How to Keep a BJJ Training Journal, With a Free Template

You learned a sweep on Tuesday. By Thursday you remember that there was a sweep, that it started from half guard, and that the grip mattered. Which grip? Gone.

A training journal fixes that, and it does more than save techniques. After a few months it shows you the positions you keep losing, the partners who give you trouble and why, and whether the thing you have been drilling is landing in live rounds. Here is how to keep one you will still be writing in six months, with a free template you can copy tonight.

Write it within an hour of class

The best time to log is right after training, when you are sweaty and tired and still remember every round. It is also when you least want to do anything. Research on athletes who reflect after practice points the same way: the detail fades fast, so capture it before the drive home. We went deeper on that in the 90-second habit.

The practical version: sit in the car, spend one minute, then drive. If writing is too much with your hands shaking, talk it into your phone instead.

The template

Copy this into a notebook, a notes app, or anything else. Fill in what applies and skip the rest. A short entry you write after every class beats a perfect entry you write once a month.

Three lines carry most of the value: caught with, worked, and next class. If you only have time for three, write those.

Most people log by date, one entry per class, and that is all you need to start. If you want a second view later, keep a page per technique and add a line to it whenever that technique comes up. A notes app gives you that view for free: search "knee cut" and every entry that mentions it comes up.

Log positions, not just taps

Counting taps feels like tracking progress and tells you very little. You can have a great night because a partner made a mistake, or a rough night because you spent five rounds working a guard you are bad at. Write down where the rounds went instead: "stuck under side control most of round three, lost the frame when my partner switched hips." That line gives you something to fix. We made the full case in Stop Counting Taps.

Read it back once a week

The journal pays off when you read it. Once a week, take ten minutes and read the last week of entries in a row. Look for anything that shows up twice:

• the same submission catching you in different rounds
• the same position you end up stuck in
• a technique from class that finally landed live
• a joint that keeps showing up in the "body" line

Pick one of those as next week's focus and write it at the top of the next entry. That is the whole loop: log, read back, pick one thing, train it, log again.

Read one line before class

Before you bow in, read the "next class" line from your last entry. It takes ten seconds, and you walk onto the mat with one thing to work on. Without it, most of us drift into whatever the round gives us.

Questions to bring your coach

"I feel like I'm not improving" is hard for anyone to answer. "I keep getting armbarred from mount" is a question your coach can answer in two minutes. A few weeks of entries turns the vague feeling into questions like these:

• "I get stuck under side control when they switch their hips. What should I be framing on?"
• "The knee cut works when we drill it and never in rounds. What am I missing?"
• "I keep losing the underhook in half guard. Could you watch a round and tell me what you see?"

Your journal finds the pattern. Why it keeps happening is a different question, and no journal or app can answer it, ours included. That answer comes from someone who has watched you roll: your professor, or a higher belt willing to spend a round paying attention. The thirty seconds after class are the best time to ask.

Mistakes that kill the habit

• Writing a novel. Long entries feel productive for a week, then you stop. Keep it to the template.
• Only logging good nights. The bad nights hold the information. Log those too.
• Never reading it back. A journal nobody reads is a diary of forgotten Tuesdays.
• Waiting for the perfect app. Start tonight with whatever is in your pocket. You can move it later.

Paper, notes app, or voice?

Any of them works if you use it. Paper is free and never runs out of battery, and a notes app is searchable. A voice journal is fastest when your grip is gone, and some will organize the entry for you. We built TOMO for exactly that moment: you talk for about 90 seconds, it writes the session into this same shape, and once a week it reads the week back to you and points at the pattern. It is a journal, and the coaching still comes from your coach. To compare options, see BJJ notebook or app? and the best BJJ journal apps of 2026.

Quick answers