Verified belts

Verify your belt

The coach certifies the belt. If he is not here, we verify it.

On BJJ Square nobody gives themselves a belt and nobody votes on them. Your promotion is certified by the person who gave it to you, and that person teaches in a gym claimed by its owner. If your coach is not a member — or never will be — BJJ Square staff verify the belt against a proof. Either way you enter the public registry: today there are 48 people.

What you get

You are in the public registry

Name, belt, who awarded it and where. Anyone can look you up by name, academy or city.

The green symbol on the promotion

On your public profile the row becomes “Certified”, with the shield and the coach’s name clickable if he has a profile. If we verify it instead, the row carries the rosette and reads “Verified by BJJ Square”.

Verified lineage

If your instructor's belt is also confirmed by whoever awarded it, your profile shows the chain: you, them, and whoever came before.

What you need

Three conditions, all together, for the coach route. They are the same ones written in the registry, and the system checks them.

Your instructor has a profile on BJJ Square

He gives the certification himself, from his profile. If he is not a member, your promotion stays “Declared by you”: it shows on your profile, but it does not enter the registry. That is not the end of the story — see the box below.

Your instructor teaches at a claimed academy

They must be listed as owner or instructor of an academy page claimed by its owner. That is what makes the confirmation verifiable: behind it there is a real academy, with a name and an address.

Public profile and blue belt or above

You need a username, and anyone who is a minor by year of birth stays out. White is not a promotion, and kids' belts stay out of any public list of people.

How it works, in three steps

Two minutes for you and one tap for your instructor.

Step 1

Record the promotion

From your profile open “Promotions” and tap “Add”. Pick the belt, enter the date and under “Who promoted you” choose your instructor from the list. If you type the name by hand, no request is sent.

Step 2

Tell your instructor

They receive the request only inside the site, in Notifications: no email, no push on the phone. Tell them in person or on WhatsApp. They confirm with one tap, from Notifications or from the “To confirm” box in their Promotions.

Step 3

You enter the registry

On confirmation the row becomes “Certified” and you get a notice. If your coach is linked to a claimed gym, you appear in the registry within an hour. If he is not yet, you enter the day he does.

There is a shorter way

If you are a member of your coach’s gym on BJJ Square, he can record the belt for you from his Promotions, in the “Belts I have given” box. It arrives already certified, with no request to confirm. It works for belts from years ago too.

And if your coach is not here?

Until he signs up, your promotion stays “Declared by you” and does not enter the registry. That is not a sentence: the day he signs up and confirms, the row becomes “Certified” on its own.

If he never will — he is old, abroad, or gone — ask BJJ Square to verify it from the “Declared by you” row. Describe a proof that can be checked: diploma or certificate, federation card, a public page with your name. An administrator looks at it and, if it holds up, you enter the registry as “Verified by BJJ Square”, with the coach’s name next to it. It is the step below certification, not a shortcut: it shows, and it says so.

Go to your Promotions

Are you an instructor?

Your confirmations count only if the system recognises you as an instructor of a real academy. Three things to do, and the first two only once.

  1. 1

    Link yourself to your academy's page

    The page must be claimed. If you are the owner, you have already done it. If you teach for someone else, ask them to add you to the instructors from the academy panel and link your profile.

  2. 2

    Get your own belt confirmed

    Record your black belt (or the belt you wear) naming who gave it to you. Today almost every chain in the registry stops at the coach: lineage is built one link at a time, and yours is the first.

  3. 3

    Answer the requests

    You find them in Notifications and in the “To confirm” box of your Promotions. Confirm or reject: a rejection is seen only by you and the student.

Do you run an academy?

Until the page is claimed, none of your instructors can confirm a belt that enters the registry. Claiming is free and takes five minutes: find your academy, tap “Claim” and confirm from the academy's email.

How to claim an academy

What it does not mean

Certified means one thing only: the named coach confirmed. Verified means we checked it ourselves. We do not judge the school, the lineage or the quality of the teaching.

The two levels are not equal on lineage: with the coach’s certification the chain keeps going, with our verification it stops at the hand-typed name. In the registry they always show separately.

A real belt that is not here yet is no judgement on whoever wears it: it just needs one tap from their coach, or a proof to show us.

Frequently asked questions

My instructor is not on BJJ Square. What do I do?
Record the promotion anyway by typing his name by hand: it stays “Declared by you” on your profile. When he signs up, add the same belt again picking him from the list: the new row replaces the old one and the request goes out. If he never will, ask us to verify it: see the question below.
I got my belt years ago, at another academy.
That is fine: the registry does not look at the date, it looks at who confirms. What matters is that the instructor is signed up and linked today to a claimed academy, not that it is your current academy.
The coach confirmed but I am not in the registry.
Almost always one of the other two conditions is missing: the coach is not an owner or instructor of a claimed gym, or your profile has no username. The registry refreshes within an hour.
I am a white belt.
White does not enter the registry: it is the starting point, not a promotion. Come back here at blue.
My coach will never sign up (he is old, abroad, or gone).
On the “Declared by you” row you will find “Ask BJJ Square to verify it”: describe a proof that can be checked (diploma or certificate, federation card, a public page with your name). An administrator reviews it and, if it holds up, the promotion enters the registry as “Verified by BJJ Square · by Coach Name”, with a different symbol from certification. It is a declared exception, not a shortcut: the lineage chain stops there, and the coach’s name is visible.

More questions in the help centre

Ready?

Open your Promotions, add the belt and choose your instructor. Then tell them.

Record your belt