Finding training partners

Question 1

What is “Find training partners” for?

Accepted Answer

It is a noticeboard of listings. You write that you are looking for somebody to train with. Other people read your listing and come and find you. The page is Find training partners. In the top menu the link is called “Partners”.

Every listing is a card with a photo, a name, a dot in the colour of the belt, the gym, the city and your notes.

You can say what you are after: “Sparring”, “Drilling”, “Open mat”, “Comp prep”.
You can say whether you train in “Gi”, in “No-Gi” or in both.
You can say what city you are in.
You can read other people's listings even without logging in.

Careful: In here there is no chat and there is no “contact” button. You only write to each other outside BJJ Square, on the social accounts each person has put in their profile. Read the entry “How do I answer a listing”.

Note: The listings page is public. Anybody can see it, including people who are not signed up. Only write things you would say to a stranger at the gym.

Question 2

How do I post my listing?

Accepted Answer

To post you have to be logged in. To read other people's listings you do not. Open the Find training partners page. In the top menu the link is called “Partners”. Look at the big box at the top of the page, under the title. If it says “Sign in to post your listing.” in there, tap the red “Sign in” button. Log in with your email and your password. Then go back to Find training partners. In the box at the top you now read the title “Looking for partners”. Under the words “What you're after” tap the labels that suit you: “Sparring”, “Drilling”, “Open mat”, “Comp prep”. The ones you pick turn red. In the “Style” drop-down menu choose “Gi + No-Gi”, or “Gi”, or “No-Gi”. In the “City” box write the name of your city in full. For example Milan. In the “Notes” box write two lines about yourself. Inside the box you find the hint “Level, schedule, what you're after…”. Tap the red “Post listing” button, at the bottom of the box. What you should see next. The box changes and the words “You're listed among people looking for partners.” appear with a green tick. Next to them the “Edit” and “Remove” buttons appear. Your listing also shows up in the list of cards further down, first of all. If you take off all the labels under “What you're after”, the “Post listing” button stays off and nothing happens when you tap it. Pick at least one. Cannot see the green words? Check that you picked at least one label under “What you're after”, then tap “Post listing” again. If still nothing changes, reload the page and try again. If the problem stays, write to info@bjjsquare.com.

Question 3

What is worth writing in the notes?

Accepted Answer

The notes are the only part where you speak in your own words. Whoever reads them decides from there whether to write to you. Two or three concrete lines work better than one generic sentence. Your level and how long you have trained. Example: blue belt, four years on the mat. When you can train. Example: Tuesday and Thursday evenings, Saturday morning. What area you get around. The neighbourhood or the town, not your home address. What you are really after. Example: relaxed sparring, no competitions. Or: I am preparing a tournament in March, I want hard rounds. What you are working on. Example: closed guard and passing. If you need somewhere to train. Example: looking for somebody to take me along to their open mat. In the list the notes are shown shortened to two lines. The first words are the ones that count. Whoever opens your profile does not read them again: in the list they get cut off, so put the most important thing at the start. Do not write your phone number, your email or your home address. Anybody on the internet reads that text, including people who are not signed up and search engines. To let people contact you, use the social accounts in your profile. Already posted and want to change the notes? Tap “Edit” in the box at the top, correct the text and tap “Post listing”.

Question 4

How do I answer a listing? Where is the button to write to somebody?

Accepted Answer

On BJJ Square there is no chat and there is no “contact” button. You cannot send a message from the site. Do not expect one to arrive: it does not arrive. You go through the person's social accounts. Open the Find training partners page. In the list below, find the card of the person you are interested in. Tap the card, anywhere on it. Their public profile opens, with name, belt, gym and results. Scroll right to the bottom of the profile page. Under everything you find small circles with the Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube icons. Tap the icon of the social you use as well. Their profile on that social opens in a new window. Write your message there, inside that social. If there is no circle at the bottom of the profile, that person has not put in their social accounts. In that case there is no way at all to contact them from the site. There is no hidden alternative. If tapping the card opens nothing, that person has not chosen their username yet. Without a username their public profile does not exist and cannot be reached. The same goes for you. If there are no social accounts in your profile, whoever reads your listing has no way at all to answer you. Go to Profile, fill in at least one of the “Instagram”, “Facebook”, “TikTok” or “YouTube” boxes, then tap “Save changes” at the bottom. The words “✓ Saved” have to appear.

Question 5

My listing does not show up, or nobody writes to me

Accepted Answer

Almost always it is one of these six things. Check them in order. You did not tap “Post listing”. If the green words “You're listed among people looking for partners.” are not at the top of the page, the listing does not exist. Fill in the box and tap “Post listing”. You left the “City” box empty. People who use the “Filter by city” filter do not see you. Tap “Edit”, write the city and post again. You wrote the city differently from everybody else. The filter looks for the exact letters the other person types. If you write MI and they write Milan, they do not find you. Write the name in full. 30 days have gone by. The listing expires on its own and disappears from the list without warning you. There is no social account in your profile. People see you but have no way at all to write to you, so they move on. Put them in Profile. You have not chosen your username. Your card does not open and your public profile does not exist. Put it in the “Username” box in Profile and tap “Save changes”. There is a less obvious reason too: the style. If you put “Gi” in your listing, you do not show up for somebody who is filtering “No-Gi”. If you put “Gi + No-Gi” you show up in all three cases. Checked everything and still nothing? Open Find training partners from somebody else's phone, or from a phone where you are not logged in, and look for your card in the list. If it is not there, write to info@bjjsquare.com telling us your username.

Question 6

How long does my listing last?

Accepted Answer

Thirty days. They count from the moment you tap “Post listing”. After the 30 days the listing disappears from the list on its own. You get no warning, not inside the site and not by email. And nowhere on the site can you see the expiry date. How you can tell it has expired: open Find training partners and look at the box at the top. If the green words “You're listed among people looking for partners.” are gone, and the “Looking for partners” form is back, the listing has expired. Open Find training partners. Fill in the “Looking for partners” box again, like the first time. Tap “Post listing”. The words “You're listed among people looking for partners.” come back: you have another 30 days. If you post again before it expires, the 30 days start again from zero at that moment. If you are really looking for somebody, post again once a month.

Question 7

How do I edit or delete my listing?

Accepted Answer

It is all done from the box at the top of the Find training partners page, the one with the green words “You're listed among people looking for partners.”. To edit it. Open Find training partners after logging in. In the box at the top, on the right, tap the “Edit” button. The form opens again, already filled in with what you had written. Change what you need to: the labels under “What you're after”, “Style”, “City”, “Notes”. Tap “Post listing”. The words “You're listed among people looking for partners.” come back and the card in the list is updated. To take it down. Open Find training partners after logging in. In the box at the top, on the right, tap the red “Remove” button, the one with the bin. Wait a second, without touching anything else. The box goes back to showing the “Looking for partners” form. Your card disappears from the list. “Remove” asks for no confirmation and deletes straight away. The text of your notes cannot be got back: if you want to put it up again later, you have to write it out again. Copy it somewhere before you tap “Remove”. If you tapped “Edit” but do not want to change anything after all, tap the word “Cancel” next to the “Post listing” button. Nothing is saved.

Question 8

Can I have more than one listing?

Accepted Answer

No. One listing each. There is no way to have two. When you tap “Post listing” a second time, the new listing takes the place of the old one. The old one is deleted, it does not sit alongside. So you cannot put one listing for Milan and one for Monza. If you train in two places, write the main city in the “City” box and name the other one inside the “Notes”. The same goes for the style: you can only choose one “Style”. If anything suits you, choose “Gi + No-Gi”: that way you show up for people who filter “Gi” and for people who filter “No-Gi”.

Question 9

How do I look for listings in my area?

Accepted Answer

Above the list of cards, on Find training partners, there are only two controls. In the box with the magnifying glass write the name of the city. Inside it says “Filter by city”. The list gets shorter as you write. You do not need to tap any button. In the drop-down menu on the right, which starts on “All styles”, choose “Gi” or “No-Gi” if only one of the two suits you. To see all the listings again, delete what you wrote in the box and put “All styles” back. The city filter looks for the letters exactly as you write them. Write “Mil” and you find Milan. Write “MI” and you do not find Milan written out in full. There is no belt filter and there is no distance filter. There is no “near me” here: on this page the site does not use your phone's location. If you are looking by area, you have to try the names of the nearby cities one at a time. If the filter finds nobody, the words “No listings yet. Be the first to post!” appear. That is misleading: it means there is nobody with that filter, not that the board is empty. Empty the box to see everything again. The list shows at most the 200 most recent listings.

Question 10

Is it safe to meet somebody I found here?

Accepted Answer

BJJ Square does not check the people who sign up and does not vouch for anybody. Anybody can open an account, write whatever name they want and claim whatever belt they want. Decide on the first meeting with your head, the way you would off the internet. Meet at a real gym, with an instructor there. An open mat that is open to visitors is the right place. Do not go and train at a stranger's house. Not in a garage, and not in an out-of-the-way park. Ask first which gym they train at. On the card, under the name, the name of the gym is often there already. Look at the belt on their profile. If the colour has been verified by BJJ Square, there is a verified mark next to the belt. If there is not, that belt is only something they have claimed. Tell somebody where you are going. A training partner, your wife, your husband. If something does not add up, do not go. You owe nobody any explanation. On the card in the list the belt is only a coloured dot, with no words and no degrees. To see the whole belt you have to open the person's profile by tapping the card. If somebody behaves badly, writes you harassing things or uses the site to sell something, report it to us at info@bjjsquare.com. Write the person's username, the one that appears after the @ on their profile.

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