When gold medalist Lindsey Vonn hits the slopes to do some training, she clamps on her boots, clips into her bindings, straps on her helmet and slaps a GoPro on her chest.
Go-anywhere, do-anything POV cameras, long used by “extreme” athletes to chronicle their insane stunts, have become an invaluable training tool for everyone from skiers and snowboarders to cyclists and sailors. The tiny gadgets, which can be affixed to just about anything, provide a unique perspective that coaches and even the athletes themselves couldn’t otherwise see. And they’re dead simple to use — just turn it on and go.
“It’s been a huge help,” Vonn told Wired from Val D’Isere, France, where she was preparing to compete in this weekend’s World Cup. “I use it on my helmet so I can go back and visualize the course and compare it to what I see. It’s not a normal video the coaches do; it’s your personal point of view.”
Athletes and coaches have long used video to refine form and improve performance, but it was largely limited to sports like football because the cameras were so big and expensive. The technology didn’t lend itself to a fast-moving sport like skiing or cycling, which move at high speed over large distances. That’s changed as the miniaturization and dwindling price of digital technology led to small, inexpensive cameras you can mount anywhere.
“With a camera 100 feet away you can’t catch this,” said Neal Henderson, who coaches the U.S. Women’s Olympic track cycling team. The team used GoPro cameras to prepare for the 2012 Summer Games in London. “Athletes can give you feedback about what they feel but as coaches we can’t, so it was hard to get an appropriate response. Video like this is more objective, we could look at see what’s going on and change what they were doing. The margin is very small for error with how fast they go.”
That’s been key, because tiny details — a slightly different line, a subtle bend in the knee or twist of the body — can be the difference between winning and losing. Such nuances aren’t easily seen by a skier bombing down a mountain or a coach watching from the top, or bottom, of the slope. POV cameras provide instant feedback so athletes can make immediate corrections to shave another fraction of a second from a run or get that extra bit of rotation during an aerial.
“Getting up close and personal is really changing the game for us,” said Mike Jankowski, head coach of U.S. Freeskiing and Snowboarding. ”Whether it’s the point of view of the athlete, of a follow cam, or getting a view from above or from the side, we really get views we wouldn’t otherwise.”
The perspective afforded by a GoPro slapped on a skier’s chest or helmet provides new ways of improving skills by allowing athletes and coaches to, say, examine precisely how they are making turns, where they are slowing down and where they might be bearing an edge. The perspective allows a coach to more easily understand what the athlete saw and felt.
“It’s totally different when it’s your point of view,” said Vonn.
The cameras are critical for equipment testing as well, given that the International Ski Federation has stipulated that skis be longer and straighter to improve safety. To help adjust to the new rules, Vonn strapped a GoPro to her chest while testing new skis so she and her coach could more easily discern what each pair was doing on the slopes and how it was behaving.
“In general, its been really fun to use,” said Vonn. “It provides another way to analyze skiing and another way to have fun.”
GoPro Cameras Help Athletes Train Smarter
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GoPro Cameras Help Athletes Train Smarter
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GoPro Cameras Help Athletes Train Smarter
