A Training Journal for Jiu-Jitsu
A MIRROR. NOT A TEACHER.
"Most apps teach you Jiu-Jitsu. This one teaches you yourself."
"Most apps teach you Jiu-Jitsu. This one teaches you yourself."
You don't need more technique videos.
You need to know who you are on the mat.
Each part stands alone. Together, they're a thinking partner that travels to the gym with you.
"After every session, capture what worked, what felt stuck, and what your body told you."
A 90-second log captures positions, reflection notes, and mood. Over time, the Pattern Engine quietly observes your training and surfaces insights you might never have noticed yourself.
"Sometimes you just need to see what's possible from where you are."
Not a technique library. A strategic map. Pick a position and explore the landscape of options — what could you do here? Different content for gi, no-gi, or both. A pocket reference for before, during, and after class.
"Direction beats discipline. A clear focus makes every session matter more."
Set one plain-language goal. Not a move — a direction. The app gently echoes it through your sessions and quietly checks in when it's time to review. Goals never get "completed" — only outgrown.
"Knowing your training partners are on the mat tonight changes everything."
A quiet community feature — see when your partners are training. No feeds. No likes. No public profiles. Just presence. When you want to reach out, the app sends you to your phone — call them, text them, see them tomorrow.
Every session you log feeds back into a quiet portrait of your game — where you spend your time, what's working, and what the mat keeps trying to teach you.
"Twenty sessions tell you a lot. Two hundred tell you who you are on the mat."
These principles aren't marketing. Every feature, every button, every notification has to earn its place against them.
No friction at the moment of logging. Under 90 seconds, every time. The journal works because it's effortless to use.
Direction over lists. Focus over breadth. The Watching list exists for the ideas you're not ready to focus on yet.
The app never lectures. When it surfaces an insight, it does so as a question, not a directive. You decide what it means.
No streaks. No badges. No flames. No leaderboards. Recognition without invention. Growth without manufactured stakes.
The app makes real-world training richer, not replaces it. When you want to message a partner, we send you to your phone — not a chat screen.
Your training data lives on your device. We never sell it, never share it, never use it for ads. Pattern detection runs locally.
"There are excellent apps that do these things. We don't compete on any of them — that's the point."
"Something quieter. A tool that noticed what I was doing, gave me a place to reflect, and grounded me in what was actually working."
I've trained Jiu-Jitsu long enough to know that the best teachers don't tell you what to do. They ask the right question and let you find the answer on the mat.
Every BJJ app I tried was either a video library or a social feed. Neither helped me get better. So I'm building this — for myself first, and for the practitioners who train hard, want to grow, and don't need another voice telling them how.
If that's you, come along.
We're aiming for a public iOS launch in late 2026. Closed beta begins earlier — sign up below if you want to be considered. Android will follow.
v1.0 will be free at launch. We'll likely introduce a paid tier in v1.1 once we know what real users value. Beta access is free, always.
Those apps deliver content — videos, instruction, drills. Groundwork doesn't compete on content. It's about the individual practitioner reflecting on their own training. We're orthogonal, not competitive.
Your training data lives on your device. The Pattern Engine runs locally — your sessions never leave your phone for analysis. We don't sell data, run third-party trackers, or show ads. Account creation is required only for Mat Presence.
Both. The Game Tree is especially valuable for white and blue belts who don't always know what options exist from a position. The Journal and Pattern Engine reward serious practitioners at every belt level. The depth of reflection scales with the depth of the practitioner.
Both, fully. The Game Tree has separate strategic content for gi, no-gi, and "both" perspectives — because the games are genuinely different, even from the same starting positions.
Because Jiu-Jitsu is already hard. Adding manufactured stakes — streaks to break, badges to earn — makes the practice about the app, not the mat. Groundwork serves your training. Your training doesn't serve Groundwork.
"We'll let you know when Groundwork launches. No marketing spam, no weekly newsletters — just the launch."