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Delaney Lewellyn

Mr. Whitmore

Period 4

September 20, 2019

SP1

Mission Statement

The main goal of Competitive Swim Blog is to be able to give future and present

swimmers the opportunity of improvement of their swim skills and technique by creating a blog

based off Kaatsu band drill videos directed to cater towards aquatic athletes.

Definition of Project

The intent of this project is to create a blog that provides information on how to best

utilize Kaatsu bands to improve swimming techniques. Kaatsu bands are stretchable bands that

restrict blood flow in certain places throughout the body. The bands do this in a safe way to

effectively exercise, rehabilitate, and recover muscles.

The beginning of the business plan has to do with creating a blog and giving it an

identify. Coming up with a name for the blog is quite difficult because you will have to try and

find something that isn’t already used; something that is unique in a way. Along with designing

the blog, creating social media accounts are crucial. This is how companies make themselves

noticed and gain more audience. For this project the social media that will used are Instagram

and Facebook, causing this to be the next stage in the plan. Adding small ten second clips to
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both social media pages from a full video on the actual blog can cause curious and interested

eyes to go to the full website gaining more viewers.

To get ready for the filming portion of the project, the first obstacle that must be

completed is figuring out the days to film and what day to post it. An example would be to film

on Saturday or Tuesday and post the clips every other Thursday. Along with this, the other tools

needed, underwater cameras, a video camera, and a phone’s camera will all need to be set up and

adjust in a way where the filming looks clear. After the cameras and director are all in their right

positions, filming should start to take place.

Deciding what drill to do for each video clip is key. The director will have to film the

drill picked to focus on multiple different times in different angles to perfectly capture the

movement. Knowing what drill that is being focused on beforehand also gives the director more

time to figure out how to film, layout, edit, explain, and add personal experience to the video.

Explaining why the drills help improve one’s swim technique and how it does so, is

important in the eyes of a swimmer. Having the drill explained to its entirety helps the swimmer

gain more understanding on how to do said drill and why it’s is important to do. Having

background knowledge on why you are doing a drill helps motivate a swimmer to do it, so they

can experience their own improvement.

Writing a script to know what you will be explaining in a drill video in a way that people

will understand is important. You don’t want to narrate a drill video in a way that the audience

won’t understand what is going on. Explaining the drill as if nobody understands what is going

on is the smartest path to take. When unsure about if the script sounds clear enough, asking a

teacher to look over it is always an option.

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The way Competitive Swim Blog wants to go about this project is to share personal

experiences with the audience so that they can understand more about the drills. Explaining how

a person would usually feel after a certain drill on a personal level is an excellent way for

viewers to receive a better understanding. Along with sharing how much one has improved in

skill technique and speed in races could open the audience's eyes to the new style of training.

Editing videos in a more professional way catches the audiences’ eyes making them

realize that this is serious. The focus point of editing will be to add lighter effects, if needed, but

mostly to add in text and sound. The sound will come from the prerecording that you did based

off of the script for the drill the video is on and you could also add some quieter background

music. The text will be to point things out ot just to have as an opening to explain what drill will

be talked about in the video.

From completion of this project, the profit will most likely not be money earned, but the

learning experience gained. Being able to learn new components to this project that I never

knew how to do before is exciting. Especially if it has to do with improving certain aspects, I

already have knowledge or have minimal knowledge about.

Even though this project doesn’t help the community to its entirety, it benefits the swim

community. Kaatsu bands do exist and are heard of, but they aren't commonly used. This

project will be able to show the swim community a new way to recover and exercise the body to

improve their stamina and muscle strength.

Learning Stretch

Entering the project, I have minimal knowledge on most of its components. Having

experience with filming, nothing professional, and the ability to create a website might still have
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its benefits. The key factor of my knowledge for this project is swimming and many of its drills.

This is important considering the project revolves around creating Kaatsu band drill videos to

help other swimmers. Undergoing this process will also teach me components that will be

needed for completion. One factor that I will learn is the idea of designing a blog. With only

prior knowledge of making a website and never really witnessing a blog before will be quite

interesting when I start that portion for the project. On the other side, filming and video editing

will be a huge aspect for this project to show off how to do the Kaatsu band drills. One of the

most valuable factors I would like to get out of this is the idea of improving my writing skills. In

this project, I plan to post, along with video clips, text entry updates about my experience with

the bands and how they how enhanced my performance as a swimmer. If there is ever anything

that is needed to ask for help or confirmation about something, teachers and trusted people

around are always willing to help mw with this project. There are several different options I can

pick to prove that I have completed the work. One idea would be to document what I am doing

with pictures and put them all together in a clip at the end to show both how I have improved my

video editing and proving I have done the work. Going through with this idea, I must make sure

to take photographs of myself working on the project. Another option I could choose is to create

a time-lapse video, taking a picture every thirty seconds or minute, of me working. The final

option I would consider using to prove my cause of accomplishing the project would be the idea

of comparing one of my first drafts of writing, whether it is a blog update or an assigned paper,

to the last one I write. This should show the difference in writing styles and what I have learned

throughout the project.