BJJ Training Journal Template: Copy It, Use It Tonight

Short answer: A good BJJ training journal template has four lines per session — date and gi or no-gi, duration or rounds, what worked, and what to drill next — plus a two-minute weekly check-in against a training goal, a ten-minute monthly review, and one page per tournament for the date, division, weight, game plan and results.

Most training journal templates fail the same way: they’re beautiful on day one and abandoned by week four. Too many boxes. This one is built for the gym parking lot — short enough to fill in with one thumb, useful enough that you’ll want to read it back.

Copy whichever parts you need into a notebook, a notes file or a spreadsheet.

1. The session template

One entry per class or open mat. Four lines.

DATE: ____    GI / NO-GI
LOAD: ___ min · ___ rounds
WORKED: ______________________
DRILL NEXT: __________________

How to fill it in

• Date + gi/no-gi. Non-negotiable. If you write nothing else, write this. Frequency is the number that matters most.
• Load. Rough is fine. "60 min, 6 rounds" tells you more over a month than you’d expect.
• Worked. One thing. "Knee cut landed twice."
• Drill next. One thing. "Collar grip break." This line is the one that turns a log into progress.

Example entry

DATE: Tue    NO-GI
LOAD: 75 min · 7 rounds
WORKED: Front headlock snap-down to go-behind
DRILL NEXT: Getting flattened in half guard — ask coach

What to leave out: every technique from class, every tap given and received, long essays. More boxes feel thorough; they’re actually friction. We explain why in how to track your BJJ training.

2. The weekly check-in (2 minutes)

At the end of each week:

WEEK OF: ____
SESSIONS: ___ / GOAL ___   (gi ___ · no-gi ___)
REPEAT PROBLEM THIS WEEK: ______________
QUESTION FOR COACH: ____________________

Why a weekly goal, not a daily streak: rest is part of training. A daily streak breaks the moment you take a recovery day, and a broken streak feels like failing. A weekly goal — "3 sessions" — survives rest days and bad weeks. Hit it, and the week counts.

3. The monthly review (10 minutes)

Once a month, read every session entry, then fill this in:

MONTH: ____
TOTAL SESSIONS: ___    WEEKS GOAL HIT: ___ / ___
GI / NO-GI SPLIT: ___ / ___
SHOWED UP 3+ TIMES IN "DRILL NEXT": ______________
SHOWED UP 3+ TIMES IN "WORKED":     ______________
NEXT MONTH'S FOCUS (one thing):     ______________
WEEKLY GOAL NEXT MONTH: ___

How to use it

• The thing that keeps appearing in Drill next is your weakness. Take it to your coach with specifics.
• The thing that keeps appearing in Worked is your strength. Build your next game plan on it.
• If you keep missing the weekly goal, the fix might be a smaller goal you’ll actually hit. Talk it over with your coach.

More on what these patterns reveal in why logging your rolls changes your game.

4. The tournament page

One page per event. Fill in the top when you register; the bottom on the day.

EVENT: ______________   DATE: ____   ORG: ____
DIVISION: belt ____ · age ____ · weight class ____ · GI / NO-GI
DIVISION LIMIT: ____    DAYS OUT AT REGISTRATION: ___

GAME PLAN
  Standup: ______________
  Top:     ______________
  Bottom:  ______________
  Subs to hunt:     ______
  Escapes to drill: ______

WEIGH-INS (daily):  ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___   7-DAY AVG: ___

RESULTS
  Match 1: W / L · how ________ · what got me / what I got them with ________
  Match 2: W / L · how ________ · ________
  Match 3: W / L · how ________ · ________
PLACEMENT: ____
LESSON FOR NEXT TIME: ______________

Notes

• Game plan: keep it short enough to read in the bullpen. The point is to walk out with your opening move decided.
• Weigh-ins: judge the 7-day average, not single mornings. At IBJJF events you weigh in wearing your gi before your opening match, with one attempt, and missing weight is a disqualification (ibjjf.com/weigh-ins). Other organizations’ rules differ, so check your event’s weigh-in policy. How you manage your weight is a conversation for your coach.
• Results: log them that night. "Lost on advantages after a late sweep" is worth far more in six months than "lost."

For the full prep sequence, see the IBJJF tournament checklist.

For the game plan section, see the game plan template.

After the event, follow the post-comp review.

5. Belts and stripes (one line each)

At the back of the journal:

STRIPE / BELT: ____   DATE: ____   SESSIONS SINCE LAST: ___

It’s the slowest-moving page in the book and the one you’ll care about most in five years. Backfill old promotions while you still remember the dates.

See the belt tracker for how Mat Quest logs promotions.

How to fill it in without quitting by month two

• Week 1: just the date and gi/no-gi. Build the habit before anything else.
• Week 2: add load.
• Week 3: add "worked" and "drill next".
• Week 4: do a monthly review.
• Missed a few entries? Don’t restart. Log the next session.

Write it right after class, not on Sunday from memory. Memory edits the week.

Notebook, spreadsheet or app?

The template works anywhere. The trade-offs:

• Notebook: easy to start, good for longer reflections — but rarely with you in the parking lot, and hard to count.
• Spreadsheet: great for totals, rough on a phone.
• App: fastest on a phone, and can connect training to tournaments and weight automatically.

Pick one. Two half-used systems are worse than one simple one.

The template, built into an app

Mat Quest is a BJJ training tracker styled like a 90s arcade fighter, and it maps to this template:

• Session template → one-tap log: gi or no-gi, one tap and it counts; add rounds, duration and notes when you want the detail.
• Weekly check-in → weekly mission: set a goal, build streaks, earn XP. Rest days never break a streak.
• Tournament page → VS-screen countdowns, match-by-match results (what you got them with, what got you), game plans for standup, top, bottom, subs to hunt and escapes to drill, and podium photos in your fight record.
• Weigh-ins → daily weigh-ins, a 7-day rolling average and a live countdown of pounds to your division limit.
• Belts page → log stripes and belts with full ceremony while your pixel-art fighter evolves with every promotion.

Prefer paper? Use the template above. Either way: four lines after class.

Download Mat Quest on the App Store