Category Archives: Tutorial

Marathon Training: Stride Improvements

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It’s been about 3 weeks since I’ve video taped myself and shared it with friends on HomeField.  For those of you who missed last week’s post, video analysis of my running form revealed that I had a horrible heel strike.  Which means that the first point of contact my foot had with the ground was my heel.  I could have sworn this wasn’t the case, but, the video doesn’t lie.  Nevertheless, after some modifications to my stride, I’ve filmed myself again to reveal a new and improved running style. Here are the results:

Big difference from week 1 to week 2.

Two things you can notice right away:  One, you’ll notice I’m landing more on my forefoot, rather than my heel.  And two, the point of impact in week two is way closer to my body’s center of gravity, as opposed to out in front of me.  This is what allows me to fall forward, rather than pulling myself forward.  This is inline with the pose style running I mentioned last week.

The question is, have I seen any improvement since changing my style?  Well, my first 10K two weeks ago, clocked in at 51:58.  This past Saturday, after running the third leg of the NYC Tri, my time improved almost 6 minutes, down to a 47:05.  Big improvement indeed. Am I in the clear?  It would appear not.  Alex Tyron noticed my feet may be “rolling out” while I run.  As she noted in HomeField’s discussion:

As you can see in the comment, she noticed this in my stride.  You can see it above.  Sure enough, the test she suggested (looking at the bottom of my shoes) definitely raised some concerns.  Next step, videotaping myself on the treadmill.

Everyone’s an Expert

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One thing that makes sports so great and unique, is that no matter your age, athletic ability, or level at which you play, everyone’s an expert.
You know exactly what I’m talking about.  Your dad questions every call the manager makes.  Your friend claims that he can do ‘such and such’ better than a professional athlete.  It never ends, and it’ll always be that way.

HomeField allows you to use this phenomena to improve your team.  Our discussion rooms allow your team to discuss a video in a way that was previously only possible in a locker room.  Coaches can highlight plays or players they’d like their team to focus on, with time coded links that will take them right to the highlight.  While players can respond to these comments, ask questions, and even link to the video themselves.

It’s a great way to keep up communication with your players while you’re outside the locker room.  And, it makes everyone an expert!

HF updates: Replay/Jump Forward, Show/Hide Archive, Browser Detector and New Prices for Parents!

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Since we launched HF3.0 a little over a month ago, we’ve been working hard to keep the improvements coming.  We recently updated HomeField with a bunch of great little tweaks, but I wanted to highlight a few major ones here…

Replay/Jump Forward

Lots of you have asked for rewind and fast forward controls, so we’ve built a quick, simple solution that we’re already getting lots of great feedback for.  Simply tap the “<” to go backward 10 seconds or “>” to go forward 10 seconds.  Note: You don’t have to hit “Shift.”  It’s the same as hitting “,” or “.”

Check out the video below to see it in action…

Show/Hide Archive

We know you’ve got a ton of video, so we want to help make it easy to find what you’re looking for.

That’s why you’ll now see a check box for “Show Archived Video” in HomeField.  If left unchecked, HomeField will hide all of your Archived Video so it’s easier to find your Active stuff.  If you’ve got a lot of video archived, you’ll love it.

Browser Detector

We don’t want to be browser snobs, but we do want you to have the best experience possible on HomeField… that’s why we’ve built in a browser detector (seriously, your browser matters more than you think).

When you log into HomeField, we’ll automatically detect what browser and what version you’re running and if it’s not up to date and/or the latest and greatest, we’ll give you a friendly reminder to update your browser.  Really, we only do it because we care about you.  ;)

New  Prices for Parents

We know that mom and dad want access to all the highlights – but they shouldn’t have to film the games themselves, especially when you coaches are already filming.  And you don’t have time to make DVD’s for every parent who wants one… So why not share the love with the parents who support your squad via HomeField?

We’ve switched our fan subscription pricing to “month-to month” (with no minimum commitment).  So parents and fans can now get access to game film provided by you through HomeField for just $24.99/month.  It’s no replacement for seeing the game live, but it’s a great way to catch all the moments you missed and the ones you want to see again and again.

So what are you waiting for, Coach?  Go invite your fans today!

Make [Editing] Game Film Easy. Use the HF Online Editor.

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Editing game film doesn’t have to be hard… in fact, it shouldn’t be.

Some coaching software gets really complicated with all sorts of bells and whistles, but we believe in simple.

That’s why we took the essential elements out of your favorite editing software and built them right into HomeField – so you can take any game film in your library and start marking clips for your players to study.

Rather than talk about it, I’ll just show you.  Watch this one minute video on the new HomeField online editor…

Shotgun Trading – Quickest Game Film Exchange on the Web

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Shotgun Trading.  Yup… it’s just like it sounds.

You’ve got game film and you need to get it somewhere in a hurry.

We know you used to burn 5-6 DVD’s and FedEx all of ‘em to your trading partners.  So just like dropping DVD’s at FedEx, we want you to be able to get all your trading done in one go and fit right into your video process.  Here’s how…

We love this new feature for a few reasons.

  • It fits right into your current workflow.
  • It streamlines the process and saves you time and effort.
  • We got to put a shotgun icon in HomeField!

Here are some step by step instructions:

1.  Start uploading your game film just as you normally would.

2.  As your video starts to upload, click the small shotgun image that says ”Shotgun Trading: Automatically send this film once it’s finished uploading.”

HomeField - Shotgun Trading

3.  Then, do a search for the coach you want to trade with by their name, team name or email address. [Yup, if they're not on HomeField yet, just enter their email address and they'll still get to see your game film.]

HomeField - Shotgun Trading - Searching

4.  Select the coach you want to trade with and do another search if you need to send to multiple coaches.

5.  When you’re ready, hit “Ok. Save Shotgun Trade.” and you’re done. As soon as your video is finished uploading to HomeField, these coaches will get emails alerting them that there’s game film waiting for them on HomeField.

HomeField - Shotgun Trading - Found

Shotgun Trading is already available in every HomeField account today.  Use it for your next trade and if you have any ideas to improve it, give us some feedback!