What should you actually write in a Film Room comment so it still makes sense a week later?
A note that only makes sense while you still remember the rep is not a note, it is a reminder to yourself that expires in about a day.
An athlete can log a session and message their coach straight from StatLap, and a coach can leave notes on a Film Room clip the same way. The problem is not the feature. It is what gets typed into it in the ten seconds after a rep, while the coach is already thinking about the next athlete.
The note that does not survive the week
Better. Still a bit off. Work on that. All three are true in the moment and useless by Thursday, because none of them says what was better, what was off, or what that even refers to once the rep itself is three practices in the past.
What a note needs to actually carry
- The body part or number it is about, not just the fault: not 'fix your arms' but 'elbow angle was wide again, drop the shoulders before the rep.'
- The cue that was actually given, in the words it was given in, so the athlete reads the same instruction next time instead of a vaguer version of it.
- What to check on the next clip, so the note points forward and not just backward.
Write it for a stranger, not for yourself
The test is simple: could a different coach, or the same coach in a month, read the note with no memory of the rep and know what happened and what to do next. If the answer is no, the note is a feeling, not a record, and it will mean nothing by the time anyone needs it.
A Film Room clip carries whatever the camera measured. It has no way to carry why a coach called that a fault, what was said about it, or what to try next. That context only survives if a comment actually writes it down.
Time your next meet with the phones you already have
Timing, the Film Room and the speed gates are free forever, with no account. A Club plan, $71 a month, puts your meets on your own results page, and one plan covers every phone.
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