Finally got my videos from the seminar uploaded. I'm not sure there's much to be gleaned from them but maybe they're interesting to someone somewhere who's never seen Dartfish before. In the side by side videos, the one on the left was the first run. In both cases the second run (on the left) was faster. In the first set of runs Cody knocked the first bar on the second run because I took off from the start a bit too enthusiastically in an effort to get Cody to extend over the second jump. This was on suggestion from Julie but of course I went a bit over the top from what she was suggesting and took Cody by surprise causing him to knock the bar. We almost never have bar knocking issues so I didn't worry about it too much. I also pushed Cody out a bit after the front cross to set a better line for the turn before the weaves (again on Julie's suggestion) and this worked really nicely. Cody had a much smoother turn over the triple and cut closer to the wing.
It's interesting to pause the video, esp. on the side by side clips, to see the comparison.
The seocnd set of runs was even less interesting. The only thing I did differently on run 2 was to send Cody off to the second jump after the front cross and quickly turn and run down the line of jumps in an attempt to get him to turn tighter. Julie suggested that I could have turned and run even faster and she's probably right but I hate turning by back on Cody for too long. Something to practice. Those post turns are a challenge for us, I was surprised we didn't get the off course jump.
The last video was a simple 3 jump pinwheel using the 'strobe' feature. The purpose was to analyze jumping style which was interesting but more confirmed what I already suspected (Cody's got pretty good jumping form). It looks kind of cool anyway.
I did end up going for a ride yesterday and it was fantabulous. The same 2 hour ride on country dirt roads that I did last week and it felt a bit better, was a few minutes faster. However today's 30 minute run was pure torture. I haven't run on pavement in months and since most of the sidewalks in my neighborhood were finally clear I thought it would be a novelty to run on solid ground rather than sliding all over the remaining snow & mud on the trails. The first 10 minutes felt like someone was jabbing shards of glass into my knees and this finally gave way to the sensation of someone plunging a screwdriver into my low back. I wouldn't think it would have made all that much difference but apparently I need to ease back into running on concrete. It's been several months and I rarely run on it anyway so maybe it kind of makes sense but sheesh.
Unfortunately the videos don't work well for me. Don't know why not. On their own, they just jump thru the sequence in about 3 steps; I can get a sense of motion only by dragging the slider manually, and that's not very smooth either. Oh, well...
ReplyDeleteBummer about your body rebelling against that concrete. Looks like we've all got things to work on--all the time!--to get back to where we were. I walked a bit over amile today and I was dragging noticeably by the end. Even 6 months ago, a mile would've been a blip on my radar. Good luck in working back into it. Hope you didn't make yourself miserably sore for tomorrow.
-ellen
Elayne,
ReplyDeleteAwesome videos! A picture paints a million words. It is so true that dogs are very forgiving with the mistakes we make and they still love us. Love to see how the invisible were made visible on your videos!!
Alan Tay
Hum, I don't know why the videos don't work for you. Here's a direct link to them at Treemo: http://www.treemo.com/users/colliebrains/channel/
ReplyDeleteThey're the 5 videos on the top and the titles for them should show when you pass a mouse over them. If that doesn't work I can try uploading to my vimeo account but I won't have time for that until Tues. or Weds. night.
And a big thanks to Alan, he's the videographer for the above videos and did a good job of pointing out Dartfish's many features during the seminar.
Dang, it looks like it timed out on my post and didn't save it, so I'm trying again and hoping that this doesn't end up beign a duplicate.
ReplyDeleteThe treemo site worked good. Also got stuck watching the previous video, which was the steeplechase finals from november, to see who might be posted. Hard to tell all of them from the low-res posting and couldn't hear all the names, but one of our instructors (Jim Basic) was in that cut, so that's nifty.
I noticed that Cody's number of steps between jumps in a pinwheel is uneven. Goes from 2 or 3 to 5, which is a lot to take between 2 jumps. In the one where all you do is the pinwheel, it looked like you let up in intensity, although I think your shoulder position is OK. But it happens again in a t least one other video in the middle of a sequence, those 5 steps in a pinwheel. I'm not a good enough instructor, after watching each several times, to identify what might be causing it. So I guess I'm saying that I have nothing useful to say at all. :-)
-ellen
Those 5 steps in the pinwheel only sequence were due to a very wide turn. Julie did point out that I could have got him turning much tighter. Those big wide turns are a constant problem for us.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where else he's taking 5 steps in a pinwheel, I'll look more closely at the original videos when I get home. It's almost certainly due to a wide turn though.
I have better quality files of the steeplechase and the grand prix from Nationals. I'd be happy to email them to you if your email can handle the file, just let me know. Which reminds me, I meant to post my grand prix videos a long time ago and completely forgot. The joys of senility.
Ooh, cool, would love to have the higher-rez videos, and yes my email should be able to handle it. elf (at) finchester (dot) org.
ReplyDeleteEvery other year that I've gone to the nationals, I've had my videocamera AND my SLR in the stands with me for the various finals, and have either taped it myself or conned a friend into doing so while I snapped shots. This year--I just wanted to sit! So that's what I did. So I'd love to have the full things.
-ellen