Republished September 2026
When you’re a martial-arts instructor and school owner, it’s easy to get stuck in the same routine. You clean the mats, return phone calls, check emails, handle customer-service issues, write class plans, and go teach.
Like many people, you’ve probably fallen into a comfort zone — a place where you do, more or less, the minimum effort to achieve your short-term goals and complete daily tasks. This makes life more comfortable and less risky, but also less rewarding.
What does this have to do with launching an Ultimate Bo program in your martial-arts school? By adding an exciting new program, you’ll be keeping it fresh! Your students will have something new to begin training in and work toward. They’ll become better, more well-rounded martial artists. And you’ll improve your own understanding of weapons combat while having fun and growing your business along the way.
This doesn’t have to be hard, confusing, or expensive. Martial-arts school owners choose to add the Ultimate Bo program to their school for the love of the art, of being a white-belt again, and for the love of training, sparring, and fellowship.
What is Ultimate Bo?
Ultimate Bo is the world’s only white-to-black level, officially recognized style of bo (staff) training. Its founder, Michael Hodge, wanted to create an organized training system that would give students a clear training path. Rather than just teaching a few random katas here and some sparring drills there, he organized an entire syllabus.
The Ultimate Bo style is rooted in Okinawan bojutsu, with influences from other staff styles from around the world. Students learn traditional techniques, a kata, and realistic combat bo at every rank level. Sparring (free sparring and competition sparring) is a big part of the program, and can lead to tournament and practical self-defense training.
Ultimate Bo is very accessible for both children and adults. The bo was recently found in an industry report to be the most popular martial-arts weapon in the world.
Why Should you Launch a Weapons Program Like Ultimate Bo in Your School?
- You’ll create a buzz and a newfound excitement within your student base. Everyone will be dying to attend Ultimate Bo class. School owners quickly find that Ultimate Bo becomes the most popular class, beating out their core traditional program!
- Once students reach the intermediate level and early advanced belts, they’re more susceptible to dropping out. They feel, “Is this all there is?”, “Why do we keep doing the same thing over and over again?”, “Ah…new white belts, now we have to review again.” By having a new program to enter, intermediate students can begin a new rank journey from white to black chevron, all while continuing in their core program.
- Ultimate Bo has an official ranking system. Your students get to display their chevron rank patches rank on their uniform sleeves. They’ll obtain new and higher levels of mastery at each rank.
- You can charge a sizeable monthly fee for Ultimate Bo classes. All students will buy a bo upon signing up, a sparring bo a little later on, and even upgrade to a competition bo in the advanced stages. You can host mini camps and tournaments and have other opportunities to generate revenue from the course. All this can easily add a $1,000-$5,000 to your monthly revenue immediately (depending on your school’s size).
- Differentiate your school from the competition. How many schools in your area teach weapons, let alone have a complete ranking system and curriculum to black belt?
- There’s no monthly or yearly licensing fee. This is an extremely affordable, low-cost way to add a robust, ready-out-of-the-box program to your school.
How to Add Ultimate Bo to Your School
If you’re a black-belt instructor, even without any bo experience, you can get started now. We’re going to make sure you first learn and master the Ultimate Bo program before you begin running your own classes. Our world-class, Global Martial Arts University Ultimate Bo course, will teach you all the curriculum in a simple step-by-step format.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Enroll as an official Ultimate Bo student in the Global Martial Arts University.
- Begin learning the curriculum (basics, stances, traditional bo, kata, and combat bo). You can train on any device, at any time, with or without a partner.
- Purchase the Certified Martial Arts Teacher (CMAT) program. This includes all instruction on how to plan and teach classes, test students, and much more.
- Once you have earned your blue chevron in Ultimate Bo, you’ll be eligible to take your CMAT instructor certification exam. Your instructor test can be taken by submitting video(s) for grading.
- Once you pass the CMAT certification, you’ll be mailed an official instructor plaque and be welcome to teach your own official Ultimate Bo program in your school.
