Topic: Open Source Software

[svburke]

Hello Paul. Nice lift. I am not a coach, so the next comment is only for what it's worth (i.e. not much). That said, it appears that in the hole and on the first dip for the jerk the bar is squishing you a bit. I have had and have the same problem, nor am I as strong as you; however I have improved it somewhat recently with more core strengthening, and by shortening my dip. Belt also helps. And of course before the dip you want to get your air and be tight up and down the torso. I'm sure you know this.

What were your thoughts when you saw yourself on video? I'm interested in knowing if others had the same or different observations.

[Paul LaDuke]

Thanks for the feed back.  You are the 2nd person to tell me I need a shorter dip.  I am sure that weight was squashing me a bit, it was freakin' heavy!

My thoughts about the lift are that the 1st pull looks very good as it moves posteriorly, I think I need to be a bit more patient on the 2nd pull.  It looks to me that I started the explosion a bit too early and that sent the bar farther forward than it should be.  The bar path in the jerk drive and recovery is completely vertical with a posterior movement at the catch, so I think that is optimal.  The jerk felt really good when I did the lift and felt really stable.  I screwed up the recovery a bit though.  All in all, I would rate the lift as an 8 out of 10.

[Chris Betancourt]

Paul, you gotta have a vertical line of reference over MTP joint. From there you can see what your trajectory is doing better.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

[Paul LaDuke]

I was using the vertical line today on the software using the grid feature they have.  Once I get home later, I will upload some more studies that I have done with the software. 

The only thing it is currently missing is the ability to calculate speed of the bar.  I can do that with another free program that I have though, so the combination of the 2 gives me a ton of information!

Is "crackyflipside" your Youtube account?

[Andy Dick]

I got all excited about this last night when I saw it.  I am itching to try it out!  Thanks for the post.

[Paul LaDuke]

The more I play with it, the more I like it as a tool.  I worked with one of my lifters today and videoed a few snatches and cleans.  I then prescribed some squats for him today.  Before he had done 2 sets I already had a side by side comparison of his 2 successful snatch attempts with bar path drawn.  We both learned a ton about his lifting today using this software. 

Here is one of his snatch attempts.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

His biggest issue right now is his first pull trajectory is vertical.  I need to switch it to a posterior pull.  Once that is corrected, I think the rest of the issues will resolve on their own.

Here is one of his clean attempts.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Same issue here.  Notice with the freeze frames that he is onto his toes at the initiation of the 2nd pull causing the bar to be too far out in front of him. 

I love that this software has HD and 16:9 aspect ratio ability also.  There are also some other features that I am yet to explore.  BTW, I have upgraded to the latest BETA download and it has a ton more features with no bugs that I have found yet.  Browse around the website and look for it.

[Chris Betancourt]

I was using the vertical line today on the software using the grid feature they have.  Once I get home later, I will upload some more studies that I have done with the software. 

The only thing it is currently missing is the ability to calculate speed of the bar.  I can do that with another free program that I have though, so the combination of the 2 gives me a ton of information!

Is "crackyflipside" your Youtube account?

Yeah, that's my channel and weak weightlifting sessions. This open source software is excellent, by the way. I've been doing bar path traces for a while now and putting them up on the channel, I even got to talk to Daniel Dolega after doing some traces of him and his brothers! (my happiest moment )

The traces you did show very common problems, off the floor you want the bar moving into the body to move the barbell's center of gravity closer to your body's and gain leverage. It's complicated to explain why the bar goes straight up but the easiest way to explain it is that the athlete has an issue with controlling the bar; as he is moving his body to the bar instead of bringing the bar to his body.  Also, getting on the toes during second pull will not be prime cause of getting the bar too forward, I have a video of Chigishev snatching 210 in Beijing and he definitely gets on his toes on the second pull and the bar stays well behind the starting plane. The problem's usually caused by driving hips forward too soon, which is what it looks like here, that comes from the same problem of not pulling the bar to the body that he has in the first pull.

Try having hips higher at start and shoulders a bit more over bar. Do some light pulls where you focus on keeping back leaned over and just using lats to actively pull bar into thighs. Here is one of the guys from Poland doing it: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/crackyflipside/lifting/pullstle.jpg

[Paul LaDuke]

I had someone on Youtube ask me how to get the bar path onto the video.  The tutorial in the software isn't clear on the process so I thought I would also post the process here.  It is pretty simple.  The following is my reply to the question.


Here is what you need to do once you have the video open in Kinovea:

1.  Stop the video at the frame where you want to track the bar path. 
2.  Click on the + in the tool section under the video.
3.  Your cursor should be a + now, click on the end of the bar. 
4.  Right click on the "+" for a dialog box.
5.  Click on "Track Path".
6.  A square with a circle in it should appear at the end of the bar.
7.  Press play and the trajectory path should be drawn automatically.
8.  Stop the video where you want the path to stop if needed, Right click on the end of the bar again and choose "End Path Edition" from the dialog box to stop the drawing of the bar path.

If you have anymore questions, let me know.