What is the best BJJ app? Hands down, its got to be Stephan Kesting’s BJJ Master App.
There are a lot of BJJ apps out there. Some are good and some not so good.
Here is my honest review of why I think it is the best app for Brazilian jiu jitsu available right now.
Stephan Kesting: Master of BJJ Apps?
For those who are not familiar with Stephan Kesting, he is a BJJ black belt (and practitioner of many other martial arts) that produces content under his Grapplearts company.
In my view, his instruction is second to none in the BJJ instructional DVD space. The content in his library is prolific. If there was a competition for the best video BJJ instructor, he might just be world champ.
Stephan was one of the early adopters in the BJJ instructional/app space and had produced a lot of great apps for iPhone and Android.
In early 2018 the Apple App Store started cracking down on spam apps built on duplicative backend architecture. Since most of Stephan’s apps used the same backend, he was caught in the crossfire. This forced Stephan to migrate all of his apps over to one new app.
And hence the BJJ Master app was born.
While it must have been a pain to have to start from scratch, the BJJ Master App is such a quality product that it may have been for the best.
With the BJJ Master App, you are able to access much (but by no means all) of Stephan’s instructional material in one single location.
One App to Rule them All: BJJ Master App Overview
The BJJ Master App allows you to access a good portion of Stephan instructional materials via app.
The BJJ Master App is intuitive and convenient. Chock full of BJJ goodness, it is great for a quick refresh or a longer practice session.
The app itself is free, but you must pay for particular video modules (see below). You can preview each module simply by clicking on it.
The app includes about 7 hours of instruction in free video. None of it is fluff. That is more than you might get from apps that you pay for.
For this reason, alone I would recommend that you download this app before trying others.
Other features include:
- Videos can be streamed or downloaded to your phone/mobile device
- 123 different techniques from 41 different instructional modules
- Covers both gi and no-gi.
- All your Grapplearts fan favorite instructors: Stephan Kesting, Rob Biernacki, Brandon ‘Wolverine’ Mullins, Emily Kwok, and Elliott Bayev
- Ability to migrate previously purchase Grapplearts apps.
The BJJ Master app is available at the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
BJJ Master App Modules
The content of the app is broken down into video modules. These modules contain Stephan’s older apps like the Submissions App as well as many of his newer instructional releases.
You can preview the content of each module simply by clicking on each appropriate icon. You can purchase an entire module or simply a sub-component of each one.
Since Stephan is the master of deals, you usually get a better deal for buying the whole set (or just wait for his birthday or Black Friday, when he tends to release big discounts).
What I like about the Master App
The app is simple and intuitive to use. The organization is logical. I have not had a bug in a long time, even on different phones. I cannot say that for other apps I have tried.
If you purchased some of Stephan’s older apps you do not need to pay for them again. You simply hit the “upload” button and your older apps should appear.
I got this app when it was first released and the restore function was not working. I contacted Stephan directly and he fixed the problem so that I could use all of my previously bought apps. Talk about customer service.
I especially like that you can view the entire outline of a video module so you can get a sense of its content before purchasing.
This App is great whether you want to review basic techniques before class or you want to use it for a session with a practice partner.
What I don’t like about the Master App
When the app first launched there were some content and playback issues. Stephan appears to have fixed most of these issues and it is running fine on different android phones I have used over the years.
If I had one gripe, it would be that the app is somewhat heavy on memory, but for a video content app, this is to be expected.
I only wish that Stephan would add more of his modules sooner to the app…
Stephan, if you are reading this, get to it man!
Is this the best BJJ app?
The BJJ Master App is the best bang for your buck in terms of Brazilian jiujtisu apps.