Martial arts notebooks

cheesefrysamurai · Purple Belt

Do you keep notebooks and how do you organize it?

I have a bunch of jotted notes and things, a bunch of notes I transcribed you the computer but I don’t seem to have a cohesive system for keeping notes, corrections, anecdotes histories and such.

If you keep Do you show them to other people or are they private as they are your observations?

Thanks
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sensei8 · KF Sensei

I've taken notes of myself ever since I was a SanKyu and up to the passing of my own Sensei; I stopped taking notes ever since. Before that, my mom wrote a kind of diary type during classes ever since I was a HachiKyu, at the advise of a fellow dojo mom.

The flare of mom's notes versus my notes are a stark difference.

Mom, being a RN, wrote quite a lot of various reports as a Charge RN. Mom loved felt tip pens of various colors, depending on my belt color or RED for areas I was struggling with or GREEN for any and all Testing Cycles and if a line was drawn through the final score, that was a fail, where a pass score was left alone or BLACK for additional notes that she garnered from either Sensei and/or one of my Sempai's. Neat and in a librarian type of a way, even with a content. All done on a spiral notebook, the thicker the better with no wasted paper, and on each side of any page. Mom was quite detail in her note writing, which never surprises me, even now, and mom's been gone for 25 years.

I went 3 times a week, but a RokuKyu, I went 5 days a week, unless I was either sick or grounded or baseball season. So, mom wrote and wrote.

So did I, when I took over the note writings, which mom suggested so that if I did the note writings, I'd take ownership and accountability on and off the floor, and you know what? She was right!! Have to own your own MA journey on and off the floor and the page.

Now my notes were done on thicker spiral notebooks too, on each side of each page too. However, I used a ink pen, blue or black, whichever color ink pen I could find, and done after class while that class was fresh in my mind. But mom was writing notes while class was going on. Now, I would write the final score of each and every Testing Cycle with a RED ink pen, and a FAIL was circled. Between mom and me, I have a lot of FAIL scores than PASS scores. I'd note class date, times, and who was teaching said class, as well as type of class. I'd note the same for any seminars that were only held at our Hombu, but not when I attended seminars outside of the Hombu. I wasn't as detail as mom, but to suffice it, I wasn't lackadaisical in my note taking either; I wrote down what I could remember right at the end of each class, especially whatever Sensei emphasize himself or if a Sempai pulled me aside to correct me, and so on and so forth.

Each Rank had its own notebook as well as volumes because, you can't put many, if any, Dan classes all in one notebook, not possible because we're talking about years and years between Dan Ranks.

Yes, I keep them in my office at the dojo, and over the many years, I've allowed students to peruse through them as a way to encourage my students to take notes of their MA journey; after all, if I show the I took notes for decades, then they'll possibly do the same thing. No, no student and the like ever took my notebooks out of my sight let alone out of my dojo.

Never tried to put that all on a computer because I'm just not that type of person; the notebooks, especially the ones done by my mom, hold a ton of memories that I can see as a turn page after page.

Beside taping myself, note taking was the smartest training aide I ever had. Hopefully this answers your question, even though my answer is a general one.

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**Proof is on the floor!!!

JazzKicker · Orange Belt

Great topic!

I keep both a bi-weekly training log, and a notebook.

The log is a single page spreadsheet that is like a 2 week calendar, days across the top mark the columns. The rows are activities, whether forms, kicks, calisthenics, etc. I also include my running and cycling mileages and body metrics like weight. I've been keeping these records over 15 years. I first adopted it when I learned about sports science, and periodization. It's great to track progress, see what you need to work on.

My notebook is usually a cheap schoolkids composition book. I first started keeping one around 30 years ago, when I was training for a black belt test. Our Grandmaster had put out a book based on his notes from training many years, and I thought it was a good idea, especially since I had to write an essay as part of my test.

I've used the notebook to record all kinds of things, highs and lows in training, experiences like seminars, things that have inspired me, etc. It's something of an autobiography, really, of how I've learned and evolved in martial arts.

Capella · Yellow Belt

I have a notebook which I use to log all my training activities (karate, golf, gym an otherwise), but I must admit that I am not very good at it.

It worked relatively well for lifting in the gym, where I kept track of how many sets of what I had done with what weight. I found that really useful to track my progress. And even for golf it is normally possible to come up with some hard numbers. Golf is a very analytical sport. But for karate I find it much harder to write down something useful. And half of the time I forget to take my notes directly after class and then try to fill in the blanks a few days later.

bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

I've got a hard-bound, three-ring binder that I keep a lot of stuff in. Some of it is stuff I've printed off that struck a cord with me. Some of it is my own writings like I've published here. Some of it is reflections of what I've done over the years. I've also got a bunch of class planners that I put together early on in my teaching career that I would go back and reference for class ideas.

I haven't added much to it in a long time, but I may need to start doing that again.
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sensei8 · KF Sensei

Spartacus Maximus · Black Belt

For a lot of people it is very difficult to take in and especially to recall later what their instructor covered after the training session. Taking notes is a great idea for keeping track of one’s personal progress, as well as an excellent tool for planning and organizing personal practise away from the school when it is closed or one is unable to attend. Writing and recording corrections or technical points given by the instructor gives during training really helps because one can go back on and work on them. Without notes or a great memory, knowing exactly what to practise can be overwhelming. Those who have been through post secondary level education are aware of the importance of taking notes. The same method is easily applicable to non-academics and any activity one wishes to learn more efficiently and improve consistently.

DWx · Black Belt

I keep notebooks but I'm terrible at organizing them... I also have about 5 half finished ones as I always seem to misplace them

I generally take notes on attending courses or seminars. Things that I learnt or I thought were taught and explained in a nice way. I don't really take notes from individual training sessions unless something particularly resonated with me.

In ITF TKD we're quite fortunate in that General Choi wrote a very comprehensive 15 volume encyclopedia for the style so I reference that more than my own notebooks. I also have the condensed version which is stuffed with post-its and pieces of paper I've made notes on. I also recently bought the Kindle version and have started trying to add my bookmarks to that.

More recently I have started trying to compile and file my lesson plans which I make notes on. What worked, what didm't. My thinking is that in a couple of years time I'll have a huge library of lesson plans to pull from when I need some inspiration.

sensei8 you're mom sounds so dedicated and its awesome that she was so involved with your learning!
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"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~ Confucius

sensei8 · KF Sensei

bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

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