Taking notes

Hi, i'll like to ask how many of us out there take notes after a class?
What is the best method to do this? Other then the technical side of training, what i'll like to note down is the "feeling" of a good movement or a correct technique. Example: how to connect with uke during irimi, how to aline with uke to direct him.
My sensei have gone through it in class with me, and I'm afraid I'll forget.
A little help, yes?

I take notes after many classes and most seminars. I think the method varies from person to person, and especially style to style. Yoshinkan tends to be very precise, and have a very specific common language, so its relatively easy. I think your instructor is the best person for advice on this...along with your own intuition.

RT

I think taking notes is a really nice idea since it can trigger certain memories without you trying to fumble. Hmmmmm....it is a NICE Idea

I keep notes on each throw we do--the name if I can figure it out (a guess if I can't), a description of the movements, and any specific advice I was given or discoveries I made. It's funny to read the early ones when I had very little vocabulary. My first encounter with sankyo says: "Something bad happns to wrist, elbow up high, can't fall until allowed, ow!" Not very helpful in figuring out how to do it.

I started this because I was floundering with vocabulary, and it helped a lot. I can't always describe the finesses, but it's helpful to try; it makes me think back over the material and I remember it better.

I also keep an on-line journal which is more about the experience and less about the technicalities. I think they're both valuable, but the technical one is more immediately useful.

Mary Kaye

Interesting never thought about taking notes... suddenly remember undergrad days... eeeek.... I don't do it but it is a great Idea ..... Ehhh I'll stick whatever vids and pics I can get my hands on

[ "Something bad happns to wrist, elbow up high, can't fall until allowed, ow!"

Sure sounds like sankyo! Note taking works only if you have the visual/verbal way of learning. I'm more "verbal/kinesthetic"- i actually need to feel the ukemi so i can figure out what is being done to me, then kinda get coached through it the first time or two. Ears to body, rather than eyes to body.

I try to read the technical posts and even the thechniques i am comfortabke with go right over my head if all i have is words...

i actually need to feel the ukemi so i can figure out what is being done to me

I know the feeling I've asked Riggs Sensei to let me "feel" The techinque a few times. A lot of the time he does the techinque on the everyone once to show us. I thinks it's good to get a feel for how the techinque should be done . I do also see a reason for notes also....All though I don't think they'd help me much. I just need endless pratice...

Ron Tisdale wrote: I take notes after many classes and most seminars. I think the method varies from person to person, and especially style to style. Yoshinkan tends to be very precise, and have a very specific common language, so its relatively easy. I think your instructor is the best person for advice on this...along with your own intuition. RT

I pretty much gave up on notes long ago. It was due to Saotome Sensei's teaching style. He'd show one technique and then as he repeated the technique you'd notice that he just did several variations (you wouldn't even pick that up unless you had trained a while). since he didn't tend to give names to any but the most basic techniques he did, I never learned a good method for describing empty hand.

Weapons work on the other hand was different... I developed my own terminology for describing techniques. Not that anyone else could look at my notes and know what I was talking about. Cryptic statements like"spiral a la Tom Read" required a knowledeg of technique from another source to know what I was talking about in this context. But it worked for me over the years.

The buki waza is where I take the most notes myself. I really stink at them, especially memorizing. Endless repition...and even then...

The notes help me to remember enough to piece the kata back together after not doing it for a while. Writing so that someone else can understand it also seems to aid in understanding the movements myself.

RT

I like drawing, and lettering, so I make my notebook look kind of like a comic book.
I can practice my hand lettering, and figure drawing, and it's also a sort of meditation. I can focus on it and forget about everything else.

Ooh. Nifty idea, Tim.

Heather

I take notes during seminars mostly. Occasionally during or after a normal class. Noting the basic movement is all I usually get unless I get the opportunity to experience it from the sensei, then I try to focus what I felt when I was taken through the technique.

I keep an aikido journal in a sketch book I carry around for alot of uses. Some techniques, but also my attitude and feelings too. Its fun to look back on it remember what I was going through once. I'd never remember half this stuff if I didn't write it down. Oh, and ideas for Tanto Beak too.

JEanne

Hi, I started aikido about a year ago, and i decided to keep a training diary, after each lesson and course i take a little time to write down my thoughts.
these vary from technical points, to feeling of techniques and hints and comments made by seniors on how to improve my technique.
I found these notes very useful for self study and improvement, i would realy recommend starting one.

Good training Chris