Get the Most out of your Game

How to Get the Most Out of Your Game with a Tower Camera Mount

Every athlete wants to get better, and every coach wants to help their players get better. Video has proven to be an adept tool for helping players improve. It helps provide honest, detailed feedback on an individual level, and a comprehensive view of a team’s performance that helps coaches better teach game strategy. Video also benefits parents, friends, and can be used for recruiting. 

Not all videos are created equal, however. Get the most of any game or practice with a tower camera mount.

Benefits of Using Video Analysis

It used to be that the equipment and technology for video analysis in sports was only available to programs with big budgets, like college, elite, or professional level teams. But with advances in technology and lower costs, video can easily be captured now by any sports program. This allows coaches and athletes of all levels and sports to take advantage of video analysis for practice and games.
Here are some of the benefits of incorporating video into your practice and game performance.

Provide Visual Feedback

Hearing someone tell you what you’re doing and how to improve is different than actually seeing it for yourself. The brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text, and on average people only remember about one-fifth of what they hear. Through video, coaches can show and correct mistakes much quicker and more efficiently than trying to explain things. And chances are players will remember it better. ​

Improve Technique and Performance

Video helps coaches and athletes get on the same page visually, which opens the door to more effective analysis of technique and performance. They can look at highlights of a player’s execution in practice and in a game, picking out specific moments to identify where and how the player can improve. ​

Individual or Team Analysis

Video can be used to help athletes improve their individual performance, or video can be used to analyze a team’s performance as a whole. In sports like football, it is very difficult to pay attention to the movements of each individual player. Video can help coaches do that afterward. This versatility is valuable for developing team strategy, as well as evaluating competition.  ​

Track Progress Over Time

Video also makes it easier to track progress and individual skill development. Players and coaches can see how and where they have made improvements. This can motivate athletes, because sometimes it can be hard to tell if they’ve been making progress without looking carefully. ​

Mental Training

Many athletes watch videos as part of regular training. Seeing how professional or skilled athletes perform can help improve technique and tactics. And players who watch themselves can more clearly understand and see what they need to work on. Video is a form of mental imagery and can be an important part of visualization and mental training. ​

Injury Prevention

Practice is the perfect time for coaches to find and fix bad habits that may lead to injuries. Incorporating video of practices enhances a coaching team’s ability to keep an eye out and correct multiple players on the team in order to prevent injuries.

Highlight Reels and Scouting

High school and college sports will find additional benefits of regular videotaping of games and practice. In these cases, certain players are looking to impress college scouts or to go pro. When they perform well, those plays are captured and can be used to produce highlight reels to share with family, friends, and recruiters. Schools that take advantage of highlighting star athletes through video attract more talent.

The Best Way to Capture Video for Analysis

Sure, anyone can hold up a smartphone and record a game or practice. And sure, that’s better than nothing. But sitting on the sidelines or behind the goals gives you a limited perspective. You will be unable to see the center of the action and in many cases won’t have an elevated view to be able to look at spacing properly, and will therefore miss valuable information.
The best video is filmed from a high angle, which allows you to see all the action. High angle video that captures an elevated view  mimics the filming that can be seen on televised games, allowing for the most effective individual or team feedback and analysis.
In order to get that high angle, the camera needs to be above the field. The easiest way to achieve this perspective is through a filming tower. Tower camera mounts like those offered by SVT Advantage can be lightweight, portable, and easy to use.  

Sports That Can Benefit from High Angle Video ​

While video analysis can be helpful for almost any athlete, there are certain sports where high angle video is especially valuable. When you have a lot of athletes on the field and complicated plays, a comprehensive view can be quite helpful. Sports that can benefit the most include:

• Football
• Soccer
• Lacrosse
• Rugby
• Baseball
• Track

Advantages of a Tower Camera

Compared to using a smartphone, a tower camera is an investment. But there are many reasons why the purchase is worth it.

Bird’s Eye View

Whether you try to film practice or a game by yourself or hire a professional, the truth is that any filming at ground level will be limited. A tower camera mount gives you a crisp, bird’s eye view that provides a fresh perspective. You can see how the team works together, spacing between players and where you can improve, as well as being able to dissect the competition.

See the Field Better ​

Tower cameras allow you to adjust the height of the camera so you can see large sections of a field clearly. You don’t need multiple cameras in different locations allowing for unparalleled opportunities for analysis. ​

Versatility

Some tower cameras are meant for one sport because of angle, software or design. While other towers can be limited, SVT Advantage’s tower cameras can be used for a variety of sports to catch a variety of angles to get the film you need to help your team succeed. ​

Simplicity

When filming at field level, a certain amount of legwork is involved. You have to move up and down the field to try and get the best possible angles for plays, possibly working around a crowd of people. A tower camera only needs to be set up once and is typically quite simple to operate. No specialized knowledge or running along the sidelines required.

Portability

Some tower cameras can be folded or broken down to make them extremely portable. They can be transported by car or taken on a plane for long-distance games or tournaments. A portable tower camera system is very important for those who need to travel from game to game and have limited space for gear.

Avoid Obstacles

We’ve all experienced the frustrations of recording in crowds. The loud person next to you yelling or cheering who will be immortalized in your video, and don’t get us started on the people who walk right in front of the camera during an important play, and a whole host of possible distractions. Having a camera mounted high above all of that avoids these and other obstacles to getting quality video.

Save in the Long Run

Rather than hiring professional video services at each game or tournament—which can really add up over the course of a season—once you purchase an elevated camera mount you can use it again and again. Volunteers or assistant coaches can operate the equipment for no extra costs. Over the course of several seasons, the savings can be substantial. On a side note -be careful of purchasing equipment that requires a subscription to use. These costs add up, and once you stop paying the fees the equipment becomes useless. ​

Enjoy a Competitive Edge with a Tower Camera Mount

With the many benefits video analysis can provide to sports teams of most levels, a tower camera can give you a competitive edge. Parents, players, and coaches will appreciate high-quality video of players, and it can give an additional advantage with recruiting. 
Get your own SVT Advantage camera pole to start reaping the rewards of your own high angle video recording today. Contact us with any questions or to see how we can elevate your sports filming.