In the last three years I've attended several Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ) seminars given by BJJ masters, mostly named Gracie. I wanted to see what ancient secrets these jiujitsu mystics had to teach that would give me the edge in my Bushido. The seminars, lasting from 3 hours to an entire 3-day weekend, go through an overwhelming amount of information and techniques. All of it great information...many techniques I wouldn't have figured out, or maybe even learned for years, if ever!.....Hardly of it anything I could remember once I got back on the mat the next week!
How was I to be a true student of the art if I couldn't remember the techniques from the professors for more than a few hours? I should have paid attention to what I saw a few of the other students doing...a few blue belts and ALL of the purple belts.....they all had pens and varying levels of worn out notebooks. They were the true students....I might as well have been a guy paying good money to watch a demonstration. One day, during a private coaching session, my then coach encouraged me to keep a notebook with my techniques and notes on each technique that I learned. Thus beginith the Bushido Notebook!
Since then I've kept notes from all seminars and some classes. I take notes while at home, or even if the thought occurs while at work, on whatever technique I have learned or am trying to learn. Every nuance of every position. A few inches here....an angle there. It doesn't always make sense at first.....even once I draw it out, often in stick figures. But usually after a few days or a few months suddenly a move will click, and I own the technique.
It didn't make sense for me to train for hours, or days under some of the great BJJ and judo professors of the world and not take any notes. Now I take notes as often as practical. I might be at a regular BJJ or judo class on any given Saturday for recreation, or training in Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) techniques for my military career. I also started taking notes when I read BJJ and judo books, as well as when I look at fights and training DVD's.
If you want to be a serious student of the arts, keep a notebook. If possible, take pictures, or even video. From white belt to black belt you are putting in just as much if not even more time into your Bushido as you would into college, and just as much money often times, so why not be a true student of the art and get as much as you can out of each time you get on the mat and beyond.
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