Video Analysis
Video analysis is a technique where the coaches will video the athlete and then play them back to see what things that they are doing wrong. This technique is very effective because you watch the footage back frame by frame. This is highly beneficial because both the coach and the athletes can see what their strengths and weaknesses are. It also has some weakness to it though. When looking at a video you can physically fix it, you can only visually see what you’re doing wrong. This technique can also lead to over thinking what you should be doing which decreases the technique entirely.
Biomechanical analysis is a type of video analysis that looks at the forces created and what forces are acting on the body of the athlete when they are performing a certain movement. For example, when a footballer takes a penalty, the biomechanical analysis would calculate the speed of the foot and how much force that he puts into his shot. This would result in the coach being able to improve the technique of the performer so that he can increase the amount of force and the efficiency of the muscles creating that force.
Video analysis is a very good way to help an athlete perform better in their chosen sport. It does this by showing them tangible evidence which can be directly looked at both by the coach and the athlete involved in the movement. A very good example of this is when a golfer is trying to improve their swing, the use a program called CSwing. CSwing puts a video of the performer and a video of a professional (with the perfect swing) side by side. You can draw onto the picture and compare the angles between the body and the club, the arm and the chest to see what the performer is doing wrong. This also identifies in clear cut evidence the good and bad points of their performance. Similar software can be used for nearly all sports where technique is very necessary
There are no limitations to this program as you can get all sports types on it and evaluate it. On limiting factor would be the availability of equipment for the athlete and coach to use, e.g. the camera or the computer for them to use it on. Without this equipment then ypou cannot use this type of analysis to any extent, except from analysing the professional vidoes without the comparison of a client. Another limiting factor would be the cost of the program to use this type of analysis as it is quite costly to buy and keep it updated. But it is a very easy program to use and requires no specialised personnel to use it.
Goal setting
Goal setting is a very good coaching technique because it something that can be measured and can be visually seen. Although this technique is very effective there are some down sides to them. If the coach doesn’t give the individual enough motivation to complete the target or the facilities to complete the target then they won’t be able to achieve it. There are 4 different types of goal setting; ST- Short term, MT- midterm, LT-long term and SMART- specific measurable achievable realistic and time bound. These 4 cover all the different types of targets possible for example a good short term target could be to dribble the ball down the court more often or pass the ball more often in football. This is a target that can easily be achieved very quickly because the performer already has the skill to do it but just needs to practise it in a game situation.
A good midterm target would be something similar to the short term target but it would involve something that needs to take a bit longer (usually a few months). A good target would be in windsurfing when you’re at an advanced level, a midterm goal you could have would be to get into your harness and foot straps. This is normally quite hard as you have to learn a slightly altered technique but when you have learnt it and it feel natural you will be able to perform more advanced things to do with the sport. A good long term goal would be