We are very proud to be able to announce the launch of our latest online service for swimmers and triathletes all over the world...the Swim Smooth Doctor. The Swim Smooth Doctor is a feature which allows swimmers to go to their local pool with a friend or training partner and with the permission of the pool staff / management, record themselves on video for subsequent review and critical analysis by the Swim Smooth Team.

This feature is ideally suited to the following people:

1. Anyone who has been taken for a One2One video analysis session by Swim Smooth in the past and wishes to have an updated review of their stroke.
2. Anyone following a TRI THIS Training Program who seeks some guidance and direction on their stroke as they prepare for their next race.
3. Anyone who has recently purchased a copy of the Swim Smooth DVD boxset and has become familiar with the Swim Smooth drills and is now seeking direction with how to best implement them into their 8-Week training program as included on the bonus CD-ROM.
4. Those with limited access to qualified coaching support on a regular basis.

How does it work and what do I need to do?

Isn't technology brilliant? I love it! We are now at that stage in the digital revolution where it seems almost everyone has access to a digital camera of some description. Most of the smaller compact cameras also come with a movie mode function which usually record video as compressed MPEG, or occasionally AVI, files. The movie mode function will usually allow you to select the frame rate of either 15fps (frames per second) or 30fps and also allow you to select either PAL or NTSC compatibility. Combine this with the ability to choose your resolution as either LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH in most cases, and you have the power to record your very own video analysis session, and often at a very reasonable level of quality too! Once you have set the camera up (and we recommend setting the camera to its highest quality settings, providing your memory card still has the capacity to record up to 2 or 3 minutes of footage), its time to get down to the pool and record your stroke. You'll find below a series of images which will guide you as to which angles you should select and the recommended duration at each angle:

OK, so the images highlighted above are what you're looking for, so now what? Whoever will be filmed needs to jump in the pool, have a short warm up and then swim continuously for a period of about 10 to 15 mins at a pace close to what you would race at. During that time the "cameraman" should aim to record the different angles in the sequence above. For those of you with access to an underwater camera, you may like to then get a couple of short clips of the swimmer underwater too. This is not essential, but will help with the review. Pentax have just released the OptioWP waterproof 5mp digital camera with 3 x Optical Zoom which doesn't even need a special waterproof housing and costs under $300 USD which may be a consideration for some of you in the market for a new camera. Note though it is only rated to a depth of 5 meters.

Once the filming is done, its time to do a bit of simple editing on a software platform such as Microsoft Windows Movie Maker which comes free with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system. There are far better software programs out there (e.g. Nero 7 and Sony Vegas Movie + DVD - which we can highly recommend) but they'll cost you a bit of money and not really necessary for what we need here.

Firstly, download your movie files from your camera using the USB 2.0 cable or Firewire Port usually supplied with the camera. Save these files to your My Videos folder and name them with the file name myname_swimanalysis.mpg. Then import the video files into Movie Maker and drag and drop each clip onto the timeline at the bottom of the screen so that all the files are neatly lined up. Once this is done (and that's all that really needs doing) you can save your project to your computer's hard drive again as myname_swimanalysis_finalised.mpg and change the settings to "VIDEO FOR DIAL UP ACCESS (38kbps)" and then hit "next". Hopefully your computer should now be rendering your movie file and will save it as a compressed file no larger than 5mb. If it is any larger than this it may take a very long time to e-mail it to us, and as such you should try re-rendering it at a slightly lower setting. When we receive the file we will notify you that we have got it and then perform our analysis and review of your stroke. This will take up to 5 working days to perform, and you will then be detailed with several major aspects of your stroke to work on for the next 6 weeks. This will be given to you on a formatted Swim Smooth Doctor Prescription Form which you will be able to print out, laminate and take down to the pool with you as reference. Here's a summary of the steps you need to follow:

The Good Doctor Recommends:

1. Remove any pictures from your digital camera to free up as much memory on your flash card as possible.
2. Change your camera's settings to movie mode and set to highest possible resolution (larger files).
3. Ask a friend to help you by being your "cameraman"
4. Ask the permission of your local pool staff / management for the privilege of using the camera on pool deck (not all pools allow this so you need to make sure first!)
5. Jump in for a brief warm up and then swim 10-15 mins continuously as you would do normally in any race situation , i.e. don't worry about trying to make your stroke look nice for the camera!
6. Review the images and then download them to your computers hard drive. Keep a copy for future reference.
7. Import the images into your image-editing software of choice and create your "movie" by lining up the images next to each other in a sequential format.
8. Click the "save movie" option and change the settings to VIDEO FOR DIAL UP ACCESS (52kbps) or similar. This will compress your video file and reduce the quality significantly, but will make emailing your file over to us much easier.
9. Save the file as your name and e-mail it to us.
10. Make sure you also send a separate duplicate email to us (without the movie attachment) to let us know that you have sent it over as sometimes emails with large file attachments do not always get through due to a variety of reasons from either your or our service provider.
11. We will let you know that we've received it and provide you with a review of your stroke in the next 5 working days - we will notify you of any likely delay.
12. Your analysis will come in the form of the Swim Smooth Doctor Prescription Form which you can print out, laminate and take down to the pool with your for reference.
13. Many of the drills that we will recommend can be cross-referenced by you for added benefit with the Swim Smooth DVD boxset.
14. Any further questions can be simply directed back to us.

Costs:

Each 'trip' to the Swim Smooth Doctor costs £20.00GBP / $40.00 USD / $40.00 CAD / $50.00 AUD.

The Next Step:

All swimmers keen on taking a trip to the Swim Smooth Doctor should contact Paul to book in their review and to organise payment.

Thankyou!