Hating the inaccuracy of hand times? Are you unable to justify expensive timing equipment on a small budget? Coach Joe Davidson has fantastic news. His solution is Dartfish. Using myDartfish Express, an app that serves as a video analysis tool, one can use features like video playback, intuitive tools for annotation, as well as a stopwatch function. The stopwatch function is the key component of getting accurate times and providing coaches and athletes with the proper feedback. Compared to other timing systems, THIS APP WILL SAVE YOU MONEY, TIME, AND EFFORT.
How to Utilize Dartfish for Timing
Coaches and managers act as timers, not videographers, by following key steps such as recording during the set command, locating the starter, identifying the finish line, and ensuring all participants have completed the race before stopping the recording.
Starting the recording BEFORE the “Go” command will ensure that you get the complete race. It’s best to start during the “set” command. In the above picture, Davidson is using DIY “Clap Boards” for sound and visual of the start of the race.
In the above picture, you can see when the race starts based on the smoke of the starting pistol. This is when you start the stopwatch function on the video playback.
Once the athlete crosses the finish line, note the time and scroll to the next athlete. The time on the stopwatch will be their time for that race. Be sure to go frame by frame to get the athlete’s chest at the finish line.
Davidson suggests incorporating Dartfish into training sessions by teaching managers to time all repetitions ensuring maximum effort and measuring success.
Benefits of Using Dartfish
Accuracy within plus/minus 3 one-hundredths of a second compared to Fully Automatic Timing (FAT).
Far less expensive than bulky and limited timing systems. Some systems can only time one athlete at a time. There isn’t a limit on how many athletes a coach can time using this Dartfish system.
The accuracy compared to hand-times is unmatched. Hand times have far too much human error to be used as a performance measurement. Dartfish ensures accurate and recallable times.
Enables coaches to track and improve athlete performance through frequent timing and record-keeping.
Enhancing Athletic Performance
Encourages healthy competition among athletes by comparing and striving to beat personal records.
The 40-yard dash, in particular, serves as an exciting measure of speed improvement and motivates athletes to excel.
More details to offer!
Please reach out to Coach Davidson for more information on fly-times, relay splits, touch-down times, and other timing ideas to conduct full-team workouts. As well as spreadsheets to track and record times and performances.
Contact Information:
Joe Davidson
Franklin County High School
Email: Jdavidson@fccsc.k12.in.us
Twitter: @MrDavidson23
