Watching Yourself

Monday, 15 February 2010

I can remember years ago when camcorders came out, that it was the big thing to video yourself taking a swing. Then you would watch yourself later, on the TV and see if you could spot any mistakes, like lifting the head too soon or not bringing the club up at the right angle.

In this day and age, it's so simple to video yourself training because everyone's mobile phone has a video recorder on it, just about. Even if it isn't hi-def, 1080p the subsequent footage could reveal a lot about your technique and possibly help you correct some really obvious mistakes.

As an instructor, I'm used to looking at people and watching them to see if I can help them improve their technique. However, on Saturday I was making some video notes with my brother reviewing some of the Kali we did at Guro Inosanto's seminar the previous weekend.

It's now a lot easier to film what you do at a seminar than take notes and try and describe the complex movements on paper. Have you noticed that the descriptions hardly ever make much sense 6 months later unless you are continuously practising the drills. (In which case the notes aren't needed!!)

So I was looking back on the video clips and putting some video titles on the clips when I noticed some mistakes I was making during the drills. I then went back and watched the clips casting my eye as an instructor upon myself and my brother. Now I have some finer details I need to improve upon.

So my advice is: Film yourself frequently and look at yourself afterwards with a view to spotting any mistakes, just like the golfing guys did back in the day when the camcorder first came out. You might learn something about yourself.