Last week I had the opportunity to spend a morning with the USA Ski Jumping team while they trained on the K90 at Utah Olympic Park. It was a thrill to have a front row seat as the team jumped.
The jumpers approach 60 mph as they come down the in-run. It sounds like a fast train approaching, then they launch off the jump and in an instant the rumble changes to a quiet rush of air as they fly down the hill.
At the K90, we setup the Reveal pack, camera, and an iPad on the coaches tower adjacent to the end of the in-run and put two iPads and a radio at the top of the jump. It’s about 75 to 80 meters from the top of the K90 to the coaches tower. Reveal has a very simple user interface, so the team was able to start using it with very little instruction.
Coaches were able to immediately review video of each jump on the iPad or their iPhones. Once athletes rode the lift back to the top of the jump, they could quickly review video of their last jump on an iPad and talk to the coaches over the radio. Reveal gives coaches and athletes simultaneous access to the same video clips, helping to make athlete-coach communication more precise.
Comments from the jumpers and their coaches were similar to comments from the boardercross team. Immediate video feedback gives athletes the unfiltered information they need to get better.
For coaches, immediate video feedback changes the conversation with athletes. Instead of trying to explain to an athlete what they just did, coaches are able to focus on helping athletes make the adjustments necessary for them to get better.
