What is openmat.fi?

Moi!

My name is Arttu Manninen and I founded this site in July 2026. I like to go to open mats of different clubs to meet new people and old friends too. I have been wearing out tatami since 1992 and moved to Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 2021, which was personally for me one of the best decisions for years on my martial arts journey.

This service started from a thought (born on open mat, where else...) that it is rather difficult to find the timetables of different clubs. Instead of aggressively waiting and sitting on my hands I decided to grab the bull by its horns and start this project.

In judo there is the principle of common good, jita kyoei (Jap. 自他共栄) which means that practitioners aim to develop and support each others and to promote common well-being. In BJJ the same phenomenon is visible everywhere it is practiced, and with this effort I want to raise up all the practitioners and facilitators: my aim is to create a platform that will gather the whole Finnish BJJ scene under one roof, as an independent actor outside of federations and rule sets, into that one big family I feel the BJJ community already to be.

Even though the initial idea was open mats, I want to bring into spotlight the whole Finnish BJJ culture in its endless forms most beautiful: seminars, competitions, services, and the most important without which none of this would be possible: the clubs themselves.

Oss!
Arttu Manninen