Plateau Diagnostic Workbook

Mat Manual companion guide to "The Plateau: Training Hard and Not Improving." Print it, work it with a pencil, and let your own rounds tell you what kind of stuck you are.

Name: ______________________________ Belt / stripes: ______________ School: ______________________________

Training since: ______________ Classes per week right now: ______________ Instructor: ______________________________

How This Workbook Works

Twenty minutes with this page and your memory of the last month of training. Answer the diagnostic flow honestly, in order, and it routes you to a plateau type. Then run the six-week project template for that type. One type at a time, even if two fit. If two fit, start with the one whose test confirmed hardest, and let the second project be next season's work.

The workbook assumes you already train with a session log habit, the one in the First Six Months Plan or your own notebook. If you have no log at all, that fact is itself a finding: run the journal pages in this workbook for four weeks before you trust any diagnosis, including this one. Diagnosing from memory alone is how plateaus get treated with the wrong medicine.

A NOTE ON THE BODY, BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE ☐ If anything hurts sharply, is getting worse week over week, or has changed how you move off the mat, that is a medical question, not a plateau question. Get it looked at first. ☐ No template in this workbook overrides the tap rules: tap early, release instantly, control before submission. ☐ Rest weeks in these templates are training, assigned on purpose. Treat them with the same discipline as hard weeks.