Terms of Service

Effective date: June 17, 2025

Welcome to Grip Culture. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Grip Culture website, platform, software, tools, services, content, and related features (collectively, the “Service”).

By creating an account, accessing the Service, using the Service, creating or managing a profile, managing an academy, creating or managing a tournament, using organizer tools, using academy tools, or otherwise interacting with Grip Culture, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

1. About Grip Culture

Grip Culture is a software platform that provides digital tools for martial arts, grappling, jiu-jitsu, combat sports, academies, teams, athletes, coaches, organizers, referees, tournaments, rankings, profiles, and related activities.

Unless Grip Culture expressly states otherwise in writing, Grip Culture is not:

  • The organizer of third-party tournaments.
  • The operator of third-party events.
  • The owner or operator of academies listed on the platform.
  • The merchant of record for athlete registration payments made to organizers.
  • A payment processor for external organizer payment links.
  • An escrow agent.
  • A money transmitter.
  • A ticket seller.
  • A financial intermediary.
  • A guarantor of refunds, event delivery, event safety, organizer conduct, academy conduct, or tournament accuracy.

Grip Culture provides software tools and platform access. Organizers, academies, coaches, athletes, parents, guardians, profile managers, and users remain responsible for their own information, conduct, payments, events, memberships, and decisions.

2. Adult User Accounts Only

Grip Culture user accounts are only available to individuals who are at least 18 years old.

By creating an account, you represent and warrant that:

  • You are at least 18 years old.
  • You have legal capacity to enter into these Terms.
  • The information you provide is accurate, current, and truthful.
  • You are responsible for all activity under your account.

Individuals under 18 may not create their own Grip Culture account.

If Grip Culture determines or reasonably suspects that an account was created by a person under 18, Grip Culture may suspend, restrict, or delete the account and any related access.

3. Managed Athlete Profiles for Minors

Grip Culture may allow adult users to create or manage athlete profiles for minors under 18 (“Managed Minor Athlete Profiles”).

A Managed Minor Athlete Profile is not a user account for the minor. The minor does not receive independent account access unless Grip Culture later creates a separate legally compliant process for minors or young adult account transition.

If you create, submit, or manage a Managed Minor Athlete Profile, you represent and warrant that:

  • You are at least 18 years old.
  • You are the minor’s parent, legal guardian, authorized coach, academy representative, manager, or another adult legally authorized to provide and manage the minor’s information.
  • You have obtained all required permissions and consents to submit, manage, display, or use the minor’s information through the Service.
  • The information you provide about the minor is accurate, current, and truthful.
  • You are responsible for keeping the minor’s information updated.
  • You are responsible for deciding whether the minor may be registered for events, associated with academies, displayed on profiles, or included in tournament-related information.

Grip Culture may request proof of authorization, guardianship, parental consent, academy authority, or identity before allowing a Managed Minor Athlete Profile to be created, linked, transferred, displayed, modified, or used for certain features.

Grip Culture may restrict, hide, suspend, remove, or require verification for any Managed Minor Athlete Profile if Grip Culture believes that consent, authorization, accuracy, safety, privacy, or legal requirements have not been satisfied.

4. Responsibility for Minor Athlete Information

Adult users who manage minor athlete information are solely responsible for the information they submit and the actions they take on behalf of the minor.

This includes responsibility for:

  • Name.
  • Age or date of birth.
  • Weight.
  • Rank or belt.
  • Academy affiliation.
  • Photos or images.
  • Tournament registration information.
  • Tournament results.
  • Team association.
  • Emergency or responsible adult information, if applicable.
  • Any other information submitted or managed through the Service.

You may not submit information about a minor unless you have the legal right and authority to do so.

Grip Culture does not independently verify every adult’s authority to manage a minor athlete profile. However, Grip Culture may investigate, restrict, or remove profiles when disputes, complaints, privacy concerns, safety concerns, or authorization issues arise.

5. Transition When a Minor Turns 18

Grip Culture may provide a process for a Managed Minor Athlete Profile to be transferred, claimed, confirmed, or converted when the athlete reaches 18 years old.

Grip Culture may require identity verification, email verification, guardian confirmation, academy confirmation, or other reasonable steps before transferring control of a profile.

Grip Culture is not required to transfer a profile if there are unresolved disputes, identity concerns, safety concerns, inaccurate information, duplicate profiles, legal concerns, or platform integrity concerns.

6. User Accounts

To access certain features, you may need to create an account.

You agree to:

  • Provide accurate, current, and complete information.
  • Keep your account information updated.
  • Maintain the confidentiality of your login credentials.
  • Be responsible for activity that occurs under your account.
  • Notify Grip Culture if you believe your account has been compromised.

You may not create an account using false information, impersonate another person, misrepresent your identity, or create an account on behalf of another adult unless you are legally authorized to do so.

7. User Roles

Grip Culture may allow adult users to act in different roles, including but not limited to:

  • Athlete.
  • Coach.
  • Academy owner.
  • Academy manager.
  • Organizer.
  • Referee.
  • Administrator.
  • Parent.
  • Legal guardian.
  • Managed athlete profile manager.

Your access to features may depend on your role, account status, profile status, verification status, subscription status, or platform permissions.

Grip Culture may approve, reject, restrict, suspend, or remove role permissions at any time if necessary to protect users, prevent abuse, enforce policies, comply with law, or maintain platform integrity.

8. User Conduct

You agree not to misuse the Service.

You may not:

  • Submit false, misleading, fraudulent, or deceptive information.
  • Create or manage profiles without authorization.
  • Impersonate another person, academy, team, business, tournament, sponsor, federation, or organization.
  • Harass, threaten, abuse, defame, exploit, or harm other users.
  • Upload illegal, offensive, hateful, sexually explicit, violent, exploitative, abusive, or unsafe content.
  • Manipulate tournament results, rankings, brackets, registrations, athlete records, or team records.
  • Use the Service for fraud, scams, unauthorized payments, or deceptive event promotion.
  • Use external payment links in a deceptive or misleading way.
  • Interfere with the security, availability, or operation of the Service.
  • Attempt to access data or systems without authorization.
  • Scrape, copy, or extract platform data except as expressly permitted.
  • Upload viruses, malware, spyware, or harmful code.
  • Violate any applicable law, regulation, third-party right, or platform policy.

Grip Culture may remove content, restrict features, suspend accounts, terminate accounts, or preserve records if it believes a user has violated these Terms.

9. User Content

Users may submit, upload, publish, or manage content through the Service, including profiles, names, photos, logos, academy information, tournament information, rankings, match results, event descriptions, external links, contact information, and other materials (“User Content”).

You are responsible for your User Content.

By submitting User Content, you represent and warrant that:

  • You own the content or have the necessary rights and permissions to use it.
  • You have obtained any required consents for content involving minors.
  • The content is accurate and not misleading.
  • The content does not violate the rights of another person or organization.
  • The content does not violate these Terms or applicable law.

You grant Grip Culture a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable license to host, store, reproduce, display, publish, distribute, modify, adapt, and use your User Content solely to operate, provide, promote, protect, and improve the Service.

Grip Culture may remove, edit, hide, restrict, or disable access to User Content at any time if it believes the content violates these Terms, violates law, creates risk, or harms platform integrity.

10. Public Profiles, Rankings, and Results

Certain information on Grip Culture may be visible to other users or publicly visible, including academy profiles, athlete profiles, coach profiles, tournament pages, rankings, medals, results, team statistics, and related information.

You understand that:

  • Public or semi-public sports information may be displayed on the platform.
  • Managed Minor Athlete Profiles may appear in competition-related contexts if submitted by an authorized adult.
  • Rankings, team scores, records, and statistics may depend on data submitted by users, organizers, academies, referees, or administrators.
  • Grip Culture does not guarantee that all public information is complete, accurate, current, or error-free.
  • Grip Culture may correct, restrict, remove, or modify data when necessary to protect users, correct errors, enforce policies, or maintain platform integrity.

Adult users are responsible for deciding whether they are authorized to publish or manage information connected to minors.

11. Academies

Grip Culture allows adult users to create, manage, search, join, and display academy profiles.

Academy owners and responsible persons are solely responsible for academy information, academy management, member approvals, member removals, coach roles, athlete affiliations, managed athlete relationships, logos, addresses, contact information, and academy representations.

Grip Culture does not own, operate, supervise, insure, certify, endorse, or guarantee academies listed on the platform.

Academy registration, verification, suspension, transfer, and removal are governed by the Academy Registration and Verification Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

12. Organizers and Tournaments

Grip Culture may allow adult users to create, publish, manage, and display tournament information.

Unless Grip Culture expressly states otherwise in writing, the organizer is solely responsible for the tournament.

Organizer responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Tournament name, date, time, location, venue, divisions, rules, schedule, pricing, registration terms, refund terms, cancellation terms, and event details.
  • Accuracy of all public and private tournament information.
  • Communications with athletes, coaches, academies, parents, guardians, profile managers, spectators, vendors, venues, sponsors, staff, and other third parties.
  • Tournament operations, staffing, check-in, weigh-ins, brackets, referees, results, medals, awards, disputes, safety, and logistics.
  • Compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.
  • Permits, licenses, insurance, venue approvals, waivers, medical support, security, and any other legal or operational requirements.
  • Consent, authorization, and participation requirements for minor athletes.

Grip Culture does not guarantee that a tournament will occur, that a venue has been secured, that the organizer is financially reliable, that refunds will be issued, or that tournament information is complete, accurate, current, or truthful.

Organizer-created tournaments are also governed by the Organizer External Payments and Tournament Responsibility Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

13. External Organizer Payments

Grip Culture does not collect tournament registration payments from athletes for organizer-created tournaments unless Grip Culture expressly states otherwise in writing.

If an organizer uses an external payment link, website, QR code, invoice, direct transfer, cash payment, third-party checkout, or any other payment method outside Grip Culture, that payment is solely between the organizer and the paying participant.

Grip Culture is not the merchant of record, payment processor, escrow agent, money transmitter, financial institution, seller of tickets, registration payment recipient, or guarantor for external organizer payments.

Grip Culture is not responsible for:

  • Registration fees collected externally by organizers.
  • Refunds for external payments.
  • Chargebacks.
  • Payment disputes.
  • Duplicate charges.
  • Unauthorized payments.
  • Cancellations.
  • Postponements.
  • Fraud claims.
  • Misrepresentation claims.
  • Consumer complaints related to external organizer payments.
  • Payment provider failures.
  • Tax reporting for organizer-collected payments.

Participants and adults managing minor participants should review the organizer’s payment terms, refund policy, cancellation policy, payment provider, contact information, and event details before paying through any external link.

Grip Culture may display warnings before users open external payment links. By continuing to an external payment link, you understand that the payment is not processed by Grip Culture.

14. Paid Grip Culture Services

Grip Culture may charge organizers, academies, users, or other customers for access to paid platform features, subscriptions, software tools, organizer tools, academy tools, premium features, or other paid services.

Payments made directly to Grip Culture are separate from athlete registration payments made externally to organizers.

Paying Grip Culture for platform access does not make Grip Culture the organizer of a tournament, the operator of an event, the manager of an academy, or the processor of external athlete registration payments.

Paid services may be subject to additional billing terms, subscription terms, cancellation terms, refund terms, or order forms.

Unless otherwise stated in writing, fees paid to Grip Culture for software access, subscriptions, or platform tools are non-refundable except where required by applicable law.

If recurring billing applies, Grip Culture will provide applicable pricing, renewal, and cancellation information at the time of purchase or subscription.

15. External Links and Third-Party Services

The Service may contain links to third-party websites, payment processors, forms, social media pages, organizer websites, academy websites, maps, event pages, or other external services.

Grip Culture does not control third-party services and is not responsible for:

  • Their content.
  • Their privacy practices.
  • Their security.
  • Their payment terms.
  • Their refund policies.
  • Their performance.
  • Their fees.
  • Their availability.
  • Their accuracy.
  • Their conduct.

You access third-party links and services at your own risk.

16. Sports, Physical Activity, and Assumption of Risk

Martial arts, grappling, jiu-jitsu, combat sports, training, sparring, competition, tournaments, physical activities, and related events involve inherent risks.

These risks may include injury, illness, disability, emotional distress, property damage, or death.

Unless Grip Culture expressly states otherwise in writing, Grip Culture does not operate third-party tournaments, supervise matches, provide medical services, inspect venues, enforce event safety rules, provide insurance, manage referees, manage coaches, or control participant conduct.

You are responsible for evaluating the risks of participating in any academy, tournament, training session, event, or physical activity.

If you manage a minor athlete profile or register a minor athlete for an event through information shown on Grip Culture, you are responsible for determining whether the minor is medically, physically, legally, and otherwise permitted to participate.

Grip Culture is not responsible for injuries, accidents, unsafe conditions, venue problems, coaching decisions, refereeing decisions, medical issues, participant conduct, or event operations caused by third-party organizers, academies, coaches, athletes, spectators, vendors, venues, or other users.

17. Parent, Guardian, Coach, and Adult Manager Responsibility

Adults who manage athlete profiles, register athletes, affiliate athletes with academies, or interact with tournaments on behalf of minors or managed athletes are responsible for their own decisions and actions.

You agree that you are responsible for:

  • The accuracy of the athlete’s information.
  • Confirming permission to manage the profile.
  • Confirming the athlete’s eligibility.
  • Reviewing event rules.
  • Reviewing safety risks.
  • Reviewing payment links.
  • Reviewing refund and cancellation policies.
  • Communicating with organizers, academies, coaches, and participants as needed.
  • Obtaining any required parent, guardian, medical, school, academy, or legal approvals.

Grip Culture is not responsible for verifying every registration decision, parental decision, coach decision, academy decision, or managed athlete decision.

18. Intellectual Property

Grip Culture and its licensors own the Service, including software, code, design, branding, logos, graphics, text, workflows, features, databases, and platform materials, except for User Content and third-party content.

You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, modify, reverse engineer, sell, lease, sublicense, or exploit any part of the Service unless expressly permitted by Grip Culture in writing.

You may not use Grip Culture’s name, logos, branding, or trademarks without permission.

19. Intellectual Property Complaints

If you believe content on Grip Culture infringes your copyright, trademark, name, likeness, logo, brand, or other rights, you may contact Grip Culture with a detailed notice.

Grip Culture may remove or restrict content that appears to infringe third-party rights.

Users who repeatedly infringe third-party rights may have their accounts suspended or terminated.

Grip Culture may require additional information before taking action on intellectual property complaints.

20. Privacy

Your use of the Service is also governed by the Grip Culture Privacy Policy.

The Privacy Policy explains how Grip Culture collects, uses, shares, stores, and protects information.

By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information as described in the Privacy Policy.

Because Grip Culture uses adult-only user accounts but may allow adult users to manage minor athlete profiles, adult users are responsible for providing accurate consent and authorization for any minor athlete information they submit.

21. Platform Availability and Changes

Grip Culture may modify, update, suspend, discontinue, or remove any part of the Service at any time.

Grip Culture does not guarantee that the Service will always be available, uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or compatible with every device, browser, operating system, or third-party service.

Grip Culture may add, remove, or change features, pricing, roles, permissions, data displays, rankings, policies, or workflows.

22. Suspension and Termination

Grip Culture may suspend, restrict, or terminate your account, role, profile, academy, tournament, organizer access, or platform access if Grip Culture believes that:

  • You violated these Terms.
  • You violated another Grip Culture policy.
  • You submitted false or misleading information.
  • You engaged in fraud or suspected fraud.
  • You created legal, financial, safety, reputational, or platform integrity risk.
  • You misused the Service.
  • You infringed third-party rights.
  • You failed to pay fees owed to Grip Culture.
  • You created or managed a minor athlete profile without proper authorization.
  • Your conduct may harm users, minors, athletes, academies, organizers, or the platform.

Grip Culture may act with or without prior notice when immediate action is necessary.

23. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available.”

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Grip Culture disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, availability, security, reliability, and error-free operation.

Grip Culture does not warrant or guarantee:

  • That academy information is accurate.
  • That tournament information is accurate.
  • That organizers are trustworthy.
  • That external payment links are safe.
  • That organizers will issue refunds.
  • That tournaments will occur.
  • That venues are secured.
  • That participants are eligible.
  • That adult users managing minor athletes are properly authorized in every case.
  • That rankings or results are error-free.
  • That the Service will be uninterrupted or secure.
  • That third-party services will perform properly.

24. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Grip Culture and its owners, officers, directors, employees, contractors, affiliates, partners, and service providers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, punitive, or enhanced damages, including lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, loss of goodwill, reputational harm, business interruption, personal injury, property damage, or emotional distress.

Grip Culture is not liable for damages arising from or related to:

  • Organizer-created tournaments.
  • External organizer payments.
  • Refund disputes.
  • Chargebacks.
  • Fraud by organizers or users.
  • Tournament cancellation or postponement.
  • Academy conduct.
  • Coach conduct.
  • Athlete conduct.
  • Minor athlete profile management by adult users.
  • Unauthorized profile management by users.
  • Venue issues.
  • Physical injuries.
  • Event operations.
  • Third-party links.
  • Third-party payment providers.
  • User Content.
  • Public rankings, records, or results.
  • Unauthorized account access caused by user conduct.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Grip Culture’s total liability for any claim arising out of or relating to the Service will not exceed the amount you paid directly to Grip Culture for the Service in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim, or one hundred dollars ($100), whichever is greater.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so some limitations may not apply to you.

25. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Grip Culture and its owners, officers, directors, employees, contractors, affiliates, partners, and service providers from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, expenses, penalties, investigations, disputes, refunds, chargebacks, attorney fees, or legal actions arising from or related to:

  • Your use of the Service.
  • Your User Content.
  • Your academy.
  • Your tournament.
  • Your external payment links or payment instructions.
  • Money you collect outside Grip Culture.
  • Your violation of these Terms.
  • Your violation of any Grip Culture policy.
  • Your violation of any law or regulation.
  • Your violation of third-party rights.
  • Your fraud, misconduct, negligence, or misrepresentation.
  • Your event operations.
  • Your academy operations.
  • Your management of athlete profiles.
  • Your management of minor athlete profiles.
  • Your lack of authority to submit or manage information.
  • Your interactions with other users.

26. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, United States, without regard to conflict of law principles.

27. Dispute Resolution

Before filing a legal claim, you agree to first contact Grip Culture and attempt to resolve the dispute informally.

If the dispute cannot be resolved informally, any claim or legal proceeding arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Florida, unless applicable law requires otherwise.

Grip Culture may seek injunctive or equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect intellectual property, confidential information, users, minors, platform security, or platform integrity.

Optional Attorney Review Recommended: Arbitration, class action waiver, jury trial waiver, and venue provisions should be reviewed by a qualified attorney before inclusion.

28. Changes to These Terms

Grip Culture may update these Terms from time to time.

When changes are material, Grip Culture may provide notice through the Service, email, account notification, or other reasonable means.

Your continued use of the Service after updated Terms become effective means you accept the updated Terms.

If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service.

29. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, contact Grip Culture at:

gripcultureapp@gmail.com

[Insert business address, if applicable]

30. Acceptance

By creating an account, using the Service, creating or managing a profile, managing an academy, creating a tournament, publishing tournament information, using organizer tools, managing a minor athlete profile, or continuing to access Grip Culture, you confirm that:

  • You are at least 18 years old.
  • You have read, understood, and agree to these Terms of Service.
  • You are responsible for the information and actions performed through your account.
  • If you manage a minor athlete profile, you are authorized to do so.