There are lots of different reasons people start martial arts. Some want to learn self-defence, others want to improve their fitness, build confidence, meet new people or simply find something they enjoy doing.

But one of the things that helps people keep coming back is feeling that their efforts are recognised, their progress matters and they're a valued part of the community.

At StandStrong, we've always tried to recognise our students' achievements. Whether that's through stickers, stripes, belt promotions, Star of the Class awards or simply a coach acknowledging something they've done well.

But we wanted to take that recognition a little further.

After all, not every achievement comes with a new belt. Sometimes it's finally understanding a skill you've been struggling with, showing up consistently when life is busy, helping someone else improve or simply being a brilliant person to have around the academy.

We wanted to celebrate more of those moments.

That's why we've introduced our new StandStrong Badge System!

We've created over 350 different opportunities for recognition across the academy, celebrating everything from attendance and technical ability to personal development, community involvement and those little moments that make StandStrong special.

These digital badges are small tokens of recognition that appear in your StandStrong app, creating a collection of achievements that grows alongside your training journey.

So, what can you earn?

1. Programme-Specific Badges

Every StandStrong programme has its own collection of 20 badges, designed to recognise the particular skills, attributes and achievements that matter within that programme.

These include:

• Infants
• Juniors
• Youths
• Under-16s BJJ
• HKM Self-Defence
• No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu
• Mixed Kickboxing
• Women's Kickboxing

Within each programme, the badges generally fall into four areas.

Admin & Preparation

These recognise some of the practical steps that help students become more confident, independent and prepared for training.

For younger students, that might mean learning to look after their equipment, remembering their kit or becoming more independent when attending classes.

Martial Arts & Training Skills

These celebrate the development of particular technical skills and abilities.

It might be demonstrating a new skill for the first time, solving a problem during training or showing that you've developed a better understanding of something you've been working on.

They allow us to recognise those smaller technical breakthroughs without someone necessarily needing to achieve a full promotion.

Attributes & Attitude

Martial arts development isn't just about physical technique. We also want to recognise the personal qualities that students develop through training.

For our younger children, this could be showing courage when trying something unfamiliar, demonstrating great listening skills, helping a friend or showing resilience after something doesn't go to plan.

For adults, the focus is similarly on recognising positive training attitudes, personal development and the contributions they make to their training environment.

Milestones & Recognition

These acknowledge important moments within someone's programme journey, whether that's attending their first class, receiving a special class award or achieving something meaningful within their programme.

How are these badges awarded?

Some are awarded automatically through Quoox when you meet the relevant criteria. Others are awarded by our coaching team, who will be actively looking for opportunities to recognise achievements during training.

Some will also be awarded by our new student mentors, who will be taking a more personal role in supporting individual students and their development.

We'll be sharing more information about our Mentor & Buddy System soon!

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2. Attendance Badges

These are probably the badges you'll already have noticed appearing in your app!

Our attendance badges recognise the time, dedication and consistency students put into their training. They're divided into three categories.

Session Count

These recognise the total number of sessions you've attended, with new badges becoming available as your training hours start adding up.

It's a lovely way to look back and appreciate how much training you've completed, particularly when those individual classes start adding up over months and years.

Consistency

This is one we're particularly keen to encourage.

At StandStrong, two sessions per week is the training target we encourage students to work towards.

Regular training gives you more opportunities to practise, revisit skills, build confidence and make meaningful progress.

Our Consistency badges recognise students who maintain roughly this level of training over longer periods.

• 8 sessions in a month
• 24 sessions in 3 months
• 50 sessions in 6 months
• 100 sessions in a year

We know life can be busy, and everyone has different commitments. The idea isn't to make people feel bad if they can't train twice every week.

It's to recognise those who are developing consistent training habits and encourage everyone to make the most of the opportunities available to them.

Above & Beyond

These badges recognise students who make exceptional efforts to maximise their training opportunities.

This could mean attending every scheduled session in a calendar week or month, or completing some of our more demanding attendance challenges.

For example, students on unlimited memberships can earn a special badge for attending eight sessions in a single training week!

These awards celebrate those periods where someone has really gone above and beyond with their commitment to training.

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3. Anniversary Badges

Sometimes it's easy to forget just how long you've been part of something.

Our Anniversary badges recognise the time you've spent as a member of StandStrong, from your early milestones right through to those who have been training with us for many years.

Each anniversary represents another chapter in your martial arts journey.

Think about how much can change in a year, let alone five or ten. The skills you've developed, the challenges you've overcome, the friendships you've made and the person you've become along the way.

These badges also help our coaching team identify important membership milestones so we can take the opportunity to recognise and thank students personally.

Your continued involvement in StandStrong means a great deal to us, and we want you to know that.

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4. Community Badges

StandStrong has always been about more than just what happens during classes.

Our community grows because of the people who support the academy, introduce others to training and help us reach more people.

Our Community badges recognise those contributions.

That could include sharing our social media content, introducing a friend or family member to the academy, helping us make connections within the local community or supporting one of our outreach events.

These are our way of saying thank you to the people who help StandStrong grow and support the wider community.

Not every valuable contribution happens on the mats!

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5. Student Choice Awards

This is one of the badge families we're particularly excited about!

Most achievements at StandStrong are recognised by coaches or through the training system.

But we also know that our students have an enormous impact on each other's experiences.

Sometimes it's another student who makes someone feel welcome, encourages them when they're struggling or helps them finally understand something they've been working towards.

And we wanted to give everyone the opportunity to recognise those people.

Our Student Choice badges include:

• First Friend: Someone who made you feel welcome and included.
• Game Changer: Someone who helped you learn or improve.
• Hype Person: Someone who's always encouraging and motivating others.
• Had My Back: Someone who supported you through a difficult time.
• Good Vibes: Someone who makes training a more enjoyable place to be.
• Outstanding Ambassador: Special recognition for our Infants and Juniors Ambassadors who go above and beyond to support other children.

Approximately every three months, we'll open a seven-day nomination window through the Quoox app.

Each student can nominate one person for one award, explaining why they deserve it. For our younger students, parents are welcome to help submit their nominations.

This isn't a popularity contest. We're not looking for the person with the most votes.

We're looking to recognise the people whose kindness, support and encouragement have made a difference to someone else.

Sometimes the smallest gesture can have the biggest impact.

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6. Holiday & Event Badges

Keeping up a training routine during the school holidays isn't always easy!

Between holidays, family activities, changes to schedules and everything else going on, it's understandable that regular training habits can sometimes slip.

Our Holiday badges are designed to recognise students who maintain their training during these periods.

We've created badges for different school holidays, including half-terms, Easter and the summer holidays.

We also have seasonal challenges, such as Beat the January Blues, to provide a little extra encouragement when getting back into a routine can feel difficult.

Alongside these, we're introducing badges for participation in particular academy events, holiday camps and special activities.

These are little reminders of the experiences you've been part of during your time at StandStrong.

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7. BJJ Competition Badges

For our Under-16s and Adult No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu students, we've introduced a dedicated family of competition badges.

Competing can be a significant step in someone's martial arts journey.

It takes commitment to prepare, courage to put yourself forward and a willingness to test what you've learned against unfamiliar opponents.

And there's far more to the experience than simply winning a medal.

We want to recognise the extra training, preparation and determination that go into getting ready for a competition, as well as the experience of stepping onto the competition mats.

These badges allow us to acknowledge those achievements and celebrate the efforts of our competition teams.

Winning is fantastic, but having the courage to challenge yourself deserves recognition too.

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8. Admin & App Badges

This might sound like a slightly unusual category, but there's a good reason we've included it!

We've created five simple badges recognising some of the practical things members do to get set up and make full use of the StandStrong app and membership systems.

Learning how to use these features helps members become more independent and makes the day-to-day running of the academy a little smoother.

And when we're spending less time chasing paperwork and sorting out routine administration, we can spend more time focusing on what matters: coaching and supporting our students.

So these badges are a little thank-you for helping everything run smoothly!

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9. Belts & Martial Arts Progression

Of course, we couldn't introduce a recognition system without including formal martial arts progression!

For our programmes that use a belt or grading system, we've created dedicated badges to recognise those achievements.

These complement the physical stripes, belts and promotions that students receive during classes.

They provide a digital record of progression, allowing students to look back through the different stages of their training journey.

For our younger students, this also includes certain stripe and progression milestones along the way.

Receiving a new belt is already an important achievement, but now you'll have a digital reminder of that moment too!

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10. Special Recognition Awards

Finally, we have our Special Recognition badges.

These are designed to sit above our everyday achievements and recognise particularly outstanding contributions, development and commitment.

Student of the Month

Recognising someone who has particularly stood out through their effort, attitude, progress or contribution to the academy.

This isn't necessarily about being the most technically skilled student. It's about recognising someone whose actions, commitment or development have made a real impression.

Student of the Year

One of our most prestigious recognitions, celebrating a student whose achievements, development and contribution have made them stand out over a much longer period.

This is an opportunity to acknowledge someone who has made an exceptional contribution to their programme and the wider academy.

Academy Award

The Academy Award is our highest level of special recognition and one of the most prestigious badges a StandStrong member can receive. 

Unlike our other badges, this award doesn't have a specific set of criteria. Instead, it's reserved for those rare occasions when someone achieves something truly exceptional, makes an extraordinary contribution or does something that deserves recognition from the entire academy. 

It might be an outstanding personal achievement, an incredible act of kindness or a moment that goes far beyond what we'd normally expect. This isn't an award we'll give out regularly. It's reserved for those genuinely special moments that deserve to be remembered and celebrated. Receiving an Academy Award means you've done something truly remarkable, and we want everyone at StandStrong to know about it!

Coach's Shout-Out

A special award that allows our coaching team to recognise someone who has done something particularly noteworthy.

It might be an exceptional achievement, an outstanding attitude, an act of kindness or a contribution that deserves some extra appreciation.

These awards won't necessarily be earned through completing a specific number of classes or demonstrating an individual technique.

They're about recognising people who have made a particularly meaningful impact within StandStrong.

How Do I See My Badges?

Your badges are recorded within your StandStrong app, allowing you to look back at the achievements you've collected throughout your time with us.

To view you badges 

1. Log on to the app and go to the dashboard

2. Tap the settings cog in the top right hand corner of the screen

3. Tap 'My Account'

4. Tap 'Recognition Badges'

We've also started using the Activities section of the app to share achievements across the academy.

Until now, this has been a relatively quiet area of the app, but we're hoping to make it a much more active part of our community.

When you see someone earn a badge, why not leave them some Kudos?

It might only take you a few seconds, but a little encouragement from another member can mean a lot!

We'll also be introducing more information about the badges available within each programme, so you'll have a better idea of the different achievements you can work towards.

A Work in Progress!

As you can probably imagine, introducing over 350 different recognition opportunities across the academy is quite a big project!

We're rolling things out in stages, and some elements of the system are still being tested and refined.

Our automated badges are already running, while we're continuing to develop the processes for awarding some of the more individual skill, attitude and recognition badges.

This means you might notice the occasional oddity while we get everything working smoothly.

If you receive a badge and aren't sure why, or something doesn't look quite right, please get in touch and let us know.

You might have helped us identify an issue with one of our automations!

Equally, if you think we've missed an achievement, please don't hesitate to ask.

We want this to become a genuinely useful and meaningful part of the StandStrong experience, so your feedback is always welcome.

More Than Just a Badge

At the end of the day, these badges aren't supposed to replace the satisfaction of learning something new, overcoming a challenge or earning your next promotion.

They're simply another way for us to say:

Whether you've just attended your first class or you've been part of the academy for years, we want you to feel that your journey matters.

Not every achievement needs to be enormous to deserve recognition.

And with over 350 opportunities to be recognised, we hope everyone will find something that reflects their own journey.

Thank you for being part of StandStrong, for supporting each other and for helping us build the kind of community we're proud to be part of.

We hope you enjoy collecting your badges, celebrating each other's achievements and seeing just how far you've come.

And keep an eye out, because we've got some more exciting updates coming soon!

Hannah and Sam