iMovie and Coaching

So I know that a few of you who read this blog may be wondering why so many blog posts in one day, sorry for the overload! With coaching and life being super busy the first thing to go in my life has been study time, hence the cram to get in all the necessary work for my current COETAIL course on visual literacy.

What I have learned during this course is that to do things 'visually well' takes time. To be a master at all the different technologies out there is unnecessary and means far too much time on the keyboard aiming for perfection. In talking to some other people in the course it was concerning to hear people mention that 'presentation zenning' one PowerPoint took them eight hours... to me this is over the top. When is too much, too much? To answer this I have to pose the question of what will people get out of the time I am investing into each visual improvement. If the person will gain much then perhaps it is worth our time.

In my final project I used iMovie as a coaching tool, something which was very time consuming to say the least, but in my mind incredibly valuable. I wanted to create an instructional video for each of my runners so that they could see themselves running and understand what aspects of their technique needed to change. Here's the process I followed to create a personal instructional video for each of my runners:

1. I videoed all my Cross Country team running using a flip camera (I used four different capture angles)
   
2. The download from the flip camera was super easy through the USB connector. I imported straight into iPhoto, then transferred the footage across to iMovie.
   
3. From here I trimmed each clip so that I had only quality footage.
   
4. I removed the sound from the footage as it didn't aid the instruction
5. I played through the 'movie' and found key points in each runners technique at which I split the clip, created a still or slowed the video even more in order to give time to provide quality feedback.
6. I recorded the voice over directly into iMovie, which was essentially the instructional piece
7. I created some end credits, which summarised my coaching points
8. Played with the sound to ensure it was loud enough, final check...
   
9. Exported to a DVD (or in the case below to You Tube)
   

What I feel I have created is worth my time primarily because of the possibility of change in each of my runners technique, based on the feedback I am giving them. It was enormously time consuming when you add up all the videoing time, editing, voice overs and final touches, however I think it was worth it... I guess I will tell you next season when my runners come back with hopefully improved technique!

Here's an example of the finished product for one of my runners: