Planning a Martial Arts Tournament

Martial arts tournaments are great for benefitting both your club and the wider martial arts community. They can help to attract new members to your club, motivate existing members to compete and help raise the profile of your club throughout the local area. However, organising the event itself can prove to be a huge logistical challenge. Here are some tips to help your martial arts tournament run as smoothly as possible.

It’s important that your event is carefully planned before you take any further steps. Taking time to plan what you can do and how will enable you to hold a safe and successful tournament. Decide the size of the tournament and recruit any help from your club members and staff that could assist.

Think about how many volunteers you may need to help with the number of attendees you’re expecting. Look at budget, sponsors, venue, date, volunteers, first aid, safety, security, catering, prize giving and don’t forget to extend your Public Liability Insurance, which we explain more about below.

You can extend your existing Clubs & Associations public liability cover to cover your martial arts tournament. This can be arranged up to 30 days before the event, all you need to do is contact us and let us know:

• The start and end date of the martial arts tournament

• The venue address

• Total number of attendees, including participants, spectators, volunteers and hired staff

• Level of Public Liability required, we can offer £1M, £2M, £5M or £10M - subject to policy acceptance criteria.

A tournament is a great opportunity for your martial arts club to appeal to new members, so it’s important to ensure that as many people as possible know it’s happening.

Contact all eligible clubs to gauge interest through word of mouth and social media, both in the local community and further afield. When planning your promotions, make sure you leave enough time for the public to put the tournament date in their diary and ensure they can make it along.

To ensure your tournament runs as smoothly as possible, you’ll need to have as many volunteers as possible on hand to support. Depending on the size of the event, you might have to search wider than your club for volunteers, so it’s a good idea to ask their family and friends who might like to get involved.

Plan and deliver a detailed brief to all volunteers before your event starts, ensuring that everyone one is clear on what they should be doing throughout the tournament.

Consider organising for your event’s volunteers to wear an item of clothing that will indicate they are part of the tournament staff. This will make it easy for attendees and members of the public to seek help when from the right people on the day.

It’s crucial that you insure your martial arts tournament adequately. Please note that it is a legal requirement in the UK to have employers’ liability Insurance if you have any staff attached to your event. This cover protects them from loss or injury while carrying out work for you.

So, if you have any full or part time staff, volunteers, interns, contracted or freelance workers, it’s your responsibility have the correct cover in place. Should an employee injure themselves as a result of your business, you could be liable in a compensation claim against you.

Once the day of the tournament has arrived, remember to promote your event via social media using live videos feeds, stories and hashtags.

This will help to boost your club’s profile and show the local community what a great time your members are having. Ask your club members to like and share all posts to help reach their friends’ newsfeeds too. Most importantly, have a great event!

Our bespoke martial arts insurance includes a wide range of policies that can be tailored to your needs.

Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems, we recommend that professional advice be sought.