The Cobra Martial Arts Training Programme

 

Introduction

 

Martial Arts are one of the largest sporting and recreational activities practiced in the UK at the moment. As such we will soon be coming under the same sort of scrutiny as areas of work such as Child Care, Adult Care etc. because of the access that we have to Children and sometimes Vulnerable Adults.

The C.M.A.A. therefore is striving to ensure that its Instructors provide a safe and secure environment for it’s students and Instructors to operate within, hence the introduction of this comprehensive award.

The C.M.A.A. believes in being ahead of the game in terms of Child Protection and also the quality of the Instruction that is provided by it’s Instructors and this award will assist in achieving our vision.

The following are just some of the most frequently asked questions that we have had passed onto us about the award, and hopefully they will assist you in understanding and achieving your award.

 

 

What is “Martial Arts Instructor UK?”

 

The Cobra Martial Arts Instructor Training Programme is a progressive training programme designed to address areas of knowledge and training required to produce safe, efficient and effective Martial Arts Instructors.

 

Who developed the “Martial Arts Instructor UK?”

 

The C.M.A.A. Instructor Training programme was originally developed by Cobra’s team of Senior Instructors based on their years of experience within a varied range of Martial Arts disciplines. The award was further developed through the input and guidance of specialists within the area of NVQ and VRQ awards.

 

 

Why was the Programme Developed?

 

The Award was put together to demonstrate that the C.M.A.A. prides itself in providing it’s Instructors with the relevant skills to allow them to teach and run their lessons in a safe and efficient manner thus helping to prevent accidents, dangerous occurrences and other incidents. More importantly it was also devised to ensure that Instructors disseminate information correctly and effectively and also facilitate learning amongst their students.

 

 

Training Manual / Portfolio

 

We have a full training manual available containing valuable information as well as record sheets and evidence of learning documents that you will need as you work through out the Award Levels. All 3 Levels are explained in detail in the Manual.

 

The manual also doubles as a Portfolio to be used to gather evidence of Accredited Prior Learning and Continued Professional Development as you progress through the Levels of this award.

 

The manuals are available for the C.M.A.A. at a cost of £10 plus £3 postage and packing.

 

What Training and courses will I need to do along side this award?

 

The Training that the C.M.A.A. endeavours to give through this Instructor Award is aimed at how to teach and manage incidents and occurrences etc rather than what to teach. There will be additional courses and actions that Candidates will have to undertake along side this award such as (for Level 1) undertake a satisfactory CRB (Criminal Records Bureau Enhanced Check) if they have not already done so. A First Aid Course (via Cobra First Aid in association with St John Ambulance), continue with their CPD (Continued Professional Development) to satisfy the C.M.A.A. requirements that Instructors keep up to date and add to their knowledge base through attending courses and seminars, as in attend Instructor courses run by the C.M.A.A. Etc.

 

What are the benefits to me as a Martial Arts Instructor?

 

Ø      Previous Skills and knowledge are recognised.

Ø      New Skills are developed.

Ø      Lead to the Award of the C.M.A.A. Level 1 Instructor Qualification.

Ø      Improve career progression.

Ø      A structured and progressive form of Training and development.

Ø      Instil confidence in Parents and Students regarding your abilities as an instructor.

Ø     Satisfy the Insurance companies that precautions are taken by you to reduce the risk of injury to your students and reduce the risk of claims against you.

 

 

How will I be assessed?

 

Your designated assessor, usually your own Instructor, will assess you over a sufficient period of time as deemed necessary, in order to assist you to demonstrate both your knowledge and competence in organising, facilitating and delivering safe and effective Martial Arts Instruction to students.

Your assessor will complete Lesson / Assessment Plans with you and map out and agree the work that they wish you to complete in order to achieve the Award. The Lesson / Assessment Plans will have an initial planning date on them and will have an expected target date on also. Both the assessor and Candidate will agree this Target date as achievable and the Candidate will then be expected to submit the completed work to the assessor within the agreed time scale. The assessor will then revisit the Lesson / Assessment Plan once the work has been completed and state whether the work is complete or whether re planning needs to take place.

In order for you to achieve the activities on your Lesson / Assessment Plans your assessor will require you to demonstrate your competence. Your assessor will expect you to collect varied, authentic and valid pieces of evidence of which can be submitted into your portfolio as evidence to substantiate your claim for competence. In order to complete the Award the Candidate must have collected at least three or more different types of sufficient evidence to demonstrate their knowledge and competence. “What is sufficient” will be at the discretion of the assessor and whether or not the evidence collected satisfies the C.M.A.A. Instructor Training Programme Standards and adequately demonstrates the Candidates knowledge and competence.

The types of evidence that will be recognised and will be able to be submitted are:

 

ü      Observation

ü      Written Questions

ü      Oral Questions

ü      Witness Statement

ü      Work Products

ü      Candidate Report

ü      Reflective Account

ü      Accredited Prior Learning (APL)

 

Observation Evidence

Your assessor will require you to participate in actual practice based observations. Your designated Assessor can only carry out these observations and the observations and will be entered into your Manual in the Section entitled “Training Records”.

 

Written Questions

For Level 1 there is a written exam based on your “knowledge area”. Candidates working towards Level 2 may also take the exam if they wish to. The knowledge area is designed to cover all the knowledge for which a Candidate should have and be able to demonstrate by the end of the Award and will be answered by written questions and multiple choices. The Candidate may be able to answer some of the questions from their existing knowledge base but it is envisaged that Candidates will have to undertake some research in order to provide appropriate and correct answers to some of the written questions.

 

Oral Questions

Oral questions will be used to test the Candidates knowledge where the assessor may feel there is more information that the Candidate knows but has not documented within their work. They may also be used when a Candidate displays difficulty with their written work and needs some form of assistance. This will be recorded in the “Training Records” by your Assessor.

 

Witness Statement

A Candidate can use a “Witness Statement” as a form of evidence for their award. The Witness Statement can only be accepted if it is written by the person who witnessed the activity the Candidate has performed and the witness is a C.M.A.A. Level 1 Qualified Instructor or is a previous Instructor holding a grade above a 3^rd Dan within their chosen Martial Art from another Group outside of the C.M.A.A.

The statement should include details of appropriate practice that the witness has seen the Candidate used during a Martial Arts session that they have taught and any areas of good practice they feel the Candidate has used. Please note that a Witness Statement cannot be used as an observation. Your designated assessor is the only person who can carry out an observation of your practice.

 

Work Product

Work Products are written documents that you use within the course of your duties as a Martial Arts Instructor. These products could be accident reports, risk assessments, Child Protection Documents or concerns, newsletters, Student information files, licence details etc. Please bare in mind that for confidentiality and Data Protection, products will not be photocopied and put into your portfolio, details of them will not be documented and submitted they will just be seen as authentic by your assessor and cross referenced into your portfolio. Permission for your assessor to see products that include any form of personal information will need to be gained from the individual prior to your assessor viewing them.

 

Candidate Report

This is a written report completed by the Candidate about a session they have taught, and incident they have dealt with, a Child Protection or a Health and Safety issue etc. The Candidate will be expected to explain the process or the actions they have completed and why they have chosen to act or deal with an issue in a certain way or manner i.e. adding the theory to their practice.

Candidates will be expected to carry out research to enable them to compile a comprehensive Candidate report. References can be made within their completed text but it is not an expected requirement of the award.

 

Reflective Account

In order to be an effective Martial Arts Instructor the C.M.A.A. believe that that we must develop “Reflective Practitioners” and “Reflective Learners”. The Reflective Account provides us with a tool to introduce Instructors to this process. Your assessor will expect you to explain a session or incident etc. that you may not have dealt with or delivered in the way that you had liked or something that you had done within your Martial Arts Instruction that has gone completely wrong. The assessor will then expect you to evaluate what had happened and why it had gone wrong and what you would do next time as a preventative measure and what you had learned from the whole process.

 

Accredited Prior Learning

As part of your C.M.A.A. Instructor Training you will be expected to undertake a series of Training courses such as a First Aid Appointed Persons Course, Introduction to Risk Assessment and the C.M.A.A. Instructor Training courses. Once attendance and achievement of these courses has taken place the certificate or record of attendance can be added to the Candidates portfolio and accredited to the award. If the Candidate wishes to use this type of evidence then they must, on the back of each certificate write a brief account no more than one side of A4 paper a report about the course under the following headings: 1. What the course was about? 2. What they learnt? 3. How they intend/put in to practice what they learned. Your assessor will be responsible for this. The Candidate will be responsible for adding details of courses attended etc. to their CPD record within the portfolio.

 

The evidence has been submitted and assessed by the assessor. The portfolio will then need to be Internally Verified. The assessor will take your portfolio away and submit this to your specified Internal verifier who will check the whole of the assessment process. Your file may be Internally Verified at least three times throughout your award to check that the assessor is using best assessment practice. These times of Internal Verification will be classed as “Start”, “Interim” and “final ”. At final if all actions have been completed and the award is deemed to be achieved the Internal Verifier and Assessor will then claim the C.M.A.A. Instructor Training Programme Level 1 Certificate from the C.M.A.A. President.

 

Who can be a “C.M.A.A. Assessor” and what is the Assessor’s role?

 

Once a Candidate has achieved their C.M.A.A. Instructor Training Level 1 Award within the C.M.A.A. they then automatically become a C.M.A.A. Assessor providing they have an up to date CPD (Continued Professional Development Record).

The Assessor will then begin to pass on their knowledge and facilitate learning for the new breed of C.M.A.A./Martial Arts instructors that take up the Instructor Training Award.

The role of the assessor is to facilitate the award and support you and assist you to plan and collect your evidence to demonstrate your competence in Martial Arts Instruction. They are also there to assess the quality of your work and assess that it meets the standards of the C.M.A.A. Instructor Training Award. They are also there to encourage you to undertake research and reflect upon your practice, but ultimately they are there to support you to achieve your C.M.A.A. Instructor Training Award.

 

Who can be a “C.M.A.A. Internal Verifier” and what is their role?

 

In order to be recognised as a C.M.A.A. Internal Verifier the applicant must fulfil three separate criteria. They must hold at least a 5^th Dan qualification within their chosen Martial Art, have gained the C.M.A.A. Instructor Training Level 1 Award and have an up to date CPD (Continued Professional Development Record).

The Internal Verifiers role is to check that the assessment process has been carried out fairly and appropriately. They will verifier that a sufficient period of time has elapsed between the planning date of the assessment plan and the achievement of the full award. They will check that evidence, which has been submitted, is correct, legible, valid and authentic and verify the assessor’s assessment decision if they feel it is a correct decision.

If the Internal Verifier deems that there is insufficient evidence or the assessment decision is not correct then they will return the portfolio to the assessor/candidate with a list of actions that will need to be completed in order for the assessment decision to be verified.

 

 

What if I am not satisfied with an assessment or verification decision?

 

 

If you are not happy with the assessment decision of the C.M.A.A. assessor then you do have the option of making an appeal against the decision you have a grievance with. In the case of it being a grievance against an assessor or an assessment decision then the appeal should be made in writing to your Internal Verifier. If the grievance is against an Internal Verification decision then an appeal can be made to the President of the C.M.A.A. in writing. Please see the appeals procedure in Training Manual.

 

The aim of the Martial Arts Instructor UK Programme is to enable you to demonstrate that you can consistently Instruct students appropriately and effectively whilst meeting the Performance Criteria over a Range of Activities to the Standard required by the C.M.A.A.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GOOD LUCK AND ENJOY THE PROGRAMME!