What do you do the remember your syllabus? Do you keep a diary, maybe you have video access to each move, or perhaps you have a different approach. For me I have videos for boxing, dumog, eskrima, grappling, ground flow, interceptions and destructions, jab catch drills, kicks, straight blasts, trapping hands and then the self defence work. I have everything on film, then I have all of the revisions as the work gets reviewed and tweaks made. Maybe you have the syllabus and can recall everything, or maybe every now and again you refer to something like You Tube for a refresher. What is your approach?
For KSW I have the official textbooks which have most of the info, also have a digital copy on my phone for easy access. In addition though I often use YouTube to check out stuff I'm unsure of. Having those options along with training with my instructor helps keep things fresh in my mind (at least that's the idea anyway )
At the moment I am able to recall them all from memory, but the problem with that is that people remember things differently so we have to refer to some written instructions when we cannot agree amongst ourselves ! I would love to get everything on video like Simon and think this would be the best way forward, just need to get some quiet time in class to get things committed to film. From there the question is how open with that are you with sharing that, do you keep it with the instructors only or share relevant parts with the students ? For my system the problem with youtube is that there are some bad examples out there and it seems to vary slightly between instructors, the problem of a fractured style I guess between the traditionalists and the breakaway groups.
In the beginning I kept a diary/notebook. I'd take it to class, and write it in after class or sometimes (quickly) during class. I also took it to seminars. I haven't done that for years, because there came a point when I just didn't need to take notes anymore. But I'm actually considering doing it again for BJJ (I'm new to BJJ), because sometimes I forget how the coach got to such-and-such finishing position.
I regularly forget the syllabus and try to focus on teaching principles instead. Then when a grading is on the horizon I start revising the syllabus to make sure I've taught my students a good proportion of the techniques for their next grade and beyond. Usually it works just fine because of how the syllabus has been put together.
TKD has an encyclopedia to work from, plus I follow the grading requirements of my organisation. As a result, much is available in books, on DVD etc. A lot of the fun lies in where I choose to enrich that from my own experiences. That's one of the reasons I still cross train and live to learn.
I kept a little black book once that I wrote all my notes in. Anything really, including personal observations, things I'd see and didn't want to forget. I lost the book years ago, left it in the gym somewhere and poof it was gone. I tried making a second one but by that point I didn't really have a need for one. The funny thing is I still remember a lot of what I wrote down in it, and I think that's because I wrote it down in the first place. Making lists of things is pretty valuable not just because you have a reference but because it helps you to better digest the knowledge.
