Motion Analysis Software

There are a couple of tools out there to do motion analysis with and depending on your budget and what you want out of your video study, a few options. The two leaders right now seem to be Right View Pro and Dartfish. For different reasons, they are both good alternatives. While RightViewPro (www.rightviewpro.com) focuses on Baseball and Softball, they can also be used for other sports. Their software takes two or more videos and allows you to compare them using distance calculations, timing, ect. so that you can find for example the difference between a swing in baseball. They also have a unique partnership with Major League Baseball in that you can compare your swing or pitch to a major leaguer. It is a powerful product, but takes a bit of time to learn all the nuances and features . You can create lesson plans that allow you to use a microphone and talk over the video comparisons to create an instructional DVD for camps and tutorials. The software starts at $750 for the coaches addition and goes to $2500 for a full-featured product.

Dartfish (www.dartfish.com), the other big player in the market, has been around since 1998 and is most well known for the video comparison technology used by broadcasters of skiing, etc. in the olympics. They compare two or more videos and allow you to use telestration and overlays. Similar to a video editing application, they also give you limited ability to tag games with custom criteria (ex: all run plays in football). Their software is a bit more complex to use and more pricey, but is more adaptable to different sports such as hockey, rugby, soccer, ect. Pricing for the Dartfish software runs from $980 for the analysis and drawing features without the video editing to $4500 for a full version product.

A smaller player, but one gaining some great credibility is Sports Motion (www.sports-motion.com). Used by the World Champion Chicago White Sox, Atlanta Braves, the Mayo Clinic, and a host of others, they only do video analysis software, but it allows you to capture and compare up to 8 camera angles and draw, plot curves, take angles and distances, etc. It is an extremely easy to use application that will allow you to quickly make comparisons of video in seconds without much training. You don't have to use their software to capture your video clips either. Just import them from anywhere on your hard drive and start your lessons. Can be used with most video editing systems since it looks for AVI files, MPEG files, etc.. By far the best value for video analysis software out there starting at only $169. You can buy their software and a video camera from the website for only $800 and it will do just about everything the Dartfish software does (without the video editing) for much less.