I’m trying to memorize lots of brazilian jiu jitsu moves and was wondering if anyone else has made cards for their movesets either. What’s your experience been with writing cards for BJJ moves and how do you generally write them?
I haven’t but I think the idea is interesting.
I would probably start with some basic notes, maybe with images or videos that demonstrate each move and ask you identify the move.
That would just be a starting point and the minimum though. From there you should create more notes referring to those moves. Some examples could be applications, pros/cons, difficulties, tips, etc.
https://old.reddit.com/r/Anki/comments/151k2ho/anki_became_my_metahobby_in_2017_what_a_journey/
This Reddit user (SigmaX) practices martial arts with Anki, you will find details in the discussion and here: Anki Practice Cards: Language, Music, Mathematics - Album on Imgur
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In case OP is wondering, here is what SigmaX said about BJJ in one of their reddit comments since I couldn’t find any info about how they use Anki with martial arts in the imgur link.
I do it the same as for anything else: a combination of flash cards and practice cards.
Flash cards can be used a few ways:
Basic terms: as a white belt, I’ve found it useful to use images (and gifs when I can get them) to learn basic descriptions of what “lasso guard,” “de La Riva,” “baseball bat choke,” etc. are).
Principiles and tips: perhaps more useful is making cards that encode key insights about a position. Ex. Saulo Ribeiro’s book talks about how the “scoop manueuver” is motivated by opponents familiarity with bridging defenses—that makes a good “why would I do this?” card to cement understanding. Or when my coach explains to us how going to your “bad side” in back control gives your opponent a specific way of escaping over your shoulder, that’s a good atomic card that helps me improve my long-term understanding of the position.
Observations: finally, a lot of BJJ growth is personal. When I started trying to use Ribeiro’s “scoop,” I found that opponents easily took advantage of it to put me in armbar from back control—so I made a card to remember that vulnerability until I learn how to prevent it!Of course, BJJ is a deep muscle memory skill, so flash cards alone are limited (they are a wonderful support to training, by increasing the amount I retain and my ability to understand a position and what the possible moves are, but they obviously are no substitute for procedural reps!).
Ergo I make practice cards, the same way many of us do for piano practice, math exercises, etc. This adapts Anki into a practice schedule rather than just a flash card app.
All my BJJ practice cards are of the form “demonstrate such-and-such on a dummy” or “demonstrate why such-and-such leaves you vulnerable using a dummy.” Initially these are elementary (“demonstrate a basic triangle choke position on a dummy”), but as I learn more they can become arbitrarily specific and complex. My gym’s curriculum has online videos for each lesson, which makes it easy to create several gif-based cards that I use to get dummy reps in to master & retain the moves we learn in each class.
My dummy is named Larry, and my family knows my BJJ Anki time as the the “time I spend with Larry” in the uncanny valley.
Clearly rolling and drilling with actual human beings is critical to progressing in BJJ. My Anki method supplements that and acts as a force multiplier to make training more effective (and reduces the amount I forget, since even when you attend a gym regularly you naturally forget massive amounts of what you learn from one class to the next!), but does not replace it!
I have heard of folks here on Reddit using Anki socially: instead of “practice with a dummy” they use Anki at the gym to choose what to practice with each other, reportedly to great effect.
This requires having Anki-using BJJ friends, though, which are an extremely rare breed :-).
It looks like the BJJ shared deck is not on AnkiWeb.
Maybe you could DM him and ask him directly if he would be willing to send the deck to you. (Or ask on BJJ Reddit if anyone else has one.)