The rumors of my death have been grossly exaggerated. My hernia operation was a great success. I am back training and not running on land.
I was bike riding with my wife who is a ski bunny. She travels to ski clinics where her instructor does video analysis every day. His contention is that your perception of what you are doing has nothing to do with reality. My swim classes are starting anew this week. I videotape every class. Before I show each person’s video I warn them that will not like or recognize what they see. There is a universal “that can’t be me swimming like that.” “Does my arm really do that? Do my hips swing that much? Damn, I have no kick.”
Only when you know what you are actually doing can you make a change in technique. Watch your video and relate what you think you are doing with reality. Swimming correctly is the fastest way to get faster. Conditioning only grooves in patterns and give you endurance.
It does take time out of your training regimen to get videotaped. It is worth the time.
I videotape above water. I want to see what is happening on recovery because it affects what happens under the water.
I usually stand on a platform so that I can also see the underwater stroke. Sometimes I stand on a lifeguard stand an tape straight down. You get to see arm entry, hips, kick and underwater stroke.
I have found that video tape is good but until now I haven’t had the means to incloude it every day.
One success was with an athlete who brought his own camcorder and had a very specific issue to resolve. He swam 50, I taped him and showed him the tape immediately. Repeat the process, one more time and bingo problem solved.
I have had less success with people with many things to work on. in those cases I think the issue may be that they have such poor kinesthetic awareness that the video presents TOO MUCH at once. With those people I go back one step in the instruct, perform, correct cycle. I go back to the overall mental model of swimming and make sure they have that. In many cases they don’t in fact have the overall mental model.
Then, once re established. We can then compare what they are doing to their mental image of what they should do and go from there. Then after a while if there is still a real disconnect I am looking into video.
I recently ordered a small mini dv camcorder and hope to be able to have it at every practice. The viewfinder will allow for instant feedback of the swimmer immediately after the action is performed.
A year ago I had a video clinic where we rented and underwater camera. I structured it improperly though. I had the person swim, then we reviewed the video and they got notes on what to work on. I SHOULD have had video - intruction and practice, re video so that they could see the differences.
Like you Doug, I find a traditional camera very good for feedback. Underwatre is a plus, but standard video is a big jump in performance.
Video above water is very useful and gives indirect information about what goes on underwater, but inderwater video tells so much more. I use video heavily in instruction for both swimming and running and find it invaluable. I have a quick, well-trained eye, but when I click through an athlete’s stroke or stride 1/32 of a seconed at a time, the camera sees things my eyes wouldn’t pick up. Ken
I am one of those ski instructors who use Video to help guests with Telemark skiing and Track skiing. It is a very important learning tool. And you are correct, the first comment is ‘That can’t be me!’ It is usually a very sober crowd after the Video Analysis, especially when it’s done in an Instructor Clinic/Exam! It is good for all skiers, from the ‘never ever’ to the full-on racers to be able to see their technique in real time.
I had my wife video me running. When compared to the images in Ken’s new DVD, I felt like I looked more like ‘Mr. Bad Example’ than any of his ‘Good Examples’. Again, I had the same comment: ’ Oh my God, that can’t be me!'.
I tape an entire class and show general errors that occur in swimming. Then as I teach my class I refer back to the errors. I refer to a drill which is specific to an error. At the end of my six week course I videotape again and ask each person to critique his/her swim. They are not perfect but they are now aware of what errors look like and how to correct them.
In my advanced classes I videotape every third week. I tape one lane at a time and then pull them out while the rest of the group is still swimming. The group that has seen their video goes back into the water to work on correcting the error they observed.
I use a Sony PC1. It is very small and has a screen large enough to view. I also keep a TV on the deck of the pool so that I can plug my camera right in.
I absolutely love video tape analysis. I’m thinking about buying a video camera and one of the primary reasons is so that we can do video analysis of my TNT group swimming and running. I just got back from a PT session where the therapist videotaped me running and showed me some things that I need to work on. I have been taped in the past with other activities and I like it a lot.
Videoing has become a key eliment in cricket coaching for improving techniques, learning how to play certain bowlers or bowl to certain batsmen. I guess in all technique sports it can have a great influence.
I wondered if you ever use mental imagery in your coaching? Again for cricket this is now seen as a growing coaching area. Evidently simalar responses are created in the brain etc if you are imagining doing something as when you are actualy doing some thing - and of course when your are imagining something your are more likely to be imagaining the correct technque.
We use visualization constantly. I say, “picture yourself gliding through the water effortlessly.” Or, “notice how your shoulder then elbow recover over the water.” “Imagine you are the fasteest swimmer in the world.”
I also ask my swimmers what time they will hit for a certain swim. Before they takeoff they must visualize the swim and the final time. They are very accurate.