How to Keep a BJJ Training Journal
If you train jiu jitsu regularly but don't write anything down after class, you're relying on memory to track what you're learning. That works for a while, but after a few months of training three or four days a week, the sessions start blurring together. Techniques you drilled last Tuesday fade into the ones from the Tuesday before.
A BJJ training journal fixes this. And it doesn't have to be complicated.
What to log after every class
The basics. How long was class, how hard did you work (1-10), and how well did the session go (1-10). These three data points take about ten seconds and let you track your training load over weeks without a spreadsheet.
What you drilled. Just the name or a short description. "Scissor sweep from closed guard" or "arm drag to back take from seated." You're not writing a textbook. You're leaving yourself a breadcrumb so you can remember what you worked on when you look back in a month.
What you noticed during rolling. This is the most valuable part. One thing that worked and one thing that broke down. Be specific. "I kept getting my guard passed because I wasn't framing on the hip before they cleared my legs" is useful. "Guard was bad" is not.
One focus for next class. Based on what you noticed today, what will you pay attention to next time? "Next time someone starts to pass, I'll frame on the hip immediately before worrying about recovering guard." This connects today's learning to tomorrow's training.
When to write it
As close to the end of class as possible. In the parking lot, on the drive home, while you're still in your gi if you need to. The details you capture five minutes after rolling are way sharper than what you'll remember that night.
What changes after a few weeks
After about ten entries, you'll start noticing things. Positions where you keep getting stuck. Techniques that show up in your "what worked" column repeatedly. Patterns in when your best and worst rolls happen. That's when the journal stops being a log and starts being a tool for getting better.
Keep it simple
A notebook works fine for this. If you want something with the structure already built in and the ability to track your training load and patterns over time, Sherpa is a free app designed for exactly this kind of post-training reflection.