Hello out there!

I'd like to share with you my insights and experience with writing notes immediately after the practice. I've started doing this immediately after my first practice and it was really a tremendous help during those first months of constantly being smashed without even knowing what's going on..I mean..I'm still being smashed hard, but at least now I know what that finishing technique was..usually :D

Back take from guard

Five human senses and martial arts

We recognize 5 main senses people use - sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. As always with almost everything, there's no general truth which of the senses is the strongest or the most important. Also, this probably differs from person to person and last but not least - from the situation. For a cook, taste and smell are the most important senses and I bet some of them would be willing to go deaf in change of having stronger taste buds. So which sense is the most useful for a martial artist?

Well, the two most important senses for martial artists are probably touch and sight. I guess in striking martial arts sight would be number one, but in grappling, I actually think touch is much more important than sight. Bjj is about understanding body and using gravity and leverage to apply chokeholds and join-locks on an opponent. With understanding of how human body works and with over the years perfected sense of feeling the situations/positions, I don't really see sight as the most important sense in grappling martial arsts (especially if the fight is already on the ground). So let's agree for now that touch is THE number one sense for jiu-jitsukas. And therefore, nothing comes even close to being as effective as the actual practice on the mat. May it be rolling, drilling or whatever, getting "the feel for it" is the best way how to progress.

A blind jiu jitsu fighter wins a match

BUT!

Of course there's not always a mat and a training partner at hand for us. How many times were you at home and wondered - "Shoud my left arm during that technique be grabbing his lapel or rather his neck?". That's the moment where your notes come to rescue. Not only they remember you about all those tiny details which you've forgotten, but just the process of writing them down engraves the technique to your mind much deeper than you'd believe. It happened to me several times that I thought I have to write it down because I'd forget it for sure - and miraculously, as I was thinking about the technique for continuous 20 minutes while writing and drawing the details, suddenly, it was not only on the paper but also all in my head as well.

My favorite, arm drag takedown

Sixth sense?

Imagination...I really think this is the big one. Neurons in our brain are able to process hundreds of thousands of signals per second - all while your hand manages to write one word. During the time you are sitting over your notes after the practice and writing down the details for future use, your brain goes over that particular technique thousands and thousands times without you even realizing it. And suddenly, next time you know exactly where "that left arm should be grabbing"...

Basic armbar from the guard

Standing guard break and knee-slide pass

I'm well aware that taking notes is time consuming and especially drawing pictures could take hours. I have to say I also don't write the techniques down in such a detail anymore. Drawing pictures at a time was an experiment on top of writing notes - I've wanted to see if giving some work to my right (artistic) hemisphere will have an impact on how I feel in general. But despite I've given up on drawing 5 pics per technique, I still draw down some basic pictures for orientation what the technique is about.

While being currently injured, I've once again found a tremendous help in my notes. If I didn't have them, I'd be watching some random tutorials on Youtube and would forget 90% of its content till the next morning. But with the techniques one's body is/was already familiar with, I find it much easier to actually go over the techniques and kind of "drill" them just by imagination...

And last but not least, my proof of identity cuz I hate plagiarsm! :)

Please lemme know your opinion or what other off-the-mat techniques do you use!

Thanks for reading!Martin

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You can find my latest posts here:

1. Can travelling get cheaper than this?
2. Don't work through injury, work around injury
3. Hiking in Tirol (Austria), farm animal pictures + some (over)thinking about goals vs. relaxing

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