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Roland Schoeman’s dive is recognized world wide as one of the fastest starts in swimming. I’ve interviewed multiple sprinters, including Anthony Ervin and Tom Shields, reference Schoeman’s start. Luckily for me, and luckily for you, I coach at Phoenix Swim Club where Roland is based. So I decided to do a little start work with Roland to figure out how he sets up his dive.
Roland is a 4-time Olympian for South Africa. He won three medals in 2004, one of each color. He is currently the world record holder in the short course meter 50 freestyle (20.30). You can follow him on twitter @Rolandschoeman.
Good stuff, Garrett! This is very similar to the start of Steve Crocker, former American Record Holder in the late 80′s. He called it the catapult start. Steve was about 6 ft. tall and was and would breakout ahead of Biondi and Jager, who were 7-8 inches taller. Great interview.
I met Steve at ASCA in Indianapolis in 2010. It was cool to meet the pool record holder in the 50 free at the school I swam at.
I’ve been struggling with my dive for quite some time and was delighted when I saw this video!
It would be amazing to have more videos like this! Roland’s awesome
Partially correct, Steve was my roommate for sometime and is a bit taller than me and I am 6’2 3/4…not to be too specific!
Last 3 video’s i’ve seen in past days are blocking all the time.Is it because of my computer or something with video?
European – best guess would be your computer as we haven’t heard any other reports, but we’ll keep an eye out for anyone else having problems. Thanks for the report!
I’ve been having the same problems with vimeo vids on this website aswell for a while now (stalls for a moment like every 3 seconds or so). Although when i follow the link of the video to the vimeo site it works just fine. So maybe you should try that out.
Awesome video by the way. Very insightful
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Ok
Awesome guys. thanks!
thanks alot for this vid. great to hear tips and ideologies from guys like schoeman. this is the type of start i teach and do myself.
Way to throw Eamon Sullivan under the bus. That seemed like it really taught me a lot about my dive…
The guy next to Roland at about the 5:00 mark needs to work with Roland a little!
Oh yes, the popular “lawn chair” dive!
Great stuff. any ideas on where my team could find Similar Videos that break down relay step start?
Check out this video of Auburn men from 2007. In my humble opinion the best 200 free relay ever. Not the fastest, but considering the time of 1:14.71 and the textile suits I consider it the best. The relay starts here were amazing to watch – incredible speed off the start and near perfect entries. If you can get this video on slow motion it would be a great breakdown.
Thanks!!!