Events, seminars and competitions

Question 1

What kind of events can I find on BJJ Square?

Accepted Answer

The Events page has six types of event. Open Mat: free, open training, usually at a gym. Competition: tournaments and comps. Seminar: a special class with a guest. Graduation: belts and stripes handed out. Camp: multi-day camps and retreats. Open class: a regular class at a gym, open to people who train elsewhere. It carries the label «Open to visitors». Every event has a coloured label with its type, at the top of the card. Events are posted by the gyms on the site and by organizers. Nobody copies them automatically from other sites. You only see upcoming events. Ones that have already happened drop off the list. An open mat that repeats every week always stays in the list. Next to the type you see “every Tuesday”, or whichever day is right. Go to the Events page

Question 2

How do I look for the events I care about?

Accepted Answer

You can filter by event type and switch between the list and the map. Open the Events page. Look at the second row of round buttons: those are the event types. Tap “Open Mat”, “Competition”, “Seminar”, “Graduation” or “Camp”. The button you tapped turns red. Only events of that type stay in the list. To see everything again, tap “All” at the start of the same row. To see the same events on the map: Look to the right of the row of types: there are two small icons inside a box. Tap the icon with the map, the one on the right. The map appears, with one dot for each event. Tap a dot: a box opens with name, date and place. To go back to the list, tap the icon with the lines, the one on the left. At the bottom left of the map there is the colour legend: Red dot: Open Mat. Orange dot: Competition. Blue dot: Seminar. Purple dot: Graduation. Green dot: Camp. Only events with an address appear on the map. If the person who posted it left the place out, the event only shows in the list. It hasn't gone: switch view. Dots close to each other merge into a small circle with a number. Zoom in and they split apart.

Question 3

What do “Near me”, “Region” and “National” mean?

Accepted Answer

They are three distances around your position. They sit in the first row of buttons, at the top of the Events page. The distance is not the same for every event. It changes with the type, because nobody drives 300 km for an open mat. With “Region”: open mats and graduations within about 50 km, seminars within about 300 km. With “Near me”: the same distances but tighter, about 30 km and about 180 km. With “National”: the same distances times three, about 150 km and about 900 km. Competitions and camps have no distance limit at all: you always see every one of them. With “All” there is no distance filter: you see everything there is. That's why a competition on the other side of the world can show up even with “Near me”. It's not a mistake: people travel for a competition or a camp, so those are never hidden. When a distance filter is on, next to the type label you see how far the event is, for example “12 km away”. If an event has no address, the site doesn't know where it is. It shows it anyway, at every distance, without the kilometres.

Question 4

The “Near me” and “Region” buttons are grey and won't respond

Accepted Answer

They stay grey because the site doesn't know where you are. It needs a position first. Under the buttons there is the explanation: “Set your home academy in your profile or use your current location to filter events near you”. First way: you say which gym is yours. It lasts for good, even after you close the site. Log in. Open the Tatami tab of your profile. Scroll down to “Home academy”. Type your gym's name in the “Search for your academy…” field. Tap the right gym in the list that appears underneath. Scroll to the bottom and tap “Save changes”. The green “✓ Saved” message appears. Go back to the Events page: the buttons are black now and they respond. Second way: you use your phone's location, there and then. See the next question. How to use my current location “National” is grey too until you have a position. Only “All” always works. If you have set your academy and the buttons stay grey, that gym doesn't have a point on the map yet. Use “Use current location” instead, or write to info@bjjsquare.com.

Question 5

How do I use my current location to see nearby events?

Accepted Answer

Open the Events page. In the first row of buttons, tap “Use current location”, the last one on the right. The browser asks a question: it wants to know your location. Tap “Allow”. Wait a few seconds: the little wheel next to the button stops spinning. Under the buttons you read “Based on your current location…”. Now tap “Near me”, “Region” or “National”. The list updates and the kilometres appear next to each event. On iPhone, in Safari, the question comes up as a box in the middle of the screen. It gives you three choices. Both “Allow Once” and “Allow While Using App” are fine. On Android, in Chrome, the question comes up in a box at the top. Tap “While visiting this site” or “Only this time”. As long as “All” stays selected you see no change. Your location was taken all the same: tap one of the three distances and the list will change. The location only lasts while you stay on that page. If you reload, or come back later, you have to tap “Use current location” again. To stop redoing it every time, set your academy in your profile. If nothing happens and the buttons stay grey, you have probably said no to the permission in the past. See the next question.

Question 6

I said no to location. How do I turn it back on?

Accepted Answer

If you answered «Don't allow», the site tells you: a red line appears under the buttons, «Location permission denied». The distance buttons stay greyed out until you turn the permission back on. Alternatively you can set your gym in your profile: the site uses that instead, and your phone's location is no longer needed. On iPhone, if you use Safari: Leave the site and open “Settings”, the grey icon with the gear. Scroll down and tap “Safari”. Scroll right to the bottom and tap “Location”. Choose “Ask” or “Allow”. Open bjjsquare.com again and tap “Use current location”. If the question comes back, tap “Allow”. If you can't find “Location” inside “Safari”, go to “Settings”, then “Privacy & Security”, then “Location Services”, then “Safari Websites”. Choose “Ask Next Time Or When I Share” or “While Using the App”. On Android, if you use Chrome: Open bjjsquare.com in Chrome. Tap the small icon to the left of the address, at the top (a padlock or two sliders). Tap “Permissions”. Tap “Location”. Choose “Allow”. Go back to the site and reload the page. Tap “Use current location” again. If it still doesn't work, check that your phone's location is switched on. On Android you find it in the quick settings, the ones that come down when you swipe from the top. And if you would rather not give your location at all, that is fine too: set “Home academy” in your profile and the filters work just the same. Set your academy

Question 7

How do I sign up for an event?

Accepted Answer

You don't sign up on BJJ Square. The site sends you to the organizer's own site. Payments do not go through here and BJJ Square takes no money. Find the event on the Events page. Look at the right-hand side of the event card. If the red “Register” button is there, tap it. A new tab opens with the organizer's site. Follow that site's instructions to sign up and pay. If there is no “Register” button, the person who posted the event didn't add a link. Contact the gym or the organizer directly. In map view the link is only a small ↗ arrow inside the event box. If you prefer the big button, go back to list view. For refunds, division changes or payment problems write to the organizer, not to us. BJJ Square doesn't know that you signed up.

Question 8

I run a gym: how do I post an open mat or a seminar?

Accepted Answer

If you manage a gym on BJJ Square, you post from your gym's dashboard. Nobody has to approve it. Log in and open My sites. Tap the gym you want to manage. There are two buttons at the top: tap “Gym page”. In the row of tabs underneath, tap “Events”. At the bottom tap “Add event”, the box with the dashed border. Type the name in the “Title” field. Pick the type in the “Type” menu. Fill in “Start” with date and time. In “Location” leave “Gym venue” if it's held at your place. Tap “Add”, at the bottom right of the box. The event appears straight away in the list above. The event is online right away: nobody has to approve it. “End”, “Description”, “Price”, “Registration link” and “Poster (URL)” are optional, but without the link the “Register” button doesn't appear on the Events page. If “Add” stays off, “Title” or “Start” is missing. If the event is held somewhere else, in a sports hall for example: In “Location” tap “Other location”. Fill in “Venue name”, “Address”, “City” and “Country”. Tap “Add”. The site finds the point on the map by itself, from the address. For a regular open mat that repeats every week: Fill in “Title” and “Start” with the day and time of the first one. Tick “Recurring event every week”. Underneath you get the line “It will repeat every … at the same time”. Check that the day written there is the right one. If the open mat stops on a certain date, fill in “Until (optional)”. Tap “Add”. The day of the week is taken from the date you put in “Start”. If the wrong day comes up, change the date: there is no menu for picking the day.

Question 9

I don't run a gym: how do I submit an event?

Accepted Answer

You can submit any event from the Post an event page. You need to be logged in: if you aren't, the site sends you to the log in page first. Log in. Open Post an event. Type the event name in the “Title” field. It's required. Fill in “Start” with date and time. It's required. Pick the type in the “Type” menu. Type who is running it in the “Organizer” field, the federation name for example. Type the street in the “Search address” field and tap the right suggestion. Check that “City” and “Country” have filled themselves in. Tap “Submit for review”, the red button at the bottom of the box. A green tick appears with “Submission sent!”. You can also get there from the Events page: the red “Post an event” button is at the top right. Everything else is optional, but it's worth filling in: “Venue name”, “Registration link”, “Price”, “Poster”, “Description”, “End (optional)”. If you skip the address, the event doesn't appear on the map and doesn't appear in the distance filters. It only stays in the general list. It's the field that matters more than all the others. If the button at the bottom stays off, “Title” or “Start” is missing. An open mat or a seminar that repeats every week is submitted once: tick “Recurring event every week” and, if you like, set an end date. Competitions don't have this option.

Question 10

How long does my event take to show up?

Accepted Answer

It depends who you are. If you manage a gym and post from the dashboard: the event is online right away. If you are a verified organizer: the event is online right away. At the end you read “Event published!” and “It's already visible on the events page”. In every other case: the submission goes to review. At the end you read “Submission sent!” and “We'll review it and publish it shortly. We'll let you know”. When an administrator decides, you get a notification inside the site, on the Notifications page. If the event isn't approved, the reason is written in the notification. Fix what was flagged and save: the event goes back in the queue on its own, with no email to us. No email arrives and no alert reaches your phone. You have to open the Notifications page and look yourself. There is no guaranteed time: the review is done by hand, by a person. If nothing has happened after a few days, write to info@bjjsquare.com with the title and date of the event.

Question 11

Where do I see the event I submitted?

Accepted Answer

The events you submitted are in the «My events» page. The entry appears in the menu at the top right, under your name, as soon as you have submitted your first event. For each one you can see straight away where it stands: Tap your name, top right. Tap «My events». Each event carries a label: “Pending”, “Live”, “Rejected” or “Hidden”. Tap «Edit» to correct it, or «View the page» if it's live. “Pending” means an administrator hasn't looked at it yet. In that state the event does not appear on the Events page: only you can see it, from here. You get a notification inside the site once it's been decided. “Rejected” means an administrator did not approve it. The reason is written right below, in the red box, and it's the same one you get in the notification. Fix the event and save: it goes back to “Pending” on its own. “Hidden” instead means the event was taken off the site: it stays in your list, but it is no longer public. If the event is “Hidden” and you think that's a mistake, write to info@bjjsquare.com with the title and the date of the event. For a “Rejected” event you don't need to: you already have the reason and you fix it yourself.

Question 12

My event was rejected. What do I do?

Accepted Answer

“Rejected” doesn't mean deleted. The event is still yours, it stays in “My events” and you can correct it. There is always a reason: the administrator writes it when rejecting. You can read it in two places. In the notification: you find it in Notifications, and tapping it takes you straight to “My events”. In My events: under the event, in the red box next to the “Rejected” label. Open My events. Read the reason written under the event. Tap “Edit”. Fix what was flagged. Tap “Save”. As soon as you save, the event goes back to “Pending” on its own and the reason disappears. You don't have to write any email and you don't have to submit it again from scratch. Saving does not publish it. The event goes back in the queue and an administrator looks at it again: if it's fine it becomes “Live”, if not you get a new reason.

Question 13

How do I become a verified organizer?

Accepted Answer

A verified organizer posts events without going through review. You ask for it from the Post an event page. Log in. Open Post an event. Scroll right to the bottom of the page. You'll find a box with the title “Organize events often?”. Tap “Request organizer status”. In place of the button you get the green message “Request sent. We'll be in touch”. The request reaches the BJJ Square administrators. They weigh them up by hand, one at a time. When they accept you, in Notifications you read “You can now publish events as an organizer”. From then on the button at the bottom of the form no longer says “Submit for review” but “Publish”, and your events go out right away. If the “Organize events often?” box isn't there, it means you already are a verified organizer (or an administrator). Above the form you read “You're a verified organizer: your event will be published right away”. There is no guaranteed reply time and no way to chase it up from the site. If you get no answer, write to info@bjjsquare.com saying who you are and what events you run. Being a verified organizer doesn't give you a page of your own: that is the page of an organisation, and it's a different thing. You'll find them all on Organizers.

Question 14

What is an organisation?

Accepted Answer

An organisation is whoever runs the events: a federation, a promoter, an academy. It has its own page on BJJ Square, with logo, description, contacts and all of its events, the ones coming up and the ones already past. You'll find them all on the Organizers page. When an event is linked to an organisation, the “Organizer” box on the event page takes you to the organisation's page. An organisation page can exist even if the organisation never asked for one: the first ones we created ourselves, for the best-known federations, collecting their dates. Organisations with the Managed pill have someone keeping the page up to date, and they come first in the list.

Question 15

What's the difference between an organisation and a verified organizer?

Accepted Answer

They're two different things and you can have them separately. Verified organizer is a permission on you: your events go online without passing through review. Organisation is a page: the public page of a federation, a promoter or an academy. One rule ties them together: whoever manages an organisation is always a verified organizer too. Not the other way round — you can be verified without managing any organisation, and that's the most common case. For the same reason, someone who manages an organisation can't have the verified status taken away while that organisation is theirs: the organisation has to be detached first.

Question 16

How do I get to manage an organisation's page?

Accepted Answer

We link it by hand. There's no button: write to info@bjjsquare.com saying who you are, which organisation you represent and how we can check it. You need an account on BJJ Square. If you aren't one already, we make you a verified organizer. We link the organisation to your account. You get a notification and “Your organisation” appears in the menu at the top right. From there you change description, website, Instagram, Facebook, public email and country, and you upload the logo from your computer the way you do with your profile photo. The changes go online as soon as you press Save. You're not on your own: in the “Who manages this organizer” box, at the bottom of the same page, you add other people by their username. They can edit the page and publish events on behalf of the organizer. Only the primary manager adds and removes people; anyone added can leave whenever they like. Name, type of organisation and the address of the page can't be changed on your own. The address is public and indexed by search engines: changing it would break the links already out there. If they need fixing, write to us.

Question 17

Can I follow an organizer or a federation?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Open the organizer's page (from Organizers or from the organizer's name under an event) and press “Follow”. When the organizer publishes a new competition in the calendar or a new event, you get a notification. At most one a day per organizer, even if there are ten new competitions: the notification takes you to the organizer's page, where they all are. To stop, press the button again: it now says “Following”. You need an account: if you're not signed in you're sent to the login and then back to the page.

Question 18

How do I link my event to an organisation?

Accepted Answer

By writing the name of the organisation in the “Organizer” field of the form. If that name matches an organisation page that already exists, the link happens on its own: there's nothing to choose. From then on the event page shows the organisation's logo and takes you to its page, and the event appears among its own. Capitals and spaces don't count: “bjj italia” and “BJJ Italia” get to the same place. After the link the name is rewritten the way the organisation writes it. If the name doesn't match any page it stays as it is: the event works just the same, it's simply not linked to any page.

Question 19

How do I correct or delete an event I posted?

Accepted Answer

If the event belongs to your gym, you manage it from the dashboard. Open My sites and tap your gym. At the top tap “Gym page”. Tap the “Events” tab. Find the event in the list. Tap the pencil icon, on the right of the same row. The box opens again with every field already filled in. Change what you need to change. Tap “Save”, at the bottom right. To delete it, tap the bin icon instead, also on the right of the same row. The bin doesn't ask for confirmation, but for five seconds «Event deleted» appears at the bottom of the screen with Undo next to it: if you hit the wrong row, tap there. After those five seconds the deletion is permanent. If the event isn't tied to a gym, that is you sent it from the Submit an event page, you correct it from “My events”: tap your name at the top right, then “My events”, then “Edit”. You can change the title, type, date, venue, address, price, organiser, registration link, description and poster. If the event is already live, changes go live straight away; if it had been rejected, saving puts it back to “Pending” and an administrator looks at it again. Write to info@bjjsquare.com. Put «Delete event» in the subject line. Write the exact title of the event in your message. Write the date of the event. Deleting an event you submitted yourself isn't possible on your own yet: for that you need the email. Correcting it is, even when it's already live and even if you got the date wrong.

Question 20

How do I add my competition results?

Accepted Answer

Results are added by hand, from the Competitions tab of your profile.

Log in.
Open the Competitions tab of your profile.
Scroll to the bottom and tap “Add result”, the box with the dashed border.
A box opens with the fields to fill in.
Type the tournament name in the “Tournament” field. It's required.
Pick the day in the “Date” field. It's required.
Pick the result in the “Placement” menu, for example “🥇 Gold”.
Tap “Add”, at the bottom right of the box.
The result appears in the list above, with the grey “Pending” label.

Note: “Organization”, “Belt”, “Gi / No-Gi”, “Weight category” and “Age division” are optional. Filling them in does help though: the medal tally on your public profile is split by belt.

Note: If you pick Gold, Silver or Bronze, the medal 🥇 🥈 🥉 appears next to the result. For a place past third you get the number.

Careful: If the “Add” button stays off, “Tournament” or “Date” is missing.

To correct a result tap the pencil icon on its row, then “Save”. To take it off tap the bin icon.

Careful: The bin deletes at once, without asking for confirmation. There is no getting it back.

Go to the Competitions tab

Question 21

Who verifies my competition results?

Accepted Answer

When you add a result no alert goes out. Your coach receives nothing, the administrators receive nothing. If you don't tell someone yourself, the result stays “Pending” for good. Two kinds of people can verify it: the owner (or co-owner) of the gym you set as “Home academy”, or a BJJ Square administrator. For that to happen, you first have to sort out two things on your profile. Open the Profile tab and look at the “Username” field. If it's empty, write a name, for example mario_bjj. Tap “Save changes” and wait for the green “✓ Saved”. Open the Tatami tab and look at “Home academy”. If it's empty, search for your gym and tap it in the list. Tap “Save changes” and wait for the green “✓ Saved”. Then you tell the coach yourself. Face to face, by message, whichever suits you. Tell them to open your public page: it's bjjsquare.com/athletes/ followed by your username. Or else: from the gym dashboard, “Students” tab, tap your name. On your page they scroll down to the “Competition results” box. Under the result they see two small buttons: “Verify” in green and “Reject” in red. When they tap “Verify”, the grey “Pending” label turns into the green “Verified”. Without a “Username” your public page doesn't exist and nobody can verify you. Without “Home academy” the coach doesn't have permission to do it: they see the page but they don't see the two small buttons. It has to be the owner of the gym on BJJ Square: an instructor merely listed on the page cannot verify. If your coach is not on BJJ Square, write to info@bjjsquare.com with your username and the list of results to check.

Question 22

My result has said “Pending” for weeks. Why?

Accepted Answer

Nearly always there is one reason: nobody was told. It isn't a delay, it's that the thing never started. Check these, in this order: You haven't told the coach to open your page yet. It's the most common cause. You have no “Username”: without one, your public page doesn't exist. You haven't set “Home academy” in the Tatami tab. The person you told is not the owner of the gym on BJJ Square. You changed the result after it had already been verified: in that case it goes back to pending from the start. “Pending” hides nothing. The result still shows on your public page and it counts in the medal tally. All that's missing is the green “Verified” tick. To get it moving, follow the steps in the question about who verifies results. Check your username If the result turns to “Rejected”, it disappears from your public page. You still see it in the Competitions tab, with a red label. Ask your coach the reason: the site doesn't tell you.

Question 23

What happens if I change a result that's already verified?

Accepted Answer

It goes back to “Pending”. The green “Verified” disappears and you have to get verified again from the start. It happens with any saved change, however small. Even one letter changed in the name of the tournament. So before you touch the pencil, think about whether it's worth it. If the mistake is serious, the wrong medal or the wrong date for example: correct it. Tap the pencil on the row of the result. Change the field and tap “Save”. Tell the coach again that the verification has to be redone. Deleting the result and putting it back in is no shortcut: the new result starts at “Pending” all the same. Nobody is told about the change, same as the first time. The heads-up has to come from you.

Events, seminars and competitions

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