How can we help?
Browse the questions below, or email our support team — most answers take seconds.
Getting Started
The Martial Man is a documentary-style learning platform for traditional martial arts, internal arts, and qi gong. We film experienced instructors on location and bring their teaching to practitioners worldwide — a growing library of instructor-led courses, plus Circles (instructor-led communities) where you can train alongside a teacher and other students.
Creating an account is free and takes a minute. You can browse freely, and you'll need an account to buy a course, join a Circle, or use the practitioner tools. Your purchases and memberships then live in your account, ready whenever you sign in.
Three main things: take self-paced Courses (each a complete, filmed curriculum), join Circles to train inside an instructor's community with discussions, a classroom, and live events, and use Course Guide — practitioner tools built into supported lessons. Everything is reachable from the top menu: Courses, Circles, Course Guide, Instructors, and About.
Martial Man works in your mobile browser. Dedicated mobile apps are planned for a future release.
Email our support team at support@martialman.com — we usually reply within 24–48 hours. Including your account email and, where relevant, the course or lesson name helps us help you faster.
Your Account & Profile
Use “Get Started” (or open the create-account page), enter your first and last name, email, and a password, then confirm your email from the verification link we send. If “Continue with Google” is shown, it creates and verifies your account in one step. Creating an account is free.
It's a security check. When you sign in with the correct password from a new device or location, we email you a 6-digit code — enter it to finish signing in. The code expires in 10 minutes, and ticking “Remember this device” means future sign-ins from that device skip the code. No code in your inbox? Check spam, or use the resend option on the code screen.
Open Account → Profile. There you can set your first and last name, photo, short bio, location, a public handle (used for @mentions), and any social links. Your name and photo are how you appear across the platform and in Circles.
Yes — open Account → Appearance and choose Light, Dark, or Auto (which follows your device setting). Your choice is saved to your account and applies on every device while you're signed in. Appearance is an account setting, so after you sign out, the public site returns to Light.
Open Account → Login & Security and choose “Reset password” — we'll email you a secure link. If you're signed out, use the “Forgot password” link on the sign-in page instead.
Check your spam or junk folder, then request a fresh link — reset links expire quickly. Try opening it in a private or incognito window, and make sure you're using the exact email your account was registered with. Still stuck? Email support.
Open Account → Login & Security, choose “Change email,” and enter your new address. For your security the change only takes effect once you confirm it from the link we send to that new address — and we email your old address to let you know. If your account signs in with Google, set a password first using “Reset password,” then you can change your email.
Open Account → Login & Security and choose “Log out everywhere.” This ends your sessions on every device — handy if you've signed in somewhere you no longer trust.
Open Account → Login & Security and use “Delete account.” It begins a 14-day grace period — sign back in before that date to cancel it. After that, your account and personal data are permanently removed (order and invoice records are kept for tax and accounting — see the Privacy Policy).
Courses & Access
Each course is a complete, self-paced curriculum you can watch as often as you like. A course you buy is yours to keep — there's no rental window. Some courses are free to enrol; others are a one-time purchase or, in a few cases, a subscription (the price and terms are shown before you buy).
Open the course page and use its enrol or buy button — you'll pay by card at the secure checkout, and the course is added to your account straight away, ready under “My Courses.” Free courses enrol instantly with no payment step. The price and any subscription terms are always shown before you pay.
In two places. Open “My Courses” from your dashboard to watch and pick up where you left off, and open Account → Your courses to see everything you own.
This almost always means you have two accounts on different email addresses — one has the purchase, the other doesn't. Check your inbox for the purchase receipt, note which email it went to, then sign out and sign back in with that email. Your course will appear. Still missing? Email support with your purchase details and we'll sort it out.
Yes. To reset a single lesson, open it and use the “Mark complete” toggle to mark it incomplete again. To reset a whole course, open the course page and use “Reset course progress” below the lesson list. Either way you keep full access — only your progress is cleared, and it can't be undone.
Supported lessons include a short Quiz — a few questions that check your understanding of what the lesson taught. It's a study tool for you alone: your score appears when you submit, retakes are unlimited, and each attempt draws a fresh set of questions. There's nothing to pass or fail — it's simply a way to make sure the teaching landed.
Inside a supported lesson you can bookmark a moment to return to later. Your bookmarks are gathered under “Bookmarks” in your dashboard, and they sync with your account so they're there on every device.
Yes — subtitles are available in several languages on a growing number of courses, including Ba Duan Jin, Han Yang Ru Yi (Medical Qi Gong), Qi Gong for Spinal Healing, and San Zhan. Turn them on with the CC button in the video player. More courses are being captioned — email support to ask about a specific one.
Course Guide & Tools
Course Guide is a set of practitioner tools built into supported lessons. The core tools — lesson breakdowns, quizzes, bookmarks, and progress tracking — are included with every course, free and paid. The Lesson Assistant, which answers questions about the lesson you're studying, is part of Course Guide Plus.
Every course includes the core tools free: lesson breakdowns, quizzes, bookmarks, and progress tracking. Course Guide Plus ($39/year) adds the Lesson Assistant — ask questions about the lesson and get answers drawn from it. Every member's trial includes 5 Lesson Assistant questions so you can try it first.
Start Course Guide Plus from the subscribe page linked on any supported lesson (or from the Course Guide page in the menu). To cancel, open Account → Billing → Subscriptions and cancel Course Guide Plus there — you keep access until the end of your paid period.
Circles — Joining & Membership
A Circle is an instructor-led community — a place to train alongside a teacher and other students. Inside a Circle you'll find Discussions, a Classroom of lessons, Events (live and online sessions), a Members area, and an About page. Exactly which of these appear depends on how the teacher has set up their Circle. Browse Circles from the main menu.
Open a Circle and use the join button on its page. Free Circles let you join instantly. Some ask the teacher to approve you first — you'll see “Request to join,” and then “Awaiting approval” until they accept. Premium Circles ask you to subscribe to join; if the teacher offers a free trial, the length is shown on the button.
A free Member has access to whatever the teacher has opened to members — members' areas and members' Classroom sections are included with membership. A Premium member also has the Circle's paid subscription, which unlocks its premium content and areas. Your status for each Circle is shown under Account → Your circles.
Open Account → Your circles. Each Circle has a “Leave” option, and premium Circles also show “Cancel premium.” Canceling premium keeps you as a free member and you keep access until the end of the period you've paid for; leaving removes you from the Circle's posts, members, lessons, and events.
Circles — Taking Part
In most Circles, yes — members can start posts and join the replies. Some Circles are set so only the teacher posts and members read and reply. A teacher may also review new posts before they appear (you'll see yours as “Awaiting approval”), and archived Circles become read-only. You'll see the right option in the composer when you're on the Discussions tab.
The Classroom is the Circle's lesson library, organized into sections of lessons and resources. Free sections are open to everyone; members' sections are included with your membership; premium sections unlock with the Circle's premium subscription. Any official Martial Man courses the teacher has linked open on the main course page and track your progress there.
Circles can run online workshops, live sessions, and in-person events. Open the Events tab and register from an event's card — some events are free to members, others may need a premium membership or ticket. Live sessions show “Starting soon” and “Live now” when it's time to join.
Often, yes. When a teacher records an event, the recording appears on the past event with a “Watch recording” link. Access depends on the event — some recordings are open to all members, others only to people who registered. If an event wasn't recorded, no recording will appear.
Yes — open the Members tab to search the roster and filter by Teachers, Moderators, or Members. Teachers and moderators carry a badge. If you ever need to flag someone, use the “⋯” menu on their card to report them to the community team.
Use the “⋯” menu on any post, comment, or member card and choose Report. It goes privately to the community team for review — the person isn't told who reported them.
Hosting a Circle & Teaching
Self-serve, in a few minutes: use “Start your own Circle” in the Circles area. You'll choose between a Discussion Circle — free, for conversations and connection — and a Teaching Circle, the paid teaching toolkit with a Classroom, events, and member subscriptions. A free Circle goes live the moment it's created; a paid Teaching Circle goes live as soon as its plan payment is confirmed. Appearing in the public Circles directory is a separate submission — see the directory question below.
There are three plans. Community — Free is exactly that — a public Circle with discussions and members, built for connection rather than selling. Instructor is $9/month (or $90/year) and unlocks the teaching toolkit: paid memberships, the Classroom with native video, events, and private Circles. Pro is $79/month (or $790/year) and adds your own custom @handle plus team roles and staff permissions. Featuring on the platform is curated by The Martial Man and is never part of a plan. Instructor Circles pay a 10% platform fee — Pro Circles pay 0%. Payment processing fees apply. The plans and billing periods available to buy are the ones offered at checkout.
Through Stripe, directly. Open Billing & payouts in your creator workspace and connect a Stripe account — you can create one during onboarding, and Stripe will verify your identity, which is standard for receiving payments. Your members' payments are made to your Stripe account (you're the merchant of record for your Circle), and Stripe pays out to your bank on its own schedule. Platform and payment-processing fees depend on your plan — see the pricing question above.
Open your Circle workspace and, on the Profile tab, use the Membership & pricing section: make your Circle free to join, paid, or free with a premium tier, and set the price, billing interval, and any trial. If you add a premium tier to a Circle that already has free members, existing free members always keep their free access — premium adds an upgrade; it never takes anything away. Once your Circle is live, its name, link, and pricing are fixed — email support if something needs to change.
Directory listing is separate from creating your Circle — and separate from paying for a plan. Your Circle works and is shareable by its link as soon as it's live; to be listed, open the Discovery tab in your Circle workspace and submit it. Every submission is reviewed by hand, and you'll get a notification with the decision. Paying for a plan never buys a listing — review is the same for every Circle.
Yes. If you teach and would like help getting set up, email support@martialman.com from your account email — the team can create a Circle for you and assign you as its creator, ready to make your own. A Circle can only be handed to a different creator while it's financially clean — once it has live billing history (member payments or an active paid plan), it stays with its creator.
Cancel from your Circle workspace: your Circle's Plan card has the cancel control, cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you've paid for, and your Circle then moves to the free Community plan (your content stays). While a cancellation is scheduled, the same card lets you resume. Refunds of creator-plan payments are reviewed by hand — email support to ask. A refund on its own does not cancel your plan or switch off your access: canceling stays a separate, explicit step that only you take.
Reports made in your Circle arrive in the Moderation tab of your Circle workspace, where you review reported content and act on it; you can also keep a banned-words list there. The Members tab lets you search your roster, remove or ban a member, and approve or decline join requests if your Circle requires approval.
Course Reviews
Open a course you have access to and use “Write a review” in the Student reviews section. Give it a star rating and, if you like, a short write-up of how you found the teaching.
New reviews are checked by our team before they go public, so yours starts as “Awaiting approval” and, for now, only you can see it. While it's pending you can still edit or remove it. Once it's approved it goes live and is locked from further edits. If a review was taken down, you'll see a note on the course — contact support with any questions.
Notifications & Email
Select the bell icon at the top of the app to open your notifications — replies, mentions, and community activity are gathered there, with a count of anything unread. Open one to jump straight to it, or mark them as read.
Every newsletter has a one-click “unsubscribe” link at the foot of the email — that's the quickest way. Unsubscribing only stops marketing emails; important account and purchase emails (receipts, password resets, membership notices) still reach you.
Billing & Payments
Open Account → Billing → Invoices & receipts. Every invoice has a “View invoice” page and a “Download PDF” button, and where the card processor issued its own receipt you'll see a “Receipt” link too. One-time purchases and their receipts are listed on the same Billing page.
Open Account → Billing → Subscriptions and use “Cancel” on the subscription's row — you keep access until the end of the period you've paid for. Changed your mind? While the cancellation is scheduled, the same row shows “Resume” — choose it to undo the cancellation and continue as before. Subscriptions from before the platform moved show their access-end date instead of controls: your access simply runs through that date, and if you need to change one, email support and we'll take care of it.
Circle memberships are managed from Account → Your circles rather than Billing. Every Circle row has “Leave,” and premium memberships also show “Cancel premium.” Canceling premium keeps you in the Circle as a free member with access until the end of the period you've paid for; leaving removes you from the Circle's posts, members, lessons, and events.
Courses bought on the website are final sales — you get immediate, lifetime access, so they aren't refundable. If something's genuinely wrong — a duplicate charge, the wrong course, or a technical problem you can't get past — email support with your account email and we'll put it right.
Email support and we'll look at it with the Circle's host — membership payments go to the host directly. One thing to know: if a Circle membership payment is refunded in full, your paid access to that Circle ends immediately — you don't keep the remainder of the billing period. Purchases made in the iPhone app are handled by Apple, so those refunds are requested through the App Store. The full details are on our Refund Policy page.
Open Account → Billing → Payment methods and choose “Update payment method” — a secure hosted payment screen opens, and returns you to Billing when you're done. If a subscription payment fails, it shows as “Payment due” while the payment is retried — updating your card is usually all it takes. Email support if anything still looks wrong afterwards.
Instructors
Every course is led by an experienced instructor, filmed on location. You can browse the teachers on the Instructors page and open any profile to read their background and see the courses they teach.
The best way to learn from a teacher is through their courses and, where offered, their Circle — a Circle's Discussions and Events are where students and instructors interact. For anything else, email support and we'll point you the right way.
Technical & Devices
Try these in order: refresh the page, clear your browser cache, switch to Chrome, Safari, or Firefox, disable any VPN or ad-blocker, and check your connection — videos stream in high quality and need a stable one. If it continues, email support with the lesson name and the browser you're using.
Yes. The Martial Man is fully responsive and works on all modern smartphones and tablets. Use Chrome, Safari, or Firefox for the best experience.
There's no dedicated TV app yet. You can cast or mirror from Chrome, Safari, or Firefox on your computer or phone, use a streaming device such as Apple TV, Roku, or Amazon Fire Stick with a supported browser, or connect your computer to your TV with an HDMI cable.
Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. We recommend keeping your browser up to date for the best experience.
Privacy & Safety
Use the “⋯” menu on any post, comment, or member card and choose Report — it goes privately to the community team, and the person isn't told who reported them. For anything you can't report in place, or anything urgent, email support@martialman.com with a link to the content. Our Community Guidelines set out what's expected of everyone.
Email support@martialman.com with a link to the content, a description of the work you believe has been used without permission, and your contact details. We review every report and remove infringing material. The Terms of Service set out the platform's content rules.
Email support@martialman.com from your account's email address and tell us what you need — a copy of your data, a correction, or removal. You can also delete your account yourself from Account → Login & Security (see Your Account & Profile above). The Privacy Policy explains what we store and why.
Email the support team
Reach us at support@martialman.com — we respond within 24–48 hours.