Let’s be clear on something: There are careers in the martial arts industry to be found, but if you’re only hoping to study martial arts for the sake of earning money, you’ll be sorely disappointed. It’s not an easy road to travel. The jobs are out there, yes, but you have to work at the martial arts for passion, not for money.

If you keep at it, though, if you’re passionate if you have the talent, you can make a living as a martial artist. Just be sure that you’re doing it for the passion of the art, and remember that the way you treat others is generally more important than anything else in this field. Martial arts are a family above all else, and those who treat it as such will almost invariably do better than those who don’t.

Sensei

The most common job in the industry is that of instructor or sensei. There are two ways to go about this. You can start your own dojo, or you can work as an assistant instructor. If you want to run your own dojo, it’s important to take time to learn about the business end of things. When your whole life is the art of fighting, this can be difficult, and sadly, this means that the best senseis usually bring in the least amount of business. You might be able to find an assistant instructor, though, who can help you run the business well.

Being an assistant, you’ll typically earn an hourly wage. If you treat your sensei with respect, if you play your cards right, you may even inherit the dojo from them should they wish to expand or retire.

It’s difficult to say just how much you’ll make as a sensei, but most actually do it for the love of teaching, with money being a nice bonus.

Stunt Work

Stunt work is less reliable than it was in the heyday of the American action film. Today, it’s mostly CGI and actors learning martial arts and doing their own fight scenes. But, you can still find a lot of work in television.

The downside: You’ll have to live near a big entertainment city like New York, Toronto, LA, etcetera. The good news: It’s easy to find the work and get employed if you have the skills and you’re not afraid of falling off a roof and landing on your butt.

Stunt actors are paid well, but they usually get paid per stunt or per fight rather than on a salary. It’s largely freelance work, so it’s not always easy to make sure you can get paid every week.

The New Media

If you’re willing to look into the new options available today, there are really a lot of routes that people have only begun to explore. For example, you could start a video account and make online viral videos sharing your knowledge for free. How will that make you money? Well you can go to those sites that share ad revenue and earn ad money through your teaching, you could sell DVDs. Or, you could start a website giving martial arts advice and earn ad revenue. You could join one of those advice websites as the Karate expert. There are a lot of ways to make money on the internet, no matter what you’re good at.

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