Timing ourselves in practice made easy
Get a digital video camera. Put it on a tripod. Get someone to yell: Bang! Then let the camera roll as you sprint from the blocks. Rinse and repeat. Then import the video to your computer and check it out in some appropriate editing software. That, in a nutshell, is how to time yourself to a better accuracy than just a finger on a stopwatch.
The issue was raised in a masterstf Yahoo Groups post by M40 sprinter Jimson Lee in Canada. He also cites an extraordinary discussion of how to set up a vide timing device by Andy Hecker.
I haven’t tried this yet. (I have all the tools needed, though.) But it sure takes me back a few decades.
In spring 1970 or 1971, coach Robert “Mike” Cummins at Valencia High School in Placentia, California, rolled a monster audio-video cart out to the track. On the cart was a behemoth monitor on one level and a video recorder on another. I don’t remember what the video camera looked like.
But he used this ancient contraption to tape his sprinters and hurdlers, and show them their form in practice. Probably one of his “mandatory” Saturday morning workouts (which now are extinct for a variety of reasons).
Anyhoo, I don’t recall what I looked like in that old video. It probably wasn’t kept. Probably was taped over. I was 15 or 16 and didn’t care.
I just envy the kids today, who not only get to see themselves on tape but also can archive the videos for future study. And for posterity.
