I’ve finally had time to look at a wide assortment of the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics video clips on new GymDrills.com website put together by Will Vaughn.
I like it.
I wish more coaches would document their favourite drills on video and make them available to the world.
The quality of the drills is high. The quality of the video, average. Some demonstrators show minor form and technical errors.
I was pleased to find some drills I’d never seen before.
The biggest problem with the site, as with (to a lesser extent) the similar American Gymnast Gymnastics on Demand is the navigation. It’s not perfect on either site … but GymDrills has one killer feature. Fill in the SEARCH box with “Pak” and only those videos tagged with that word appear on the resulting list.
The 5 star rating system on each video will be useful when enough users rate them.
I do have a few quibbles with GymDrills.com.
I’m not a fan of the Microsoft .WMV video format. But they do play on a Mac if you get the free Flip4Mac plugin.
The database has great potential for growth too, I think. Seems GymDrills can continue to add new clips into the future. At some point registered users may be able to upload clips.
I like that videos from other sources (even GymnasticsCoaching) have been included. They are free to watch, even if you are not a paid member.
Cost of access to this site is inexpensive:
• Free per 7 Days (Trial)
• 3.99 USD per 1 Month (Monthly Membership)
• 35.00 USD per 1 Year (Year Membership)
If cost is a big barrier to you, sign up for the free week and watch every video during those 7 days.
I’d love to see GymDrills offer, as another option, a Freemium business model in future.
… offering basic services for free, while charging a premium for advanced or special features …
A good sampling of videos could be free. Other videos and services (e.g. chat room) should be available for paid members.
Certainly as of today Gymnastics on Demand is a better service … but it costs $9.95 per month as compared with $3.99 per month for GymDrills.
I think both sites are great!
Both are highly recommended.
Check out GymDrills.com for yourself.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 