For gyms and coaches

Question 1

Why should my gym be on BJJ Square?

Accepted Answer

BJJ Square is a map of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and grappling gyms. People looking for a place to train look there. If your gym is on it and up to date, they find you. If it isn't there, or the details are old, they go somewhere else. Your gym shows up on the map and in the search results. You set the logo, photos, description, contacts, prices and class schedule. You publish your events: open mats, seminars, belt promotions, competitions. Your students log their training and you see who comes and how often. You confirm your athletes' belts and competition results. It's free. There's no subscription, there's no paid version, we don't ask you for a credit card. The page for gyms

Question 2

My gym is already listed but I didn't put it there. How is that possible?

Accepted Answer

One of your students didn't add it and we didn't type it in by hand. We took it from OpenStreetMap. OpenStreetMap is a free map of the world, made by volunteers. Anyone can add a business to it. Many gyms have been on it for years without the owner knowing. From there we copied the name, address, phone, email and website, where they existed. That's why the page already exists, but nobody is looking after it. Details taken from OpenStreetMap can be old or wrong: the address of a place you closed, a phone number you no longer use, a misspelled name. Fixing them is exactly why claiming exists. If you don't want to appear, the page can be taken down. See My gym has closed, or I don't want to appear on BJJ Square any more.

Question 3

What does it mean to “claim” my gym?

Accepted Answer

Claiming means telling the site: “this gym is mine, I run it”. As long as nobody claims it, the page stays exactly as it is, with the details we found around. Nobody can change it. When you claim it, the page is linked to your account. From that moment the dashboard opens and you can change everything: details, photos, schedule, instructors, events. You become the primary owner of the page. You can add other people to manage it with you. You can confirm your students' belts and competition results. You see who checks in at your gym. Claiming costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. If you change your mind you can leave the management whenever you want.

Question 4

How do I claim my gym?

Accepted Answer

If you signed up with the same email shown on the gym's page, you don't need any link: sign in, press “Claim gym” and the gym is yours right away. Read this part carefully, it confuses everyone. The confirmation link does NOT arrive at your personal email. It arrives at the gym's email address already written on the page. You (or someone on your team) need to be able to open that inbox. Open your gym's page on BJJ Square. You find it from the map, searching by name or by city. Scroll down the page to the red box “Are you the owner of this gym?”. Press the red “Claim gym” button. A green box “Email sent!” appears with the address the link went to, written partly with asterisks. Look at it carefully: that is the inbox you have to go to. Open that inbox. It's the gym's address, not yours. Look for the message with the subject “Claim [your gym's name] on BJJ Square”. Inside the message there's a link. Open it. The page “Claim your gym” opens, with your gym's name in bold. If you're already logged in to BJJ Square, press the red “Confirm claim” button. The green words “Gym claimed!” appear. Press “Go to dashboard”. If you're not logged in, instead of the confirm button you see two buttons: “Log in” and “Create an account”. Before pressing them, read I have to create an account: don't lose the link. The link lasts 14 days and works only once. After you've used it, it stops working. If the email doesn't arrive, see The claim email doesn't reach me. If there's no email at all on the page, see There's no email on my gym's page.

Question 5

The claim email doesn't reach me. What do I do?

Accepted Answer

Nine times out of ten the email did arrive, but you're looking in the wrong inbox. Go back to the gym page and press “Claim gym” again. Read the address written in the green “Email sent!” box: that's where the message was sent. Open that inbox. Not your personal email: the gym's one, written on the page. Look in the junk mail (spam) folder and in the promotions folder. Search for “BJJ Square” in your mail's search bar. If it's still not there, wait 15 minutes and press “Claim gym” again. There have to be 15 minutes between one send and the next. If you press again sooner, you still see the green “Email sent!” box but no new message goes out. It's not your mistake: the site says yes and does nothing. Wait a real 15 minutes. You can ask for at most 3 sends a day for the same gym. On the fourth you get “Too many requests for this gym. Try again tomorrow”. If nothing has arrived after a day, write to us at info@bjjsquare.com from an official gym address.

Question 6

There's no email on my gym's page. How do I claim it?

Accepted Answer

If you press “Claim gym” and the words “We don't have an email address on file for this gym” appear, it means there's no address on the page. The link has nowhere to go. In that case we do the check by hand. Write to info@bjjsquare.com. Send the message from an official gym address, not from some personal inbox. In the message write the exact name of the gym and the city. Paste the link of the gym's page on BJJ Square. Add something that proves it's you: the gym website, the Instagram page, the business registration or a rent receipt. Wait for our reply. We check by hand, so it takes a few days. It isn't automatic. Same route if the email on the page is old and you don't use it any more: we can't send you the link there, so write to us.

Question 7

The claim link says it has expired or has already been used

Accepted Answer

The claim link has two limits: it lasts 14 days and works only once. “This link has expired” — more than 14 days have passed since it was sent. “This link has already been used” — someone already pressed “Confirm claim” with this link. “This claim link is not valid” — the link was copied wrong, split across two lines by the mail app, or is incomplete. “This gym has already been claimed” — in the meantime the gym was taken by an account. If it's expired, invalid or already used, go back to your gym's page. Press “Claim gym” again. Open the gym's inbox and use the new link. If the link looks broken, try copying the whole thing and pasting it into the browser address bar, all on one line. If the message says the gym has already been claimed and it wasn't you, don't ask for a new link: it wouldn't help. See My gym is already claimed by someone else.

Question 8

I have to create an account to claim. How do I avoid losing the link?

Accepted Answer

To finish the claim you need a BJJ Square account. It's free. Watch out for a trap. If you press “Create an account” from the link page, the site takes you to the sign-up form and loses the connection with the gym. When you finish signing up you end up on the normal site, with nothing left to confirm. The safe way is to swap the order: account first, link after. Don't press “Create an account” from the link page. Open the sign-up page at another moment and create the account with your personal email. Go to your inbox and confirm the sign-up email. Go back to the gym's inbox and open the claim link again. Now the page shows you the “Confirm claim” button. Press it. The green words “Gym claimed!” appear. If you already have an account, press “Log in”: that button brings you back to the confirmation page by itself after you log in. The problem is only with “Create an account”. If you already pressed “Create an account” and got lost: no harm done. The link is still good, it hasn't been used up. Go back to the gym's email and open it again.

Question 9

Can I forward the claim link to someone else?

Accepted Answer

Treat the claim link like a password. Whoever opens it and presses “Confirm claim” becomes the owner of your gym on BJJ Square. Nothing else is needed. The link doesn't ask anyone to prove who they are. The whole check is the fact that you got into the gym's inbox. If the link leaves that inbox, the check is worth nothing. Don't forward it by email to anyone. Don't paste it into WhatsApp, Telegram or the gym group chat. Don't post it anywhere, not even to ask for help. Don't take a photo of the screen with the link showing. If you need a business partner to finish the claim, ask them for their username and add them afterwards as a co-owner from the dashboard. That's the clean way. See How do I add a partner or a helper. If you think the link has ended up in someone else's hands, write to us straight away at info@bjjsquare.com.

Question 10

My gym is already claimed by someone else

Accepted Answer

When a gym is already linked to an account, the “Claim gym” button no longer appears and the link answers you “This gym has already been claimed”. Before you worry, check the most likely explanations. A partner, an instructor or whoever runs your social media claimed it. Ask them. You claimed it yourself a while ago with another account and don't remember. Try logging in with your other email. Whoever has access to the gym's inbox claimed it, which is the same thing. If the person managing it can be reached, the fastest route is for them to hand the gym over to you from the dashboard. See How do I hand the gym over to someone else. If you can't sort it out between you, write to info@bjjsquare.com. Send the message from an official gym address. Write the exact name of the gym and the city. Explain why the page should be yours and attach something that proves it. Wait for our reply: we look at these cases by hand, one by one. We don't create a second page for the same gym to get around the problem. Two identical pages on the map confuse the people searching, and we merge them anyway.

Question 11

My gym isn't there at all. How do I add it?

Accepted Answer

First search properly: many gyms are listed under a different name from the one you use, or with the next town along as the city. Go to Gyms and search by name, then by city. If it really isn't there, open Propose a gym and fill in the form. Press “Submit proposal”. The team checks it within 24-48 hours, then the page goes public. If you add it yourself, the gym is already yours: you don't have to claim it and the dashboard opens straight away, even while the proposal is waiting to be checked. Full guide: how do I propose a gym

Question 12

Where do I find the dashboard to manage my gym?

Accepted Answer

Log in to BJJ Square with the account the gym is linked to. At the top right there's your photo (or a circle with your initial). Tap it. A menu opens. Choose “My sites”. The “My sites” page opens, with one card for each gym you manage. Tap the card of the gym you want to change. The dashboard opens, with the gym name at the top and the words “Manage gym page” underneath. On each site card you already see three numbers: how many students, how many verified and this week's check-ins. You can also get there from your gym's public page: if you're the owner, a red box “You are the owner of this gym” appears at the top, with “Manage” next to it. If “My sites” takes you to the gym map instead of the dashboard, it means this account doesn't manage any gym. Check that you logged in with the right email. Go to My sites

Question 13

How is the dashboard laid out? What are all those tabs for?

Accepted Answer

The dashboard is split into two groups. At the top there are two buttons that switch between them: “Students & attendance” and “Gym profile”. Under those two buttons you see the tabs of the group you chose. There are ten in all. In the “Students & attendance” group (the day-to-day running): Students — the list of people who picked you as their gym. This is where you promote belts and award badges. Attendance — who checked in today, the last 30 days of history and the QR code to hang by the door. Stats — the gym's numbers and the month image to put on social media. Board — the announcements you send to all your students. In the “Gym profile” group (how people from outside see you): Info & Contacts — name, description, address, phone, email, website and socials. Logo & Photos — the gym's logo and photos. Programs & schedule — Gi or No-Gi, the classes you offer, the prices and the weekly class timetable. Instructors — your team, with role and belt. Events — open mats, seminars, competitions and belt promotions you organize. Owners — who else can manage this page with you. Each tab saves on its own. If you change something in “Info & Contacts” you have to press “Save changes” before moving to another tab, otherwise you lose what you wrote.

Question 14

What is the “Complete your gym page” checklist?

Accepted Answer

It is the list of what is still missing from your gym page. It sits at the top of the dashboard and disappears on its own once the page is complete. Line by line, it is also exactly what makes up the score for the Verified check: address and city, saved from the “Info & Contacts” tab at least one class on the schedule the logo at least two contacts among phone, email, website, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook at least three photos Gi / No-Gi set at least one instructor 10 bonus points — at least one support-staff expertise (strength coach, physio, instructor of another discipline), with a photo or a description Every line is clickable and takes you straight to the dashboard tab where you fill it in: you tap “at least 3 photos” and you land on “Logo & Photos”. Above the checklist there is the score box: it says where you are and how many points you still need to reach the 70 of the check. The lines tick themselves once you save. There is nothing to mark by hand and no request to send.

Question 15

How do I get the Verified check on my gym?

Accepted Answer

Two things are needed, together. First: having claimed the gym. Second: having the profile at least 70 points. The score is out of 110 and adds up like this: 20 points — address and city, saved from the “Info & Contacts” tab 20 points — at least one class on the schedule 15 points — the logo 15 points — at least two contacts among phone, email, website, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook 10 points — at least three photos 10 points — Gi / No-Gi set 10 points — at least one instructor 10 bonus points — at least one support-staff expertise (strength coach, physio, instructor of another discipline), with a photo or a description The score updates by itself as you fill things in. There is no request to send and nobody to wait for: as soon as you hit 70 the check appears. Open your gym dashboard. At the top read the “Earn the Verified check” box: it says where you are and how many points are left. Below it, the checklist lists what is missing. Every line takes you to the right tab. Fill it in and press “Save changes” in every tab you touch. Go back to the top and check the score again. If you reach the threshold but the gym is not published yet, the box says “Profile complete, check on its way”. There is nothing else to do: it arrives with publication. The check is not a judgement on the quality of the gym and it cannot be bought. It only says the profile has an owner and is filled in. And it can be lost: if the profile drops below 70 points, it disappears. The page about the Verified check

Question 16

I claimed the gym but the check is not there

Accepted Answer

Claiming is half the job. The other half is the profile being at least 70 points: while you are below that, the check does not arrive. Nobody assigns it by hand, so there is nobody to chase. Open your gym dashboard. Look at the box at the top: it says where you are and how many points are left. Scroll the checklist below and open the lines still to do. Fill them in and save every tab you touch. The score updates right after you save. The most common mistake: the 20 points for the address only arrive after you press “Save changes” in the “Info & Contacts” tab. If you type the address and switch tab without saving, the score does not move and the gym does not even land on the map. If you need to get there fast, start with the two items that weigh the most: address and city (20) and at least one class on the schedule (20). Together that is already 40 points. If the box says “Profile complete, check on its way”, the score is fine: only publication of the gym is missing. There is nothing for you to do.

Question 17

My gym had the check and now it is gone

Accepted Answer

The check is not forever: it looks at how the profile is right now. If the score drops below 70 the check disappears, and it comes back on its own as soon as you go back up. Usually one of these things happened: you emptied the class schedule, or deleted the classes to redo them you removed the logo, or deleted photos and dropped below three you deleted contacts and were left with only one you removed the only instructor you rewrote the address leaving fields empty Open your gym dashboard. Read the score in the box at the top. In the checklist look for the lines that went back to being undone. Put them right and press “Save changes”. Nobody took anything away by hand and there is no penalty behind it. The score is recalculated on its own every time you save.

Question 18

“Info & Contacts” tab: what do I have to fill in?

Accepted Answer

It's the gym's ID card: what people see when they open your page. In the dashboard, press the “Gym profile” button at the top. Choose the “Info & Contacts” tab. Fill in the fields from top to bottom. At the bottom of the page press “Save changes”. The button turns into “Saved!” for a few seconds. That means it worked. The fields are these: Gym name — the name the way you use it. Description — who you are, your history, the way you train. Search address — see the note below: always use it. Address, ZIP / Postal code, City, State/Region, Province, Country. Founded year. Phone, Email, Website. Affiliation — Gracie Barra, Alliance, Checkmat and so on. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, WhatsApp. Always use the “Search address” field. Type the first letters of the street and pick the address from the list that appears: the site fills in street, postal code, city, province, region and country by itself, and above all it drops the pin on the right spot on the map. If you type the fields by hand the pin can end up on the other side of town. The Province field only appears if the country is Italy, and it only unlocks after you've chosen the State/Region. If you don't see it, pick the address from the “Search address” list: that way the country is set correctly. The email you write here is the one the gym claim links are sent to. Put in one you actually read.

Question 19

“Logo & Photos” tab: how do I upload the logo and the images?

Accepted Answer

In the dashboard, press “Gym profile” and then the “Logo & Photos” tab. For the logo, press “Upload logo” (or “Change logo” if there's already one). Choose the file from your phone or your computer. While it uploads you see the word “Uploading…”. When it finishes the logo appears in the square. For the photos, press “Add photos” at the top right of the “Photos” section. You can select several files at once. The photos appear as they upload. There is only one logo: if you upload another, it replaces the previous one. Photos, on the other hand, can be many. Accepted formats: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF and SVG. Maximum size: 10 MB per file. A square image works better for the logo, because it's shown inside a square. For the photos, horizontal ones (landscape) work better, because they get cropped horizontally. Photograph a full mat, not an empty gym. To delete: run your finger or your mouse over the image and a small button appears. On the logo it's a red x at the top right; on the photos it's a bin. If a red line with an error message appears, it's almost always for one of two reasons: the file weighs more than 10 MB, or it isn't in one of the accepted formats (for example an iPhone HEIC). Try again with a lighter JPG. That error message often comes out untranslated, in rough technical wording: it's a known flaw, being fixed.

Question 20

How do I add the class schedule?

Accepted Answer

The schedule goes in the “Programs & schedule” tab, in the section at the bottom called “Class schedule”. Above it there are the programs (Gi/No-Gi, classes, prices), which are a different thing and have their own “Save changes” button. In the dashboard, press “Gym profile” and then the “Programs & schedule” tab. Scroll right to the bottom, to the “Class schedule” section. Press “Add class”. In the “Day” field choose the day of the week. In the “Start” field put the start time. This one is required: without it, the save button stays off. In the “End” field put the end time. You can also leave it empty. In the “Type” field choose between Gi, No-Gi, Kids, Fundamentals, Open Mat, Competition, Women's, Advanced. In the “Instructor” field choose who teaches the class. In the “Note” field you can write a detail, for example “beginners”. Press “Add”. The class appears in the list straight away, under its day. Only the people you've already added in the “Instructors” tab appear in the “Instructor” list. If the list is empty or someone is missing, go there first and add them. See “Instructors” tab. To change a class you've already added, press the pencil next to that row, correct it and press “Save”. To delete it, press the bin. Two things the site doesn't do today. First: it doesn't check for overlapping times, so you can put two classes at the same hour on the same day with no warning at all. Second: you can't copy a typical week or duplicate a class. Every row has to be typed in by hand, one at a time.

Question 21

Why does it matter so much to add the class schedule?

Accepted Answer

The schedule isn't only there to show your classes to people passing by. It's what makes the check-in buttons appear for your students. On your gym's page, every day the “Today's check-in” box appears with that day's classes. Next to each class there's the “I'm here” button. The student presses it, gets the points and the attendance is recorded against that class. If you haven't added any schedule, your students see no classes at all. They only see the “Free training” box with the “Free check-in” button. You see the consequences in the dashboard: In the “Attendance” tab every check-in shows as “Free training”, with no way to know which class it was. In the “Stats” tab the “Most attended classes” box tells you nothing useful. You can't tell which class is pulling people in and which one is half empty. Even just the fixed classes of the week are enough. It doesn't have to be perfect: you can correct it whenever you want.

Question 22

“Instructors” tab: how do I add my team?

Accepted Answer

Instructors go in in two different ways. You choose which one, every time. In the dashboard, press “Gym profile” and then the “Instructors” tab. Press “Add instructor”. Two tabs appear at the top: “Link a member” and “Add manually”. Choose one. If you choose “Link a member”, open the “Choose a member…” list and select the person: it takes name and belt from their profile. If you choose “Add manually”, you type the “Name” yourself and choose the “Belt”. In “Role” choose between Head Coach, Professor, Assistant instructor and Coach. Press “Add”. The person appears in the list. In “Link a member” you only see people who already have a BJJ Square account and have picked your gym (plus the co-owners). If you read “No members have set this gym as theirs yet”, use “Add manually”. The red “Head Coach” badge next to a name depends only on the role you gave them, not on where they sit in the list. Whoever has the “Head Coach” role appears at the top and with the badge, no matter who you added first. At the bottom of the tab it says “The first instructor in the list gets the ‘Head’ badge. Reorder by dragging (coming soon)”. That sentence is wrong: ignore it. The badge follows the role, and dragging to reorder can't be done. An instructor you've already added cannot be edited. If you got the name, the belt or the role wrong, you have to delete them with the bin and do it again from scratch. And when you delete them they also disappear from the schedule classes you had linked them to: the classes stay, but their name above them goes, and you have to put it back class by class.

Question 23

“Events” tab: how do I publish open mats, seminars and competitions?

Accepted Answer

In the dashboard, press “Gym profile” and then the “Events” tab. Press “Add event”. Write the “Title”. In “Type” choose between Open Mat, Competition, Seminar, Graduation, Camp. Put the “Start” date and time. They're required. Put the “End” date and time, if you know them. Write the “Description”. In “Location” choose “Gym venue” if it's at your place, or “Other location” and fill in address and city. If you need to, fill in “Price”, “Registration link” and the poster. Press “Add”. The event appears in the list straight away. For the poster you have two routes: paste the address of an image that's already online into the “Poster (URL)” field, or press “Upload” and choose the file from your phone. For the open mat that repeats every week, tick “Recurring event every week”. It takes the day from the start date you set: if you put a Saturday, it repeats every Saturday at the same time. You can also put a date in “Until (optional)” to make it stop. The organizer is always your gym: that field can't be changed. To correct an event press the pencil, to delete it press the bin. The events you publish here go out straight away, with no review from us. They appear on the Events page and on your gym's page. Check the date and the time before pressing “Add”.

Question 24

“Students” tab: who shows up in this list?

Accepted Answer

Two groups of people end up in the “Students” tab: those who picked your gym themselves from their profile, and those you pre-registered. Whoever set you as their main gym gets the “Home gym” label. Whoever added you among the gyms they train at now and then gets the “Secondary” label. Whoever you pre-registered stays waiting until they sign up with that email, then they link up on their own. At the top of the tab there is the “Pre-register your students” box: you put in name, email and belt, and whoever signs up with that email finds gym, membership and belt already sorted. When an athlete picks you and asks for your confirmation, you get a notification: you find it on the Notifications page, as “X asks for your confirmation: student at Y”. You answer with three separate check boxes — they train at this gym, the belt is correct, I am their coach. You cannot remove anyone from the list. If someone picked your gym, they stay there until they change it from their own profile. Pre-registrations, on the other hand, you can delete whenever you want. For each person you see the belt, how many check-ins they did at your gym and the date of the last one. At the top there is the summary line “X students · Y verified”, the “Search student…” box and the “Verified only” filter. If the list is empty you read “No students yet”. It is not an error. You can get going yourself from the “Pre-register your students” box, or say it at the gym: they pick your gym from their own profile.

Question 25

Can I add my students myself before they sign up?

Accepted Answer

Yes. In the dashboard, “Students” tab, at the top there is the “Pre-register your students” box. Open the dashboard and go to the “Students” tab. In the box type the full name, the email and the belt. Press “Add”. The person shows in the list as waiting. When they sign up with that email, they link up on their own. Whoever arrives this way finds everything ready: your gym set, membership confirmed and belt verified. They do not have to look for you or ask you anything, and they get a welcome in their notifications. If that email already belongs to an existing account, the link is immediate: there is nothing to wait for. BJJ Square sends no email to pre-registered students. They get no invitation and know nothing about it. You have to tell them yourself, at the gym or on the group chat: “sign up with this email”. You can delete a pre-registration whenever you want, from the same box. If you run more than one site, you can choose whether to add them to one site only or to all of them.

Question 26

Can I really put in my students' data? What about privacy?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but with rules. You are entering other people's data, so they are worth reading first. Only name, email and belt. Nothing else: no phone numbers, no addresses, no personal notes. Only people aged 14 and over. For younger ones, do not use this box. Only after telling them. They have to know you are putting them on BJJ Square, before you do it. Only your own students. Do not upload address books, lists of former students you lost touch with, or people who have no idea what BJJ Square is. Who sees this data: you and the gym co-owners. Nobody else. It never lands on any public page, it does not show on the gym profile, it is not used to send emails and it does not leave your gym. Until the person signs up, what you typed stays a line in your list. If a student asks you to remove them, delete the pre-registration from the box with “Delete pre-registration”. It is immediate and leaves nothing behind. If you have doubts about someone, the risk-free route is the other one: say it at the gym and let them sign up picking your gym from their own profile. It takes a few minutes more and the person enters their own data.

Question 27

What does the green “Verify member” button do?

Accepted Answer

“Verify member” is the green button under each student in the “Students” tab. It's there to say: “yes, this person really does train with me”. In the “Students” tab, find the person. Press the green “Verify member” button. The button turns into “Checked” and a green tick appears next to the name. To take the confirmation away, press the same button again. What actually changes: The “verified” number goes up in the summary and on the site card. You can filter the list with “Checked only”. That's it. It's a label for you, to keep your own list tidy. Worth knowing: verifying a student gives them no points, isn't needed to check in and sends them no notice. It changes nothing on their public profile. If you verify nobody, everything keeps working exactly the same. Don't mix it up with belt verification, which is a different thing. You confirm the belt by promoting the student: see How do I promote a student to a new belt.

Question 28

How do I promote a student to a new belt or degree?

Accepted Answer

In the dashboard, press “Students & attendance” at the top and open the “Students” tab. Find the person. If you have a lot of students, use the “Search student…” field. Next to the green button there's a small button with a gear. Press it. A window opens with the student's name at the top. Under the words “Belt & degrees” there are two lists. In the first one choose the belt. In the second one choose the degrees, that is the stripes: from 0 degrees to 6 degrees. Above you see a preview of how the belt will look. Press “Save belt”. The button turns into “Saved”. You can close the window with the x at the top right. The belt you set becomes “checked” automatically. On the student's public profile it will show with the confirmation mark: it means they didn't give it to themselves, their coach gave it to them. From now on the promotion also lands in the student's history, in their “Promotions” tab: with you as the coach, today's date and your gym. This happens only when you change the colour of the belt. If you only change the degrees, nothing is written in the history. The student gets a notice only in the site's Notifications, and only when the belt colour changes: no email, no message on the phone. Tell them in person, on the mat. If you change the colour, the row goes into the student's history with you as coach and, if the academy page is claimed, it also enters the verified belts registry. If you get it wrong, open the same window again, set the right belt and press “Save belt” again. There's no limit. There's a second route, and that one the student does hear about: the “Belts I've awarded” box in the “Promotions” tab of your profile. From there you can also put the real date of the promotion instead of today's. See How do I log the belts I've awarded.

Question 29

A student listed me as their coach: where do I confirm it?

Accepted Answer

There are two different places, depending on what they sent you. In your Notifications you get the confirmation requests: “X asks for your confirmation: student at Y”. Open it and answer with three separate check boxes — they train at this gym, the belt is correct, I am their coach. You can confirm just one or two of them. If you only look in the “Promotions” tab and find nothing, it is not broken: confirmation requests live in your notifications. The “Promotions” tab of your profile is where the older “tagged you as their coach” requests land, together with the promotions your students say they got from you. They do not land in the gym dashboard. Tap your photo at the top right and choose “My profile”. In the row of tabs tap “Promotions”. At the top you see the “To confirm” box, with a red dot and the number of requests. Under the student's name you read “Listed you as their coach”. Press the green “Confirm” button if they really are your student. Press “Reject” if you don't know them. The row disappears from the box. In the same box you also find the promotions your students say they got from you: “Says you awarded them the Blue belt · May 2019”. There too you have the two buttons “Confirm” and “Reject”. The “To confirm” box only appears if there's something to confirm. If you don't see it, you have no pending requests: it isn't an error. When you confirm, your name on the student's public page becomes clickable, with a green tick. And the student starts counting towards the “active students” number on your page. Every request reaches you as a notice on the Notifications page, inside the site and nowhere else. Nothing on your phone, no email. If you don't open BJJ Square, the requests just sit there. Check the page now and then. If you reject, the student gets the notice “didn't confirm being your coach”. Your name stays written on their profile, but without the tick and without a link to your page.

Question 30

I got a request with three check boxes: what do I do?

Accepted Answer

It is the request a student sends from their profile, from the “Coach confirmation” section. It asks you to confirm three things in one go. Open the Notifications page. Look for the alert “X asks for your confirmation: student at Y”. Below it you find three check boxes. Tick “They train at this gym” if they really train with you. Tick “The belt is correct” if the rank they claim is right. Tick “I am their coach” if you are the one who graded them and follows them. Press “Confirm”. If none of it is yours, press “Decline”. The three boxes are separate. You can confirm one, two or all three. If the gym is right but the belt is not, leave that box empty: you confirm the rest and the belt stays unverified. These requests do not live in the “Promotions” tab of your profile. If you look there and find nothing, it is not broken: they are in your notifications. The student sees the outcome in their “Tatami” tab and gets a notice. If you do not confirm the belt, they can talk to you and send the request again. The “Promotions” tab still holds the older “tagged you as their coach” requests and the promotions your students say they got from you.

Question 31

How do I log the belts I've awarded, including to people who aren't on BJJ Square?

Accepted Answer

You do it from your profile, “Promotions” tab, in the “Belts I've awarded” box. It's there to put on record the belts you awarded ten years ago too, when BJJ Square didn't exist. Open the “Promotions” tab of your profile. Go down to “Belts I've awarded” and tap “Log” on the right. In the “Student” list choose the person, if you have them among your students. If they're not on the site, leave the option “Not on BJJ Square” and write their first and last name in the field that appears below. In “Belt” choose the colour. In “Date” put the day, or leave it empty if you don't remember it. In “Academy” type two letters of the gym name and tap it in the list. Press the red “Save” button. If you picked a person who is on the site, the box “Also update the student's current belt” appears below. Tick it if that's the belt they wear today: it changes the belt on their profile too, and it arrives already verified. The “Student” list shows your students from the gyms you manage, plus anyone who listed you as their coach and you confirmed. If the list is short, that's why. A student who is on the site gets a notice in their Notifications: “X awarded you the Y belt”. The row shows straight away as “Verified”: they don't have to confirm anything. The box says: “What you log here shows on your profile and on the student's. Only add belts you actually awarded”. Take it literally: you're writing on another person's public page. Someone who isn't on the site appears in the list with the “Not registered” label and their name isn't clickable. If one day they do sign up, the old row doesn't link itself to their profile: you'll have to do it again, choosing them from the list, and delete the old one. To remove a wrong row, tap the bin on the right. Above the list you also see the count by colour: how many blue, how many purple, how many black belts you've awarded.

Question 32

Do the belts my instructors confirm enter the verified belts registry?

Accepted Answer

Yes, on two conditions: the academy page is claimed and whoever confirms is linked to the page, that is, they are an owner or they sit in the “Instructors” tab as a linked member, not added manually. Until the page is claimed, none of your instructors' confirmations enter the registry: they stay “Verified” on the student's profile, but out of the public list. Claim the page, if you have not yet. In the panel open “Gym page” → “Instructors” and add your coaches with “Link a member”, not “Add manually”. If they do not appear in the list, they must first choose your academy from their profile. From then on every belt they confirm, or award by promoting a student from the panel, enters the registry within an hour. It applies to you as owner too: the belts you confirm or award enter the registry. And it is worth recording your own belt naming who awarded it: that is how verified lineage is built. How belt verification works

Question 33

How do I award the heritage and seniority badges to my students?

Accepted Answer

There are eight badges that only you can give. They're there to recognize what the student did before joining BJJ Square: the years on the mat and the belts earned when the site didn't exist. They are these: Established Blue, Established Purple, Established Brown, Established Black — for experience from that belt. 1 Year Veteran, 3 Year Veteran, 5 Year Veteran, 10 Year Veteran — for years of practice. In the “Students” tab, press the small gear button next to the person. In the window that opens, scroll down to the “Instructor badges” section. Find the badge you want to give. Press “Award” next to that badge. The badge icon turns green and the button changes to “Remove”. To take away a badge you gave by mistake, press “Remove”. The badge appears on the student's public profile. Here too, the student gets no notice: if you want them to know, tell them yourself. All the other badges on the site are earned by training: those you can't give or take away.

Question 34

The “Close to promotion” box: what is it telling me?

Accepted Answer

It's the red box at the top of the “Students” tab, with the words “Your most active students over the last 90 days — consider a promotion”. It shows you at most five names: the ones who have trained with you the most over the last three months. Next to each name you see the current belt and how many sessions they've done. It isn't the site deciding who to promote. It knows nothing about technique, about sparring, about how someone behaves in the gym. It only looks at how many times they came to train. The decision is yours and yours alone. It's there to make you notice the ones who are always around and might be slipping under the radar. From there you can press the gear next to the name directly, to open the window and promote them. If the box doesn't appear, it means nobody has checked in with you over the last 90 days. Only the people who record their attendance count: someone who trains but doesn't check in here won't show up.

Question 35

How do I verify my students' competition results?

Accepted Answer

This one isn't done from the dashboard. There's no list of results to verify in the dashboard. You do it from the individual student's public page. Log in with the account that manages the gym. Open the “Students” tab in the dashboard. Press the student's name: their public profile opens. Scroll down to the “Competition results” box. The results that aren't confirmed yet have the word “Pending” next to them. Under that result two small buttons appear: “Verify” (green) and “Reject” (red). Press “Verify” if the result is true. The word changes to “Verified”, with a green tick. Press “Reject” if the result is made up or wrong: it disappears from the public profile. It only works for students who have your gym as their home gym. If someone put you as a secondary gym, the buttons don't appear for you and you can't confirm anything for them. And you get no notice when a student adds a result. No notification, no email. If you want to keep them verified you have to go round your athletes' profiles now and then, or ask them to tell you when they add one. If the student edits a result after you've verified it, the verification drops and it goes back to “Pending”. It has to be confirmed again.

Question 36

“Attendance” tab: what do I see?

Accepted Answer

The “Attendance” tab tells you who came by the gym and when. You find it in the “Students & attendance” group. From top to bottom you find three things: QR check-in — the code to show or print at the door. Press “Show” to see it. Today at the gym — who checked in today, with the total on the right. If nobody has come in yet you read “No check-ins yet today”. Attendance history (30 days) — the list of every check-in of the last 30 days, most recent first. In each row of the history you see the photo, the name, the class they signed in to and the date with the time. If it wasn't a class from the schedule, instead of the class you read “Free training”. Pressing a person's name opens their public profile. Only the check-ins the students did on the site appear here. Someone who trains but doesn't press “I'm here” appears nowhere. There's no way for you to record an attendance in their place.

Question 37

The check-in QR code: where do I find it and how do I use it?

Accepted Answer

It is a small square of black dots that your students scan with their phone camera. It opens a page that asks which class they are joining and records the attendance, so nobody has to search for the gym. In the dashboard, press “Students & attendance” and open the “Attendance” tab. At the top there's the “QR check-in” box. On the right there's the word “Show”. Press it. The square with the code appears. Print the page, or take a screenshot and print that. Hang the sheet by the door, where everyone sees it while taking their shoes off. To hide the code again, press “Hide”. Whoever points their phone at the QR has to be logged in to BJJ Square on that phone, otherwise the check-in doesn't start. Two things it's right for you to know. First: the code is always the same and today it can't be regenerated. Anyone who photographs it once can check in from home, from work or from holiday, forever. If the sheet ends up in a WhatsApp group, there's no way to cancel it. Second: the QR makes them pick the class. When a student scans the code, the site asks “Which class are you joining?” and shows the classes you put on today's schedule. The attendance lands on that class, so your per-class stats fill up by themselves. At the bottom of the list there is still “Open training”, for whoever just drops in for an open mat. If you have no classes on today's schedule there is nothing to pick and the check-in is recorded as open training. That is a good reason to keep the schedule up to date. That said, for most gyms the QR is still the quickest way to get attendance recorded. You decide whether it's worth it for you.

Question 38

“Stats” tab: what do the numbers mean? And how do I download the image for social media?

Accepted Answer

At the top there are four numbers. This is what they mean: Active 30d — how many different people did at least one check-in over the last 30 days. It's the most honest number about how many people really turn up. Month — how many check-ins in total since the start of this month. A person who comes 12 times counts 12. Week — how many check-ins in total from Monday to today. Students — how many people in total picked your gym on their profile, whether they come or not. Below there are two boxes: “Check-ins per month”, with the bars of the last six months, and “Most attended classes”, which ranks the class types by number of check-ins over the last 30 days. At the bottom there's “Month image”: a black and red square with the gym name, the month, the month's check-ins and the active students. It's ready for Instagram. In the dashboard, press “Students & attendance” and open the “Stats” tab. Scroll right to the bottom, to the “Month image” box. Look at the preview: that's already your image. Press “Download”. The file ends up in your phone's images or in the downloads folder. On the phone you can press “Share”: the sharing menu opens and you send it straight to Instagram or WhatsApp. If you read “No data yet” in “Most attended classes”, it means there were no check-ins over the last 30 days. The numbers only grow if your students check in.

Question 39

“Board” tab: how do I send an announcement to all my students?

Accepted Answer

In the dashboard, press “Students & attendance” and open the “Board” tab.
At the top there's the “Post an announcement” box.
In the first field write the title, for example “Holiday closure”. It's required.
In the second, bigger field write the text of the announcement.
Press the red “Post” button.
The announcement appears in the list below straight away, with the date and your name.

Careful: The announcement reaches your students as a notification inside the site, on their Notifications page (the bell icon). It does not arrive by email and it does not arrive as a message on their phone. If it's urgent — a sudden closure, a change to today's timetable — use the gym WhatsApp group as well.

Careful: The announcement is public: it also appears on your gym's page, which anyone can read. Don't write private things in it, students' phone numbers or internal matters.

To delete an announcement, press the bin at the top right of that announcement in the list. The notifications already sent to your students stay, though.

Note: The title can be at most 120 characters long. The text below has no limit.

Question 40

“Owners” tab: how do I add a partner or a helper?

Accepted Answer

In the “Owners” tab you decide who else can manage the gym with you. You find it in the “Gym profile” group. You need the person's exact username, the one that appears on their profile after the @ sign. Not the email, not their first and last name. Ask them for it first: without it, it can't be done. In the dashboard, press “Gym profile” and open the “Owners” tab. At the bottom there's a field with an @ in front of it and the word “username”. Type the person's username in it, without the @. Press the red “Invite” button. The green line “Invite sent to [name]” appears. The person appears above, under the heading “Pending invites”, with the “Pending” label. Now it's up to them: they have to open their Notifications page and press “Accept”. As soon as they accept, they appear in the owners list and can go into the dashboard. The person must already have an account on BJJ Square. If the username doesn't exist, an error message appears in red. Check that it's written exactly the same, with no spaces. Only the primary owner can invite or remove co-owners. Whoever isn't reads the words “Only the primary owner can add or remove co-owners”. Before adding someone, read CAREFUL: known flaw with co-owners.

Question 41

CAREFUL: my partner saves the changes but nothing gets saved

Accepted Answer

There's a known flaw and we're writing it out plainly, because it makes people lose work. Today a co-owner who edits the “Info & Contacts” tab and the top part of “Programs & schedule” (training type, classes, prices) and presses “Save changes” sees the word “Saved!” appear... but the changes are not recorded. Reload the page and it's all back as it was. The site says yes and does nothing. It isn't the fault of the person making the changes. Until we fix it, the rule is this: The “Info & Contacts” tab and the programs/prices in “Programs & schedule” must be edited only by the primary owner (the one with the red “Primary” label in the Owners tab). Everything else works normally for co-owners too. The tabs a co-owner can use without worrying are: Logo & Photos, the Class schedule at the bottom of “Programs & schedule”, Instructors, Events, Students, Attendance, Stats and Board. If you're a co-owner and you need to change the address, the phone or the prices, send the changes to the primary owner and let them do it. It takes a minute and nothing gets lost. We're working on fixing it. If it's blocking you, write to us at info@bjjsquare.com.

Question 42

How do I hand the gym over to someone else?

Accepted Answer

The handover happens in two stages: first the person has to become a co-owner, then you make them primary. You can't skip the first step. In the dashboard, press “Gym profile” and open the “Owners” tab. If the person isn't in the list yet, invite them with their username and wait for them to accept. See How do I add a partner. When they're in the list, the words “Make primary” appear next to their name. Press them. The site asks you to confirm: “Make [name] the primary owner? You'll become a co-owner”. Press OK. The page reloads. Now the red “Primary” label is on their name. After the handover you stay a co-owner, you don't get thrown out. But you're not the one in charge any more: you can no longer invite or remove other co-owners, and you can't take the role back by yourself. The new person has to give it back to you. If after the handover you want to leave altogether, see How do I step down from managing a gym. If the gym really has changed hands (you sold it) and you can't reach anyone, write to us at info@bjjsquare.com from the official gym inbox.

Question 43

How do I step down from managing a gym?

Accepted Answer

In the dashboard, press “Gym profile” and open the “Owners” tab. Find the row with your name: it has “· you” next to it. Press “Leave”. The site asks you to confirm: “Leave ownership of this gym? The listing stays public, but you'll lose management access”. Press OK. You're taken back to the gym map. If you're the primary owner and there are other co-owners, the site doesn't let you leave. It shows a message that hasn't been translated, so it comes out in Italian: “Trasferisci prima il ruolo di proprietario principale a un co-proprietario, poi potrai abbandonare”. It means: hand the primary owner role to a co-owner first, then you can leave. It's on purpose, so a gym is never left with nobody in charge. See How do I hand the gym over to someone else. If you're the primary owner and you're the only one, when you leave the gym goes back to having no owner. The page stays public and visible to everyone, with the details as you left them, but nobody can change it any more until someone claims it again. Stepping down doesn't delete the gym from the map. If you really want it gone, see My gym has closed, or I don't want to appear on BJJ Square any more.

Question 44

I run more than one site. How do I keep them all together?

Accepted Answer

Each site is a page of its own: it has its own address, its own schedule, its own students and its own stats. But you manage them all from the same account. Tap your photo at the top right and choose “My sites”. You see one card for each site, with name, city and three numbers: students, verified and this week's check-ins. Tap the site you want to work on: its dashboard opens. To go back to the list, press “My sites” at the top, under the gym name. To add another site you have two routes: If the site is already on the map, open it and claim it the way you did with the first one. See How do I claim my gym. If it isn't there, press “Add gym” at the top right of the “My sites” page, or go to Propose a gym. Under each site you see the label of your role: “Owner” if you own it, “Instructor” if someone else linked you as an instructor. There's no view that adds up the numbers of all the sites together. The stats have to be looked at one site at a time.

Question 45

My gym has closed, or I don't want to appear on BJJ Square any more

Accepted Answer

There's no “delete the gym” button in the dashboard. It goes through a report that we look at by hand. Log in to BJJ Square. Open the gym's public page. Scroll right to the bottom of the page, under everything. Press the small grey words “Report a problem with this listing”. A window opens with four reasons. Choose the right one. If you're the owner and you want to disappear, choose “I'm the owner and don't want to appear on BJJ Square”. If the page is a double, or was put up by mistake, choose “It was added by mistake or is a duplicate”. In the “Details (optional)” field explain the situation: for example “gym closed since June”. Press “Send report”. The words “Thank you! We've received your report and will review it shortly” appear. Reports are read by a person, not by a program. It takes a few days. You won't get a notification when it's been dealt with: check the page again after a while. To send a report you have to be logged in. If you're not, pressing those words takes you to the login page. If you'd rather talk to a person, write to info@bjjsquare.com from an official gym address.

For gyms and coaches

Other topics

Didn't find your answer?