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.

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 →

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.

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.