The Role of Film in Swim Training BY MICHAEL J . STOTT
In the first of two parts, Swimming World Magazine examines some history and basics about videoing swimmers.
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o one uses film anymore when taking pictures of swimmers. It’s all analog video with an increasing shift to digital. But back in the prehistoric 1960s, there was Indiana coach Doc Counsilman filming his Hoosier athletes and any other phenom he could coax into the water. Bailey Weathers, now the athletic director at Grace College and former head women’s coach at Notre Dame, assisted Counsilman in the early ’80s. “At one point, there were probably 5,000 canisters of film at Doc’s house,” he says. “Doc pioneered filming underwater and used two cameras and two TV units. He could freeze-frame and show two athletes at once,” says Weathers. “Some of the best stuff in terms of overlays in the ’80s was done by another biomechanist, Dr. Ernest Maglischo,” says Weathers. Among other things, Maglischo, then at Oakland University, drew on videotape and made power graphs filming a swimmer with trailing fishing lines. “He and Doc were scientific with their data and applied the scientific method to swimming when evaluating new ideas.” Filming has come a long way since the days of Counsilman and Maglischo. “We’ve had a real boom in video,” says proponent Bob Gillett, who coached Olympic gold medalist Misty Hyman and twotime NCAA 100 back champion Cindy Tran, among others. Gillett has adopted video for its conceptual modeling, video and race analysis, stroke instruction and public relations value. Early on, Gillett incorporated slow motion, stop action, speed-up, overlays, telestration and multiple coloration to teach proper stroke technique to thousands. Following summer sessions at his Arizona Sports Camp sessions, he would take two months to edit and produce more than 400 videos and individual tapes for his campers. “Anyone 6 years old to the grave is a candidate for taping,” says Gillett. “With a big team, you can do it every day; seniors, once a week. If you have the luxury, all the time,” he says. “Young kids are really visual,” notes Weathers. “At Club Wolverine with the 10-and-unders, we selected two elements from each stroke PICTURED > (From top) Doc Counsilman with Indiana University swimmers; Counsilman; Ernie Maglischo; Bob Gillett and Misty Hyman DOC COUNSILMAN’S PHOTO ( 2ND FROM TOP ) PROVIDED BY INDIANA UNIVERSITY
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February 2013