How would I go about forming a martial arts club at my school?

Schedule an appointment with one of the administrators or principle.

Over the years I have seen others try to do something similar. The biggest problem is that the schools are concerned about Liability for anyone getting an injury. A wavier or release from is not worth the paper it is written on. Any lawyer will tell you that it is not any good. You can't legally be released from an injury before the injury happens...... If a release form is written by a lawyer and is really good, then it is good only if someone is willing to sign it after they are injured. Then it will hold up in court. Releases and waivers are common. Every martial arts seminar i have attended or taught required the attendees to sign a release (Also known as a "Hold Harmless Agreement"). However the practice of having people sign one is more mental than of any legal clout. If someone gets injured you can still be sued. Schools have nothing to gain by allowing martial arts groups/classes, But they have a lot of risk if they do.

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Sensei Scandal gave you solid advice. Here are some other key points to remember.

1. You will need to afford to purchase insurance. The school will not insure your program for you nor will they allow a simple waiver to cover it.

2. You need to find a local Sensei to sponsor and host the club. No school would allow this type of group without proper instruction from an adult and licensed instructor.

3. You will also have to get approval from the school board. This will be the hardest sell and if you are thinking of doing anything at all with MMA you can forget about it because they don't want that crap in schools.

4. You will need to prove and then be able to both show as well as back up why this would be a beneficial group or extra curricular activity at your school for students. (MMA would not be).

Go talk to your Principle and see what they think and recommend. Good luck.

you may desire to easily consult with the President and say "the two i flow to choose out of those style of public events you prefer to accomplish, or i flow to go away and you are going to might desire to discover yet another treasurer". So particularly it particularly is giving him a compromise. in the event that they like a treasurer badly sufficient, they are going to allow you go with out of those club events you do not prefer to attend. in case you at the instant are not chuffed with that, then you particularly can give up. yet once you're making a deal, persist with it. in any different case sayonnara. golf equipment in eastern extreme faculties are in fact pupil run applications. instructors are allowed participation yet oftentimes circumstances basically as practise, not by way of fact the stable authority for all club events. that's finished by picking a senior pupil as president of the club. Or Taichou, the eastern identify equivalent to Captain. The smaller the club, the greater say individual members have, even the junior ones. entering a sparkling social circle is often unusual in the previous each thing, exceedingly ones belonging to a distinctive cultural matrix than yours.

You need a club adviser so I would talk to your teachers about it and see if they would be willing to take time out of their hand every month or so by holding this club.

You also need to go to the district level of getting it approved.

nwohioguy is correct. There are certain steps for this to be offered in school.

I began training in high school in 1982. My sensei was also my World Culture Teacher. All clubs have to have an adult sponsor. You have to have a place to practice. We used one of several gyms at the school. Our club was successful and grew rapidly. Then the school began to charge us to rent the gym. Before the school began to require rental fees we didn't pay anything for our training expect for our registration to the USJA and USJI. To cover the cost we had to pay a $5.00 a month dues. Our club grew to over 100 students in about a year. This more than covered the rental fees. As our club grew so did our fees until they were equal to what others outside the school would pay for rental. The rest helped pay for hosting our own tournament. It provided a nice banquet and awards at the end of the year. I thought it was horrible for the school to charge my sensei to work with their students. I thought the school should have sponsored us like they did the the wrestling team or basketball, etc. They loved to claim us in the newspaper when we won all of those team trophies and when we became nationally ranked. we just didn't get any financial backing from the school. They would put the school's name in front of our club's name. I resented that. But I knew we needed the place to practice. Years later I began to work for a school. I also worked the after school programs. It wasn't until then that I saw that all school charge clubs for gym rentals. I realized that my high school wasn't being unfair. This is a common practice. School are required in a sense to open their door to the public if they are a public school. Schools normally charge for gym rentals for basketball teams, martial arts clubs, churches, etc. They may also require that the club or organization provide insurance for its participants. They have to protect the interests of the school in case someone gets injured. They don't won't people suing the schools. Not only do I teach martial arts I coach basketball. I have used the school's gyms were I was working. I purchased insurance for my player to cover them at practice, games, and wile traveling to and from games. When I was in judo we initially we didn't have insurance. But later the USJA included insurance for all registered judoka with their annual registration. I had a few injuries while competing. Some of them required medical attention. Now that I am thinking about it. I don't think we ever filed a claim against the insurance. Our club had rules concerning grades too. We had to maintain at least a C+ GPA to stay active in the club. We could not have any suspensions or we would be placed on probation. Any violation while on probation would result in suspension for the year from the club. Therefore I stayed out of trouble and kept my grades up. Many school clubs will also have a GPA average requirement and attendance requirement.

Having this club your sponsor comes in one of 2 ways. They are a current faculty member of your school or school district or they come in through an after school program. I also assisted another instructor with a martial arts program for the after school program. I was initially involved in the after school program as a tutor, but was asked because of my martial arts background to help the other instructor as an assistant and to keep down discipline problems. They instructor that they hired for after school was experiencing some issues. They knew that I had developed a relationship with the student and the community and the student would not behave like that with me in there. In the following years they annually come to me and ask me to do a martial arts program. I declined it every year by telling them they couldn't afford me. The program that I was in initially paid well. The funding was different after the 1st year and only want to pay all program staff $10.00 per hour. I laughed at them. Later one of the directors asked me why do everyone they ask to teach martial arts laugh when we tell them it pays $10 per hour. I then explained what it a normal rte for teaching martial arts. She then asked if I would do it as a favor to her. We were friends and I wanted to keep it that way so I declined. I explained that I volunteer to teach martial arts were I am at now. I'm not going to make a commitment to volunteer and teach it somewhere else too. They had to find something else to fill that time slot.

1 permission from the school

2 sponsor (qualified instructor)

3 insurance (waiver aren't worth the price of the paper they are written on; the school will still be sued) The insurance must also list the school as well as the students as being covered.

4 gym space and rental

5 easiest way to get approved is through an after school program

6 you need interested students (if enough students sign a petition to show they are interested in learning martial arts the school may seek to find an instructor).

7 It may also need board approval and community and parental support. It is a powerful statement when students and parents organize and present a strong showing to the board of education using proper channels and having done there homework. It hard to say no, especially if the media is present.

Many martial arts school will be acceptable of teaching an after school program if the money the school pays is decent. Often it will be less than what they get at their dojo, but it may lead to gaining new students in their dojo. If it is an after school program they are normally funded by a grant or matching grant. This make it more affordable for the school to pay the instructor.

If you constantly live in the PAST...You can't enjoy the PRESENT...So where's the FUTURE in that?...Remember the past...Live in the present and look forward to the Future.

Only your school can tell you that.