3 Ways to Play YouTube in Slow Motion Easily and Instantly

Slow Motion Video of Kalon Ludvigson’s Twisting Pass at 2011 Birmingham World Championships


For coaches, gymnasts, gymnastics fans and gym parents watching gymnastics videos on YouTube, it often happens that they want to watch certain YouTube videos or parts of YouTube videos in slow motion. For things like counting twists above two and a half or triples, watching pommel horse or other reasons, sometimes fans just want to slow the video down so they can see what is going on.

Watch Gymnastics Skill in Slow Motion to Study Technique

Gymnastics coaches and gymnasts often want to watch gymnastics videos to study the way a particular gymnast (preferably the one who does the skill the best) does a skill and study in slow motion how they do it.

Hack #1 to Play YouTube in Slow Motion

The first way to play YouTube inslow motion is to add “slow” after youtube in the youtube.com link and hit enter.

  • This is an example of a standard URL of a YouTube Video = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5irhEt8i8Y
  • To play in slow motion, just type in and add “slow” to the URL after youtube so it looks like: http://www.youtubeslow.com/watch?v=R5irhEt8i8Y in the URL address bar and then you will be able to watch the video in slow motion.

http://www.youtubeslow.com/watch?v=R5irhEt8i8Y
Watch this pommel horse video at :29 and you can see how the fall occurs in slow motion.

Hack #2 to Play YouTube in Slow Motion

You can also go directly to youtubeslow.com and:

  • Enter the URL of the YouTube video you wish to watch in the top right corner of the screen where it says : “Enter your youtube url here” (it’s black with white lettering, so it’s a little hard to find and read)
  • Then Click on “Slow It!” and it will play any YouTube video in slow motion there.

Hacks #1 and #2 are Virtually the Same

The first two hacks to play YouTube in slow motion are really almost the same, since you will likely have to go to the video on YouTube first anyway to get and copy the URL. So it is just a question of:

  • Do you copy the URL and go to youtubeslow.com and paste it in? or
  • Do you just type “slow” into the url you are currently looking at in YouTube?

Typing in “slow” is usually going to be faster.

Hack #3 to Play YouTube in Slow Motion

Another quicker, but rougher “slow motion” hack is that you can:

  1. Play any YouTube video by clicking the Play triangle (or replay symbol).
  2. Pause the video, by clicking the Pause double line symbol
  3. Then press and Hold the spacebar.
  4. Release the spacebar and the “slow motion” video will pause.
  5. Hold the spacebar again and the “slow motion” will continue.

The Big Advantage of the 3rd “Slow Motion” Hack

The big advantage of this “Slow Motion” Hack is that you can do this at any time, in any YouTube video, including watching YouTube videos on GymnasticsZone.com or other websites. This hack is not actually slow motion. It simply toggles quickly between pause and play automatically giving a rough version of “slow motion.” One of the problems with this hack is that sometimes the Start/Pause symbol stays in the middle of the screen blocking part of what you want to see and the video play is not smooth.

Other YouTube Slow Motion Tips

  • If you are watching in slow motion, you will likely also want to watch in full screen.
  • To control moving through the video, re-watch a section of video or skip ahead to where the part of the video you want to watch is located, you can (actually must) use the slider to move forward or backward through the video.
  • Normally in YouTubeslow.com the video just plays completely through from beginning to end in slow motion, sometime slowing parts of the video you do not wish to watch in slow motion.
  • You can pause videos by clicking the round dot in the middle of the slider control (if the video is really short, that slider control can move really fast making this difficult).

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