Categories
By Activity
Track belts and gradings, manage class registrations, take memberships and payments online, and keep students and parents up to date. Whether you teach karate, judo, taekwondo or MMA, AMES uses your art's own ranks.
Each art you teach can have its own grading ladder in AMES, from karate's kyu and dan ranks to BJJ's belts and judo's grades. Whether you run a single-discipline dojo or a centre teaching several arts, every student's progression in each art is kept separately on one record, alongside their bookings and payments.
UK Governing Body
British Martial Arts & Boxing Association (BMABA)
Typical Pricing
£6-£12 per class
Class Size
10-20 students
Tracking who is eligible for grading, collecting grading fees, coordinating with examiners and updating student records after each grading is a manual, error-prone process. Each art has its own attendance expectations before a student can be put forward, and when you run several disciplines under one roof you may have several gradings a month, each with different panels and criteria. Coordinating examiners, booking the right hall, planning the day and then updating every student record afterwards can consume entire weekends. Add certificates, telling parents the results and updating belt records, and it is clear why so many schools still rely on handwritten logs that fall out of date.
Running sessions with white belts alongside brown belts means different techniques, different partner requirements and different levels of attention within the same class. Safety is paramount when sparring is involved: pairing a lightweight beginner with a heavy advanced student is a safeguarding risk, not just a teaching inconvenience. Instructors must split groups within a session, matching partners by size and experience while making sure intermediate students get focused attention rather than getting lost between beginners who need constant guidance and seniors who can train independently. Without a clear record of each student's rank and training history, class planning relies on the instructor's memory, which breaks down as the school grows.
If you teach several arts under one roof, each has its own grading system, terminology and progression, and a single spreadsheet cannot handle it. Karate uses kyu and dan grades with belt colours that vary by association, judo has its own grades with distinct technical requirements, and BJJ follows a different belt progression with stripes. Students who cross-train need one membership but separate progression in each art. Different governing bodies have different requirements for instructor qualifications, insurance and affiliation, so your compliance obligations multiply with every discipline you add, and separate fees for each art alongside combined discounts add another layer.
Many martial arts students pay per class and attend irregularly, so tracking who has paid, who has a membership and who owes grading fees is a tangle. Some students train several times a week across multiple classes, while others drop in once a fortnight when their schedule allows. Your school may offer monthly memberships, pre-paid class packs and single pay-per-visit options at the same time. Each model affects grading eligibility, since many associations expect a minimum amount of training before a student grades. Collecting grading fees on top of regular payments, from the right students at the right time, turns payment admin into a constant headache.
Scheduling martial arts classes is more complex than most activity providers realise. Belt levels, age groups, weight considerations, and the need for rank-appropriate training all influence who should train in which session. This guide covers the scheduling strategies that keep students safe, progressing, and coming back.
A parent and student portal transforms your martial arts school from a class they attend into a platform they engage with daily. This guide covers the features that matter most: belt history, grading dates, technique reference, attendance tracking, and syllabus access.
Running a multi-discipline martial arts centre offers compelling business advantages but introduces operational complexity. This guide covers how to manage separate grading systems, unified memberships, instructor compliance across disciplines, and the practical challenges of operating karate, judo, BJJ, and MMA under one roof.
Most martial arts schools cannot offer a separate class for every belt level. Mixed-rank classes are a practical reality, but they require careful planning to keep every student safe, challenged, and progressing. This guide covers the strategies that make mixed-rank training work.
Martial arts instructor compliance is uniquely complex. Dan grades, governing body affiliations, discipline-specific qualifications, DBS checks, safeguarding training, and insurance all need tracking across every instructor. This guide covers how to build a compliance system that keeps your school legal and your instructors current.
Grading events are high-stakes occasions for students, parents, and your school's reputation. Getting the logistics right requires systematic planning from candidate selection through to result communication. This guide covers every stage of grading event management.
A well-designed progression system does more than track belt colours. It gives students clear goals, parents visible evidence of development, and instructors a structured framework for assessment. This guide covers how to build progression systems that work across different martial arts disciplines.
Belt gradings are the backbone of student progression in any martial arts school, but they generate a significant administrative workload. This guide covers eligibility tracking, fee collection, examiner coordination, record-keeping, and certificate production to help you run gradings smoothly.
Martial arts schools juggle more payment types than almost any other activity provider. Monthly memberships, pay-per-session fees, grading charges, equipment purchases, and family discounts all need to be collected reliably. This guide covers how to automate the entire payment lifecycle.
Martial arts schools face a unique attendance challenge: students attend irregularly due to work schedules, injuries, and training intensity, yet their grading progression depends on consistent attendance. This guide covers payment models, attendance tracking, grading eligibility, and reconciliation strategies.
Martial arts is one of the most rewarding activities to teach, building discipline, confidence, and physical fitness. This guide covers the essentials of starting a martial arts school, from choosing your governing body to setting up your dojo.
Set up each art you teach as its own activity, with its belts or grades as levels and the techniques for each grade as skills, in your association's colours and names. If you teach KUGB karate, AMES can import the KUGB's published grading syllabus for its kyu and dan grades. Instructors record techniques and notes in AMES Teach, attendance builds up on each student's record, and students and parents see the current belt and the next one in AMES Connect.
Schedule classes by art, belt group or age on one live timetable, each with its own capacity, with age ranges set on levels. Students and parents book online in AMES Connect, new students can book a trial class at the price you set, and full classes offer the waiting list, with a freed place offered to the next student automatically. Members can check in at the front desk with the membership card QR code in AMES Connect.
Run memberships by GoCardless Direct Debit, sell class packs as credits, and take drop-in payments by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through AMES Pay. Uniforms, belts and sparring kit can be sold through your shop in AMES Connect. Family discounts follow the rules you set, failed payments are retried automatically with the member told, and every payment sits with the student's bookings and progress.
Students and parents see the current belt, the next one and how far through it they are in AMES Connect, alongside bookings, payments, receipts and messages. They can book and cancel classes, report absences, keep health and medical notes up to date and read noticeboard updates about grading dates, all from one family account.
Instructors take registers in AMES Teach with a tap for each student, so attendance is recorded against every student before you decide who is ready to grade. Record techniques and notes against each grade, move students to their new belt once they pass, and their record, classes and AMES Connect view update with it. Noticeboard posts and messages tell families when gradings are coming up.
Record each instructor's dan grades, coaching qualifications, governing body memberships, DBS checks and first aid with expiry dates and the certificate uploaded as evidence. One page shows everything that has expired or is due to, and you can require a qualification for the classes that need it, so an unqualified assignment is blocked or flagged. Incidents and safeguarding concerns can be recorded by the office or by instructors in AMES Teach.
See how AMES can automate bookings, payments, and communication for your martial arts business.
Book a Demo