Head-Cam coaching a la Thierry Georgiou

[Carnage Head]

I'm only a level two coach, but here's an idea I had whilst on the Discussion forum:

We were discussing making o media-friendly (that old chestnut) for the some kind of Olympic thing in 2012, and I said that some kind of head-mounted camera would be an idea, for an orienteer's-eye view.

Simon E replied:
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http://tero1.free.fr/news/vrac/followme ... t_high.wmv

shows a head-mounted camera view of Thierry Gueorgiou running a leg in what looks like Finland, and there are various other videos on the site if you look hard enough.
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I finally checked it out, and it is a really well put together little video. I imagine that with a more route-choice-varied course, and with a separate map to bring up on the screen/print out prior to watching, this sort of thing could be used as a good indoor training aid, eg:

1. asking the trainees what route they would take (and why) and asking them to draw it on in one colour

2. showing the video, and asking the trainees to draw on what route Thierry (or other orienteer) took

3. showing the actual route he took, and why they thought he took it

4. working out why their guess of his route was different to his version (therefore highlighting certain features that they may not be that familiar with)

In future, perhaps trainees could have their own head-mounted cameras, for when shadowing is hard to staff.

I also suggested that BOF could put a link to a similar video on their website's home page, to show people what o can be/is really like. Any ideas? (I stress that I am a relative novice at o, having started four years ago, so if similar aids are used by coaches, then I didn't realise!)

[Guest]

Liverpool uni did a trial of something similar many years ago with Jim Martland and Sue Walsh. Never heard if anything came of it - doubt it

[P2B]

When I was a wee nipper, I spent a week on tour running around with a tape recorder on my back. I had to vocalise everything I was thinking whilst out running.

I found it to be a very useful training tool, as it actually made me think - I didn't want to get back to base and my thoughts just be a bunch of heavy breathing.

However, it's not as media savvy as a vidoe camera, but a very good training tool.

[bendover]

Liverpool uni did a trial of something similar many years ago with Jim Martland and Sue Walsh. Never heard if anything came of it - doubt it

both I and hannah wootton were sue walsh's guinea pigs for this. it was pretty good, but would undountedly be much more efficient with todays technology. at the time the camera's were pretty big and you had to carry analog recorders (not digital) in a small backpack (somewhat like a silva headtorch battery pack).

i'd say that realistically it would take a patient coach to watch a whole video of someones head on view running through the forest; however it might show how and where athletes are losing time, whether or not they are scanning the terrain or are using 'tunnel vision' and also how often they are looking at the map. it looks like tero's video was heavily edited (and rightly so) for web presentation - you never actually saw the camera changing its direction for when he looked at the map. from reading tero's website/translated web comments then i reckon he looks at the map a lot and is always in map contact.

[ifititches]

Agree with Ben that's a very edited video, but something like that is great advertising. Does anyone know the current state of head-mounted video technology?

But I loved his website, especially the Q&A bit. Even with 1969 O level french I couldn't help thinking that the French, as with their cookery books, have really got the vocabulary/sentence structure to make orienteering sound mouth-wateringly good. Also, there's some great coaching/motivational advice in there, so might have a go at some translations for junior coaching sessions.
(also a rich seam of goodies for the "orienteering is..." thread.)

[Kitch]

Haven't seen it but one of Ben's comments made me think.
You can't really tell what someone wearing a head camera is looking at, and this is the crucial aspect. You'd need to combine it with P2Bs running commentary exercise for coaching.
Talking to yourself about your route and features, vocalising the visualisation, is always a good exercise, one that goes way back and one that I still fall back to when the going gets tricky (muttering nutter)

Simon says is a good one too, where you guide a runner through the route by describing what is coming next (not directing, only describing).

[mharky]

Sony do a few, you can get the worst one for uder £100, but it's probably worth getting the 480 or 560 if you wan't the best qualiy. they cost from £150-£200 depending where you look.

The camcorder will need to have AV in for the cameras to work.

[Liz F]

I have used a Sony digital video camera on WM training and last week in Glenmore. One coach tried o-cam but there was a lot of heavy breathing and lots of shots of Wonderboy's back! However, it is good to video the map with a control site giving commentary, then video the runners coming into the control. Lots was learnt about control flow. Another way to use a video camera is as a diagnostic tool for sorting out holding/using compass with juniors who claim to do one thing but clearly do something else without realising. I'm sure there's lots more!