About OpenMat — Built by a Martial Artist, for Martial Artists | OpenMat
The Problem

The martial arts community deserved
better tools. It had none.

Walk into any BJJ gym in the world and you'll find the same thing: practitioners who train obsessively and track nothing. Coaches who are world-class instructors and accidental administrators. Academies running on group texts, whiteboards, and Excel sheets from 2009.

The apps that existed when we started building OpenMat each did one thing — a journal here, a timer there, a community feed that felt like a worse version of Instagram with a BJJ filter on it. None of them understood the culture. None of them talked to each other. None of them treated training like the discipline it actually is.

Meanwhile, golfers have handicap tracking and swing analyzers. Runners have Strava. Cyclists have Wahoo and Garmin ecosystems worth billions. Martial artists — one of the oldest, most disciplined, most globally practised physical cultures in human history — had a spreadsheet and a group chat.

"We built the app we always wanted to train with. Then we opened it to everyone — because the community deserves to own this." — Robert Szopa, Founder #.1
0+ Features
at launch
0+ Achievements
to unlock
0 Disciplines
tracked
$0 Student plan
forever
The Philosophy

OpenMat is an open invitation. Not a closed product.

We use the phrase "open source in spirit" deliberately and carefully. The codebase is proprietary. But the culture we're trying to build is collaborative, transparent, and community-directed in a way that most software companies are not.

Community-directed roadmap
Features are built based on what real practitioners need — not what maximises engagement metrics. Founding members have direct access to the builder. Your feedback shapes what gets built.
Training earns real value
Mat Points are earned through actual training and redeemable for real gear, sessions, and experiences. This is not a loyalty programme that gives you ten cents off your next purchase. Training pays.
Rank means something again
The peer-verified rank system means that when someone claims a blue belt on OpenMat, there is a professor's name, a date, and a signed assessment behind it. We are building the infrastructure for trust in the community.
Your data is always yours
Every piece of training data you generate on OpenMat is exportable as a single JSON file at any time. We do not sell your data, we do not lock you in, and if OpenMat ever shut down you would walk away with your complete training history intact.
Free for students. Forever.
The student plan will never be paywalled. Not behind a trial, not behind a credit card, not behind a feature gate that conveniently hides the best parts. The whole student experience — all 40+ features — is free for life. That is not a marketing line. It is a founding commitment.
The one-sentence version: OpenMat exists to make martial arts culture more honest, more connected, and more rewarding for the people who actually show up — not the influencers, not the weekend warriors, not the people who claim belts they didn't earn. The ones on the mat Monday through Saturday, drilling the same thing for the hundredth time because they know that's how it sticks. This app is for them.
The Builder

Hi. I'm Robert. I built this.

Founding ID
#.1

Robert Szopa

Founder Gold #.1

Proscris LLC  ·  proscris.com  ·  @proscris

I work with AI. I build apps. I build brands. I've been doing this long enough to understand what it takes to go from idea to infrastructure — and I've done it across enough verticals to know what actually makes products people love rather than products people tolerate.

OpenMat is different from everything else I've built. This one is personal. I train. I've trained. I've watched the martial arts community get completely underserved by technology — scattered across apps that each do one thing, none of which talk to each other, none of which actually understand the culture. The discipline, the lineage, the community trust, the way rank actually works, the politics of open mats — none of those apps get any of it.

So I built the one I always wanted. Not for a pitch deck. Not because a VC told me the TAM was large enough. For the people on the mats who deserve something that actually reflects how seriously they take their training.

OpenMat is my personal venture and my passion project. I'm not going anywhere. The founding member spots are real. The perks are real. The commitment is real.

Works With AI

Building AI-native products and workflows before it became a buzzword. Sensei AI is a direct result of this work.

Builds Apps

Full-stack product development from concept to deployed, live product. OpenMat is a 40+ feature app built solo.

Builds Brands

Brand identity, positioning, content, and community strategy. OpenMat is built to last, not to flip.

The Platform

One app. Every tool
martial artists actually need.

Here is a complete list of what OpenMat does — so you can judge for yourself whether anything else comes close.

Session Logging
BJJ, Muay Thai, MMA, Strength, Mobility, Cardio — logged in 30 seconds.
Training Streaks
Daily streak tracking with milestones at 7, 14, 30, 60, 100, and 365 days.
XP & Belt Progression
Real-time belt progress bar with XP earned from every session, mission, and achievement.
Beacon — Find Partners
Real-time training partner finder with activity, intensity, rank, and radius filters.
Sensei AI
Personalized AI coaching assistant that knows your rank, mat hours, and training history.
60+ Achievements
9 technique mastery series: Kimura, Triangle, Armbar, RNC, Sweeps, Passes, Takedowns, Escapes, Combos.
Mat Points & Rewards
Earn points through training, redeem for gear, sessions, lessons, supplements, and digital content.
Rank Verification
Peer-verified rank system — professors confirm student rank inside the app with a permanent verified badge.
The Mat Community
Martial arts social feed with verified rank display, coach badges, and belt-color-coded profiles.
Round Timer
Boxing, Muay Thai, BJJ, Tabata, EMOM, and HIIT presets with fullscreen mode and audio beeps.
Solo Drill Tracker
30+ structured drills with rep counters, set tracking, and automated rest timers.
Weight Tracker
Competition weight cut management with trend charts, goal line, and daily check-in XP.
Technique Library
Built-in glossary with Japanese terminology plus a personal notes library that builds itself from session logs.
Belt Estimator
Data-driven promotion timeline based on your actual session count, mat hours, and training frequency.
Tournament Brackets
4, 8, and 16-person single elimination brackets with live result tracking — run in-house events in-app.
Gear Tracker
Track every piece of equipment by session count with automatic replacement warnings.
Game Plan Builder
Map your go-to attacks from every position and review your strategy before every class.
Coach Tools
Student roster, class scheduling, attendance, belt promotions, announcements — for $19/mo (founding from $9/mo).
Academy CRM
AI lead generation, ad management, retention automation, billing, and growth analytics for academy owners.
One app replaces all of this: training journal · round timer · drill tracker · partner finder · technique notes · gear tracker · weight tracker · belt estimator · tournament bracket · community feed · messaging · AI coach · rewards shop · rank verification · student management · class scheduling · attendance tracker.