The Coach’s Eye
Discovering many opportunities through an app for athletes.
Deb Gulbrandson, PT, DPT
Coach’s Eye by TechSmith is a $4.99 app that runs on Apple, Android, and Windows 8.1; it was created for coaches to analyze and give video feedback to their athletes, making it a perfect match in the physical therapy world. It offers the following features:
- Record HD videos with instant review
- Slow Motion
- Zoom feature
- Split screen videos for comparison analysis
- Draw lines, arrows, circles right on the screen
- Frame-by-frame analysis
- Create videos with audio commentary and annotation
- Share videos through email, text, Facebook, Twitter
They say that one picture is worth a thousand words. Then one video must be worth a lot more than that. Imagine videotaping your patient’s gait on the initial visit and then again on the 5th or 6th? Imagine displaying those videos side-by-side on a split screen to show the patient how far he or she has come.
Slowing down movement is like putting a specimen under the microscope. We catch things that we would never see with the naked eye. Patients have an improved ability to make corrections when they can see what we are talking about.
How often has your patient gone for a follow-up appointment and the doctor never asks to see them move? Now you have the capability to email the video to your patient’s doctor complete with your commentary. What a great marketing (and physician education) opportunity.
While videotaping patients is nothing new, Coach’s Eye makes it unbelievably simple. The added ability to freeze frame, slow down, compare split screens, draw angles, and share the videos with others, makes this a real powerhouse.
On their website, Coach’s Eye says, “Vision is the art of seeing things invisible to others.” Sounds like what we do as therapists every day! Check it out at www.Coach’sEye.com.
Deb Gulbrandson, PT, DPT, Impact Editorial Board member, and owner of Cary Physical Therapy in Cary, Illinois. She can be reached at deb@caryphysicaltherapy.com.