By Jim Dickin

In an earlier article I mentioned sharing a video in Dropbox and Google Drive, and I've had a number of requests to describe this process.

I've put together a simple guide to sharing resources on these two mediums and also transferring the video onto an iPad.

Both Dropbox and Google Drive make it easy to share folders and files with players or other coaches. This lets you to share video with your team and collaborate on files. For example, you can build up a coaching plan together.

Dropbox

First, install Dropbox on your computer - follow the instructions on the www.dropbox.com webpage:

When dropbox is on your computer, you can create folders as normal. To share the folders right click (control and click on Mac) and select 'Share this Folder'.

Add the email of everyone you would like to invite (1). If you need to keep the folder absolutely secure, uncheck 'Allow members to invite others'. Any file you drop in the folder will be visible on every computer the folder is shared with.

You can also install Dropbox on your Android, iPhone, iPad etc, allowing you can to access files from your mobile device.

A note of caution: please ensure that all people who share the folder copy and paste items from the folder to their desktop - if they drag and drop the files they are removed from the folder and show as deleted. Dropbox does have a retrieval option to restore files deleted within 30 days but it is better to train all members of the folder to copy and paste.

Google Drive

Google Drive works in a very similar way. After installing Google Drive on your computer or device at drive.google.com you can begin to add files and folders to your drive - with the added advantage that you get an automatic 15GB free, as opposed to Dropbox's 4GB.

Selecting a folder in the tick boxes on the left and then pressing 'Share' begins the sharing process.

The sharing panel then comes up. Simply add the email addresses of all the people you would like to share with for them to be sent an invite to this shared folder.

The process for adding video files to iPads is quite easy as well and allows you to access them on the iPad.

Perhaps the easiest way to do this is via the Dropbox app on the iPad - to save the video to the device simply export the file, by pushing the share button (circled below).

This opens up a 'save video' option as well as the open in another app icon- there you can choose where to open the video file - you can even open the video in Ubersense!

By using this shortcut you can import your own video from Dropbox into Ubersense and many other apps for analysis.

In a later article, I'll discuss how to access other videos from the internet and add it to your iPad.

You can then use these perfect model videos to compare with your own or your athletes' technique.

Get in touch

Jim Dickin is head of department, PE, at King's College, Auckland. Jim welcomes feedback and discussion and invites you to contact him by email or on Twitter.

• Email J.dickin@kingscollege.school.nz
• Twitter @tech4coaching