How to Take BJJ Technique Notes You’ll Actually Use

Short answer: Good technique notes are short, organised by position, and written in your own words soon after class. Note the position, the technique’s name, the few details your coach stressed and the common mistake to avoid. Review them before drilling, and move the techniques you actually hit in live rounds into your game plan.

Technique notes vs. roll notes

There are two kinds of training notes, and they do different jobs.

• Technique notes are reference. They record how something works: the grips, the angle, the detail your coach kept repeating. You come back to them when you drill or before you teach a partner.
• Roll notes are evidence. They record what happened when you tried things against a resisting partner. You read them back to find patterns. See why logging your rolls changes your game.

Keeping them apart makes both more useful. A technique note stays true; a roll note is about one day.

What to write down

You don’t need to record the whole class. Capture these:

• Position: where it starts. "Closed guard, opponent postured up."
• Name: whatever your gym calls it. If you’re not sure, describe it.
• Key details: the few points your coach stressed. These are what you’ll forget.
• Common mistake: what goes wrong, and how you’ll know. "If my hips are flat, the sweep won’t work."
• What it connects to: what you do if it’s defended, or what it sets up.
• Source: your coach, the class date, or a video. Useful when you want to ask a follow-up.

Write in your own words. Copying the exact steps of a demonstration is slow. Put it the way you’d explain it to a training partner.

Organising notes by position

Notes sorted by date are hard to use. Notes sorted by position are a map of your game.

A simple structure:

• Standing: grips, takedowns, guard pulls
• Guard (bottom): closed, open, half, and whatever else you play
• Passing (top)
• Side control, mount, back: top and bottom, attacks and escapes
• Submissions

When you add a new technique, file it under where it starts. When you want to work on half guard, everything you know about half guard is in one place.

Tags help if your notes app supports them: gi or no-gi, "drilled", "hit in live rounds", "needs work".

For format tags, see logging gi and no-gi.

A worked example

A hypothetical note after a class on the hip bump sweep:

POSITION: Closed guard bottom, opponent sitting back / posture up
NAME: Hip bump sweep
DETAILS:
 - Sit up on an elbow, then a hand, as they posture
 - Reach over their shoulder, not under the arm
 - Bump with the hip, not the arms
COMMON MISTAKE: staying flat; they just lean back
CONNECTS TO: if they post the arm → kimura; if they lean in → back to closed guard
SOURCE: Coach, Tuesday class
STATUS: drilled

Short enough to write in the car park, detailed enough to be useful when you come back to it.

Notes from instructionals and video

Video is useful for review and dangerous for focus. A long instructional can bury you in more techniques than you’ll ever drill.

• Note what fits your game. If it doesn’t connect to a position you already play, skip it for now.
• Write the detail, not the whole video. One or two points that change how you do a technique you already know are worth more than a page of steps.
• Mark the source and timestamp so you can rewatch the exact part.
• Check with your coach before changing something you were taught in class.

For your own matches, see reviewing your competition footage.

Using your notes to drill

Notes are worth the most just before you drill.

• Read the note before drilling, especially the key details and common mistake.
• Drill for the detail. Pick one point from the note and focus on it.
• Update the note after. Add what you noticed: "Reaching over the shoulder makes the bump much easier."
• Change the status when it moves from drilled to working in live rounds.

Your roll notes tell you what to look up. If "got swept from half guard top" keeps showing up, open your half guard notes.

Open mat is a good place to drill from your notes.

Turning notes into a game plan

A game plan is built from what you actually hit, not everything you’ve noted. Your technique notes are the library; the game plan is the short list.

When you write a plan, look for notes marked "hit in live rounds" and choose from those for each section: standup, top, bottom, subs to hunt, escapes. See the game plan template.

Common mistakes

• Writing everything. The curriculum isn’t your notes. Note what’s useful to you.
• Sorting by date. You’ll never find anything. Sort by position.
• Never rereading. Notes help when you read them before drilling.
• Collecting from video without drilling. Notes you never test are just a list.
• Not updating. A note should change as you get better at the technique.

Paper or phone

Either works. Paper is quick and memorable but hard to search or sort. A notes app is searchable and easy to reorganise by position. A training tracker can keep technique notes next to your session log. For a printable session layout, see the training journal template.

Where Mat Quest fits

Mat Quest keeps technique notes and game plans in the same app as your one-tap training log, so the note from Tuesday’s class, the roll note that says it worked, and the game plan it ends up in are all in one place. Game plans cover standup, top, bottom, subs to hunt and escapes to drill. It’s styled like a 90s arcade fighter, with XP for every session you log.

A notebook works too. The habit matters more than the tool.

FAQ

When should I write technique notes?

As soon as you can after class, while the details are fresh. A few lines in the car park are better than a full page the next day.

How detailed should a technique note be?

Position, name, the key details your coach stressed, the common mistake and what it connects to. If it takes longer to write than to explain, it’s too long.

Should I take notes during class?

Usually not; focus on drilling. Ask your coach if they’re happy for you to jot a word or two between rounds.

Are video notes worth it?

Yes, if they’re about positions you already play and you drill what you note. Keep them short and mark the timestamp.

Download Mat Quest on the App Store