video tape practice sessions or not

J

judochoke

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I can get a video camera from amazon, there best seller for a small hand video camera, for 65 bucks. if I paractice for two hours a night, 7 days a week, that would be 14 hours of video to watch on my computer. seems kind of lame to watch myself.

I know what im doing wrong when I miss, and I just reshoot and correct the mistake.

I do use my iPhone for short videos to check myself.

whats the verdict????
 
Video taping is a great way to improve one's game. It brings an element of objectivity and proof. You do not have to rely on your memory or your perception of what might have gone wrong.

However, video taping that much play is not useful.


Use the video camera, but video tape yourself doing a drill and executing different kinds of shots and see what area of your stance or stroke needs correction. It's better to catch more angles of a single type of drill or shot than it is to video tape dozens of hours of general practice.

All that will do is tell you what you did wrong the times you did miss. Which could be for any number of reasons. Even pros miss, and they miss for various reasons themselves. Chasing down the causes of that is not productive because there's no such thing as perfection.

Video is useful to catch and correct repeat-errors, or consistent flaws in a stroke or stance. To identify habits and trends.
 
I think video is a great way to get outside yourself and see objectively what you do. I think the most effective setup would be a direct feed to a screen that you can watch live while stroking/shooting, so you can make corrections and see how your stroke looks and feels in real time. Like a mirror that you can see from anywhere around you.

pj
chgo
 
Definitely. I was/am in a bit of a slump coming off a nice winning streak with really good play. Would like to get back there. Recorded a set with the ghost, that I barely won and saw my stoke looking a little wonky... not entirely straight, a bit more wobbly then usual LOL. Was causing misses on shots that should not be misses and also position errors.

Been focusing on keep my stroke straight the last 2 days.

I just use my phone and record a race to 5 with the ghost. Hill Hill was a little over a half hour. Fortunately I have an SD card for my phone to record the set. Just gotta make sure I have a pretty good charge before I start recording.
 
Patrick Johnson said:
I think video is a great way to get outside yourself and see objectively what you do. I think the most effective setup would be a direct feed to a screen that you can watch live while stroking/shooting, so you can make corrections and see how your stroke looks and feels in real time. Like a mirror that you can see from anywhere around you.

pj
chgo
Click to expand...


This is good too, but adding that the monitor should be in your line of sight as if you were shooting a ball. Otherwise, it will not be an accurate representation of your stance if you have to move your head in any way to view it, or elevate your head, torso or whatever outside what it would regularly be during an actual shot.
 
judochoke said:
I can get a video camera from amazon, there best seller for a small hand video camera, for 65 bucks. if I paractice for two hours a night, 7 days a week, that would be 14 hours of video to watch on my computer. seems kind of lame to watch myself.

I know what im doing wrong when I miss, and I just reshoot and correct the mistake.

I do use my iPhone for short videos to check myself.

whats the verdict????
Click to expand...

Also to further expand what I said in a more specific reply...

I don't feel you need to watch the full 14 hours of video... I say record your session with the ghost and watch that. Win or lose. Like a race to 5. That's roughly 30 mins of nothing but you shooting in a competitive manner. You will dog balls and you may be able to identify why.

To add another element too it just to get a bit more competitive footage. If you get out of line or have a funky cluster. Play safe and take ball in hand if the safe hooks. Sure this isnt playing the ghost for real, but it's going to show you how your safes are working as well and you will be able to go back and watch to see if a better safe was available.

You are not only looking for errors. Also look at what you are doing right. Look at what works for you. Look at your shot selections and paths you are taking. Compare them to pro matches you have seen. Would a pro take the path you took? Would a pro be on that side of the ball? etc etc...

Just my opinion. See my disclaimer below.
 
Video is a great way to find your problems. Like said above, drills are your friend when trying to find problem areas such as:

Do I steer the cue?
Am I stronger to the left or right?
Am I hitting the CB where I intend to?
Do I have a PSR?
.............etc....etc

I use drills to find and fix problems and use ghost races to test the results.
 
Yes, absolutely video yourself.

No, you do not video every time you play.

Video up to 30-60 minutes of drills and straight pool periodically.

Review your stroke, stance, execution and position play, i.e., cue ball speed.

Too much video is just wasteful & boring but no video whatsoever is just primitive.


Matt B.
 
I have a permanent setup with the camera mounted on the wall, and the video being fed into my computer with an HDMI cable, and saved directly from the camera to my computer's hard drive. I control everything from my computer. No ladders to climb.

If I'm practicing the ghost or straight pool, I'll put the record button on, incase I make a high run. Or, if I'm practicing a WWYD layout from AZB, I'll turn the camera on so I can post it here. If the recording was nothing I want to keep (high run, etc), then I delete it from my computer's hard drive right away.

When I first got the camera, I thought I would use it to find my weaknesses, by playing a session with the ghost, reviewing the footage, and taking a screenshot of every shot I messed up. That would give me tons of shots to practice later. I got lazy and never did that more than once or twice. Your laziness may vary;)

In my personal experience, the main advantage of having a permanently mounted camera is convenience. I can see a shot on here someone posted, and 10 minutes later have a video uploaded in the same thread, with very little technical pain to do so.
 
Grilled Cheese said:
This is good too, but adding that the monitor should be in your line of sight as if you were shooting a ball. Otherwise, it will not be an accurate representation of your stance if you have to move your head in any way to view it, or elevate your head, torso or whatever outside what it would regularly be during an actual shot.
Click to expand...
Line-of-sight views (both from the front and the back) are essential, but other views (for instance, side views) are too.

pj
chgo
 
Just keep recording on the phone, one thing that may be good is if you can get a webcam or some other camera setup with an overhead view. That shows a nice alignment picture of how your head/arm/cue and what your arm does on the shot. You can route that to a cheap laptop and use the free OBS program to record. That is what my son does, you should see the area around our table, 3 different webcams, chairs, camera tripods, laptop, cables all over the place LOL
 
hang-the-9 said:
Just keep recording on the phone, one thing that may be good is if you can get a webcam or some other camera setup with an overhead view. That shows a nice alignment picture of how your head/arm/cue and what your arm does on the shot. You can route that to a cheap laptop and use the free OBS program to record. That is what my son does, you should see the area around our table, 3 different webcams, chairs, camera tripods, laptop, cables all over the place LOL
Click to expand...

I tried OBS 3 or 4 times over the past 5 years. It has never worked for me, whereas Wirecast has worked great. I could never figure out why. I even bought a newer computer and it still would not work.
 
Be careful how you use it. I've seen video absolutely ruin some fine golf swings in the pursuit of some "ideal" method. We all have our own method and video can make really nice flowing actions robotic. Video should be used in small doses when really needed.
 
o'see is a good app to use, there will be others of course as well
you can set phone or ipad up and through that app, delaying the pictures

so you wouldnt be filming recording it all
you would be practicing a certain type of stroke
set the delay on 10 sconds, then after every execution watch yourself back
 

Attachments

  • mirror.JPG
    mirror.JPG
    15 KB · Views: 163
garczar said:
Be careful how you use it. I've seen video absolutely ruin some fine golf swings in the pursuit of some "ideal" method. We all have our own method and video can make really nice flowing actions robotic. Video should be used in small doses when really needed.
Click to expand...

This is very true for some.

Like everything else, the human "touch"...... as an individual is very important. If we try to stand, bridge, grip the cue.....etc...etc a certain way just because "so-in-so does or says to", well, we'll be moving as stated above, like a robot and that is one thing that will destroy your game.

Cameras are like medications, use just enough. Use to much and you'll be worse off than before you took it.

Our strokes cannot be smooth if they are robotic looking and feeling.
 
garczar said:
Be careful how you use it. I've seen video absolutely ruin some fine golf swings in the pursuit of some "ideal" method. We all have our own method and video can make really nice flowing actions robotic. Video should be used in small doses when really needed.
Click to expand...

And it must include some real competition, not just practicing.


Jeff Livingston
 
garczar said:
...video can make really nice flowing actions robotic.
Click to expand...

jrctherake said:
... the human "touch"...... as an individual is very important. If we try to stand, bridge, grip the cue.....etc...etc a certain way just because "so-in-so does or says to", well, we'll be moving as stated above, like a robot and that is one thing that will destroy your game.
Click to expand...
Here's another view:

I think we (especially beginners) should strive for "robotic" - all it means is less moving parts, which is a good thing. "Personalized" strokes are usually more problematic than helpful.

And I think video should be used freely and frequently.

pj
chgo
 
Patrick Johnson said:
Here's another view:

I think we (especially beginners) should strive for "robotic" - all it means is less moving parts, which is a good thing. "Personalized" strokes are usually more problematic than helpful.

And I think video should be used freely and frequently.

pj
chgo
Click to expand...
Imagine how good Allen Hopkins or Keith would have been if they'd only had video.;) Consistent results are the only thing that matters. Striving for some "perfect" form may help some but not many. Really structured, detail-oriented players usually like video feedback. Others couldn't care less as long the ball is going in. Really boils down to what type of player: those that need to know everything and those that don't want to know anything. Some old golf pro said that and he was spot on.
 
Last edited:
Absolutely!.. I was having a back hand grip problem, so I set up my
iPhone on an adjacent table with a mini tripod, just to see what I was
doing.. definitely an "AHA" moment, problem solved.

If you have a recent iPhone or similar, the quality of the video can be
amazing.. I shot a friend's One Pocket Match (about an hour) and brought the video clip into iMovie, made a DVD, looked incredible. You DO need to have a phone
with a lot of memory to do long clips.

And Keith? I don't don't think he'd change anything regardless of what the video
showed him! "That's pool, baby!"
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top