You are definitely not the only white belt to feel this and even after white belt, it’s okay to feel this way at times. It’s a flood of information and if you haven’t had grappling experience before, its even more overwhelming. Yes you’ll get better at learning. I personally like to take notes even if I never look at them again. Traditionally, since there’s no universally agreed upon curriculum, coaches will teach according to their own curriculum or their whim. This isn’t necessarily wrong. Personally, I’ve been rethinking how I teach and prefer to cover things conceptually as best I can. Pace your journey. You’ll catch on

Try to remember/focus on 2 things: 1) What is the end goal? Where are you supposed to end up / what's supposed to happen as a result of the 'move'? 2) Gross motor pattern coach's limbs are moving in and emulate it best you can. Ignore the auditory details for now.

Thank you for your answers and encouragements! What do you focus on when taking notes? Do you have some advise about words to shorten or translate in idéogram? I thought about using some kind of stickmans draw to help me memorising stuff, but I did not try. I keep hearing the word curriculum, but I am not sure to understand it, is it just the list of the techniques one know or something more? About concepts: I started to listen to a podcast called big mental models, in the first episode they talk about the concept of alignment (posture, structure and base). I am convinced I survived longer than usual in my last couple of rolls because I was thinking about that. Do you only teach concept and let the student figure out the technique? Or is there still some 'do this do that' left? I like the concepts, but I think I need the 'do this do that' too!

What do you focus on when taking notes? Do you have some advise about words to shorten or translate in idéogram? I thought about using some kind of stickmans draw to help me memorising stuff, but I did not try.

The question from the other side is also interesting. If students forget or don't understand the majority of the details you're showing, should one maybe change something as a coach? Isn't it waste of precious training time?

So agree with you about this, but I don't feel legitimate to ask my coach to change the way he teaches...

So agree with you about this, but I don't feel legitimate to ask my coach to change the way he teaches...

Yeah that can be difficult. Completely unrelated, someone once said something like 'if no one has ever taught you how to actually teach, then there is a very good chance you have no idea what you are doing'.

If they take it personally, that's strike 2 regarding it shouldn't be the gym to be in... But of course it's hard if they're the best place available in the area.

Jiujitsu also comes naturally by himself, you need to roll slowly and try to feel things, in the beginning it's a lot about the defense process, so try to feel when and from where the danger come from, it would give you a better understanding of what you're doing and the purpose of it. Then you will understand easier.

Well don't get me wrong, I'm sure he would nod take it personally. I just feel like I need to try to adjust things on my side first. Tonight I try to apply your advices Jorgen, I focused on the end goal and the limbs moves. It helped me thanks again! We are not a big club the maine coach is a purple two others are blue belts. I think everyone is learning and i find it great!

The question from the other side is also interesting. If students forget or don't understand the majority of the details you're showing, should one maybe change something as a coach? Isn't it waste of precious training time?

Unfortunately, as many have already mentioned, there is a shortage of reliable resources (books, courses, websites) of education for jiujitsu instructors. There is an endless list of technique books and videos out there, but very little in the way of "how to teach jiujitsu".

One thing I think BJJ could do better is to focus more on concepts instead of specific techniques. Instead of teaching a step by step technique for an armbar from one position, why not teach the concept of the armbar and let the techniques grow from there?

I still struggle with techniques just like others have said. One thing I think BJJ could do better is to focus more on concepts instead of specific techniques. Instead of teaching a step by step technique for an armbar from one position, why not teach the concept of the armbar and let the techniques grow from there? I think if we teach people that the concept of the armbar is to isolate and control the elbow, then control the wrist and apply force to bend the elbow backwards it is much easier to then show them the steps needed to get there because they know what the end goal is and why.

I sometimes have trouble to remember everything...

I teach with a different approch, i that it's very difficult to see all the techniques in jiujitsu if you train just 3 or 4 techniques per class. Based on someone training twice a week it will take too much time to see all the basics and variations, in the same time, everyone's different by age, bodytype, abilities,... so i choose a position and from there we work like 15 or 20 techniques per class. I tell the guys to feel what's fit for them and choose their 2 or 3 to focus on and then they can drill more those. Then on the next training they can still ask about those, but on that time they have doing drill and trying to use it in sparring, so if i bring some details at that moment it made it works way better. I'm proud to say that in my academy everyone have his/her own style.