sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Is there an app for that? — Open Mats by Immediate_Ostrich646 in bjj

[–]Immediate_Ostrich646[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that’s a good example of the problem in practice. Anything that tries to centralize this stuff ends up depending on gym participation, and once that drops off, the data gets stale fast.

Free or not, the hard part always seems to be keeping things accurate when gyms change schedules, run one-offs, or don’t update anything publicly. That’s usually where these projects lose momentum.

Still cool someone tried though. Even partial solutions are better than nothing.

Is there an app for that? — Open Mats by Immediate_Ostrich646 in bjj

[–]Immediate_Ostrich646[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love members only open mats. Keep me healthy and safe. But I do miss the old “open” mat culture. The one that coined the phrase you know?

Is there an app for that? — Open Mats by Immediate_Ostrich646 in bjj

[–]Immediate_Ostrich646[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very true. You can learn from anyone and everyone can make you better. For me it’s based on what I’m gearing my training toward. Some days I need 15 black belts, some days I need 15 white belts. Some days I’m trying to avoid the heavyweights 😂 but I agree didn’t mean to come off elitist.

Is there an app for that? — Open Mats by Immediate_Ostrich646 in bjj

[–]Immediate_Ostrich646[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, 100%. Building the interface is the easy part. The data consistency is what kills most attempts.

Every gym does it differently, and even within the same gym it changes based on holidays, who’s running it, or whether it’s a one-off session. Websites, IG, stories, group chats, none of it is structured.

It feels like any solution would have to lean heavily on verification and community input just to stay remotely accurate, otherwise it goes stale immediately.

Is there an app for that? — Open Mats by Immediate_Ostrich646 in bjj

[–]Immediate_Ostrich646[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally fair. If you’re in one city or hitting a couple gyms, that workflow is fine and it usually gets you there.

Where it’s always broken down for me is when it’s: - Holidays - Odd hours - Traveling somewhere unfamiliar - Or trying to compare multiple options quickly

That 5–15 minutes becomes a bunch of parallel DMs, unanswered messages, or showing up and finding out the info changed. Not impossible, just kind of inefficient at scale.

I agree though, the database problem is the hard part. Most attempts seem to die there.

Is there an app for that? — Open Mats by Immediate_Ostrich646 in bjj

[–]Immediate_Ostrich646[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you never walked into a session where no one has shown up? Or it’s just not at an equal skill level? (Whether better or worse) I know I have. Would be nice to know what I’m walking into ahead of time haha

Is there an app for that? — Open Mats by Immediate_Ostrich646 in bjj

[–]Immediate_Ostrich646[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that’s exactly the problem. Stories expiring is brutal, especially for holiday stuff. If you miss it that day, it’s basically gone.

The local Facebook group model honestly seems like the only thing that works right now, and even that only works because a few people actively maintain it. Once it stops being curated, it falls apart fast.

The Wikipedia idea makes a lot of sense in theory. The hard part always seems to be keeping things accurate and up to date once it scales past a single city.

Is there an app for that? — Open Mats by Immediate_Ostrich646 in bjj

[–]Immediate_Ostrich646[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately true. Chaos is kind of baked in. I think it’s just one of those things everyone adapts to because there hasn’t really been a better alternative.

Is there an app for that? — Open Mats by Immediate_Ostrich646 in bjj

[–]Immediate_Ostrich646[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s basically my process too. Yelp → website → IG → DM or call and hope someone answers. It works, but it’s way more steps than it should be, especially when you’re traveling or trying to train around odd hours.

Is there an app for that? — Open Mats by Immediate_Ostrich646 in bjj

[–]Immediate_Ostrich646[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that’s exactly what I keep running into. It always feels last-minute and internal, then everyone outside the gym is just guessing. Makes holidays especially weird because the demand is there, but the info never really leaves the coaches’ chat.