To help maintain a high standard of martial arts instruction, we use an Instructor to Student Ratio (ISR). Our insurers also set ratios as part of managing risk, which helps us keep cover affordable for clubs.
If you use any BMABA instructor or student insurance, following the ISR is a condition of that cover.
Standard Ratios
If you use our group cover policy (any membership that includes instructor insurance, or any student licence), the standard ratios are:
1:10 for children under 8
1:20 for students aged 8 and over
Going Beyond the Standard Ratio
You can run classes of up to 1:35 for any age group, provided:
You have fully risk assessed the extra supervision demands the class size places on the instructor.
You can safely manage the size of the class you plan to teach.
You can show experience of teaching classes larger than the standard ratios.
You have enough space, equipment, PPE and supervision for the size of the class.
You have a clear plan for supervising the class if you need to step away, for example to deal with an injury.
You record all of this in a specific ISR document for your club.
For classes of under 8s above 1:10, your ISR document should also cover:
How drop-off, collection and toilet visits are supervised.
Your experience of teaching this age group specifically.
If the class will include any grappling or sparring, you must get written approval from BMABA before going beyond the standard ratio, whatever the age group. If the class won’t include grappling or sparring, you can go beyond it without asking us first, as long as everything above is in place.
The insurer will expect a good, well documented reason for any class above the standard ratio. There are plenty of valid reasons, for example a non-contact class or one made up of senior graded students. The key is to think clearly about the capacity you need, whether it’s realistic, and whether adding assistants or volunteers would be the better option (see below).
If you’re not confident writing a risk assessment for a larger class, we’d recommend getting in touch with our office by email or ticket first. We can help make sure your ratio is reasonable and within the insurer’s limits.
If you hold a DRI (Direct With Insurer) policy through us, please follow the ratios on your own policy schedule. Get in touch if you’re unsure which applies to you.
Increasing the Standard Ratio with Assistants and Volunteers
You can easily increase your capacity by bringing an assistant instructor or volunteer into your class. Each additional authorised person (instructor, assistant instructor or volunteer) adds a full ratio’s worth of capacity. For example, one instructor teaching under 8s can have up to 10 children in the class. Adding one volunteer raises this to 20, and a second volunteer raises it to 30. This depends on a suitable risk assessment and on those helping being able to supervise effectively.
You can register additional instructors, trainee instructors and volunteers with BMABA here.
Mixed Age Classes
If your class includes both children under 8 and students aged 8 and over, use the 1:20 ratio and count each child under 8 as two places. For example, one instructor could teach 6 children under 8 and 8 older students (12 + 8 = 20 places). If your total goes over 20 places, you can add an assistant or volunteer (each adds another 20 places), or follow the steps below for going beyond the standard ratio.