How to GoPro Your Hockey Games

[Adam Cooper]

Here is the gear I use to GoPro all my hockey games.  Hope this is helpful.  If you have any questions let me know.

[OceanMon]

Cool!  Thanks!  I've been thinking about taping myself to see how I play.  Do you find that watching your own tapes help?

[benner33]

On 3/25/2020 at 11:19 PM, OceanMon said:

Cool!  Thanks!  I've been thinking about taping myself to see how I play.  Do you find that watching your own tapes help?

It helps me a ton and I show it to my buddy who has been coaching me for feedback. Plus it’s fun to see myself getting better. I’m playing for fun but still. 

[benner33]

I’ve found the suction cup mount behind my net to be the best but I don’t use a neck to keep it close to the glass (the refs here seem to tolerate it). 

[mr_shifty1982]

On 3/26/2020 at 2:19 AM, OceanMon said:

Cool!  Thanks!  I've been thinking about taping myself to see how I play.  Do you find that watching your own tapes help?

I did it for almost a year and didn't learn much from it to be honest, was fun to see the action though. 

[ArdeFIN]

I use a suction cup but always have had it outside the plex. And when watching pre heatup time there's been atleast one puck every time hitting right on camera.

Ofcourse I could add the camera after heatup but it's been useful to that time too.

Only problem doing this way is to find a spot free of puck marks 

And yes it's useful. For only a year and a half of playing goalie I've got a lot of help from videos. Why did that shot go in goal, were my positioning right, why my hands are like that in bfly. 

One major problem with my Bfly and side-to-side movements are my blocker hand going in front of me like to protect my precious or something. And that sure leaves a huge opening on the blocker side. This I realised from the videos as it happens so naturally in the game situation.

You know that you have to learn to see things from videos. Video coaching is very difficult and from what I know there are a lot of very Good coach who can't tell much from a video clip while they still know a lot of the game in depth. Goalie coaching is little bit different as those coaches see the same "view" always, what is goalie doing.

[estogoalie]

That's how I usually do it also (except I have an Olympus TG-Tracker). At my home rink there is a metal bar above the team bench, and I clamp a cam-corder there with this Small-Rig. That usually comes out better, because there's no plexiglass in the way, and the angle is a little higher up, and a cam-corder usually has better quality than little go-pro type cameras. But it's also more complicated, as you need to figure this stuff out in advance. ..the suction cup thing is great for travel games because you don't need to know the layout of the rink, you can just stick it on the glass and go.

Edited July 18, 2020 by estogoalie

[Dumpy]

17 hours ago, estogoalie said:

That's how I usually do it also (except I have an Olympus TG-Tracker). At my home rink there is a metal bar above the team bench, and I clamp a cam-corder there with this Small-Rig. That usually comes out better, because there's no plexiglass in the way, and the angle is a little higher up, and a cam-corder usually has better quality than little go-pro type cameras. But it's also more complicated, as you need to figure this stuff out in advance. ..the suction cup thing is great for travel games because you don't need to know the layout of the rink, you can just stick it on the glass and go.

Them gopro style cameras always pissed me off with how hard they are to work. I had one that would record 30 sec segments and never the hole thing. Cheaper than a gopro as well with wifi. I may have to grab one of them thanks kindly for the suggestion.

[Colander]

Well the title of the thread it "How to GOPro Your Hockey Games" so I don't know if it is fair to add, but I have used an old cell phone my daughter discarded (Samsung Galaxy I think). I just taped it to the outside of the glass, scoot out after warmup is over to push start and good to go (most rinks where I am won't allow any camera anywhere inside of the glass). I am really impressed with the quality of video it gives (and unimpressed with the quality of my game it reveals).

The two main issues are - first it doesn't have a wide angle mode (but I bet by now I can get a cell phone with a camera that has one for cheap what with how quickly technology gets outdated). I also realize I could also buy an aftermarket add on lens for this.

The other issue is more of a piss-off: while the battery and memory are good for a 90 minute game, the video cuts off at ~ 32 minutes. This is specifically  a file size thing - apparently the NTFS system won't allow a video >4Gb, so once it reaches that point it stops. If I could remotely re-start it all would be good. If anyone knows of a work-around I'd love to hear it.

This was mainly an experiment on my part but has allowed some glimpses into my play for cheap (which I am).

Edited July 19, 2020 by Colander

[ArdeFIN]

3 hours ago, Colander said:

The other issue is more of a piss-off: while the battery and memory are good for a 90 minute game, the video cuts off at ~ 32 minutes. This is specifically  a file size thing - apparently the NTFS system won't allow a video >4Gb, so once it reaches that point it stops. If I could remotely re-start it all would be good. If anyone knows of a work-around I'd love to hear it.

Would there be a software available that would do the job? Something like GoPro is doing as it cuts the clip at 17min or certain size (2Gt or so) and continues in a next file. I get a set of four movies after one hour of ice.

My oldie GoPro Hero uses a file type that is very large, once I had to flip the 180 degrees (upside-down) the software I used was set to a smaller file size output and the result was 6.3Gt -> 1Gt with no easily visible loss in quality. The process takes over an hour to do so I'm not doing it just to save space.

Edited July 19, 2020 by ArdeFIN
File sizes

[Colander]

Yes - I had a video camera that would break the movies up into chunks just under 30 minutes for the same reason - I never realized why 'til I started investigating why my phone cut off after 32 minutes ~ 4 Gb).

Unfortunately we are talking about a phone that 's probably >6 years old. In the electronics/software world, trying to find upgrade software it would probably be the equivalent of trying to find high performance ribbon for my typewriter.

[benner33]

So all my GoPros name the files in a way where you can stitch them together post game with a Mac and iMovie. The newer GoPros with their plus service will upload it for you after the game when changing and combine them into (for me) each side switch when you tap the record button. Happy to explain the filename format that you can use to combine them yourself in order if anyone is interested. 

[Dumpy]

5 minutes ago, benner33 said:

So all my GoPros name the files in a way where you can stitch them together post game with a Mac and iMovie. The newer GoPros with their plus service will upload it for you after the game when changing and combine them into (for me) each side switch when you tap the record button. Happy to explain the filename format that you can use to combine them yourself in order if anyone is interested. 

Wish I woulda known before giving mine the Pete Townshend treatment.

[benner33]

12 minutes ago, Dumpy said:

Wish I woulda known before giving mine the Pete Townshend treatment.

 

If you do decide to get one I think the plus service is worth it even just as a auto back up service but I’m a and lazy usually. It really does help to watch what I did afterwards though my wife hates it when I take over the TV the day after a game / pickup  

[ArdeFIN]

14 hours ago, Colander said:

Yes - I had a video camera that would break the movies up into chunks just under 30 minutes for the same reason - I never realized why 'til I started investigating why my phone cut off after 32 minutes ~ 4 Gb).

Unfortunately we are talking about a phone that 's probably >6 years old. In the electronics/software world, trying to find upgrade software it would probably be the equivalent of trying to find high performance ribbon for my typewriter.

It's Android mobile anyway? I'd give look into Play shop anyways? Might get lucky...