Monday, April 4, 2011

Why videos of yourself are a good thing

My husband came out with me on Sunday to help me make a video for my dressage trainer. I guess Coriander had an issue with that because he booked away from me right after I put my saddle on his back. Fortunately he's really easy to catch as you can see here.


At first I thought this little video clip was just amusing, until I took a closer look at myself. Oy. I had no idea I was raising my arm while he ate his treat. See his reaction? Not pretty. If I hadn't seen that on video I'd have never known I was doing it. I'll be making a conscious effort from now on to avoid that.

This next video is a progress marker, this is what we look like now. He's pluggy and inverted and I lean forward and ride in a chair seat. I'm hoping that in a few months we'll look a bit better than this.


How about you? Do you try to get a video of yourself every once in a while to check your progress?

9 comments:

  1. Absolutely. I was looking at a year old video of myself and Gem last week. In that video, I could not keep him loping for more than a few strides and I always pitched forward. A year later, I can lope him twice around the arena and my position is a little more stable. :-) I also looked at the video I recorded when I first saw Gem being put through his paces before I bought him and compared it to one I took two weeks ago of my instructor riding him. The difference was like night and day - he is so much lighter on his feet and fluid.

    I think video is a great tool to build confidence and highlight what can be worked on. Now that my confidence is better, I am going to ask my instructor to video my loping so that I can understand what she wants me to work on technique-wise.

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  2. Yes, yes, yes! Sometimes I don't like what I see. My dressage instructor filmed me last year for my benefit. It helped immensely. I film my son playing sports all the time, too, so he can see himself and make adjustments. He says it helps. All of his friends ask for tapes, too. There is so much we all do that we don't know and wouldn't do if we knew we were doing it!

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  3. I haven't done this but I think it is an excellent idead.

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  4. Never, never, never. I just would be too self-conscious and that would make me even more glatched when I ride, I think. I admire the guts of those willing to be filmed riding; I'm just a ninny about things like that.

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  5. Wolfie, that's great. My instructor keeps threatening to bring out a camcorder and I keep saying "Please do!"

    Linda you are a good mom, I ran hurdles in high school and I bet it would have helped me a lot too if my mom was out there taking video.

    Nan, no time better to start than the present. Camcorders are pretty cheap now too.

    Muddy K, I know what you mean, I felt that way too. But then I watched and realized that the benefits were too great not to. There's no critic greater than yourself ;)

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  6. Having a video of yourself is a great training aid to refer to. I'd never do it unless I was in great shape, too self conscious. Although, it might be a good incentive to stick on a diet!

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  7. Hey, we all need as much incentive as we can get as far as the diet goes :)

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  8. Love the videos. Coriander reminds me of my Pie. I think Pie would walk along with me if I used his clicker treats. He is still targeting everything in sight - a plastic bag in a tree way high up was the funniest!

    I am going to have Maizie make more videos of me soon. I learned a lot from our recent ones.

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  9. Juliette, I'm sure he would. I've reinforced Coriander a lot for following me on a loose lead. Now he knows that if he stays at my shoulder he'll get treats. Notice how often I reinforced him for it.

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