Sizing Savate Shoes

Dear Sifu Z:

I've been thinking of getting a pair of Savate shoes but one foot is a half-size bigger than the other. Should I just get one pair of shoes, or would I be better off getting two different sized shoes - one to fit each foot?

I have purchased 5 pairs of Savate shoes, 4 size 45, one size 44.5. (I'm an American 10.5) The 44.5 fit, the 45's were all too small. I think you'll be safe splitting the difference. they do stretch a bit. You can always take 'em to a shoemaker and have them stretched professionally. At $50 bucks a pair for shipping they get pricey.

Don't be a cheap-ass

by Mike

We were training a couple days ago and one guy stopped in the middle of a round. He grimaced and held his elbow.

"You hurt your other elbow?"

"No, same one. PT says it's overuse and I should get a tennis elbow splint. I don't know though."

"Why wouldn't you get one?"

"It's $15, man. I just keep thinking it will go away."

"Dude, it's either $15 and get better, or your elbow is screwed forever."

There are some things in your training that are going to be worth spending a couple bucks on. First Aid gear is one. A decent pair of boxing gloves that will last you years is another. You might not need to pay someone to bring back a pair of Reyes gloves from Mexico for you, but dropping a few extra bucks to get a decent pair of gloves is going be much more cost effective (and better for you in general) than trying to save a couple bucks on crap gloves.

That is to say, buying a pair of $60 gloves that will last you years is going to be much better for you in the long run than buying $10 pair of gloves that you're going to need to replace three times a year and that will potentially injure you through general use.

When your name is feared

by Mike

Updated "write your name on your gear!" to note that writing your name in red marker is not as good an idea as it might seem.

Even permanent marker smears and when you write with red on the white palm of your gloves, you start having guys stop in the middle of the round and ask if that's their blood on your gloves.

Stick to black. Or maybe blue. No one I know bleeds blue.

CC-licensed image from Pankration Research Institute.

Review: Combat Sports Air Thai pads

by Mike

Combat Sports Air Thai Pads

One Liner:

Light, durable and let you take some big shots without any problems.

Overview:

Combat Sports Air Thai Pads are a great alternative to traditional Thai pads. With their futuristic-sounding "Dome Air Technology" these pads manage to disperse shock without being stiff, which is helpful both for the coach holding the pads and the attacker reducing fatigue and saving some wear and tear on the joints, allowing you to work with guys that otherwise leave bruises on your forearms.

A side effect of their relatively soft padding is that they pads are thicker than you might want them to be, but they're also lighter most pads and so are surprisingly maneuverable. The bulk may get in the way of quick transitions to the clinch and knees, but for most things, you can get away with having only one pad in place.

As rivethead-chic and "I got these in Bangkok, yo" as buckles are, velcro is much more adjustable and quicker to put on and take off. The velcro on these is very strong, unlike the velcro that you often find on more expensive brands.

I'm not sure if this is a deliberate design feature or merely a happy coincidence, but the space in "Combat Sports" lines up with the sweet spot, hitting where the padding is strong as well as the optimal place in your forearms to keep a strong structure to take the kick, which is very helpful to point out your classmates who may not yet have learned the finer points of targeting.

The Good:

• Surprisingly light and maneuverable
  
  
• Durable handles and...velcro that doesn't fall apart or come loose
  
  
• Excellent shock absorption qualities, yet soft enough to not hurt your partner's delicate shins
  

The Bad:

• Kinda pricey, but not too bad
  
  
• Significantly bulkier than other Thai pads, which probably isn't a problem unless you have limited space to pack your gear before riding your bike to class

Recommendation:

These are some great pads, especially if you're going to be taking kicks from the heavy-hitters.

Review: Top Contender Quick Strike MMA gloves

by Mike

One-liner

These gloves are terrible, don't buy them.

Overview

I figured that Top Contender gear was to Ringside gear what C fire-rated doors were to A doors - same thing, but they didn't do as-extensive testing on them and so were able to pass on those savings.

Then I tried to save a couple bucks, got a couple bits of TC gear and am starting to suspect that it's substandard rebranding in order to drive more sales to the Ringside/Combat Sports brand.

Or it could be that their gear is just crap.

The Top Contender Quick Strike MMA gloves are a cheap alternative to even midrange gloves from other manufacturers. By cheap, I don't just mean inexpensive. These things are poorly constructed and painful to wear.

I know that the problem isn't with me not knowing how to size gloves - I have small girl hands and I got the largest size they sell. The left glove fit pretty well, but the right was waaay too tight. This was strange since I don't think my hands are noticeably different sizes and when I have problems with gloves fitting, it's usually on the left hand.

The padding appears to be sewn onto a weak mesh backing which somehow makes the gloves very stiff and tears easily. The palms are semi-enclosed which looks cool with the white piping, but deforms when you make a fist and is strangely uncomfortable. Except for the strange mesh and the "striking surface," the gloves are made of vinyl.

The padding is also very stiff - reminiscent of Fairtex fight gloves, but even worse. I'm surprised there's not a roll of quarters in there.

The Good

• Least expensive gloves you're likely to find

The Bad

• Ill-fitting in general, leading to:
  
  
• Cuts in between my knuckles
  
  
• Right wrist strap doesn't fit properly
  
  
• Straining to make a proper fist
  
  
• Even only after a few uses, the wrist straps are tearing
  
  
• That might be just as well because these wrist straps are nearly useless anyway - I can get away without using handwraps with most other boxing gloves and MMA gloves for even medium sparring or bag work but I'm afraid to use these even for light bag work
  
  
• Hard to get handwraps on under them
  
  
• Material is very stiff and hard to make a proper fist with. Fortunately, there's a short break-in period. Unfortunately, the break-in period ends when the seams tear

Check out that awesome tear!
Less than two months' use with these things.

Recommendation

Save your pennies and get a decent pair of gloves.

Quick note for anyone competing

by Mike

If you're going to be competing at any level, one of the most important things you can do is to make sure that you have all of your own equipment. Gloves, shorts, mouthguard, cup, gauze & tape, headgear, no foul protector, shoes, whatever may be required.

You may find yourself in a situation where the promoter requires you to use specific equipment that they provide, but in all other situations, it's your responsibility to ensure that you have the necessary gear - don't rely on others to lend it to you and certainly don't assume that you'll find someone at the venue to lend you their gear.

That's all.

Mailbag! Can You Wash Boxing Gloves?

Q. Can I wash my boxing gloves?

A. You can wet a rag/paper towel if you want to wipe off dust, blood, etc.

You can put them in the washing machine or dishwasher if you want to ruin them.

For more information check out Keeping Boxing Gloves Dry and Smelling Good (or at least not-bad)

CC-licensed photo from Slack12

Yes! There is a difference between bag gloves, training gloves and fight gloves...

by Mike

...and maybe the reason no one wants to train with you is because you don't know the difference.

Getting hit with these fight gloves is like getting hit by a pipe. They weigh between 4 & 6 oz. depending on how big you get them. These are what pros wear when they want to knock people unconscious. They are primarily to keep you from cutting your opponent when you deck them and also to protect your hands from breaking. -->

<-- These are training gloves. They weigh 7 oz. That's up to 50% heavier. Notice the padding is much more prominent and less dense around the knuckles. The less-dense foam compresses more and takes a lot of the power out of the punch, saving your partner some brain damage and other injury. There's also a little flap over the thumb that helps to keep you from jamming your knuckles into your partner's eyes. That's a feature specific to these gloves, but it's nice to keep in mind. It's still not fun to get hit by these, but it's much better than taking a shot from the fight gloves. It should be easy to tell the difference between the two gloves - the fight gloves are made to transfer as much punishment as possible to your opponent and to keep your hands nice and safe so you can keep punching them in the face. The training gloves are made so that you can keep your partner as safe as possible so you can keep punching them in the face. The same applies to boxing gloves:


Training gloves tend to be heavier than fight gloves, up to twice the weight. Nearly all of that extra weight is padding, which does two things - 1) it slows your punches down and 2) it reduces the force of the punch when it does land. Again, there's a lot of extra padding and it tends to be less-dense than the padding in fight gloves, so there's a lot less force going from your knuckles to someone's face.


Things get a little more complex with boxing gloves since there is clear regulation between pro gloves and amateur gloves. Functionally, the difference is that amateur gloves weigh 2 oz. more than their similarly sized pro counterparts (which includes a regulation-required layering of foam) and they have a white area on the glove to denote legal striking surface. Pro gloves, on the other hand, weight 8 or 10 oz. (dependent on weight class and regardless of the physical size of the glove) and like the MMA gloves above, are primarily designed to protect your hands and the opponent's face from cutting, while transferring the majority of the force through.

This is just for starters - there are still variations between companies as far as the construction and location of the padding (i.e. my Ringside International gloves are made for kickboxing and have more padding along the backhand side of the glove while my Ringside IMF gloves are very difficult to make a fist with and much better at dispersing the shock when you hit someone (i.e. your punches are less-damaging). Reyes seems to put an inordinate amount of padding below the wrist so the gloves come in at weight, but even with their training gloves, you can still feel knuckles underneath.

That's nice, so what's up with bag gloves?

Punching someone in the head or the body is one thing - heads snap back and a well-placed body shot will cause the person to jump, if not collapse outright. There's a lot of give when you land on a target. Hitting a 60 lb.+ bag over and over is different. Bag gloves are meant to protet your hands and joints from pounding heavy bags for hundreds and hundreds of punches, day in and day out. Bag gloves come in many weights, although they generally stay around 12 oz.

The short version:

• Fight gloves protect your hands
  
  
• Training gloves protect your partner
  
  
• Bag gloves protect your joints

The important thing, though: Use the right gloves for the job. No fight or bag gloves for sparring. No sparring gloves for bag work, etc.

Savate shoes

by Meredith

I've been approached a couple of times by people at the school I work out at about savate shoes. Generally the questions are a combination of:

• How much are they?
  
  
• Where can I get them?
  
  
• What's the difference between savate shoes and those shoes my friend got at Sports Authority?

Unfortunately (if you're in the United States), savate isn't huge in the US except for in one or two concentrated regions. In any case, not nearly large enough for the manufacturers to cater to US customers, much less for there to be a US manufacturer of savate shoes. At the moment, if you want the real deal you have to order them from France. Good luck translating the website if you took Latin in school. I ordered my current pair from Sport7 (not to be confused with the fencing gear manufacturer). Be ready with your European size and it may not hurt to order them one half size larger if my Rivats are any indication. They will stretch, but it takes a while.

Also, be aware that French online customer service is not the same that you'd get from a US company, possibly because they don't deal with enough US orders to be concerned with it. My order involved multiple translators, cryptic emails and no way to track the slow progress they were making. Also, I ordered my shoes in August. And apparently no one in France works in August. Or so I was told by my French savate seminar instructor, who found my lack of new shoes hilarious for that reason. I got them sometime in late September, but have been told that any time from three weeks to two months is not unheard of.

Also be ready with your credit card, because they are not cheap. And you'll have to pay the conversion rate since you'll most likely be purchasing them in Euros. The cheapest ones Sport7 offers are about $80 and a midrange pair can cost $150+.

Because of the above hurdles, many people just use wrestling shoes when they first start out. I borrowed a pair of savate shoes from a friend until I was able to determine if this was something I liked and was going to stick with or not. Wrestling shoes are a fine substitute if you're just taking class and not going to be competing. The main difference between savate shoes and wrestling shoes is that savate shoes have a reinforced toe to protect ... well, your toes. But again, if you're not competing, you probably won't be blasting your partner's leg and the wrestling shoes will offer you enough protection. Savate shoes also have smooth soles that are even with the vamp and the reinforced heel. The competition savate shoes are also very light and can be resoled (if you live in France).

The soles are one of the main reasons that wrestlers wouldn't want savate shoes and vice versa. Wrestling shoes help your feet to grip the mat for shooting in, whereas savate shoes are made specifically to glide over the mat for lots of spinning and movement.

You MUST wear some kind of shoe when taking a proper savate class. If you're not kicking with your toes, you're not doing savate. And if you are kicking with your toes and plan on doing it more than once, you should wear shoes.

See also: Shoes: To Wear or Not to Wear?

No bling in the ring!

by Mike

Last night one class was sparring and unbeknownst to the person in question, their ear ring fell out. The instructor for the next class found it - by stepping on it a couple of times. He picked the ear ring up, found the offender and informed everyone, "no bling in the ring."

Bracelets, necklaces, lip rings, tongue rings, etc. all need to be removed. Yeah, yeah, they're family heirlooms and/or it's a magical talisman and/or you promised someone that you'd never take it off, but if you wear it in class, it will likely get ripped off, or fall off and go in someone's eye, they'll step on it and cut themselves.* Consider your partners' safety here.

Piercings in non-public places still count. Taping over them may help, but I have a hard time believing that taking a shot to the belly button ring doesn't hurt like hell and pose a serious risk to you getting cut.

Rings especially need to come off - you jam your fingers and swelling starts, you're going to lose the ring anyway. If you're unwilling or unable to take it off, you best consider basket weaving.

* Strangely, the bigger a fight that someone puts up about this, the quicker the offending bling "accidentally" gets ripped off in the very next drill.

Mailbag! Why do Boxers tape their gloves?

by Mike

Couple reasons, actually:

• The tape helps the gloves stay on during the fight. Most pro gloves are lace-up and despite this, they can still come loose during a fight and/or the laces can pop out the back. Tape keeps everything nice and secure.
  
  
• The athletic commission also inspects the handwraps and gloves to make sure they are in compliance with all appropriate regulations. Wraps and the tape on the gloves gets signed by a commissioner to indicate that everything is in order. Theoretically, if the gloves are modified, the "seal" will be broken and the gloves will need to be rechecked.

Sadly, events like the Resto/Collins tragedy show what can happen when these regulations are not followed.

How to properly fit a mouthguard

by Mike

Mouthguards (aka mouthpieces and gumshields) are very important. Hopefully, previous articles have impressed this on you. You should wear a mouthguard whenever you spar or roll and wearing one while you work the bags or do conditioning exercises is a fantastic tool for getting used to the additional stresses of wearing one in the ring.

A properly fitted mouthguard should

• Stay in place without you having to clench your teeth.
  
  
• Not [greatly] interfere with your ability to breathe, talk or drink between rounds.
  
  
• Keep your jaw in place if you take a shot to the button.

How does one properly fit a mouthguard?

1. Make sure your stove is clean, otherwise, you'll be embarrassed when girls come over or you need to take pictures for your Web site. I recommend using vinegar.
   
   
2. Get everything you need ready - pictured below are:
   
   
   • Boiling water (enough to submerge the mouthguard without letting it touch the bottom of the pan.
     
     
   • Tongs (spoon works too) to take the mouthguard out of the boiling water
     
     
   • Cup of cold water to cool the mouthguard before you put it in your mouth
     
     
   • Instructions from the mouthguard manufacturer (this is the most important part)
   
   
   
3. Boil the water. Drop the mouthguard into the boiling water.
   
   30 seconds is generally as long as you want to keep the mouthguard in the water (but be sure to read the directions). If you keep the mouthguard for too short a time, you won't soften the rubber enough to get a good impression and if you keep it in for too long, you melt the damn thing and need to get a new mouthguard.
   
   
4. Use the tongs, take the mouthguard out of the boiling water and put it into the cup of cold water.
   
   This is just for a second, to cool the rubber enough so you can make an impression in the mouthguard without burning your face.
   
   
5. Bite down, hold for 20/30 seconds.
   
   
   This is to make sure the rubber has time to set around your teeth. Use your fingers if necessary.
   
   
6. Run the mouthguard under cold water for about 20/30 seconds.
   
   
7. Put it back in and make sure it still fits OK. If not, you can go through the above steps again, but keep in mind, the more you refit a mouthguard, the less securely it will fit.

General Notes

• If it isn't clear, read the directions the manufacturer provided. The directions for nearly every mouthguard I've used are the same (as listed above), but you don't want to ruin yours.
  
  
• If in doubt, get a cheap one along with the one you intend to use and practice with the cheap one first.
  
  
• In fact, get two, so you can keep one in your bag as a spare.
  
  
• If you are cool enough to get a custom mouthguard, where you make an impression of your teeth in plaster and send it off to a lab somewhere, you obviously don't need to follow these steps. Never try to refit one of those mouthguards, though. You'll have wasted your $80.
  
  
• If you are fitting a double-mouthguard, there will be an annoying red thing in the airway. Leave this in when you re/fit the mouthguard, but take it out before you use it. It's there to keep the airway from closing during the fitting process. I've seen people go through class with it still in and I can never figure out an appropriate way to tell them they looks like fools.

Wear your damn cups

by Meredith

This article is a 'mate' (if you will) to Mike's Wear a Damn Cup article below.

Ladies. Wear your chest protectors, PLEASE.

I know all the reasons why you might not want to. I put it off as long as I could, personally. I didn't want to look all 'busty' while I was working out. I liked the flatness of the sports bra. "It hasn't been a problem so far." "I never get hit there." Suck it up. I did.

My new favorite place to plant a thrust kick is square in the chest of my opponent. And you know how it is, we're all moving around, sometimes things don't hit square. I'm sick of feeling guilty for landing a good shot on a partner who wasn't wearing the proper equipment. I don't care if you're big or small. I'm a 32C, so I'm right there in the middle. What, it doesn't hurt you? Too many hits to the chest can cause damage. We don't want breast cancer do we? No. No we don't.

For more impact, here's what Dr. Dill says:

Lumps, scarring, deformation can all be the result of continued trauma to breast tissue. This can make detection of tumors more difficult resulting in more mammagrams and potentially more surgical procedures than would normally be expected. "Protect the girls!!"

Also, these babies can be an advantage! Ever grapple a guy in class and manage to put your full weight on him in a cross body position? Generally they will yelp or squirm if you're wearing your boob armor! Personally, I wear the turtle shells. I landed a shovel hook on a girl wearing that full torso stuff and hurt my thumb. A lot. Like, I had to stop.

So wear your shields. I'm not going to feel bad for kicking/punching your girls anymore.

And another thing, this can go for both sexes, don't go live if you forgot your mouthguard.

The one time I made a guy's lip bleed during a grappling class, I felt really bad. Until I realized he wasn't wearing a mouthguard. By choice. I mean, c'mon. Don't we all like our teeth? Especially during something like grappling where you never know where things are going to land half the time.

If you forget it, then let your partner know, and just drill. Sit out during anything live. Obviously the same goes for boxing and kickboxing. I get very annoyed when someone forgets their mouthguard, and then it's ME who is handicapped by not being able to punch them in the face. This happened once on my end, and I told my partner I wouldn't punch her in the face either since she couldn't punch me. Fair's fair. But what a drag when you were counting on all out sparring. At least offer to sit out and time until someone wants an easy round. Go work the bags.

Wear a damn cup!

by Mike

I'm always surprised (and often amused) when I'm rolling with someone and all of the sudden, they get the googly eyes and then that weird little :S smile like they're about to puke.

"You all right dude?"

"Hmmmnnph."

"You sure you're OK?"

"not wearing a cup hnnnnngngngngn."

Wear a damn cup.

It should be common sense, but as Coach Mills liked to say, "common sense ain't so common."

I'm not going to speculate on the psychological reasons for someone not wanting to wear one, but "forgetting" isn't really an acceptable excuse. I keep an extra one in the bottom of my bag (tied up nice and neat) in the event that I forget one. Risking a very painful (and possibly permanently damaging) injury isn't something that I want to do.

To be sure, barely a week goes by when I don't take a shot to the boys. One of my favorite moves to discourage body-punchers is an overhand left as they come in. Nine times out of ten, a hit knocks them off balance. That one out of ten goes someplace you'd rather it not though.*

Not wearing a cup also affects your jiu-jitsu and nearly eliminates the half-guard from your game.

Aside from being a purely defensive weapon, cunning minds have figured out how to turn the cup into an offensive weapon. While Sifu Z might say, "yeah, not washing the damn things," you can actually use your cup for leverage if you're smart about it. Dirty Jiu-Jitsu players have figured out ways to use the cup to bounce off of people's heads during sprawls and sneaky cup checks in other positions (no, I'm not sharing, but now that I'm wise to it, there's gonna be some hell to pay if anyone tries that against me).

Bonus for the ladies: yes, shots to the nuts hurt even if you're wearing a cup.

Write your name on your gear!

by Mike

You wouldn't think that someone would accidentally pick up your ratty old bag gloves that smell like someone died in them (despite your best efforts to keep them clean), or headgear that has a Rorschach blot of salt permanently carved into it, but you need to remember that you're dealing with people who like sweating on other people for fun.

As careful as you are, sooner or later, something is going to end up in someone else's bag, probably by accident, but you never know. While a determined thief is going to swipe your gear anyway, putting your name on it is going to be the best bet for keeping things around longer.

Even if you use leopard-spotted boxing gloves that you're sure no one else has.

New bag gloves: $35
New punch mitts: $45
New wrestling earmufffs: $20

Sharpie 2-pack: $2.99

Try to avoid using red ink on white bits of your gloves. I've been stopped several times in the middle of a round by someone asking if that was their blood on them. Permanent or not, the ink smears, so you'll occasionally need to touch it up and prison-chic as having your name across your knuckles may be, don't put your name on parts of your gear that come into contact with other people - there's enough junk on the ends of people's gloves, etc. without you needing to add more irritants/toxic chemicals to the mix.

I'm surprised that I never heard about the poor bastard that walked off with my old bag gloves - I cut out the grip bar to be more like MMA fight gloves and nearly broke my hand the first time I used them...and I knew what to expect.

There were a lot of people that dropped out shortly after I lost those gloves, but I never found out if any of them did so because they broke their hands.

[Update 3/7/8: Added the bit about red marker]

Mailbag! Why the cup on the outside when sparring?

Q. Why do boxers wear their protective cup on the outside when they spar?

A: Though it incorporates a cup, it's technically a no-foul protector, which is a safety device covers and protects the groin, abdomen and kidneys - all areas that are not legal targets in boxing, hence the "no foul." Ideally worn because taking a hit to any one of those areas can produce injuries that are bad enough for hobbyists, but disastrous to those who are training for a fight. Women's models are cut differently and have the added advantage of protecting the uterus.

Seriously, it's possible to rupture your uterus by getting hit.

Headgear: Yes or No?

by Mike

[I should point out that this article is about headgear for boxing and kickboxing training, we'll look at wrestling later and it might just be straight-up dangerous to wear it while training MMA.]

Very few people like wearing headgear. It's hot, sweaty, never seems to fight right and tends to shift around after you take a well-placed hook. The extra bulk turns your normally perfect slips into not-quite-far-enough and you get grazed by junk shots you should have avoided. Long hair inevitably works its way out of its place and you can't brush it back unless until the round's over.

Like the never-ending debate about snapping punches, it's hard to get a consensus on wether or not wearing headgear has any benefit to the boxer at all. "All it's good for is giving you a false sense of security!" vs. "glancing blows become straight on - it teaches good technique." And "Wear it to protect against headbutts and cuts" vs. "The extra weight will snap your head back more and increase damage."

There's a thousand other arguments besides, but in my experience:

• Headbutts invariably come after I've been working several rounds with the headgear on (usually round-robin style) and then step out of the ring. There's always someone who wants to go one more round and I don't have enough time to put the headgear back on before the round starts. Stupid of me, yes. The headgear does protect you from headbutts.
  
  
• I swear my new headgear actually does help absorb the shock of some blows. I was in a smoker two days after getting my new headgear and took a stiff cross flush to the side of the head. I remember thinking, "woah, I should be seeing stars right now," but I was fine. The headgear did a great job of protecting my cauliflower ear while it was still healing, although my nose still takes a pounding.
  
  
• It's definitely not healthy to work out overheated and the headgear is probably the warmest hat I've ever worn. However, if you're cognizant of that, you start calming down while you spar and become more efficient in your movements. Much like working the bags with your mouthpiece in teaches you how to breathe and pace yourself properly, this is of great benefit.
  
  
• I can't vouch for the "snapping your head back" part because the beatdowns I've received sans headgear have been far worse than the ones with headgear.

Although point #2 bothers me (taking _more_ softer blows is far worse for you than a couple harder ones - we'll need to get Doc Dill's thoughts on that), you should be wearing headgear for most, if not all of your sparring, especially if you're getting closer to a fight where you have to start worrying about not getting a cut that might not heal and either disqualify you from the fight or open up during the fight itself.

That said, getting used to wearing headgear while training for an event that doesn't allow it will teach you some bad habits. To that end, mixing up wearing and not-wearing headgear is a safe bet, but at least one person should be wearing it while sparring.

Now, those stupid little kicking booties. Those definitely suck. But, if you read the article on keeping your kicks on the level, the odds of you breaking a foot go down significantly.

The Notebook

by Mike

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the notebook is he most underutilized piece of training equipment. The notebook doesn't replace competent instruction or training partners, but I find that it's significantly more useful than any DVD or instruction book.

The concept is pretty simple: write stuff down so you don't forget it.

Sooner is always better than later - you might not be able to do it _during_ class and I always liked to do it on the train home.

It doesn't even need to be a notebook. I've got notes going back years written up in .txt files, half-sheets of paper, stationary from my last job, two or three half-filled spiral notepads and the backs of gym flyers. I've got one in each gym bag, backups on my computer and a three-ring binder in a giant storage box.

It pays to keep everything nice and organized though - I'm not looking forward to going through all those piles.

Even the notes themselves vary in their description - I've broken the jab down into the smallest components and written "Silat leghump takedown." Whatever works for you.

Another great use for the notebook is to write down you goals for the upcoming sessions. There's a lot of junk written about setting manageable goals (and some good stuff too), but in general, small, well-defined goals are better than grand, nebulous ones. "Kick that dude in the face" works better than "win Abu Dhabi" and "only go for the anaconda choke this week" is more helpful than "more well rounded fighter."

It's one thing to keep notes for your regular workouts (if only to avoid feeling like a fool when someone asks, "what'd we do last week?"), but is almost necessary if you're going to be taking a seminar with someone that you won't have the opportunity to see and ask for clarification in the future.

I was amazed at how much keeping a notebook helped my game. Normally, something like the Silat leghump (whatever it's real name is) would have been practiced for a few reps and then forgotten (despite me thinking that it was pretty cool), but after that class, I wrote everything down. Next time I sparred, I was against the ropes, getting hammered with knees and pulled off this technique.

Other times, writing things down like, "sit into punches more," or "more snap" aren't necessarily helpful new directions, but they do help to clarify my thoughts and remind me of where I should be directing my energy to improve.

Update 2/15/8: Added photo