1
Capture the skill
Save the technique, position, transition, finish, escape, or tactical pattern the grappler may want to work on.
Concept brief
A deliberate practice app for honing grappling skills.
Hone helps serious grapplers and ambitious hobbyists choose specific skills, train them with intention, and track the evidence that a technique is moving from interesting idea to live, reliable execution.
Top-level idea
The product is built around a skill pipeline.
The app should not try to track all training. It should help grapplers choose specific skills, practice them deliberately, and see which ones are progressing from saved ideas to live execution.
2
Train it intentionally
Record the training format: study, dialogue drilling, constraint games, or rolling.
3
Log evidence
Track time, successful executions, partner hit counts, footage, and insights so progress is visible.
Proposed stages
Skills move from saved idea to proof under pressure.
Each stage describes where the skill is in the user's acquisition process, from a captured idea to a technique that works repeatedly against meaningful resistance.
Saved
I captured this skill because I may want to work on it later.
Video, note, source, reason
Learning
I am actively developing the basic mechanics and procedural understanding needed to perform it.
Study time, drilling time, cues
Live
I can create or recognize the conditions for the skill and execute it against resistance.
Game time, rolling hits, partner hit counts
Proven
I can hit it repeatedly on strong partners, including people who know my game or are hard to catch.
Best-partner proof, confidence
Information architecture
The app has four core objects.
Skill
A specific thing the user wants to acquire.
StageResourcesNotesTargets
Session
A class, open mat, private, or competition training day.
DateJournalFocus review
Training Block
A chunk of work inside a session tied to one skill.
TypeDurationExecutionsInsights
Partner
A person the user has successfully executed a skill against.
Hit listSkill countsLast hit
Skill capture
Skills can start from a reference, an idea, or a training goal.
Creating a skill should be fast: name the thing the user wants to work on, attach anything useful, and drop it into the pipeline.
Blank Skill
Create a skill manually from an idea, coach suggestion, or training goal.
YouTube
Save a video as a reference and attach notes, cues, or timestamps.
Capture a reel or post before it disappears into saved-content clutter.
Reference Video
Attach any video that helps the user understand what good execution looks like.
Quick Note
Save a thought after training and turn it into a skill later.
Logging model
The app tracks four types of training.
For each skill, users can log study, dialogue drilling, constraint games, and rolling. Each training type uses its own metrics: time, successful executions, partner hits, footage, and insights where they apply.
Study
Watching, reading, reviewing footage, or thinking through the skill away from live practice.
- Track time
- Save resources
- Capture insights
Dialogue Drilling
Cooperative exploration and mechanical refinement.
- Track time
- Capture cues
- Capture insights
Constraint Games
Live situational work / task-based rounds / CLA games.
- Track time
- Track successful executions
- Capture hits on partners and insights
Rolling
Open live training where the exchange can go anywhere.
- Track successful executions
- Add partners to the hit list
- Capture time and insights where useful
User loop
The app should guide pre-training intention and post-training reflection.
This turns Hone from a passive tracker into a deliberate practice companion.
Set Intention
Before training, pick one to three focus skills for the day or week.
Train
Use those skills in study, drilling, games, and rolling.
Log Evidence
After training, record time, successful executions, footage, hit counts, and insights.
Refine Focus
Update the stage, next cue, or next training intention based on evidence.
Product strategy
Distribution starts with a tool pros actually use.
The app has to be useful enough that pros would use it in their own training. If that is true, their normal training process can become content, and that content can become a recurring income stream.
Why pros would use it
Hone should make deliberate practice easier for people who already care deeply about improving: choose the skill, log the work, preserve insights, review footage, and track whether the skill is becoming reliable.
What makes hobbyists use it
For hobbyists, the usage risk is habit inertia: most people are used to showing up, taking class, and doing whatever training gives them that day. Borrowed status helps overcome that inertia because using the same tool as a pro makes deliberate practice feel like part of the pro identity they want to emulate.
1
Use the app
The pro uses Hone for an activity they already do: deciding what to work on, training it, logging evidence, and reflecting afterward.
2
Make content
That use becomes easy content: what skill they are honing, how they are practicing it, what changed, and what they learned.
3
Audience signs up
The pro already has an audience. Viewers see Hone in use, want to train more deliberately, and subscribe through the pro's affiliate link.
4
Earn recurring revenue
The pro gets a healthy percentage of monthly revenue from their users. A second level could pay them when athletes they recruit generate subscribers too.
For expert review
Questions to pressure-test with a high-level learner.
These questions should test the learning model, the logging burden, and whether the app solves real problems for serious practitioners.
Later possibilities
Expandable, but not required for the first version.
These are powerful directions, but each should wait until the core learning loop is working.
AI-assisted reflection
Convert voice notes into concise summaries: what worked, what failed, next cue, and next training intention.
Eco games library
A searchable library of constraint games connected to specific skills, positions, and learning goals.
Collaboration
Let coaches or training partners suggest skills, add notes, share games, or review progress.
Coaching add-on
Give athletes and coaches a way to assign skills, review student training footage, comment on executions, and monetize coaching relationships inside the same skill pipeline.
External databases
Potential integrations with resources like BJJ Mental Models DB or OutlierDB if they support the learning loop.