The importance of barbell velocity

A conversation about Metric — the app that uses a unique computer-vision system and a rep-detection algorithm to analyse camera footage from a phone and measure barbell velocity.

Prepare like a Pro’s audience is coaches working with developing athletes, so the conversation keeps coming back to one question: why does bar speed matter to a coach who isn’t running an elite weight room? The answer we work through is that velocity is the most accessible objective measure of intent and effort there is. You can’t see 5% of fatigue by watching a squat, but the bar speed shows it. You can’t tell whether an athlete is genuinely moving a warm-up load with maximal intent, but the number makes it obvious — to you and to them.

On the build side, we cover what it takes to get research-grade measurement out of ordinary phone footage: the rep-detection problem, filtering out camera shake and foreshortening, and validating the output against established devices before asking anyone to trust it.

The full build story is written up in how we built a computer-vision VBT app, and the app itself lives at Metric.