It’s tough to over-state the importance of video analysis for triathlon. It’s tough to see yourself, and our spatial awareness and proprioception can fool us, especially if we don’t have a point of reference. This past weekend I sat down with a client who had been working on his running form based on what he’d read. He thought he was on the right track, but after seeing video of himself from the race, his comment was « Oh god! » Going forward, not only does he have a much better idea of what to work on, but we now have a benchmark to compare back to.
Running, and especially swimming, are technical sports. Think about other, higher profile technical sports, and try and come up with an example that does not use video as a basic training tool. Thousand-dollar motion capture software and a swimming flume are nice, but they are certainly not required. Even a simple video from your phone can go a long way. Ask your coach about video, and if you don’t have one, we’d be happy to help.
Here’s an example of GoPro footage from a recent AOT swim workout.
Steen Rose is the owner and Head Coach of Athletes On Track and an Elite Coach for Training Bible Coaching. He has been competing in cycling and multisport events for 16 years with 14 state titles and 3 national medals to his name. He has been coaching since 2003 and works with all ages and abilities of athletes locally, nationally, and abroad. He can be reached at srose@trainingbible.com
I missed a great occasion to plugg my business it appears LOL
One of the difficulties in getting viable swim footage is that more and more, compact cameras are a no-no in several public pools.
The Swim Training Day concept can help in this regard. I offer 2hour workshop opened to 4 people of a similar level, which include as much as 200m of recorded swim, perfectly suitable for video analysis. The cost for this is 50$ per participant, and you can either contact me on my blog, ie by creating a login, or by email.
http://blog.swimtrainingday.com
http://blog.swimtrainingday.com/en/td_montreal_dec18_2011
swimtrainingday@gmail.com
Note: A full blown Training Day (featured in this second link I provided above) is no more no less than 7 hours of fun swimming which splits into the following activities:
- 3hr of training
- 2hr of drilling
- Several dryland activities (stretching, video analysis)
- Video analysis
It’s a portable concept in that I can travel with it. Again it’s possible to *order* yours, though for the next 12 months our activities are likely going to be limited to Montreal/Quebec/Gatineau
Charles G. Couturier