Fencing: A hobby with hobbies
One of our adult fencers brought up the very valid point that we can tell them that they are doing something but if they can't see it, they might not believe us. Then when they go to a tournament and the referee sees it the way we do, the student has a bad day and might not fully understand why.
They wanted video of their bouts so we could show them their mistakes and they could see video proof that it was happening. This is a terrific idea and we used to use video all the time at UNCG in fencing. However, I am but a poor blogger and have never in my life owned a video camera of any kind.
This requires thinking outside of the box. I can do that! What I came up with was a odd contraption that consisted of my NEC Versa Litepad, and a Logitech Quickcam 3000. So imagine if you will, the tablet in my left arm, and the "all seeing eye" held in my right hand with eight feet of cable draped around my neck. I've always wondered what my fingers could see if they had eyes. (But not too much, when I imagined it, I kept poking myself in my eyes everytime I tried to pick something up.)
With the Logitech software I could either take stills or video, which was what I wanted. The difficulty was that I didn't have the necessary third hand which would hold the stylus and click "start" and "stop" on the tablet.
The outcome of my test is here, taken during some group drills in our saber class. (29.3MB, avi format, 640X480 resolution, 176kbps, 2:14 minutes long)
What I learned was that though it "could" be done, the webcam I had didn't have a fast enough frame rate so when actions approached fencing speed, what you got was a blur in a strobe.
Yes, I suppose I could go out and buy a bluetooth clip on camera that can take video at over 30 frames a second, but in the end all we really need is a camcorder and surely someone in the club has one they would be willing to bring to class each lesson.
