Chattahoochee Gold's New High-Tech Tool: Underwater Video

The new video setup at the Woodstock Aquatic Center records Chattahoochee Gold swimmers through four cameras, time-delays the images and presents the video in a simultaneous quad layout. Coaches can arrange the cameras as they see fit, athletes swim by the cameras and a few seconds later they see their strokes up-close on the big screen. The team says that most of the time the system will be used in this passive mode - which doesn’t interfere with workouts or training goals.

As Gold coaches are trained on how to operate the equipment, it’s also possible for the images to be rewound for review. This makes it a valuable tool to show the video to a group. It’ll also be possible for a coach to use an iPad to record images and present them on the big screen with visual annotations drawn on-screen.

Plans are also in the works to share the underwater video images on-screen in the parent viewing area. It’ll also be possible to burn a DVD of underwater video recorded at the pool for a swimmer to take home.

Chattahoochee Gold Owner & Head Coach Pat Murphy says the new video equipment, “gives us another way to connect and communicate. An example from my childhood: I would sometimes drift away mentally in the classroom when the teacher droned on about the topic, but if it was a filmstrip (remember those?) or film, I would be instantly absorbed. I think many younger kids, especially today, are captivated by screen imagery, and what doesn’t get through by words or feel of the water, may make sense when viewed on screen.”

Founded in 1992, Chattahoochee Gold is one of the first swim teams in the nation awarded USA Swimming’s “Level 4” status. Besides the Woodstock Aquatic Center, Gold trains swimmers at the Cherokee County Aquatic Center, Mountain View Aquatic Center in East Cobb and Cumming Aquatic Center in Forsyth County.

goldswim.com

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