Martial Arts Training Diary

Anyone who is really serious about their martial arts training should keep a martial arts training diary. I have seen it written that a life worth living, is a life worth recording. This statement to be especially true when applied to ones martial arts life.

By documenting your training you can have a written record of your progress in the martial arts. Writing things down means that you will not forget them and will be able to reflect and refine ideas and training methods down the track.

What to put in a training diary

You can write almost anything that you think would be valuable in a martial arts training diary. Here are some of my recommendations:

• Training goals
• Training routines such as sets and reps for weight training, time taken to run a certain distance or how many three minute rounds you did on the punching bag.
• Drills, techniques, katas learnt during training
• Competition and tournament results
• Training ideas as seen in magazines, books, dvds and websites
• Notes on how your training is going. Are you happy with your growth? What area needs to be improved? Do you need new training goals?

Learn from the experts

I attended a martial arts seminar conducted by the legendary Dan Inosanto in 2004. In the seminar he pulled out one of his training diaries from way back.

I thought to myself how valuable that document would be. Not how much it would cost in terms of money but how valuable it would be for him to sit and reflect on how his training was and how it has improved over the years.

I have read in interviews with Dan Inosanto where he mentions that he has every single training session logged in his training diaries. He can tell you exactly how many sessions he has had with an instructor and what was covered in those sessions.

I think that if such practice is valued by one of the most prominent martial artists in the world then it is surely worth adopting ourselves.

Constant growth

Keeping a written record of your martial arts training will ensure that you are able to monitor your growth in the martial arts. The small amounts of time dedicated to keeping a martial arts training diary will add up to form an invaluable collection of notes in the years to come.

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