Do any of you keep a swim video journal? If so, has it helped you work towards or achieve your goals in swimming? I am just beginning to record my swim events in the weeks leading up to meets so that I'm not just looking at or tracking times, but also, form and technique.
I've personally found videotaping makes weak and strong points in your swimming fairly obvious, whereas numeric or coaching feedback, while effective for other reasons, is not as strong at helping you visualize or correct form/technique. For those of you with experience of recording your swims, what do you recommend in terms of camera angles, how often you record or analyze your videos, how you store or organize your videos if you have a lot of them starting to accumulate, etc.
This thread is also a good place if anyone wants to talk about using video analysis (ex. training videos on YouTube, or videos of swimmers racing or performing proper technique) to improve your swims.
I do not keep a comprehensive journal. On occasion I will ask someone to video a 50 so I can see later what I am doing. Also, I use it often during lessons so my coach can point out my technique flaws and what to do differently, real time. I do find it more effective for me versus description only. I don’t have an intuitive sense of my body position while swimming, and as they say, the tape doesn’t lie (nor the clock).
I want to get a camera on my swimming more consistently, but I don't have a convenient way to do it. What I need is like a wide angle camera with a tripod and a waterproof remote to start it. I'm certain those things exist but I just haven't gone looking.
Agreed - video analysis is a great tool. It's probably the most useful tool for allowing both the coach - to review the swimmers' strokes and hone in on areas that need improvement - and the swimmer - to be able to see themselves swim and understand their stroke technique. We use video analysis with our swimmers at clinics or within the context of workouts. Video analysis is also very useful for coaching from a distance. The best part is that all you need is a phone to take great quality videos!
A chum and i have been experimenting recording our swimming on tablets from poolside
The best thing we have found is to use iPAD slow motion filming ( many tablets dont have this function you have to download to a computer to view in slo mo ).
This reveals an incredible amount of detail, and very interesting if you also record a very good swimmer in slo mo as a comparison. We found all sorts of things to correct
Ah, that slow motion's a fantastic idea! I bet I could take it frame by frame in video software while having a grid overlaid to measure body position. The comparison idea is great too, I'm sure there are a lot of source videos on YouTube.
I'm waiting for the technology to allow an affordable drone which would follow me directly from above at a constant distance and set position. Assume I would have to carry a phone or some other device with me for positioning, but I imagine the awesome videos one can create when swimming at beautiful places.
