Belt rankings in kicboxing

[Gerry Seymour]

Instructors who can afford not to charge for gradings are few and far between here. We don't have big chains of martial arts schools, they are mostly small clubs who train in leisure centres, village and community halls, few own or can afford a dedicated building. There's rent to pay, travel costs etc, gradings are basically the only way to make ends meet. The student fees aren't high, the 'market' wouldn't take it. I've said before it's not a bad thing charging for gradings, it's a very important way for instructors to manage. We don't have the children's after school club type martial arts classes not the children's parties. Martial arts are not a way to earn a living here. We have a handful of professional MMA fighters who mostly also work with the top layer going to live in the US.
Martial arts in the UK is quite different from what I've seen people post about in the US.

Most of what you said accurately describes my program. Apparently, I'm a British MA instructor, and didn't know it.

 

[Tez3]

Most of what you said accurately describes my program. Apparently, I'm a British MA instructor, and didn't know it.

So you are a damn good one then!
Martial arts isn't a big thing here which I don't actually know whether that's good or bad. It's still quite old fashioned. Money is always tight, many instructors subsidise the clubs and classes just out of love basically.