WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VIDEO ANALYSIS
Modern technology allows everybody to have and easily use video cameras letting us have a look at ourselves from aside. It is particularly important to do when we are talking about movement in order to get some feedback. So the idea of having a feedback is very good, if you know what to look for. Video analysis, being a seemingly simple thing, will not give you any result, if it does not contain an accepted standard to compare your performance with, and if you do not have special knowledge for performing such analysis not only qualitatively, but also quantitatively.
There are lots of ongoing topics on the Pose Tech running forum about video analysis and there are lots of real video clips posted for this purpose. Certainly, it is a good thing, helping many people to get over their mistakes in learning, but it is important for us to see what we are analyzing from the point of view, mentioned above. We do not do video analysis to discuss somebody’s body shape or the surrounding landscape.
The main reason for our efforts to go through video analysis is to see and understand how much we are out of form, out of standard. By definition, deviation from the standard is an error. So this is our purpose for doing video analysis – to find and correct our errors by comparing our performance to the standard.
By correcting our performance, we’ll not only avoid injuries, but we’ll also learn to run better, more efficiently. A proper made video analysis allows us to get rid of our errors, before they could get worse. The main benefit of a good video analysis is that we are developing our perception of movement, running, which will eventually lead to more perfect performance. The main parameters of a good video analysis are the following: presence of the standard, proper angles and distance of videotaping allowing us to see deviations from a standard.
A video analysis, which doesn’t meet the above requirements, has no sense for our practical application and it means wasted time and efforts. For this matter only someone who has an experience and knowledge of conducting this procedure should do video analysis. Usually it is better, if this procedure is done by an educated coach, or someone who has, at least, some experience in it
How often do we need to do this? At the beginning of your learning the new running technique, it should be done basically at every training. After some time, when your technique gets more stable, you’ll need it less, but you shouldn’t drop it completely. I would recommend to keep video analysis as an important part of your training on at least a weekly base, while going through major elements of Pose technique: Fall-Pull, counting number of frames for each element, for the body position, and body parts position during support. It is even better to see how your technique varies depending on distance and speed. There is so much to see on your way, as your training get deeper and more complex. There is so much to learn about yourself.
Dr.Romanov
