New qualification and regulations for Martial Arts Instructors


Sunday, December 7th, 2014

The subject of who is qualified to teach martial arts, and, or self defence in the UK is one which causes much debate. When you look at other industries, such as the security and fitness industry, there are regulations and minimum standards of qualification.  In the martial arts industry, because of the diversity and international nature of the subject, there are many political and denominational martial arts organisations, some of which are style specific and others that are non-denominational. It is, however a self-regulated Industry.

The UKSDMAG is a not for profit organisation that exists to provide core standards, advice, support, training and regulation to the UK self defence and martial arts industry. It promotes best practice and safety whilst remaining entirely unbiased to one style or another.

ANY martial arts club can join the UKSDMAG and apart from being free* the benefits and levels of support are massive. More than this the SDMAG helps the public to find fully endorsed instructors and to choose the right martial art, style and instructor for them.

This post was written by on Sunday, December 7th, 2014

One thought on “New qualification and regulations for Martial Arts Instructors”

  • Good comment! Definitely needed as the industry is unregulated at the moment. Yes there are various governing bodies but there is no central standard for all instructors to adhere to. I have always been concerned about sport based martial artists for example, who may be very good fighters in a sports environment – turning their hand to teaching self defence. The issue is whether or not what they are teaching actually works and considers all aspects of an attack. There are psychological issues, legal issues, weight differentials which are not considered when you fight people of the same weight in a sport, duty of care issues, all kinds of legal issues, vulnerable people who have been attacked – and so on. Does being a good fighter automatically make you an expert in all of these areas? It may well give you the edge as a finely tuned athlete, but can you teach an unfit average person to be effective using the same jumping spinning kicks that won you the gold medal? All interesting questions…

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