Information Requests Explained.

If you are a club, instructor or association it’s possible you’ve received an e-mail from our office requesting confirmation or additional information on your club, grading structure or a specific grade issued. It might also be about another member or student of yours. Here’s a key summary and some common FAQs answered;

Why do you need more information from me, what are you checking and what’s the ultimate goal?

We are a multi-style martial arts association, and offer our members with most of the things you’d associate with such a body. This might be insurances, licensing or other resources. Part of our pledge as a professional organisation is to properly vet every instructor who wishes to join us.

When an instructor joins us online they’ll be asked to provide full proof of grade before we can incept any memberships. This must show that the applicant meets our minimum standards as well as holding a suitably senior grade – a 1st Dan black belt or equivalent.

Ultimately, if the proof of grade provided is sufficient, we might well accept the application and issue membership to the instructor.

Why are you asking me questions?

We are usually able to take all of the necessary information from the document(s) provided, however occasionally we might need to clarify one or two points.

This might be, for example, the grading structure used in your club (so we can ascertain whether or not it represents a 1st Dan or equivalent) or we may need to find out more about whether or not training was been conducted in person or remotely.

The applicant may also have trained with you, or under your organisation, without any formal grades or qualifications and may be presenting themselves as a ‘black belt equivalent’ and therefore we’ll need to confirm this with you.

Either way, we’re certainly not criticising or judging. It will simply be the case that we have not received documentation or certification from your school or association before, and we’ll just be acquainting ourselves with the way you do things so we can properly interpret the evidence provided to us by the applicant.

Do I have to respond, and what happens if I don’t?

You are of course under no obligation to respond to any requests for information. We will only send one initial request and if you chose not to answer this, we’ll assume you don’t wish to communicate. That’s absolutely fine.

You’re not on any mailing list, and you won’t be contacted by us again.

If you don’t respond we might not be able to accept documentation or proof of grade provided by the applicant, but we won’t explicitly tell the applicant why.

I am skeptical about your organisation, and not sure if I should provide the information requested.

We’re sorry to hear that. We’re an association that has been running since 2012 and we currently have in excess of 5,000 members and associates under our banner. You can find out more about our organisation through this website.

We’re conscious of sensitivities within the martial arts community and are only reaching out to verify a key bit of information on a document or grade – we’re not looking to ruffle feathers or cause any ill-feelings between persons or groups.

If you’re not sure, please don’t reply. You’re under no obligation.

I would prefer to speak to someone by phone.

That can be arranged.

We’re a largely voluntary run, community led organisation so would politely request that you diary a good time to speak, so you can get through to a senior member of the committee who can answer any questions.

You can contact us from here.