PMA – Professional Martial Arts Association

PMA

When Fighter International magazine was launched in 1986 (USA) publisher Mike Anderson created an commercial association for professional matial artists. Here is what it aimed at offering:

In a martial arts community crowded with organizations — the majority of which ask for money but give little in return — the PMA is unique. The PMA asks for little and gives much in return.
The Professional Martial Arts Association (PMA) is an international martial arts marketing association made up of many of the world’s most reputable martial arts leaders and organizations. Behindthe PMA you will find luminaries such as Steve Armstrong, Jerry Beasley, Pat Burleson, John Corcoran, Jim Harrison , Randall Hassell, Joe Lewis, Phil Porter, Ernie Reyes, Sr.. Jhoon Rhee, Stuart Sobel. and Bruce Terrill, among many others. European PMA members include Georg Bruckner (West Germany), Benny Hedlund (Sweden), Joe Johal (Great Britain), David Moon (Mexico), and Alan Rashid and Jean-Pierre Schuepp (Switzerland). The PMA provides these and all of its members with the opportunity to profit with no risk, financial or otherwise, to the member. The PMA just may be the first martial arts association in history that truly shares its prof its with its members. Basically, every PMA member shares the buying power and profits of a large martial arts supply association. Over 200 PMA products are advertised in every issue of The Fighter magazine. These are all quality products at low prices. PMA members receive commissions on the sales of these products to their students, plus they can sponsor other PMA members and receive commissions from sales there as well. In essence, the PMA puts its members in the lucrative martial arts supply business without the member investing a dime to carry stock. The only cost to the PMA member is the minor expense of buying The Fighter magazine (at discounted prices) to use as his catalogue. In fact, the PMA will even give its members a quantity of magazines on consignment to help them get started. Besides helping to stimulate martial artists economically, the PMA plans to stimulate the entire martial arts community and public awareness of the martial arts through what it terms The Force. Everyone knows there is strength in numbers. The longstanding problem with the various martial arts is that there is no unity. The PMA, however, is strictly a marketing company, not a sport or a style organization. So PMA members come from every part of the community. Together, all these martial artists represent The Force. And The Force is with you when you have large numbers. When the PMA has enrolled 5,000 member schools in North America, it plans to launch its television sponsorship program. With this strength in numbers, the PMA will sponsor martial arts programs and generate co-op advertising with its members. For example, if every school contributed just $10, the PMA would have $50,000 to buy nationwide television time encouraging potential students to join PMA schools and to buy PMA products. As the sponsor, the PMA will have the best opportunity of controlling how the martial arts are portrayed on television.
Among the other benefits currently offered to PMA members are an economical long-distance phone plan, travel plans, and a scholarship fund. And the PMA’s just starting! If it sounds too good to be true, here’s what just one of the PMA’s members, Jerry Beasley, recently said: “After talking at length with Mike Anderson and John Corcoran [of The Fighter magazine], I am convinced that the PMA has the best interests of the martial arts community in mind. Instead of having one person control the enormous wealth that the PMA will no doubt generate, the income potential has been distributed throughout the martial arts industry. This means competent instructors can expect greatly increased revenues, and longtime professionals may well earn six-figure incomes as a result of the PMA. “In talking to instructors about the PMA,” Beasley concludes, “I sense a feeling of pride and excitement in the fact that we, as an industry, thanks to the PMA, are finally recognizing a common interest as we begin to improve our profession tenfold.” The PMA concept is truly revolutionary and beneficial to the entire martial arts industry. It’s a profitable and realistic program that’s long overdue. The Fighter urges all legitimate martial artists to be a part of The Force and get behind the PMA today.
PMA MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION: If you’re a black belt or school owner who has not yet been sponsored into the PMA, call (813) 584-0054 or write PMA, P.O. Box 1441, Largo, Florida 34294. Please enclose $2.00 for the PMA brochure and literature.
(Note: The PMA no longer exists.)