Slow Motion Video Training Resources

Video feedback is one of the most valuable training tools for an athlete. Here are some simple resources you can use for video analysis on your own!

For Mobile Devices

One of the easiest ways to receive live feedback when you’re practicing on your own is to take a video with your smartphone or tablet and immediately watch it frame by frame, comparing what you see to what you know you should be doing. Recently, for example, I had a student who was learning a backhand flip change-up. It wasn’t working, and when we watched the video it was immediately apparent that her hand was coming into the throw zone in fastball position.

There are probably many apps out there that get the job done, but I’m going to share my favorites. All of these methods are either extremely inexpensive or free.

Coach’s Eye is the most comprehensive. You can read all about it here, but to summarize briefly, it allows you to take a video, import it into the app, and the scrub through it in slow motion while doing things like zooming, drawing on it, comparing it side by side with another video, etc. It’s pretty awesome. If you’re a coach, it also lets you record your analysis and send it to your athletes. Coach’s Eye costs $4.99 and it’s well worth it.

VideoPix is what I use most often during my own lessons. It’s IOS only, as far as I know, and it’s a simple frame-by-frame video player with no frills. When I’m physically there with the student and I can talk and point, I usually forego the more comprehensive tools of Coach’s Eye in favor of quickness. This might also be a good solution for you if you’re not that tech savvy and would prefer something simple, with as few options as possible. It costs 99 cents in the Apple app store.

I personally don’t have an Android device, but I found something called SlowPlay on Google Play. I can’t vouch for it, but it sounds like it accomplishes the same thing as VideoPix. It’s free.

On Your Computer

If you’re filming with a regular camera, or simply prefer to view video on a larger screen, you can easily watch videos in slow motion or frame by frame using a program called VLC. It’s free to download. Many other video players probably get the job done, but I always recommend VLC because it plays just about any type of media on any type of computer.

You can speed up or slow down a video in VLC by hitting the + or – buttons on your keyboard. You can pause and scrub forward one frame at a time by pressing the “e” key repeatedly.

If You’re Not Sure What You’re Looking At

If you’ve successfully watched your slow motion video and still don’t know what’s going wrong, that’s where we come in! Check out our comprehensive video analysis.