Introduction
Our Vocational Black Belt Gradings have formed a crucial tool in ensuring independent martial arts instructors have the ability to break through glass-ceilings imposed by either politics within other organisations, or circumstantial barriers often centered around affordability, location or times.
The Vocational Grading Service was formally incepted in 2016, and over the past decade has only issued a very small number of Dan Grades. This speaks to the stringent requirements and rigorous examination we undertake, to ensure the BMABA brand name remains well protected within Martial Arts.
This policy breaks down what the VGS (Vocational Grading Service) is and is not, as well as what it can and can't cover.
Eligibility
It's important to stress that BMABA take the issuance of Dan Grades extremely seriously. We never issue or examine 1st Dan - this always needs to be done 'in the wild' to ensure we are not effectively in control of the qualifying grade. This is part of our politics-free commitment, as remaining out of this process ensures there can be no commercial bias. We can cater for any grade progression from 2nd Dan onward. We can cover any discipline or style, provided we have enough sufficiently senior graded instructors on the panel at any time to service this. This is dynamic, and based on who is currently registered with BMABA and cleared to examine.
Where ever possible, we want to encourage in-person, traditional gradings. It's more in-keeping with martial arts as a whole and ensures grade progression is decentralised as much as possible, which prevents one or two organisations becoming too powerful in terms of holding back grades etc, which ultimately leads to politics!
That said, we know there is a case for vocational gradings when the applicant is;
Aged 18 or over with current, in-date BMABA membership.
Has listed on their BMABA disciplines the style for which they wish to grade, graded to atleast 1st Dan or above.
Has waited atleast the Dan Grade worth in time since grading last (i.e: 1 year for a 1st Dan, 2 years for a 1st to 2nd Dan, 3 years for a 2nd to 3rd Dan and so on).
Has the ability to record a grading set in video format. Smart phone is acceptable for this, provided the picture quality is clear enough to allow a committee to assess the techniques being demonstrated.
IMPORTANT
We can only support applicants where there is no alternative in-person grading available, due to one or more of the following;
The instructor applying is the most senior graded within their club or organisation.
There are significant geographical or financial restrictions that may prevent an instructor travelling to an in-person grading
There are significant circumstances that require an independent third party assessment.
Some examples of the above include;
An instructor in the Scottish Highlands who has been ‘stuck’ at 3rd Dan for 9 years, despite constant training, who is able to grade remotely and have his technical ability peer assessed.
A sensei who hasn’t been able to progress her Dan Grades due to prior association politics, and who now needs to move forward to ensure she has room to grow her club’s own emerging Black Belts
An instructor who has been practicing and studying a hybrid, inhouse or otherwise unique syllabus that falls outside of the remit of a standard NGB
An instructor who doesn’t have the free time or money for regular travel to physical gradings
The Process, Fees & Timescales
This process and additional information relates purely to vocational gradings which are assessed based on merit. If you believe a time-served grading may be more appropriate, please click here to read the separate guidance in full.
All Vocational Gradings are remotely assessed via a video submission of a pre-approved syllabus, with atleast four independent examiners. We have strict rules in place which ensure the voluntary team who review your submission will never know who you are unless they can visually identify you from your video. We don't share names or any other information other than the specifics of the grading. Likewise, we never share with you who has been selected to sit on the grading panel for the same reason.
Fees
The fee payable is used to cover the administration costs of the team in organising the grading and the printing / issuance of any subsequent documentation. The rest of the fees are then evenly split between examiners to cover their time and expenses.
The fee is currently set at £119 per grading.
There is no cost to re-sitting up to 3 further times should you not be successful,.
The Process & Expectations
Start by registering for a vocational grading. There is no charge at the point of application.
You will be asked to provide a syllabus to grade against. We can source a limited numbers of syllabus’ for use in mainstream styles, but this is not a guarantee so we prefer to work to your club syllabus to ensure you grade against an accurate reflection of your unique style and technique.
Your syllabus will be reviewed. If it’s not acceptable, we’ll provide feedback. If we can work with the techniques and definitions effectively, we will grade you against the syllabus.
Submit & Review – Submit your video to us for review and within 28 days, you will receive a response from the board. It is only at this point which we will invoice for the grading.
Grading Practicalities
For each grading a video must be submitted. This must meet the criteria for the current grading syllabus which will be provided to the examiners along with the video.
If you do not have or are unsure on which syllabus to follow, this will be discussed with the committee and guidance will be given on what you need to fulfil to complete the grading.
In line with the syllabus, if you find you struggle to meet any of the criteria then adaptations can be discussed on an individual level per application, e.g. if you feel you do not have a sparring partner of high enough grade and the syllabus states sparring should be included then this can be reviewed on application.
Video gradings must be clear and of good quality. If they are of good quality the gradee will get a more thorough examination as videos can be paused/re-watched etc.
Videos can be rejected if the quality is too poor for the examiners to give a fair assessment.
Due to technical expertise varying between individuals with how to record videos it would be acceptable for sets to be shot individually and submitted as a series of short videos provided it is obvious to the examiners that the content has been shot in one continuous setting, and not over a number of days.
Videos must not be edited. The only editing permitted is combining individual videos to one long file where technical expertise allows or the provision of titles at set points to highlight the technique being demonstrated.
Gradings must be recorded in one sitting. It would not be acceptable for individual sets to be recorded on different days because part of grading criteria is physical ability to perform the full grading. Students can take a short breaks but must complete the grading within the same sitting unless their grading criteria states otherwise. Where practicality or health conditions mean this cannot be met it will be reviewed on an individual basis by the BMABA senior committee. BMABA examiners will confirm the META details of all video submissions to ensure this is the case.
The person taking the grading can not request foresight on the named examiners who will be assessing them, nor can the examiners receive any information on the individual whom they are being assembled to assess. To neutralise any politics, the process should be entirely anonymous until the point of the certification being issued, at which point the examiner names and grades will be shown.
Post-grading, the student must not contact individual examiners personally. Any contact whether it is in the form of gratitude, questions or feedback must be conducted through the BMABA. This is an important step to ensure neutrality and a fair process for both the examinee and the examiners. Failure to follow this guideline can result in disciplinary action from the BMABA.
Examining Rules
A minimum of three examiners (where limited grade availability allows) must sit on the grading panel.
Examiners must not be affiliated with the club of the student grading beyond being in the same association. For example, they should not be a personal friend.
Examiners sitting on the grading panel must not be affiliated with each other where possible. It would be advised that the examiners are all from different clubs.
Examiners must grade the individual based on merit they see in the video, not based on any merit not submitted as part of the grading. They must also not let personal politics get in the way of a grading decision.
An independent reviewer will also watch the grading and review the feedback to ensure political issues do not get in the way. This is to ensure that all feedback is constructive and fair. This is regardless of whether the student will pass or fail.
All grading processes shall be entirely anonymous. Grading instructors may not know in advance, nor request, the identity of any grading examiners. This shall be shown after the event on any issued certificates.
Examiners will not be privy to any information on the individual grading. It shall be based entirely upon the merit of the evidence submitted. If BMABA have any concerns regarding a person's notability or prior history, the association may blur the face of the applicant to ensure a neutral grading process.
Grading Outcomes
If a person fails they will be provided with in-depth feedback on why they did not meet the grading criteria. Feedback such as “poor stance” is not acceptable. Feedback such as “your stance did not meet grading criteria because when you were in zenkutsu dachi you always had your front leg straight. To meet grading criteria you must fully perform zenkutsu dachi by bending your front knee.” would be more appropriate.
It is not acceptable to fail somebody on a single mistake, for example. “on one move you did not bend your knee deep enough when in zenkutsu dachi”. If the individual did six moves correctly and one was wrong then it would be acceptable to pass that set with a comment such as “on move four you did not bend your front knee enough to meet grading criteria. However, on the other five moves you corrected this. Make sure you are aware of this moving forward”.
A clause to the above would be if the individual makes a single mistake which would cause harm to a person they may be working with during the grading. For example, if an individual mistakenly kicks somebody in the head causing pain when the demonstrated move is meant to be a controlled kick and should not cause pain then this would be criteria to fail their grading.
A second clause would be if the grading is full of ‘one off mistakes’ in different sets which means the performance is not consistent then this would warrant a fail.
If a person passes their grading then feedback may be given, however the board may feel this isn’t necessary in which case a ‘full merit’ pass can be issued. If feedback is issued, this can be in the form of constructive criticism outlining what was good and what can be improved. If the examiners feel that there is nothing which can be improved then a straight ‘full merit’ pass will be issued and as such, further feedback may not be requested.
If a person fails and they feel it is unfair then they can submit their complaint to the independent reviewer which will then be taken to the BMABA CEO and committee for a final decision. BMABA’s executive teams decision will be final. Applicants should reach out to customer services via chat or email to request this.
On the pass certificate the full name(s) and grading rank(s) of the examiners must be displayed. If requested or preferred, pseudonym examiner names may be used if - for example - the examiner feels their identity being published may be political damaging if they remain involved with other associations. If this is the case, the applicant will not be privy to this disclosure however BMABA will keep a proper log of who the pseudonym relates to.
Practical Guidance
You don’t need professional recording equipment. A smart phone is fine, provide the footage is clear and shows you fully.
We can’t accept very large files by email so would recommend you upload the video to a secure file sharing site where you can control the permissions of who can view and download the video – such as Google Drive, Dropbox etc.
Alternatively, you can upload the footage to YouTube and mark it as private to ensure it is not in the public domain.
Syllabus Approval
Our preference would always be to ask you to submit a syllabus to us for review. This can be a syllabus you have created in-house, or one issued by the organisation under whom you have obtained your 1st Dan. This offers us the chance to ask you to present what you feel is most appropriate and representative of your own discipline and linages. If you do not have any syllabus, we may be able to source an appropriate stand-in but this is limited and may not be possible in every instance.
Certification
Official BMABA Dan Grade certification will be issued on successful grading. This certification will be posted to the registered address, and a digital copy made available too.
Equivalency to Standardised Grade
If you have been previously signed off as a black belt equivalency and now wish to translate that into a standardised grade, the executive committee will reserve the final judgement on what the appropriate equivalent standardised grade may be.
For example, if you join us as a Black Belt Equivalency in Kickboxing but later decide to start running a graded syllabus in class, we will consider what appropriate starting Dan Grade the equivalency relates to, and/or what the appropriate grade to be examined for might be.
As a general rule of thumb, black belt equivalency is assumed to signify a 1st Dan or approximate standard. However, if on review the instructor has been teaching for several years and demonstrates - through time served, video footage or references (in line with black belt equivalency guidelines) evidence that would be reasonable to assume a 3rd Dan standard, we would consider accepting a grade request for a formal 3rd Dan subject to the above guidance being met.
Getting Started
To explore the process in more detail and to formally raise an interest, and have your syllabus approved, please use the button below.