A training journal is a notebook, paper or digital, where you record each session: what was taught, what happened in the rounds, and what to work on next. It is the cheapest tool for getting better faster in judo or BJJ.
- In BJJ and judo: coaches recommend it from white belt, because the number of techniques shown in a year is far more than anyone remembers.
- What goes in: date, technique of the day, two or three details, round notes, one goal for next session.
- How long it takes: five minutes after class. Read How to Keep a BJJ Training Journal for a full template.
Why a journal works
Grappling has a memory problem. A class shows you a technique with six details, you drill it for twenty minutes, and a week later you remember two of the details. Writing the six down the same evening is the difference between a technique you saw and a technique you own.
The second thing a journal does is show patterns. One round where you got swept from the same position is bad luck; six weeks of notes showing the same sweep from the same position is a problem with a name, and problems with names get fixed. This is also where a tokui waza, your favourite technique, gets found: it is the throw that keeps showing up in the notes.
How to keep a training journal
- Write the same day, within an hour of class if you can. Details fade overnight.
- Start with the technique of the day: its name, the position it starts from, and the two or three details the coach repeated.
- Add one line per round: who you rolled with, what position you spent most time in, what finished it.
- Note one thing that worked and one thing that failed. Two sentences, no essay.
- End with a single goal for the next session. One grip to take, one escape to try.
- Read the last five entries before every class. That is where the journal earns its keep.
The most common mistake is writing too much for a week and then stopping. A journal that gets three lines every session beats one that gets a page once a month.
A journal built for grappling has the prompts already laid out so the five minutes stay five minutes. Our BJJ training journal collection has them for both arts.
Related terms
Favourite technique (tokui waza), Positional sparring, Rolling / sparring (randori), Drilling (uchi-komi), Gokyo (the 40 Kodokan throws).