Olympics: Shoot Tumbling Passes in Profile
What an exciting day for US Olympic athletes. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh survived a scare. James Blake upset Roger Federer. The swimmers were simply awesome. Nastia Luikin and Shawn Johnson finished with clutch performances.
And these are just the performances that I saw.
Watching the Olympics this year, I have to ask again—Why are the floor routine tumbling passes constantly shown straight on? When they come straight into the camera, the viewer can’t get a sense of speed, rotation, or height. We need to see it travel across our screen instead of directly at us.
Figure skating has the same problem with the jumps. Show us the jumps in profile!
Once upon a time, when it seemed to matter if someone’s legs were not completely together in a layout position, it may have made sense to see a flip along the horizontal axis. Now, since those little form things do not appear to be worth mentioning, the straight on shot makes even less sense. Imagine watching the balance beam routines straight on rather than from the side. Why does this unhelpful perspective continue?