Getting Into the Swing of Using Video

I’ve recently started to play golf. It’s not the first time I’ve ever tried it, I’ve played the game a few times in the past but found it to be a frustrating experience. This time though I plan to stick with it, practice and not just rely on visualisation and thinking positive thoughts!

When I went for my first coaching session (I received four sessions as a gift), the golf pro Andrew, brought out his iPad and asked me to hit a ball while he filmed me. Then we sat down and had a look at the footage. He drew a green line on the screen to see how I was positioned as I hit the ball (which turned out to be not too bad). He was also able to break down my swing into chunks – setting up, backswing, coming down and follow through and give me pointers about each. After some time spent practicing, he filmed me again. Then we talked about how it was different.

After the session Andrew e-mailed me the following summary of what we discussed:

Set up:

1) Left thumb down the centre of the grip.

2) Right thumb relaxes over.

3) Feet together.

4) Little step with your left then big step with your right.

Swing:

1) Position 1 (as shown below).

2) Position 2 (as shown below) thumbs to the sky.

3) Position 3 (as shown below) right heel up.

Keep running through your routine over and over to achieve consistent results.

Even though you can see the direction of the ball, I can tell you that it went perfectly straight! What I find particularly useful about this approach was that it didn’t just rely on someone telling me what needed correcting but that he could show me where I needed to improve and I could also see it for myself.

Afterwards, I was thinking how this approach might be useful for workplace learning and an obvious application would be a task that requires a particular technique, for example lifting something safely. You could do something similar to what Andrew did, film a before and after with some instruction in-between along with some follow-up afterwards.

A few years ago I went to a training session on facilitation skills and one of the remarks that has stayed with me is ‘people can’t argue with their own data’. In that context it was referring to having the people in the room generate content/ideas during the session that you can come back and refer to later. Filming me as I hit a ball also provides content that I can’t argue with. I can see what I’m doing correctly and incorrectly and make the necessary adjustments with some coaching.

While you can watch others using video, say in a scenario or for compliance, it’s also possible for you to be the star of the show.

How do you use/have you used video in your workplace?

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