Best Kickboxing Certification - Easy Steps to Acquire one

Hey everyone, and welcome to PTPioneer, your one-stop shop for career and academic advice in the fitness world.

This article will take a swipe at the world of kickboxing and the best kickboxing certifications required to become a certified instructor.

To give you a clear picture, I’ll be going over the following:

An Overview of Kickboxing
The Best Certification Options
General Info For Each Certifying Organization

I also highly recommend that you take the quiz and find out which kickboxing certification is best for your career goals.

So without further ado, let’s kick right into it.

Table of Contents

CPT	Features	Price
ISSA Certified Kickboxing Instructor	The Best Deals in Fitness Amazing Variety In Fitness Specializations Also Based On World-Renowned Kickboxer	Check ISSA Pricing
ACE Cardio Kickboxing Instructor Training	Incredible Personal Training Certification Welcomed Focus on General Public Health Comprehensive Focus on Kickboxing Knowledge and Cardio Combined	Check ACE Pricing
NCCPT Kickboxing Instructor Program	Administered by Competitive Kickboxing Legend Outstanding Balance Between Training Coaching and Fundamentals of Discipline One of the Most Popular Kickboxing Certs	Check NCCPT Pricing

Top Recommended Kickboxing Certifications

One thing to bear in mind is that these certs won’t teach you how to kickbox; they will teach you how to coach it.

So as recommended, make sure you have a firm practical grasp of kickboxing as a practitioner before you take on the coach role.

You may have come across this while going through the process of how to become a personal trainer, and this has brought you to specializations like kickboxing certification.

If you are considering becoming a kickboxing coach, let’s assume you have at least a few years of sport experience.

With that said, let’s look at some of the best certs.

ISSA Certified Kickboxing Instructor

The International Sports Science Association, or ISSA, is recognized as one of the top fitness credentialing institutions.

As mentioned, they are the parent organization of the NCCPT.

Because of this, many of the structures and resources behind the ISSA kickboxing certification are adapted from the NCCPT course.

On top of this, ISSA is at the top of many lists of various types of specializations and CPT articles, as it offers some of the greatest deals in the fitness industry.

If you want to look into one of the greatest value options in the fitness world, check out the Elite Trainer Package ISSA offers.

The Elite Package offers the ISSA Certified Personal Trainer, ISSA Nutritionist cert, and an advanced cert of your choice, such as this great ISSA Kickboxing Instructor cert.

This is the best deal available if you do not already have your CPT cert, and all three of these certifications come to the buyer for less than half the price of the three certs altogether.

The ISSA sometimes runs the Elite Trainer deal on its main website.

If they currently offer a discount on the Elite Trainer packages, it’s hard to pass up such an amazing value.

Check Elite Trainer Deals

ISSA is excellent because of its accessibility since it is a course based entirely online.

NCCPT Kickboxing Instructor Program

NCCPT, or The National Council for Certified Personal Trainers, is a subsidiary of ISSA, which we’ll discuss next.

Zak Lee, an icon in competitive kickboxing, administers the NCCPT kickboxing cert.

Having a two-time European and world champion apply their training methodology through a fitness instructor framework provides an outstanding balance of coach training and discipline fundamentals.

ACE Cardio Kickboxing Instructor Training

The American Council on Exercise, or ACE, is one of the most recognized certification agencies in the world and the leading non-profit institution in health and wellness credentials.

They focus on raising public health levels and standards for a better, more productive society.

Regarding their kickboxing certifications, it is one of the most comprehensive as you learn how to teach kickboxing as a cardio training method and how to instruct proper technique.

AFAA Kickboxing: Skills and Drills Certification

The Athletics and Fitness Association of America, or AFAA, has provided fitness education for 35 years.

In that time, they have become a leader and preferred choice for many fitness pros across the US.

The AFAA kickboxing cert is geared towards a fitness application rather than a disciplined approach.

That means you can modify your workouts quite widely within kickboxing and boxing.

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NESTA Certified Muay Thai Fitness Instructor

The National Exercise and Sports Trainers Association or NESTA & the Spencer Institute play host to numerous health and fitness certifications.

They pride themselves on having an entrepreneurial slant in their programs and courses, allowing trainers to be more business savvy and well-versed in fitness instruction.

The NESTA Kickboxing cert is more towards the discipline of Muay Thai or Thai Boxing, a similar style of combat sport to kickboxing, but more steeped in its tradition as an ancient martial art.

This is another example of a fitness-based program instead of a technique-focused instructor’s course.

What Is “Kickboxing”

While this isn’t an article on defining kickboxing in detail, I feel a good way to start is to introduce the sport briefly.

Many of you will be familiar with the sport from popular media and the mainstream practice of the sport.

Kickboxing is a popular combat sport rooted in boxing and karate.

It is considered a fusion of both sports and has many common applications, which include:

Self-defense
General fitness
Competitive sport
Tactical martial arts

The techniques and method remain pretty consistent in whatever context it is practiced.

One thing to appreciate in comparison to other careers in fitness is that teaching kickboxing or any specific discipline has some vastly different considerations from what general exercise instruction entails.

For example, you are teaching a sport, and with it comes a certain culture of practice, a community, and a code of conduct.

You also have to consider that the primary goal is to advance your skill and technique and not so much to reach common fitness goals such as weight loss or body recomposition.

With that in mind, let’s look at how one becomes a kickboxing coach and what certifications are required to get there.

How to Become A Kickboxing Instructor

Step 1: Know How To Kickbox

The first important thing when becoming a kickboxing coach, as with most other sporting disciplines, is to have a background in practicing the sport.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be currently practicing kickboxing.

It also doesn’t mean you must be immensely skilled at any stage in your relationship with the sport.

But what you should have, at the very least, is experience training and participating for a reasonable amount of time.

For instance, the head coach of an NLF team certainly isn’t an active football athlete, and when they were, they probably weren’t a top-tier player, but they did play, and they did immerse themselves in the craft and culture of the sport.

Similarly, with kickboxing, you need to have a nuanced understanding of the sport, developed through training and practice.

Sometimes, the best teachers are not the best athletes, but all teachers were or are participants.

If you desire to be a kickboxing coach but have no experience, I suggest you take that as the initial phase in your journey.

Make yourself a student before you take on being a teacher.

Step 2: Determine Your Prerequisites

If you have the background experience and knowledge in kickboxing, the next step is to certify.

But before you can do that, you need to evaluate your prerequisites.

We’ve already discussed the first one: you’ll want to have experience as a kickboxer.

Beyond that, you should also look at the general requirements each certification demands for you to enroll.

These requirements are usually standard and include the following:

Having a high school diploma or equivalent
Being at least 18 years old
Having current first responder certifications (First Aid/CPR/AED)

Aside from that, you’ll also want to have a good set of traits and skills that allow you to work as an effective and reliable instructor.

Such things as:

Good interpersonal skills
Active listening skills
Great leadership qualities
A strong work ethic

Step 3: Find the Best Kickboxing Certification for YOU

Now that you have the all-clear in terms of requirements, it’s time to find your certification.

Finding the right certification can be tricky since many great options exist.

To find one that suits you, you’ll need to evaluate your current circumstances and goals and find the cert that measures up.

One rule of thumb when looking at certifications is to always look at the other certifications offered by the organization.

You’ll also want to consider cost and study time as they will affect which cert you can nab.

Step 4: Prepare for Your Exam & Pass!

Once you’ve enrolled in a cert, it’s time to get cracking and exam ready.

Certification exams typically rely on a multiple-choice format, but in a sports-specific discipline, expect some practical elements in your assessment.

Exclusive PTP CPT Offers
Gold Standard Cert	Most Popular Cert	Best Study Materials
A Good Option	A Good Option	Best CPT for you?

Whether your certification program is in-person or remote, you may be required to fulfill different requirements as part of the exam.

Step 5: Start Working with Kickboxing Clients

Once all is said and done, you’ll soon be able to work with your first clients.

Unlike other fields in professional fitness, kickboxing and other combat sports/martial arts require specialized facilities and equipment.

Because of this, your best bet is to job hunt with martial arts gyms and dojos.

You can score with general fitness clubs as many of them are adapted to facilitate some combat sports training.

If your approach to kickboxing is for general fitness, but if you’re looking to develop athletes, your best option is a dedicated martial arts facility.

Study Materials Rating

Study materials are an integral part of your success with a certification program.

They are the basis for all the knowledge and skill you will obtain and a guide to the final exam and all other assessments.

A good study material suite allows candidates to absorb relevant facts and knowledge and entrench that knowledge through activities that allow them to interact with the curriculum before their final test.

In my opinion, a good study package suite includes:

The course textbook
Practices tests, quizzes, or exams
Interactive educational media content
A workbook/study guide

Many certs have multiple study packages, each with different amounts of study material and priced according to the density and variety of material.

We’ll get to pricing soon, but first, let’s review the content and rate each package.