Can just anyone become a self proclaimed Martial Arts Instructor or is their a process of certification/licensing?

"Martial Arts" as a dicipline is not regulated by the government or a board of authority in the United States; however, there is a movement in the eastern USA to make this so. A very few USA universities/colleges produce a college degree for some MA under Physical Education. Individual MA Schools can choose to come under the umbrella certification and rules of 100s of MA Federations and Associations, even government recognized and regulated in other countries. There has been much corruption in some of them. Some US States MAY have placed MA under regulation at this time, but in my own state, anyone can proclaim themselves an MA Instructor. They sometimes do, without training, and abscond with funds. I was part of an activist group that stopped one such person in Canada.

In South Korea, several styles are under government recognition by Ki Do Hae & govt control and several are not. In Nigeria, my associates have shown me their government support and a bit of regulation. In other countries, I have little knowledge of the regulatory process, if any.

My own training was of the S. Korean military type, but very expensive because of non-regulation, and very time-consuming (goes with the style), requiring long hours outside in all weather and seasons. It made me healthy and proactive.

Check out any MA School near you to your best ability before joining.

You cannot become a self proclaimed martial arts instructor.you have to be a master.it takes years of training.the real masters have been in training since they was four.if you claim to be a master or a instructor and you are not,you WILL get confronted by real masters,and the outcome WILL NOT BE PRETTY.

The determination of qualifications to instruct in martial arts depends on what the collective experience and knowledge is of he/she who makes such a claim. Many well known martial arts systems have some... keep reading →

In a word...yes. If you have martial arts knowledge to impart, and students willing to learn it, you are a martial arts instructor.

In China, the honorific "sifu" et al (in Japan "sensei"), simply means old(er) one, or the one who has travelled the path prior to you. Historically, there has been no official certificate to back it up.

Please realize that most martial arts "organizations" while operating under the guise of sanctioning a specific style of martial art, are created only to bleed more money out of unsuspecting students.

Just open any local phone book or do a Google search of martial arts instructors in your nearest metropolitan area, and you will find a vast array of martial arts "masters". These are business people, many of whom are "masters" of marketing!

I teach martial arts out of my garage absolutely free of charge. I accept donations to help maintain my mats and pay the heat bill, but that's it. I have practiced a wide variety of martial arts over the last thirty years, and have a LOT to teach. I have never been much impressed by rank and certificates.

I have a dozen core students, and about 20 others who come and go. Come and learn if you want. If you like what I have to teach, you are welcome to stay. If not...fine, go somewhere else and pay $100/month.

It doesn't matter to me. I have no agenda. The goal for me is sharing what I have learned over the years. If I don't, it dies with me. Which may or may not be important, depending on who you ask!

For me it comes down to what you know, your ability to teach it to others, and your willingness to share your knowledge without thought of financial gain.

A true martial arts "master" is one who teaches life lessons with every move they make, every word they utter, and every thought think.

Yeah they can. That's what all of these new guys are trying to do in Web 2.0

I like the fact that one of the answers talked about the USA. Get out of that ethnocentric view.

Those of us that are REAL EXPERTS in this field have been in a lot of bad situations on several CONTINENTS.

The background of the person is what qualifies him (yet to me a female that has the same level of background as I do).

Would you go to a doctor that has never operated if you needed surgery?

Would you take sex advice from a virigin?

You need to go to only those that have been through mortal consequence situations--everything else is theory.