Happened to stumble across a stack of notes from various jiu jitsu classes, seminars, and whatnot.
I'm psyched. Theoretically at least, this will all be easily-understood review material. I see a seven-sweep series, sweeps and counters, the Marcelo nogi seminar, chokes from guard series, and several other yummy treats.
Do you take notes? When, how, and is it helpful? Discuss.
9 comments:
I don't take notes like that. I jot things down afterward, but damn... suddenly, I feel like a dunce. :)
Don't! I haven't taken notes like that in a while. Half because I got lazy; half because we used to have these little flyers like a half-sheet of paper at the front desk, so I'd grab one and write on the back. Now the flyers are kaput (thanks to me probably) so I kind of got out of the habit.
But I should take notes like this. It's helpful. If you review them and don't lose them. Like I did. ;)
First, what an awesome find. That's really cool. It's like a valuable, long lost treasure...
I've tried taking notes two or three times, which included some horrible, horrible illustrations. Anyway, it was hard for me to retain info from the notes; but I'm curious to see how it works out for you.
Only been to one seminar so far, but no, I did not take notes. I was too busy drilling! One guy was taking notes. A purple belt. but he wasn't drilling. I try to blog what I learn. Suppose that's sort of like taking notes...
I take tons of notes at seminars. Carlos Machado's BJJ camps I end up writing books!
I then usually transcribe to a fat text file I've been stashing for years. I still have notes from a Leo Dalla seminar at Lloyd Irvin's school back in 1997. Lloyd was only a purple belt then!
No I don't take notes, Amish-girl!!
I use a Flip Video Camera!
My notes are all on my blog: I type them up after every single class. :)
If it's a seminar, then I normally scribble away madly on a notepad during any pauses, like at the Roy Dean ones I've been to, then type it up later.
As to if it's helpful, my standard response is:
For a start it makes it easier to remember technique. The process of putting what you've just learned into words means you have to carefully think about exactly what you did in class. Even if your memory of it isn't that great, that will still mean you know specifically which parts you're unsure about, so can then ask your instructor next time you train.
That also helps with recollecting terminology, which I find can be a big problem in BJJ. Of course, that normally means you only learn the terminology used in your particular school, but still of benefit. Ideally, I'd like to be able to learn the most common terms used globally, as well as just in my school: it then becomes easier to search places like the net for hints and tips on specific techniques.
In addition to remembering technique, writing notes also means you can track your own progress, and identify what you feel you need to work on. As with writing up techniques, that then means you can concentrate on what went 'wrong', for want of a better word, asking your instructor and training partners how you could improve. So in effect, your notes become an action plan for the next sparring session.
I used to take notes religiously. In fact if you remember the early days of this blog, I put them all online in excruciating detail (Sorry Mike!) But my instructors asked me to pull them so non-teammates wouldn't get a detailed view of our strategies, so I started just keeping paper notes. Quit that maybe in March-ish this year.
I think Slidey's comments are spot on :)
I take notes at seminars, but not in class (I used to but I got lazy). I may start doing it again in class ("that's what she said!").
At a seminar I attended with Mike Fowler, he said we should all be taking notes in class because it's not possible to remember every detail afterwards unless you write it down and it's better to refer to your notes than to practice a technique incorrectly which will make you pick up bad habits.
So I guess I should start brining a notebook to class again.
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