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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. ? As the USA Taekwondo World Championship Team readies for the April 13-17 World Championships in Madrid, Spain, the latest in sports technology is being made available during the two-week preparation camp at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center.  Dartfish, a leader in sports video analysis, spent three days with the athletes and coaches demonstrating sports video training applications.

Since the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002 where 45 medals were won by athletes using Dartfish in their training routine, Dartfish has been working closely with many Olympics programs to help them in their training process.

?Dartfish is a technology tool that allows coaches and athletes to communicate on a much more efficient and effective level,? said Kristin Dilworth-Collins, Director of Education & USOC/NGB Relations for Dartfish.

Eighty percent of Olympic sports have utilized Dartfish technology, including track & field, softball and gymnastics.

?Any sport that is technique driven or has scouting needs can benefit from it,? Dilworth-Collins said.

The software can be highly beneficial for the athletes wherever the athlete has to perform a repetitive motion, the intricacies of which are difficult or impossible to see with the naked eye. Examples are manifold and include such diverse movements such as a serve in tennis, the typical rowing motion, the (underwater) turn in breast-stroking, a dive, or the movement of a horse across a course.

?I?m really excited with Taekwondo specifically because the benefits are obvious,? added Dilworth-Collins.  ?This is a sport which can be greatly enhanced with this powerful tool.?

With Dartfish, the athlete is filmed with a digital camera ? typically by the coach ? and the film is fed into the software which allows the filmed material to be analyzed in ways not possible before. Movements can be slowed down to picture after picture sequences thus making them visible, drawing tools and other analysis features allow the manipulation of the film, sequences can be overlaid with reference film to show differences to a model etc. Overall a dramatically enhanced training potential is opened up which leads to better results in much faster time than possible before.

?The Taekwondo coaches will be able to review video that not only gives them an enhanced view of their athletes, but also the ability to communicate more effectively with the athletes,? Dilworth-Collins said.  ?It allows them to give both verbal and visual instructions during a training session.?

U.S. Men?s Head Coach Jean Lopez was very impressed with the Dartfish technology.

?This tool will help take Taekwondo to the next level,? said Lopez.  ?It?s a great tool for instant feedback and in scouting opponents.  It?s an amazing technology that Taekwondo has never been exposed to.  I feel like a little kid in a candy store, because it?s given me a whole new world to explore.?

?In the future, we see Dartfish as an integral part of developing our program as part of our being a 21st-century sport,? said USA Taekwondo CEO Bob Gambardella.  ?We would like to thank Dartfish President Victor Bergonzoli for allowing Kristin Dilworth-Collins to take time from her busy schedule to attend our camp and show our coaches the latest technology that will enhance our sport at all levels.  In the near future, we plan on having this technology available for members at USA Taekwondo national-level events.