Using sparring videos as a training tool

[Bob D]

Hi everyone.
I'm Bob & I train with the Australian College of arms down in Brisbane (Australia obviously). Though the extent of my video anaylsis so far has been looking at bout footage and thinking to myself 'I remember myself being much faster and more coordinated than this video would indicate' I've been searching for some tools to help with this.

The first I found is Kinovea which is a Windows based open source video analysis program for sports http://www.kinovea.org/en/
It's got slow-mo replay, frame by frame and has measuring, tracking and marking tools. The only downside so far is video export is twitchy. I've been unable to get it to output footage with the proper timing - everything seems double speed. Though if you stick to using the video in program that won't be an issue. There is even the potential to go through bout & tournament footage to work on stats tracking.

The other is Tracker Video Analyisis and Modeling http://www.cabrillo.edu/~dbrown/tracker/
I haven't used this as much, it lacks the sports focused toolset of Kinovea though there is probably lots of really smart things you can do with it if you are clever. At the very leat it gives you slo-mo replay.

[Jeffrey Hull]

Okay, how about some dissent?

So they never had videography back circa 1389-1570. They got by without it. Presumably they produced deadly fencers.

Why do we need it?

[Francesco Lanza]

Okay, how about some dissent?

So they never had videography back circa 1389-1570. They got by without it. Presumably they produced deadly fencers.

Why do we need it?

If they just had an iPhone or two back in the times, then there would be no need for the "presumably" and we would know about their deadliness for certain

[Richard Marsden]

Example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXNqHfdLImg

From a teacher perspective. Kyle has been at this a little over 6 months, but he has a martial arts background, is highly athletic and is able to not only take what we teach him, but also learn from other sources as well. For him, we show video to show distinct progress, but also to show behavior against varied opponents and so on.

Ryan has been on again and off-again and is not primarily a longsword fencer, and he's very new to steel. We use video to show him what went right and what did not, and how to fix it. Positive reinforcement is important. It's easy to nit-pick, but if the participants have no signs of success it might dissuade them, or they'll miss out on what they are doing correctly.

It's pretty handy!

[Jeff Ross]

I fully agree on the value of video. We video all sparring sessions and review them at the end of the evening. Video can be critical in identifying technical flaws, but can also be very useful in identifying what actually happened. A surprising number of times plays did not actually happen exactly the way we thought they did in the moment. Frame by frame replay and HD are helpful here. 120 fps would be nice to have someday. The only difficulty we have found is that we really need (but don't have) at least cameras going from different angles. Its amazing how often something we really wanted to see is obscured by the body of one of the fighters just at the interesting moment.

Jeff Ross