the chief instructor of impact martial arts for all details on belts held and other martial arts qualifications.