Professional Competitor
Some martial artists compete as part of their training. The ones who are willing to train a lot and have some natural proclivities for fighting, may explore competing professionally. This can be a very exciting career, and more directly related to martial arts training, at least if you train in one that focuses on competition like boxing or MMA, but not many make enough doing this to make a living. Most have other jobs and fight as a side job, seeing any money they make as an extra bonus they get doing what they love. The other trouble is that even if you manage to make enough to make a living doing professional fighting, it’s not a long-term career, unless you’re Randy Couture. You would have to explore other career paths for the future.
Stunt Performer
If you happen to live in a city that has a thriving film industry, or are willing to relocate to one, you might fancy the idea of becoming a stunt performer to put your skills to use in a professional capacity. It’s definitely not for everyone. If you want regular, guaranteed work, and a clear path of development for success in the field, this is not the field for you. I’ve heard stunt coordinators say that you have to be willing to commit to around 6 years of training and development in the stunt field before you’ll start seeing regular work coming your way. For some it’s more, for some it’s less, depending on the needs of the industry. Some manage to get to a place where they can afford to do stunt work as their main source of income without any other side work, but most do not.
Coach
The one of the best career choice in this sport. As a coach of Martial Art you can have a very bright career and you can earn a lot. But for this you should need a very intense training of yourself. Eligibility Criteria for this is quite difficult. You need to prepare your martial art portfolio very strong. Currently in India there are not so many highly paid jobs of a martial arts coach but out of India there are surely numerous jobs with a very well paid remuneration which totally depends upon your coaching skills and your personal martial art training. You can even open your own academy and be a trainer there. You can also give coaching into the Martial Art Academy's also.
Empowerment/Psychology Fields
Some people find their way into the martial arts because they faced some sort of violence like bullying, gang violence, sexual assault, domestic abuse, etc. The use the martial arts to help rebuild their confidence, to empower themselves, physically and mentally. As a result, these people often seek out fields in which they are in a position to help people who face the same situations or are at risk to face the same situations they did. These include fields like violence awareness/prevention, youth workers, women’s shelter support staff, psychologists/therapists, guidance counselors, etc. While these careers definitely help scratch the itch that may have brought someone into the martial arts in the first place, it doesn’t really work as a complement to one’s dojo development, at least not in terms of physical training. I’ve had some of this itch to work in an empowerment field, but have chosen to focus this through my dojo activities, helping children to deal with difficult emotions through their training, teaching women’s self-defense classes, and outside the dojo by volunteering as a Big Sister.
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