We often hear in BJJ / Grappling and all combat sports that it's not how much you know (number of sweeps, transitions and submissions) but how well you know it (depth of jiu jitsu details, correct timing in response to opponent indicators, essential components and their sequence). Any good jiu jitsu instructor will spend the majority of your time on the mat ensuring you are consistently doing the right things, avoiding the wrong grappling habits and drilling against progressive resistance. With me so far?
But the jiu jitsu session has to end at some point. Whether it's a 60, 90 minute session or longer it has to end and you are left with, at best, a fragmented memory of these do-this-but-not-that grappling details. Obviously it is your responsibility to ensure that you retain this wealth of jiu jitsu information and drill it (say, during open mat time) against various training partners until it becomes a habitual act. An automated response. The problem we all face (to varying degrees) is:
How do I make sure I'm covering the most essential details
when drilling with my buddies but without the watchful eyes of my BJJ instructor?
To put in context, if you learn the tripod sweep from open
guard on Monday and make a committment to drill this with you brilliant buddy
Benny or great mate Kate at the next Open-Mat session on, say, Friday or
Saturday, how do you make sure you retain as much as possible of the detailed
instruction you recieved? After all, we all know that practice does NOT make
perfect. Only PERFECT practice makes PERFECT.
Over the 7 or so years I've been training grappling (and all
thru-out my Karate, Taekwondo and Kung fu years before that) I always kept
notes. Sometimes I supplemented these notes with diagrams. Detailed diagrams,
with arrows and frikking speech bubbles and shit! In fact, my diagrams of Wing
Chun stances, moves and techniques were a gazillion times better than my actual
Wing Chun!
Some other times, I omitted all technical notes and kept a
mental / psych journal instead. I learned how to do that from an awesome sports
performance book called The Mental Athlete*. In a nutshell, you analysed your
sessions and noted:
(1) What went well,
(2) What went less than well,
(3) Why you think (2) didn't go so well and
(4) What will you do to avoid it happening again.
That journal actually saw me thru blue belt all the way to
purple. It was great because you listed all the positive things about the
session and even the negative things got turned into actions. I highly
recommend the book and this type of journal.
Around that time, I started this blog (or rather, the first
version of this blog!). I found the blogosphere to be a great medium to
communicate and share but I also find sharing my personal training in the blog
Uber-boring. There are people who are really good at documenting their training
/ teaching such as Slideyfoot and they actually make reading it very
beneficial. I can't do that. I bore myself so I wouldn't expect you to read it.
I do, however still keep notes of my jiu jitsu / grappling
learning. I separate these into:
1. Notes on techniques I learn from instructors (Martyn,
David, Stephen, sparring partners and from attending seminars...etc.)
2. Notes on techniques I learn from media (Books, DVDs,
apps, YouTube, Gracie University
3. Notes on techniques I teach (sessions, privates, videos I
record for the blog...etc.)
I use a number of tools for my note-taking. These are:
1. A video recording device (FlipPhone, iPod touch,
BlackBerry)
2. A camera for pictures
3. A phone App where I can take notes
4. Training Journal (stays at home)
I use (3) to note the details ASAP after I learn them so I
can note the maximum depth so I can transfer all that to (4) when I get home.
The only problem has been that sometimes, I can't or simply don't want to goof
around on my phone (or any electronic media) at or immediately after a BJJ
session. I was, therefore, VERY happy to learn about this awesome website
called PocketMod.
PocketMod is a completely free web-based resource. Using a
very simple and efficient template, you learn to create and publish an 8 page
booklet, in less than a minute! It's very cool**.
PocketMod allows you to choose from a variety of note-taking
formats (up to 8 pages) and then drag and drop them onto a big template. Once
you print this on a standard A4 paper, you follow theire simple instructions to
fold that A4 into an A7-sized 8-page booklet that you can easily slip into your
training bag. This is neither an expensive phone nor a cumbersome training
journal. You can take it with you to the mat (or at least mat-side) and if one
of you friends steps on it by mistake, it's cool!
Here is an example of one I created today:
And here are the notes I put on page 2:
Super quick. Go now to PocketMod and create your first
training notebook. Play around with it until you nail it.
Just remember where you heard about it first ;o)
*The Mental Athlete is available from Amazon.com
and Amazon.co.uk
.**If you're a geek like me :)
--------------------------------------------------
Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi
Proudly sponsored by Predator Fightwear: Built for the kill and Brutal TShirt: Made By Grapplers For Fighters
----Did You Like This Article?--- Click here to add The Part Time Grappler to your Favourites / Bookmarks
No comments:
Post a Comment