How to Remember BJJ Techniques

Forgetting a technique you were shown last week is normal. A few habits make far more of it stick.

This guide covers why BJJ techniques fade, then the habits that help on and off the mat: recalling before you rewatch, spacing out your reviews, drilling and testing in positional sparring, linking techniques into your own game, using video with a purpose, and explaining what you know. Note-taking helps with several of these, but it is one tool among many.

Why techniques fade

Three things work against you.

There is a lot of new material. Each class adds techniques, plus the small details that make each one work. Over a few weeks that is more than you can hold without going back over it.

You rarely get to use it live. In a drill you see the technique a handful of times, against a partner who cooperates. In rolling, the moment for it may not come up at all. A technique you never use is easy to lose.

Recognising is not the same as recalling. When the instructor shows the scissor sweep, it all looks familiar. Two weeks later you might recognise it if someone shows you, yet be unable to start it from nothing. Recognition can hide gaps. Recalling the steps without a prompt shows you where they are; drilling and positional sparring are what let you use the technique against a partner.

Without review, details fade. The habits below are ways to review that expose gaps and build skill, rather than just feeling familiar.

Recall it before you rewatch it

Try to remember before you look anything up.

After class, or the next day, pick one technique and write or say the steps in order, then the key details. Do it from memory, with no video and no notes open. For the scissor sweep, that means getting down: pull them forward with your sleeve and collar grips, put your top shin across their torso, and chop their base with your bottom leg as you turn.

Then check against your notes, the video or your coach. The gaps are the useful part. If you could not say which leg chops the base, or which grip comes first on a cross collar choke, that is what to work on.

Rewatching a video feels productive because everything looks familiar, but it mostly rewards recognition. Struggling to recall something and then correcting it builds the memory you need on the mat. Recall first, then look.

Writing makes this easy to keep up. A short note from memory after class does the job, and so does saying it out loud on the drive home. What to write after BJJ class goes through each part of a note, and how to keep a BJJ journal covers building the habit.

Space out your reviews

Short reviews spread across days and weeks work better than one long session. Coming back to a technique after you have started to forget it takes effort, and that effort is what strengthens it.

You do not need a formal system. A simple schedule might look like this:

• The same day or the next day: recall the steps and details from memory.
• A few days later: do it again, then check what you missed.
• A week or two later: once more, ideally by drilling it as well as thinking it through.

These are suggestions, not a rule. What matters is returning to a technique more than once, with a gap each time.

Keep each review to a few minutes and two or three techniques. If you try to review everything from the past month at once, it becomes a chore and you will stop. Before class, skim your last two or three notes and pick one technique to recall. Anything you got wrong goes to the front of the line.

Drill it, then test it in positional sparring

Reviewing in your head brings the steps back. Your body also needs reps.

Drill with a cooperative partner first. Slow, clean repetition builds the sequence. Take the knee cut pass: get the underhook or crossface, slide your knee across their thigh, then settle your chest and hips down. Run it several times on each side, checking the cues as you go. Keep the crossface tight so they cannot turn in, and keep your back leg posted wide for base.

Then add resistance in stages. Once the sequence is smooth, start from the position and have your partner defend a little, then more. Start with your partner in half guard or open guard, where the knee cut is available, and let them try to recover guard as you pass. This is positional sparring: both people start in a set position, one tries to pass and the other tries to stop it.

This is where you find out what you actually know. A technique that falls apart the moment your partner pushes back is missing a detail. Note what failed, then go back to recall and drilling with that detail in mind.

Do not wait for the technique to show up in free rolling, because it may not for weeks. Choosing the starting position puts it in front of you on purpose. Ask your partner to match their resistance to your level, and to increase it as you improve.

Connect it to your game

A technique on its own is easy to lose because it has nowhere to live. A technique tied to a position you already reach, and to something your partner does, comes back when you are in that spot.

Start from a position you reach often and ask what your partner tends to do there. Say you are in closed guard and you break their posture, pulling them forward with your sleeve and collar grips. Open your guard, put your top shin across their torso and chop their base with your bottom leg. Now you have a trigger as well as a technique: when you have broken their posture and their weight is coming forward, scissor sweep.

Chains help too. If the sweep fails, what do you do next? From the same collar grip, the cross collar choke can be a follow-up: a deep first grip on the collar, then the opposite collar secured with your second hand before you finish. Two or three links from a position you reach regularly are plenty.

In practice:

• Pick one position you reach often.
• Choose one or two techniques that fit it, and one follow-up.
• Work only those in positional sparring and rolling for a few weeks.

Fewer techniques done more often stay with you better than a long list you tried once each. Resist the urge to add something new from every class. Write the chain in your notes as a single line, such as "closed guard, break posture forward, scissor sweep, else cross collar choke".

Use video on purpose

Video is useful when it has a job. An hour of technique videos feels like study but mostly gives you familiarity.

Before you press play, decide what you want to find out. Examples:

• Where does the top shin sit during the scissor sweep?
• Which hand takes the second collar grip on the cross collar choke?
• What does the back leg do on the knee cut pass?

Then keep it short:

• Watch a short clip, a minute or two, not a whole lesson.
• Pause and say the next step before it happens. This turns watching into recall.
• Write down the answer to your question in a line or two.
• Go and drill it at the next opportunity.

A new video for every position gives you a list you cannot practise. Choose the one or two that fit your game and ignore the rest for now. If your coach teaches a different version from the video, follow your coach and ask about the difference.

Explain it to someone

Trying to explain a technique shows you quickly what you do not know. If you say "then you sort of turn and it works" and cannot say which leg does what, you have found a gap.

Explain it to a training partner, a friend who does not train, or out loud to yourself. A friend who does not train is a good test, because you cannot lean on jargon. Ask them which step did not make sense.

Better still, ask your coach or a more experienced partner to check. Show them the sequence and the details, and ask what is missing or wrong. A specific request such as "can you check my knee cut pass? I think I lose base when I slide the knee" is far easier to answer than "can you help with passing?", and it stops you practising a mistake.

Talking through your class soon after it ends does the same job. Jitsu Notes is built around that idea: you describe the session by voice on your iPhone and it becomes a note you can search later. A notebook or a notes app works if you prefer to write.

A simple routine to start with: recall one technique from memory after class, recall it again a few days later, drill it, test it from the position with some resistance, and ask your coach to check it. Do that with one technique at a time.