Now you see me, Underwater!
If you frequently read the Friday interview series, you’re sure to note the widespread endorsement of underwater video as the top training aid, ahead of lactate measurement, dryland, and recovery tools. Video analysis, from the coach’s perspective, is all about communication. Sometimes, all you need is a five second video from the deck to show someone they are crossing over with freestyle or backstroke. Other times, you need a more detailed look with software to measuring specific angles or to show off some “bling” to a triathlete enamored by the latest gadgetry.
Fortunately, with the advancement of video technology, the market is replete with video analysis software at all price points. I remember back to my junior golf and little league baseball days when this type of software was not available to the consumer and we’d analyze footage from the VCR by drawing lines on TV with erasable marker (though a couple times a Sharpie snuck in there)! Now you can perform the same analysis on your iPhone or Android for under $5.
Choosing video analysis software depends on two things: First is cost. Fortunately, highly capable systems are available as free downloads. We’ll cover the full range of cost below. Second is need. “Need” can also refer to coaching preference, as some coaches prefer to get into more detail than others. How much detail depends on individual athlete too: some athletes are satiated only by complete information, while others suffer paralysis-by-analysis with any mention of technique.
Below is a review of software with which I have personal experience. This is not a complete survey of the market, but should provide a glimpse into the more popular systems.
Dartfish
Arguably the best performing product on the market…and it better be for the cost. Widely used institutionally in sports and health care. Benefit of wide use is that if you think to yourself, “Wouldn’t it be nice if the software can do [insert feature here]?” there’s a good chance someone has previously thought of that and the feature is already part of the software or is currently in development. The leading companies like Dartfish and V1 Golf (discussed below) are constantly updating their software. Dartfish, like most of the companies, offers a free thirty day trial download to sample these features.
The drawback to Darftish is obviously the cost. If your team needs to sell boxes of do-it-yourself pizza kits to pay the gas to the State meet, Dartfish is probably out of the team budget. A sometimes forgotten consideration is the hardware requirement: Without a quality camera and equipment to keep your camera steady underwater, some of the advanced features become useless. Same applies with cheaper systems, but if you are paying thousands for Dartfish, I assume you want to utilize all it has to offer.
If you just want to point out obvious stroke flaws, you are better served with a cheaper system, although Dartfish does have advantages in user friendliness the ability to communicate with athletes by recording lessons, as in the demo video above. Technical support and continuing education opportunities are extensive but these come at a cost.
Biggest negative to Darftish…No Apple compatitibility. Sorry Steve!
V1 Golf
Don’t be fooled by the “Golf” title into thinking this is only a golf product. Yes, V1 has its largest footprint in golf instruction, but is also used by many other sports such as skiing, tennis, gymnastics, and baseball. There are a variety of options in the V1 menu:
If you have the financial resources, you can’t go wrong with either V1 Pro or Dartfish. Personally, I find V1 to have superior drawing tools, perhaps because these are the primary weapon of the video-based golf instructor. I have also found V1 easier for uploading and downloading videos directly from Youtube.
One way in which the V1 Pro version differs from the cheaper V1 options is the live-screen capture. For coaches doing private lessons, this can be a useful revenue stream, as it already is in golf and baseball. It can also be valuable in coaching professional athletes who travel extensively and need technical instruction while away from home. Likewise, if you can’t do personalized analysis during practice time, you can communicate with your team away from the pool. Here’s an example of how that it is done in a different type of “pool”…Yes, billiards is in the game of video analysis!
Also note the split screen option midway through the video, which is available in most software these days at all price points, but not in the Home (Basic) version of V1 Golf. However, as with Dartfish, if you don’t have quality hardware, many advanced features are useless. Unless you plan to coach remotely and utilize the communicative tools built into a Dartish or V1 Pro, you may find what you need in a cheaper system.
Retailing at $39.95, the 2.0 Premium is basically a stripped down version of the Professional edition. Don’t be fooled by the price, as there is no sacrifice in quality; just fewer features available. Compared to the Free (Basic) version, $39.95 buys the ability to play videos side by side and to record variable speed playback. Otherwise, the products are virtually identical.
The phone apps are a great buy at $4.99 but have limited use on deck for underwater analysis with an iPhone or Android, as you’d have to go through several steps to get the video into the device (that is, until iPhones and Android offer underwater video in their phones…). Best setup for deck analysis would be an iPad if you can remove the storage card from an underwater video camera and insert immediately into the iPad on deck. Even if you just have an iPhone, this is a cheap but potentially useful investment for breaking down starts, above-water video, and dryland exercise form.
Any sports video analysis apps on that iPhone?
Kinesiocapture
This is a relatively new product that I have not used for my own coaching, but have sampled. Overall it has gotten promising reviews from those using it in the sports performance and medical fields. Apple users rejoice, as Kinesiocaputre is ONLY compatible with Apple products. Versions are available for both the iPad and iPhone, priced at $299 and $49 respectively.
Several tutorial videos are available on the Kinesiocapture website detailing its features. As with most Apple-based products, Kinesiocapture rates high in aesthetics, interfaces nicely with Apple’s superior multimedia elements, and has an intuitive flow to its setup. Look for this product to get even better with updates in the next few years.
Kinovea
Kinovea is a free, open source system that is a well-kept secret, perhaps because they are based in Europe. Unlike the cheaper and free versions of V1 Golf, you can save analysis drawings that you make on the screen. You can’t record an entire lesson as with Dartfish and V1 Golf Pro, but you can save and share pictures as part of an edited video. For example, if you wanted to measure the elbow angle in a freestyle catch, you could measure this angle on the screen and save the image within a video, but you can’t save any voiceover.
Other features are relatively similar to other products on the market, though Kinovea does offer a split screen option, unlike the free version of V1, and is more advanced as a video editor (cutting and pasting clips). Personally, I prefer Kinovea to V1 for objects moving across the screen, but find V1 more intuitive for face-on views underwater, and stationary movements as in golf, hitting, throwing, or in-place exercises. One nice touch with Kinovea is that adding a watermark to your videos is simple.
Summary
These are hardly the only products on the market for video analysis, but all are well regarded. You might find that you don’t need any analysis tools. However, if you want to explore the options, quality software is only a free download away. If you want to spend more, you can find value at all price points from under $40 to several thousand. Always consider the quality of your camera and other hardware first before making any software investment.
By Allan Phillips. Allan and his wife Katherine are heavily involved in the strength and conditioning community, for more information refer to Pike Athletics.Fortunately, with the advancement of video technology, the market is replete with video analysis software at all price points. I remember back to my junior golf and little league baseball days when this type of software was not available to the consumer and we’d analyze footage from the VCR by drawing lines on TV with erasable marker (though a couple times a Sharpie snuck in there)! Now you can perform the same analysis on your iPhone or Android for under $5.
Choosing video analysis software depends on two things: First is cost. Fortunately, highly capable systems are available as free downloads. We’ll cover the full range of cost below. Second is need. “Need” can also refer to coaching preference, as some coaches prefer to get into more detail than others. How much detail depends on individual athlete too: some athletes are satiated only by complete information, while others suffer paralysis-by-analysis with any mention of technique.
Below is a review of software with which I have personal experience. This is not a complete survey of the market, but should provide a glimpse into the more popular systems.
Dartfish
Arguably the best performing product on the market…and it better be for the cost. Widely used institutionally in sports and health care. Benefit of wide use is that if you think to yourself, “Wouldn’t it be nice if the software can do [insert feature here]?” there’s a good chance someone has previously thought of that and the feature is already part of the software or is currently in development. The leading companies like Dartfish and V1 Golf (discussed below) are constantly updating their software. Dartfish, like most of the companies, offers a free thirty day trial download to sample these features.
The drawback to Darftish is obviously the cost. If your team needs to sell boxes of do-it-yourself pizza kits to pay the gas to the State meet, Dartfish is probably out of the team budget. A sometimes forgotten consideration is the hardware requirement: Without a quality camera and equipment to keep your camera steady underwater, some of the advanced features become useless. Same applies with cheaper systems, but if you are paying thousands for Dartfish, I assume you want to utilize all it has to offer.
If you just want to point out obvious stroke flaws, you are better served with a cheaper system, although Dartfish does have advantages in user friendliness the ability to communicate with athletes by recording lessons, as in the demo video above. Technical support and continuing education opportunities are extensive but these come at a cost.
V1 Golf
Don’t be fooled by the “Golf” title into thinking this is only a golf product. Yes, V1 has its largest footprint in golf instruction, but is also used by many other sports such as skiing, tennis, gymnastics, and baseball. There are a variety of options in the V1 menu:
- Pro (starts at $1,295)
- Home: Premium ($39.95)
- Home: Basic (Free)
- Apps for iPad, iPhone, and Android ($4.99)
If you have the financial resources, you can’t go wrong with either V1 Pro or Dartfish. Personally, I find V1 to have superior drawing tools, perhaps because these are the primary weapon of the video-based golf instructor. I have also found V1 easier for uploading and downloading videos directly from Youtube.
One way in which the V1 Pro version differs from the cheaper V1 options is the live-screen capture. For coaches doing private lessons, this can be a useful revenue stream, as it already is in golf and baseball. It can also be valuable in coaching professional athletes who travel extensively and need technical instruction while away from home. Likewise, if you can’t do personalized analysis during practice time, you can communicate with your team away from the pool. Here’s an example of how that it is done in a different type of “pool”…Yes, billiards is in the game of video analysis!
Also note the split screen option midway through the video, which is available in most software these days at all price points, but not in the Home (Basic) version of V1 Golf. However, as with Dartfish, if you don’t have quality hardware, many advanced features are useless. Unless you plan to coach remotely and utilize the communicative tools built into a Dartish or V1 Pro, you may find what you need in a cheaper system.
Retailing at $39.95, the 2.0 Premium is basically a stripped down version of the Professional edition. Don’t be fooled by the price, as there is no sacrifice in quality; just fewer features available. Compared to the Free (Basic) version, $39.95 buys the ability to play videos side by side and to record variable speed playback. Otherwise, the products are virtually identical.
Any sports video analysis apps on that iPhone?
Kinesiocapture
This is a relatively new product that I have not used for my own coaching, but have sampled. Overall it has gotten promising reviews from those using it in the sports performance and medical fields. Apple users rejoice, as Kinesiocaputre is ONLY compatible with Apple products. Versions are available for both the iPad and iPhone, priced at $299 and $49 respectively.
Several tutorial videos are available on the Kinesiocapture website detailing its features. As with most Apple-based products, Kinesiocapture rates high in aesthetics, interfaces nicely with Apple’s superior multimedia elements, and has an intuitive flow to its setup. Look for this product to get even better with updates in the next few years.
Kinovea
Kinovea is a free, open source system that is a well-kept secret, perhaps because they are based in Europe. Unlike the cheaper and free versions of V1 Golf, you can save analysis drawings that you make on the screen. You can’t record an entire lesson as with Dartfish and V1 Golf Pro, but you can save and share pictures as part of an edited video. For example, if you wanted to measure the elbow angle in a freestyle catch, you could measure this angle on the screen and save the image within a video, but you can’t save any voiceover.
Other features are relatively similar to other products on the market, though Kinovea does offer a split screen option, unlike the free version of V1, and is more advanced as a video editor (cutting and pasting clips). Personally, I prefer Kinovea to V1 for objects moving across the screen, but find V1 more intuitive for face-on views underwater, and stationary movements as in golf, hitting, throwing, or in-place exercises. One nice touch with Kinovea is that adding a watermark to your videos is simple.
Summary
These are hardly the only products on the market for video analysis, but all are well regarded. You might find that you don’t need any analysis tools. However, if you want to explore the options, quality software is only a free download away. If you want to spend more, you can find value at all price points from under $40 to several thousand. Always consider the quality of your camera and other hardware first before making any software investment.
