Coaching tools

Important Information

	This information does not take into account your individual objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider the appropriateness of this information in relation to your own situation before acting on it. The information displayed in these pages is the opinion of the writer, it is for entertainment purposes only.
	The information displayed here is for the purpose of sharing coaching knowledge, I do not promote myself as a 'coach's coach' in fact I'm just an average coach.

Video Analysis system

this page contains details of the system I use which includes a notebook computer, video camera and Pro trainer software.

Ankle Squeakers

Use it for training air position in doubles and triples.

The Kodak easyshare M series digital camera,

it does HD video with playback frame by frame forward and backwards,.

I don't sell these and I have no vested interest in their promotion!

It also has a large 3" screen, 3 times optical zoom, video is HD (720p) and 30 fps (frames per second), plays back video frame by frame forward and backwards, is very easy to use and SMALL ENOUGH to fit in your coach jacket so you can carry it around on the ice.

it is great for skill analysis, not so great for videoing an entire program as the 3 times optical zoom is limiting, the optical zoom means it can zoom without any loss of quality, it also has a digital zoom which when used does mean a loss of quality, but generally if you are at the side of the rink at the boards/barrier and the skater is in the middle then this is about as far as you can go.

Don't forget to buy a memory card for it if you don't already have one, it takes SD cards.

This model has now been superseded by newer models which also stores the videos in MP4 format (compressed), I only paid $159 CAD$ for it, plus taxes.

Also have a look at the :-

Casio High-Speed Exilim EX-FC100 9 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-inch LCD, it does 210 Frames per second and has a 5 times optical zoom.

Here is an example of some video I shot with the Kodak M1033, right click here and select 'save as', then open.

Now enough about the hardware, how can a coach make use of these cameras?

Well have a look at the video of Melodie's double toe loop, then answer these questions :-

1. Was the jump clean or would it likely be downgraded, remember under the IJS the technical specialist has the same framer by frame video replay ability as this camera gives ?
2. What does the right elbow do in the air (flight time)?
3. What does the head do on takeoff?
4. Is the right knee straight in the air?
5. Does the skater make ankle contact in the air?
6. Does the skater have sufficient air time to rotate this jump?

To see the answers to these questions click here.