National Governing Bodies For All

FOR quite some time Sport England has been trying to unify martial arts under National Governing Bodies. It is an uphill struggle and one imagines a thankless task.

Their aim is to bring unification among the disparate groups that make up our world (who, let’s admit generally can’t agree on anything!).

Sport England believe it would make their task of over-seeing martial arts easier and allow the public a one contact point where they could check instructor qualifications and insurance etc.
In the sports martial arts arena it would also mean that there was a unified team drawn from all clubs and groups and not just a select few that often happens at present.

This means, for example, that the Great Britain Karate team could draw from a wider pool of talent.

All good stuff – I’m sure you’ll agree?

But I have reservations about this long-term goal.

First off haven’t we been down this road before with the now defunct Martial Arts Commission? Instead of unifying martial arts it proved to be divisive with more groups staying out of it than eventually joining.

Secondly, who are the people who are going to decide who is ‘official’ and who isn’t? And what criteria would they use to do this?

If you are ‘outside’ the governing body does this mean you can’t teach?

Will groups that don’t want to join these governing bodies be banned from using council-run leisure centres because they don’t have the correct paperwork saying they are recognised by the governing body?

And are we going to see a situation where say an Aikido instructor has modified his chosen style then can’t join the ‘gang’ because it doesn’t fit in with some one else’s idea of what Aikido should be?

And, where does it leave those arts such as my own which are not sports based, therefore do not fall under Sports England’s remit?

Another concern is the old thorny problem of martial arts politics. Are we going to see great instructors with years of experience banned from being part of the governing bodies because some one on the panel simply doesn’t like them?

Also, if Sport England is going to insist everyone has to take an official exam to become an official instructor who will be pocketing the huge amounts of money involved?

This is of course still a pipe dream for Sports England and at present there is no real prospect of this coming to fruition any time soon.

Why? Because martial artists are a bloody-minded lot that hate anyone telling them what to do…

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