Everything you need to know about Train BJJ. Click any section to expand it.
Train BJJ is a training companion app designed specifically for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners. It helps you track every session, monitor your progress over time, set training goals, organize your technique library, and connect with training partners — all in one place. Think of it as a digital training journal that travels with you everywhere.
Train BJJ supports five session types, each designed for different training scenarios:
Yes! Tap any session from your calendar or history to open it. From the session detail view, tap the Edit button (pencil icon) in the top-right corner to modify any details. To delete a session, use the delete option from the same menu. If the session was shared to the social feed, you'll also have the option to remove just the social post while keeping the session.
Live Session lets you track your training in real time. Start a session when you step on the mat and it runs a live timer, letting you count rounds, submissions, and taps as they happen. It works with the Dynamic Island and Lock Screen so you can track stats without even opening the app.
Yes! When a Live Session is active, Train BJJ shows interactive controls on your iPhone's Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. You get six tap targets — increment and decrement buttons for Rounds Rolled, Submissions, and Taps — so you can update your stats without unlocking your phone. Changes sync instantly back to the app.
Yes! The Live Session includes a configurable round timer with audio alerts. You can set round length and rest time, and it plays a sound when each round ends — even if your phone is on silent. The timer is designed to work alongside your music without interrupting playback.
Focus Points are your personal training goals. They help you stay intentional about your BJJ journey by tracking specific areas you want to improve — for example, "Improve guard retention," "Master the arm triangle," or "Work on takedown defense." Each Focus Point tracks how many sessions you've worked on it and your self-assessed progress.
When you log or edit a session, you can select which Focus Points you worked on during that session. This creates a powerful link — you can tap any Focus Point to see every session where you trained that goal, including all your notes. It's the fastest way to track whether you're actually making progress on specific areas of your game.
Yes! When you've achieved a goal, you can archive it. Archived Focus Points are saved in a separate view so you can always look back at your progress without cluttering your active goals list. You can also reactivate archived Focus Points at any time if you want to revisit them.
Archived Focus Points don't count toward your limit, so you can complete goals and create new ones as you progress.
The AI Training Coach is a chat-based assistant that knows your complete training history. It can analyze your game, identify patterns, suggest techniques to work on, and give personalized advice based on your actual training data. Tap the floating AI button on any tab to start a conversation.
After logging a session, you can request an AI analysis of that specific training. The AI reviews your notes, techniques used, outcomes, and stats to provide personalized feedback — including what went well, areas to improve, technique suggestions, and retention tips. Open any session and tap "Get AI Insight" to try it.
The Notebook Scanner lets you photograph a handwritten training notebook page and automatically converts it into a digital session. It uses on-device text recognition (OCR) combined with AI parsing to extract the date, session type, techniques, notes, and more. Simply tap the + button and select "Scan" from the radial menu.
Yes! The AI Coach can suggest actionable buttons in its responses. These let you create a new technique, view an existing technique, set a focus point, or even log a session — all with a single tap. The AI pre-fills the details based on your conversation, so you just review and save.
When you use AI features, a summary of your recent training data (stats, techniques, and notes) is sent to our secure cloud infrastructure for processing. This data is used solely to generate your personalized coaching response and is never stored, shared, or used for training AI models. The text recognition (OCR) for the Notebook Scanner runs entirely on your device.
Train BJJ includes a library of 150+ BJJ techniques organized by category (Submissions, Sweeps, Guard Passes, Takedowns, Escapes, and more). You can browse, search, and filter by category. When editing a session, tap "Tag Techniques" to link techniques you worked on during that session.
When you tag a technique to a session, you can add rich metadata:
This data powers your analytics, showing you your deadliest techniques, problem areas, and position performance over time.
Absolutely! If a technique isn't in the built-in library, you can create your own:
This is one of Train BJJ's most powerful features. When you tap on any technique in your library, you'll instantly see every session where you practiced it, along with all your notes, outcomes, and position data. No more flipping through pages to find when you last drilled that armbar or which sessions had you working from half guard. It also feeds your analytics — showing submission rates, position effectiveness, and technique trends over time.
Train BJJ has three levels of social connection:
You can associate your profile with a specific gym location. The My Gym feed tab shows public posts from everyone who trains at your location, even if you don't follow them. This makes it easy to discover and connect with training partners at your academy. You can toggle discoverability on or off in your profile settings.
Your training journal is private by default. When you share a session to the social feed, you choose its visibility:
You can also make your entire profile private (like Instagram), which requires follow requests and hides your posts from non-followers.
Train BJJ offers Instagram-style privacy controls:
Switching to private retroactively updates all your past posts. You can also control individual settings like whether your training stats and belt rank are visible on your profile.
Training Partners are a formal relationship within the app. Unlike simple follows, becoming Training Partners requires a mutual follow first, then an explicit request that the other person accepts. Training Partners unlock Stack Up — the side-by-side metric comparison feature. You can have up to 25 Training Partners.
Training Partner requests expire after 30 days if not accepted.
Stack Up is a premium feature that lets you compare your training metrics side-by-side with a Training Partner. It compares 20 metrics across 5 categories and shows percentile-based rankings (Elite, Above Average, Average, Below Average, Needs Work). You can filter by time period — Week, Month, Year, or All Time.
Stack Up compares 20 metrics across 5 categories:
HealthKit integration connects Train BJJ with Apple Health and your Apple Watch. When you record a martial arts workout on your watch, the app can automatically detect it and prompt you to log a full session with your notes, techniques, and details.
Train BJJ only reads martial arts and combat sports workout data, including:
We never read or access any other health data (sleep, nutrition, medications, etc.).
Train BJJ uses a two-tier detection system. When you finish a martial arts workout on your Apple Watch, the app receives a notification and shows a prompt asking if you want to log a session with that workout's data. If the first detection is missed, a background check runs periodically as a fallback. The app automatically imports the duration, calories, and heart rate into your session.
Go to Profile > Side Menu > Import Data > HealthKit Import to bulk import past workouts.
Yes! Dismissed workouts aren't lost. Go to Profile > Side Menu > Health Settings and you'll find an option to view and import any workouts you previously dismissed.
Yes! You can record new videos or attach existing ones from your photo library to any session. This is great for recording techniques shown in class, sparring rounds, or competition matches so you can review them later.
Videos are stored securely on your device and backed up to iCloud if you have iCloud sync enabled (Premium). They are only accessible within the Train BJJ app and are not shared with anyone.
Yes! Premium users have two import options:
Yes! Premium users can export all their training data. Go to Profile > Side Menu > Export Data and choose your format:
Your CSV should include these columns (at minimum):
Optional columns: Rounds, Submissions, Tapped, Location, Notes, Coaching Notes, What Worked, What Didn't Work. The import wizard will guide you through mapping your columns.
The free tier includes everything you need to get started:
Premium unlocks the full experience:
Both options include a 7-day free trial. You won't be charged until the trial ends, and you can cancel anytime.
Subscriptions are managed through Apple:
You'll keep Premium access until the end of your current billing period.
Your data is never deleted. If you have more than the free tier limits (e.g., more than 1 Focus Point or more than 3 custom techniques), you'll still be able to view everything — you just won't be able to create new ones beyond the free limits. Your social feed posts remain visible to others, and your CloudKit data stays in iCloud.
Your Premium status should be restored within a few seconds.
Premium users can enable iCloud sync to keep their data backed up and synchronized across all their Apple devices. Your sessions, techniques, focus points, reminders, and even video attachments are stored in your private iCloud database. If you delete the app or switch devices, your data is safe and will reappear when you sign in with the same Apple ID.
Make sure you're signed in to iCloud on all devices where you want data to appear.
Train BJJ uses a last-write-wins conflict resolution strategy. If the same session is edited on two devices simultaneously, the most recent change takes priority. In practice, conflicts are rare since changes sync within seconds when both devices are online.
Train BJJ tracks a comprehensive set of analytics:
Your streak counts consecutive weeks where you logged at least one training session. This encourages consistent training without punishing you for missing a single day. If you train at least once every week, your streak keeps growing. Miss a full week, and it resets.
The Home tab shows a monthly calendar with dots indicating training days. Tap any date to see all sessions logged that day. You can swipe between months to review your entire training history at a glance.
Train BJJ sends two types of notifications:
Milestones are also automatically posted to the social feed so your training partners can celebrate with you.
Yes! Go to Profile > Side Menu > Notification Settings to toggle individual categories on or off. You can separately control notifications for new followers, reactions, comments, streak milestones, and training partner activity.
Train BJJ is designed with privacy first:
For full details, see our Privacy Policy.
Only you can see your detailed training journal (sessions, notes, techniques). Social features are opt-in — you choose what to share and with whom. Your profile privacy settings control whether you're discoverable and whether others need approval to follow you.
Yes. Go to Profile > Side Menu > Data Management > Clear Data to permanently delete all your local training data. If you have a social account, you can delete your account from the same menu, which removes all your Firebase data (profile, activities, follows, reactions, and comments). This action cannot be undone.
Train BJJ includes three home screen widgets:
Widgets update automatically when you log sessions, create reminders, or open the app.
We'd love to hear from you! You can reach us at:
We typically respond within 24-48 hours.
Train BJJ was created by a practitioner who understands the importance of intentional training. The app was built from the ground up to be the tool we wished existed — a powerful training companion that respects your privacy and helps you improve on the mats.
Currently, Train BJJ is only available for iOS devices (iPhone). We may consider other platforms in the future based on demand.
Yes! Train BJJ works fully offline. You can log sessions, view your history, browse techniques, and track progress without an internet connection. Social features and AI features require an internet connection, but all other actions work offline. If you perform social actions while offline (like reacting to a post), they're queued and processed automatically when you're back online.
We're here to help. Reach out and we'll get back to you within 24-48 hours.
Contact support@trainbjjapp.com