About Martial Arts Professional

Martial Arts Professional — The Business Journal for Martial Arts School, BJJ Academy & MMA Gym Owners
The definitive resource for building, operating and growing a professional martial arts school, BJJ academy, MMA gym, Muay Thai gym or Krav Maga school.

Martial Arts Professional is the trade journal of the professional martial arts school business. It has been published by the National Association of Professional Martial Artists since 1996 — first in print, now digitally at MartialArtsProfessional.com.

What this publication is

Martial Arts Professional exists to document how martial arts schools are actually operated: what schools charge, how they enroll and keep students, how instructors are trained and paid, how programs are built, and how the profession has changed over three decades. It is written for the people who run schools — traditional martial arts academies, Brazilian jiu-jitsu academies, MMA gyms, kickboxing and fitness programs — and for the instructors and staff who work in them.

The magazine reports. It publishes named operators with real numbers, industry history, association standards, obituaries and awards, and columns from working school owners. Where it recommends something, it says who is recommending it and on what evidence.

What we cover

Marketing and student acquisition · Enrollment and retention · Pricing, tuition and profitability · Staff, systems and operations · Teaching and curriculum · Mindset and leadership · Industry history · School owner profiles · Business Breakthrough TV, the magazine’s video library.

Who publishes it

Publication: Martial Arts Professional. Founded 1996; Volume 1, Number 1 was the Winter 1996 issue, and the magazine was publishing monthly by July 1996.
Publisher of record: Martial Arts Marketing, Inc., DBA the National Association of Professional Martial Artists (NAPMA), the professional association for martial arts school owners founded in 1993.
Publisher: Grand Master Stephen Oliver, MBA — 10th Degree Black Belt, CEO and Chairman of NAPMA. Full biography.
Columnists: Grand Master Stephen Oliver; Grand Master Jeff Smith, Chief of Instruction; Chief Master Greg Moody, Ph.D. See the masthead.
Distribution: Digital-first at MartialArtsProfessional.com, with the full print archive (2005–2012 issues online) and the video library available to readers. Print copies were distributed to NAPMA members and subscribers through the magazine’s print era.

Ownership, and how editorial differs from coaching

Martial Arts Professional is published by Martial Arts Marketing, Inc. / NAPMA. Grand Master Stephen Oliver is Publisher and is also Founder and CEO of Martial Arts Wealth Mastery, a coaching company for school owners. Coaching offers are labelled as such and are not editorial endorsements of any school mentioned in these pages.

NAPMA was founded in 1993 and launched this magazine in 1996. Century acquired NAPMA in 2005; Grand Master Stephen Oliver acquired it from Century in August 2007 and has published the journal since. The full ownership record is in the press room.

We state that plainly because a trade journal that hides its ownership is worth less than one that discloses it. Three separate things carry three separate names, and they should not be confused:

The journal: Martial Arts Professional — reporting, history, awards, standards. This site.
The association: NAPMA — membership, professional standards, the Safe Training Environment initiative, events.
The coaching company: Martial Arts Wealth Mastery — individual coaching, diagnostics and masterminds for school owners.

The Lifetime Achievement Award

The magazine and the association jointly confer the NAPMA Martial Arts Professional Lifetime Achievement Award, the profession’s longest-running recognition of career contribution. Eleven people have received it, from Joe Lewis through Grand Master Jhoon Rhee, Fumio Demura, Ernie Reyes Sr., Grand Master Jeff Smith, Grand Master J. Pat Burleson and Nicholas P. Cokinos, to Chuck Norris, inducted posthumously in 2026. Each recipient’s citation is published at the awards register.

The archive

Articles first published in the print edition are labelled From the archive at the head of the page. They are kept because they are the record of how schools were run at the time, not because their tactics are current. The association’s year-by-year record of the magazine is at NAPMA’s history.

Corrections, story tips and contact

We correct errors of fact on the record. If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it and say what changed. Story tips, school owner numbers, and letters to the editor are welcome; letters may be edited for length and clarity.

Post: Martial Arts Professional, 825 Neville Lane, Golden, CO 80401, U.S.A.
Telephone: (720) 256-0208
Online: Contact the publisher

Martial Arts Professional is published by Martial Arts Marketing, Incorporated, DBA the National Association of Professional Martial Artists (NAPMA), 825 Neville Lane, Golden, CO 80401. Telephone (720) 256-0208.

The publisher and editors are not responsible for unsolicited material. Manuscripts and photographs are handled with care but the publisher assumes no responsibility for their safety or return. All rights in letters sent to Martial Arts Professional are treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes, subject to an unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially.