Taking Note

Between my office and garage I have 24 notebooks that I have filled, over the years, with information regarding different martial arts. I have filled them because I have taken notes.

Every once in a while a will have a student ask me how it’s possible to remember so many techniques, kata, exercises, names of different things and so on. For me, the answer is; I can’t. So I take notes.

I take notes and then I read them, amend them and type them up. i refer back to them, often, and I often have to amend them again, and again, as my understanding of something becomes deeper and I find more and more associations of one part to another.

I tell my students the same thing that I am now telling you. Bring a notebook to class and write down what you do, how it is done, what it’s called and any questions about it you may have. Bring the questions to the next session you attend and you may very well help set up the lessons for that day! As a teacher, I love questions.

Most teachers and/or schools hand out a test for the students next level of progress. This can be put into your notebook and serve as an outline for your accomplishment of the goals necessary to that progress. The notes that fall outside of that outline will often be part of another group of goals and can be added to that part of the outline when it arises. Each level can become a written chapter in your path through the martial arts. Even more important, though, are the things that aren’t part of your ‘tests.’ You see, the tests are only there to help your teacher know what you should be ready for, and what you may not be, but they are simply a barometer, not by far the most important aspects of the education.

If your path in the martial arts is going to be a lifetime thing, it will be much easier if you have your own personal guidebook. Those are your notes.