I’ve been taking notes on jiu jitsu now for nearly a year, and in that time I have learned several valuable points that has helped improve my note taking in class. Some of this may be VERY OBVIOUS, but for me, it was a huge learning process. I wanted to share my 7 tips about taking notes in a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class in hopes that you can find a tip that can help you improve your own note taking.
First, why I take notes:
- My memory is crap. The physical act of writing down something means I have that much more of a chance to remember it. It’s bad enough that if I’ve learned 3 moves during class and we’re asked to do all 3, I usually can’t remember all 3.
- It helps me be able to talk about jiu jitsu. This is where I’ve found the biggest gains. I remember trying to describe something we were working on in class. I felt like an idiot because I couldn’t talk about physical actions in a meaningful way. Now I can.
- It helps me take my jiu jitsu seriously. For ME, if I just show up at class, do the moves and go home, it feels no different than if I were going to an aerobics class or going out for a run. When I am diligently trying to LEARN something, I mentally need a notebook for me to indicate to myself that I’m taking it seriously. Remember my personal frustrations – feeling like I’m often the worst student in the class? For me, this is also a way to demonstrate to myself, my instructor, and my fellow students that jiu jitsu IS important to me, even if it doesn’t always show on the mats.
- It’s record keeping. I’m a huge fan of record keeping. If someone asks – what did we learn in class two days ago, I can look. If my coach says “Hey – I haven’t seen you here much” I can show him that I was taking some classes at one of our affiliates.
- It’s a tool for the future. When I went to Ukraine for vacation, I didn’t have any notes. Everything was in my head, and when my drilling partner asked “Hey, what have you been learning” everything had fallen out of my head. Had I had my notebook, I could have reviewed, strengthened, or even showed him what I’d been learning.
What initiated my note taking journey was my West Coast Tour. I hit as many jiu jitsu academies as humanly possible in a very short period of time. I took a BJJ class the night before my trip, then when the plane landed in San Diego from Seoul, I dropped my things at my aunts, and went over to University of Jiu Jitsu. The following day I took another class, Sunday, another, etc
I love my BJJ notebook!
Previously, I had resisted taking notes – I had such a difficult time wrapping my head around what was being done physically in jiu jitsu class, that translating jiu jitsu into plain English seemed impossible for me.
However, for my trip I decided to be diligent and take as many notes as possible. My results were inconsistent at best.
By the time I met up with DirtyRancher, a brown belt friend of mine from Jiu Jitsu Forums, I was on my 8th class in under a week and jet lagged on top of it. Perhaps not a big deal to you, but for a fat, out of shape woman, it is. ^_^
DR offered to drill some of the things I’d learned. I looked at my notes and found this :
Vague at best.
Thankfully, DR was a brown belt, and so he was able to take this crazed white belt with jibberish scribbled down and translate it back into jiu jitsu.
1. Notes are a different medium.
The problem WAS that my jiu jitsu notes were not stand alone notes. Instead, this was the technique I used in class to verbally walk myself through a technique – my mnemonic device, which is PERFECT for putting it in my short term memory arm, knee, foot, post, leg over, armbar. It’s terrible for trying to reconstruct later. What position is this from? Where do you put your arm?
Compare with my notes now:
Still somewhat coded, but I know what the coding means
There are more physical descriptions, I included where to grab, what the partner is doing, if I’m in defensive or offensive position, etc. Essentially, I can take my notes nowadays and know exactly what I’m talking about.
2. Develop your own language.
Create your own codes, verbal shortcuts, your own phrases – whatever will help you know exactly what you are talking about. I know EXACTLY what I mean when I say: Wax off his hand until it’s trapped in your armpit. Here are some of mine:
- P = partner
- Eating grapes = scarf
- Wax on = circle arms/legs in
- Wax off = circle arms/legs out
- Elbow fat = that meaty part behind the elbow
- Saulo prayer = both hands on your chest
- Saulo defense = holding the biceps
- 4 in 1 out = gripping with the fingertips
- Fonzie = when you are defending and holding your hand to your head/hair. Ayyyyy!
- Drive left = when you are gripping two points of your partner and you turn them like a steering wheel
3. Use pictures/sketches.
It helps if I can have my partner hold still or if I can pause a video.
My partner graciously modeled this using my legs.
Sometimes they’re super fast sketches. If I’m jotting down notes during class I use txtspk.
Sometimes they’re much more detailed:
My goal NOW when making these note books is to learn and be able to recreate things. Perhaps your goal is different.
4. Write down mistakes.
This was the biggest change – as you can see in the last picture I wrote: Mistake – grabbing wrong side gi. One thing I realized a long time back was that my instincts are all wrong. I need to train these instincts. Unfortunately I’m not aware of them. Sometimes if you can realize what you’re doing wrong it can help you do it right. So I write down the things that my instructor corrected with me, the points I felt confused about, because I guarantee that were I trying to recreate this, I’d likely still make those same mistakes.
If I am observing a class, I’ll write down the mistakes I see other people make, or how the instructor corrects them. Or, if the class is stopped and the instructor makes an entire-class correction, it means that he’s observed many people making this mistake. I also write that down.
5. Take simple notes during class, detailed ones after.
While I was benched for 6 months, doing observation only, I would video the class, then while people drilled, I would watch and pause the video, taking careful notes.
If I try to write down too many details during class, it prevents me from fully paying attention. What I will do is jot down the big ideas during class, then after class sit down and write out everything. The cool thing about doing this – I have a bad memory. So when I try to recall things, it forces me to remember it better than when I’m actually doing it.
Hand – cannot – grab – pen – tired – muscles.
6. Be systematic.
I use a 4 color pen. I find that having different colors is extremely helpful in separating points, drawing attention to something, or creating a more visually organized note. I always try to put the mistakes or the important point! in another color.
I also now have a way to deal with how moves are shown. It took me a while on this one, but I just recently got my system down. In classes, videos and books, the instructor will often show a basic move, then variations on that, but the beginning part is always the same. Here’s now my notes now reflect that:
The example above is from Saulo’s book Jiu Jitsu University. I take notes all the way through the first technique. Then I draw a line between what is the base for all the variations, and put a number next to each ending. So in the above picture you can see that side control drills are the same until after the hip escape, so I draw a line after hip escape, then put a 1 next to what comes after – the all 4s, then I put a space and a 2 next to the second variation.
7. Bonus! For the potential teachers!
I don’t do this in my jiu jitsu classes because I’m not planning to teach jiu jitsu. However, if I were looking to do that, I would take notes differently by only 1 point. My notes would not simply contain CONTENT, but I would also take notes on the FORMAT.
My notes are content notes. They’re about the moves and jiu jitsu, period. However, format notes contain teacher notes. Teacher notes can be about any of the following:
- How the teacher demonstrated the move: was it with everyone gathered around, on one side, etc.
- How the teacher monitored: did he check in with everyone? just those who needed help? did he ignore the newbies?
- How the teacher paired people together: were there two new white belts together and also two upper blues together – was this okay or did the coach split them up?
- How did the teacher correct the students?
- What was my reaction as a student OR what were the students’ reactions?
- What activities did the students love?
- Did everyone get enough time to drill?
- How many minutes spent on warmups, drills, instructions, etc.
I do this when I observe English teachers or when I go to conferences. These are notes I took during a KOTESOL conference:
I fold my paper over by 1/3, draw a line, then in the largest section I take content notes, and in the smaller section I take format notes. The smaller section can sometimes also be random notes to myself, ideas for lessons, brain dump, etc. Sometimes they’re completely unrelated to content, sometimes they contain my partner’s names, sometimes they are ideas for my own lessons, or observations on the class, the teacher-student interaction, etc.
Do you take notes in your jiu jitsu class? Why or why not? Do you have any other helpful hints to share? Things you’ve learned along the way? Were any of these ideas helpful?
Your method of note taking is very similiar to the Cornell Method, which is my way of taking notes. But I usually do it after class.
I hadn’t heard of the Cornell Method – very cool. I had a teacher in my undergrad who taught me that trick, and I adapted it for me as a teacher.
That is fantastic, thank you so much for the idea of the teacher notes (I intend to teach in 20 years when I get my black), didn’t think to record that type of info.
I record notes but I do it in an app called Evernote – I use it for everything because it synchronises to my phone laptop work desktop etc so that’s really cool and I also add YouTube links to the technique later when I get time from work (naughty boy I know), and keeps it all synchronised. The downside, is that typed noted don’t spark memory recall for me very well but it’s a trade off. Somethingi also find really really useful is to name a technique based on who taught it to me, such as Liam’s Bear Hug Pass , that’s super effective for me as I can visualise that person doing the pass to me (or its something they always do to people etc).
Also I find it useful to record where you learnt it, seminar, home gym, cobrinhas etc…
Anyways some great ideas you have there – thank you very much!
You’re welcome! I find when I’m looking through my notes from KOTESOL that I will generally refer to the smaller column rather than the contents many times – and where I feel I will want to refer to the content – I may put a note on the side – like a star. Unfortunately I don’t think Evernote can do things like that.
Agreed – I think that my typed notes don’t help it sink into my memory better, although if I WERE to take it a step further and AFTER writing the notes THEN I wrote it up in a digital format that that would be even more helpful. Heh.
Yes – I also write down the instructor, the date, etc.
Glad you found this helpful! I personally love writing down MY reactions as a Student – that way I can analyze what I responded to positively, as well as negatively – and become a better teacher that way. For example, when the teacher over-nodded, I found that I had a negative reaction because it didn’t feel like they were listening – which is something I realized I had been doing. However, when they stopped moving and gave me solid eye contact it felt like they were actually listening to me. I try to use those types of things to inform my reactions as a teacher.
I found that note taking after twelve years is very cumbersome and there is a lot of information that I won’t go back to unless I am researching something specific. (It helps that I have a good memory) I did find it useful to learn the techniques in class, focus on hitting them in sparring, drilling a bit before heading home. If I could then sit down at home and write down what was learned, I had the technique down pat.
For teaching, I write my lessons out like I would for teaching an English or History lesson. I divide tasks into estimated time frames and emphasize the concept that we are working on, be it daily, weekly, or monthly. I keep track of what was accomplished, what worked well or didn’t, who attended class, overall results, and notes for upcoming classes. I found that this helped my students who had holes in their memory that they wanted to fill.
Nice! I fixed the errors.
Seems like you have some good teaching methods – I really enjoy having organized teachers. I do wish that instructors would have a yearly meeting with students who paid for an entire year – for example, it could cover their goals, or what they’ve accomplished, or even an overall verbal assessment. ^_^
I like your “language”. Cindy teaches kids, so she has all sorts of cute names for everything : “T-Rex arms”, “Talk on your phone”, “Brush his teeth”. We adults are often chuckling during the demo because the names are funny, yet we know exactly what she’s talking about. They have to be easy for the kids to remember, so they are easy for us to remember too.
Hehe thanks! I had to come up with a lot of mine because I didn’t know the real language – I’m learning jiu jitsu in Korea, so I didn’t even know the term “keylock” until I got to your school! ^_^
Wait, we use all those names in our adult class, lol! There’s also the “Home Alone” defense (which is less useful as a term lately b/c the recent undergrads haven’t seen the movie).
As you know, I take a LOT of notes and always have, since day 1. Or indeed long before day 1, as I started regularly posting blog type summaries of class in 2004, when I dabbling with MMA. It has been essential to my progress in BJJ.
In the last year or so, I’ve stopped writing physical notes on a pad to be typed up later. Instead, I now just use the dictaphone function on my phone as I walk back for training.
Hehe thanks! I had to come up with a lot of mine because I didn’t know the real language – I’m learning jiu jitsu in Korea, so I didn’t even know the term “keylock” until I got to your school! ^_^
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Arghhh- Cindy’s better about this, but the teachers at Gracie Barra *never* say the names of anything. Rodrigo invariably prefaces his demo by saying “Look guys, we’re just gonna do thees here…” When someone references a technique by name, I just give them a blank look and say, “You’re going to have to show me,” Then when I see it, I almost always recognize it (“Oh, THAT!”). But I do think I might retain things better if I actually knew the names.
You know, after 5 years of training BJJ and 7 years of Judo, I have found that taking notes can be a bit too cumbersome, as was mentioned above. I was an avid note taker at first, but what I found was that I was taking these detailed notes, (pages upon pages) in hopes that I would come back to them and become a BJJ master in record time. In reality, “later” would sometimes morph to “hardly ever” but 9 times out of 10 would evolve to NEVER.
I am more of a kinesthetic learner anyway (drill to win, baby) and to me, feeling out the technique and trying it the wrong way a billion times before I find the right way for my body type, goes a LOT farther than reading through it. I respect and even envy that most people take notes and have these volumes of techniques to which they can refer, I just can’t do it. Sorry.
Ultimately I found my “theory” (or as much theory that a purple belt can have about BJJ) of BJJ relies more on concepts and goals in certain situations, than it does on a really-specific catalog of techniques for every situation and every move or tweak or response to the move. That is not to say that I don’t practice specific techniques…I do, I just don’t focus on having 14 difference techniques for every possible scenario and variance that *might* occur while rolling. I can’t process or internalize all of that.
I poke a little fun with that last statement and don’t mean any harm, but I have found that if I don’t write the techniques down, then I don’t fall into the typical (broad brush here) ‘American’ way of thinking of, “I don’t need to drill that now because I have notes and will go over it later”. As I said above…this never worked out the way that I wanted it to. So really, by not recording every class on paper, I have forced myself into a situation where I am thinking through the moves and drilling them a bit more every class because I know that I don’t have them in the safety net of my notebook, to which I can refer later.
So, you can kick my out of the BJJ Family now if you must, but the following are a list of things that I don’t do: take notes, eat acai, say “fren” or “parabens” and I definitely do not, under any circumstances say “OSS”. Ever.
Sorry for the novel. Cool blog, by the way.
[…] of articles. It’s helpful to identify which are which. For example, the article I wrote about BJJ note taking – not something I am interested in writing about extensively. Some, such as my article about […]
Sorry for coming to this late, but I found your article on the menstruation while grappling, found it interesting, and am reading through back entries that look interesting as well. This one really struck me.
I am a big-time note taker. Like you said, my instincts are totally wrong. I came to BJJ in my mid-thirties after a life of sports like baseball, spring-board diving, football, soccer, and tennis. Diving gave me some decent flexibility, but other than that, fairly worthless.
Over the past year-plus, I’ve gotten to a multi-part note-taking system. I start off using a voice-note application on my phone called Catch Notes (catch.com if you’re interested) and I do that immediately after class, usually while sitting in my car in the parking lot. I go through what we did rapid-fire, including everything I can think of, what I felt worked and what didn’t, etc. Just basically everything that I think I might want later, but would probably forget in the time between starting to write and trying not to drench the page with sweat (I train in the gi in Florida, so there’s no dry session). Later on — usually the next day sometime — I’ll listen to the voice notes and try to work out the techniques in my head.
I tend not to use the notes for future reference, but rather to help clarify my thoughts on what I learned and provide yet another way for my mind to absorb the knowledge. As a teacher, I’m sure you know what I mean — the more different ways you can get information into your head, the more you’ll retain it. This way, I’ll see it, feel it, speak it, listen to it, and then try to write it out. (I tried drawing it once; it was a disaster of epic proportions.)
Anyway, just my two cents to this discussion. Love your blog. Hope all is going great for you, and I’m looking forward to more interesting thoughts and discussions in the future!
Thanks so much! On my blog I feel there’s no reason to apologize for coming in late! ^_^ I read and respond to all comments, so please be assured that SOMEONE will read it — it won’t get lost in the shuffle!
I totally agree – there are different levels of getting it into your brain. Being able to verbalize what you’ve been doing is different than simply being able to pull it off with muscle memory.
[…] of articles. It’s helpful to identify which are which. For example, the article I wrote about BJJ note taking – not something I am interested in writing about extensively. Some, such as my article about […]
eeeey! I’m not the only one taking notes!! whoop^^
when I take notes I first write down simple content in bullet points, no details about technique or anything. and of course I short down the names for stuff like: we did age uke moving backwards in zenkutsu dachi becomes zkd+au with an arrow pointing backwards under it.
then, I write more about the techniques and stuff in footnotes underneath. I also write down what instructor we had because it can help me remember what we learned. I don’t need to write down explanations for everything, sometimes just writing “svein erik corrected me on my au” will be more than enough to remember what he corrected. I have a colour coding system that I do later with colour pencils. I basically do that part when I have the time and I’m really bored :p
as well as that I write mails about training with a friend of mine who does the same martial art and style, he has been doing karate for much longer than me, so sometimes he gives me some good advice. when I write to him I write more about how I experienced the whole thing. I’ll write about stuff that frustrates me, new goals I set for myself, things I feel like I’m getting better at. as well as things about other people in my club. I’ll describe the teaching style of my instructors and what I like and/or dislike about it. I’ll write about my experience with different sparring partners and so on. it really helps me a lot. the notebook is nice for keeping track of what we’ve been doing and seeing how much I’ve actually been training. the mails are great for processing stuff. especially the more emotional side of it all. it’s nice to be able to just be frustrated over a technique to someone who can understand without having to worry about him thinking I’m whining or something.
Maja – what country are you from?
Your notes, if you continue taking them, will become better. It’s very cool that you’re working on a way to help yourself remember!
Thanks for a very interesting read! Your language system is really interesting!
I used to take notes in a notebook but the biggest issue I had was trying to work out a way to organise it all. I review things a lot it didn’t make sense to be taking notes in chronological order and then have to flick back and forth through pages to try and put techniques together.
I also save lots of technique videos on youtube/fb/instagram in a spreadsheet so everything felt like a bit of a mess.
Luckily enough, I am a developer and decided to solve my own problem and built https://www.grappledash.com
That’s cool that you were able to use your real life skills to help with jiu jitsu.
I approved your comment, though it did raise some yellow flags because it is your first and is obviously advertising your product. I hope, however, that you’ll join in on some of the other conversation threads. Welcome to the site!