We accept that just because you’re a black belt, it doesn’t necessarily make you a good instructor. We employ a minimum grade, qualification or experience requirement for every member to ensure we’re only working with those who hold a sound level of knowledge, technical understanding and professional competency in every style they are recognised to teach.

As a leading UK martial arts organisation we’re looking for a special type of instructor to join us. As a member of the BMABA, we’re looking for the key qualities that make you a really good instructor and a superb role model. Namely, these qualities are;

We represent professional instructors. For us this doesn’t just mean having the correct technical skills. We want instructors and coaches who approach their teaching as an art and a passion in it’s own right. The love of what you do and the discipline to better yourself is the same you’ll want from your students on the mats, and we want to see professional coaches and senseis who feel the same about their attitude toward running a club.

As you can no doubt understand, we’re committed to safeguarding our members and as such we need to set certain standards surrounding criminal records and past convictions.

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 gives people with spent convictions and cautions the right not to disclose them when applying for most jobs or professional memberships, and for other products/services like when buying insurance. Apart from those given prison sentences of more than 4 years, most people with convictions will benefit from it at some point in their lives.

Whilst we recognise the importance of convictions becoming spent, as we deem all of our members to be in a position of working with children and other vulnerable groups we must request details of spent convictions as well as those currently not classed as spent.

We’re proud to hold an ethical and balanced approach to criminal histories and convictions, understanding that many of the best martial arts instructors have themselves faced challenging and difficult lives – hence inspiring them to instill change in others. Whilst this may be the case, our duty to safeguard our members and the general public must be considered.

You will be asked when applying for membership to disclose all spent and unspent convictions. If you fail to disclose any such spent or unspent convictions at the point of applying, and subsequently should this be uncovered through DBS checks or any other future enquiries, we reserve the right to withdraw (without notice) your membership without compensation.

Our advice is to speak with our office in confidence before applying. Everybody is afforded complete privacy and confidentiality, and the compassion of experienced members of our senior management when querying whether or not their criminal history may be a bar to entry. We will not discriminate against you because you have a criminal record – we will only make decisions based on an established risk assessment.

Whilst it does depend on the nature and circumstance of your crime, we’re generally able to pass-off any minor offences, or those that have been spent a considerable amount of time ago. That said, if it’s likely to show up on a DBS check, you must remember to inform us before applying.